Democrats and media experts have linked former President Trump's comments to a second assassination attempt on him in recent months and urged him to ease tensions.
“This really seems to be a confluence of two really bad things going on within the Republican Party,” Rep. Mickey Sherrill (D-N.J.) told CNN's Jim Acosta on Monday, accusing Republicans of trying to “divide and infuriate the nation” through “false rumors and misinformation.”
The former president blamed the assassination attempt on the actions and words of Democrats, specifically President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
CNN commentator Ana Navarro argued Tuesday that Trump is “pretending that only people on the other side created this problem, when they are a big part of it.”
Democrats and members of the media have linked Donald Trump's own comments to the second assassination attempt on him on Sunday (Left: Photo by Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images, Center: Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Right: Screenshot/CNN, Right: Screenshot/ABC). (Fox News)
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“Stop blaming others until you look at the words coming out of your own mouth,” “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg said Tuesday, also arguing that it's only Republicans who are encouraging violent rhetoric.
“Both sides are not right, so let's stop. This is not a two-sided argument. This is clearly one side, and I can point to many reports. I can point to all sorts of things that have been reported. You guys need to retract it. This is not an us or them issue. This is an issue where you guys have to stop what you're doing, J.D., and Mr. T, you have to stop what you're doing. [Trump]Because it's not going to help the situation,” Goldberg added.
“You have a former president who has certainly been the target of assassination attempts twice, but he's also an instigator of political violence,” New York Times reporter Zoran Kanno-Youngs told CNN's Dana Bash on Tuesday.
Hours after the assassination attempt, NBC News reporter Lester Holt said the attempt on Trump came after “intense condemnations” of the former president and his running mate, J.D. Vance.
“Today's assassination attempt comes amid escalating violent rhetoric on the campaign trail, as Mr. Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, continue to make unfounded claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. There was a new bomb threat in that town this weekend,” Holt said.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump spoke at a campaign event at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson, Arizona on Thursday. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
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Trump and Vance have repeatedly made inflammatory claims about Haitian immigrants that officials in Springfield, Ohio, have deemed unreliable. Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, said Springfield has also been inundated with hoax bomb threats from overseas.
MSNBC's Alex Witt on Sunday questioned whether the attempt might prompt calls from the Trump campaign to de-escalate tensions.
“Do you anticipate there will be calls from the Trump campaign to do that, because he will be reaching out to his supporters and saying, let's take this down,” she said. “We don't know where the gunfire came from, we don't know who is responsible for this, we don't know 100% confirmation of how this unfolded from start to finish. But do you anticipate there will be calls from the Trump campaign to tone down the rhetoric and the violence? Or would that be unusual for a former president?”
Peter Baker of The New York Times It also appeared to link Trump and Vance's allegations about Springfield to the assassination attempt.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump made the remarks during a press conference at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, California on Friday, September 13. (AP/Jay C. Hong)
Democrats have repeatedly used violent rhetoric against the former president: “It's time to put Trump at the center of the target.”
“And so it is in 2024: In less than a week, the former and potential future commander in chief was both a seeming source of inspiration and an obvious target for the political violence that has come to define contemporary American politics,” Baker wrote.
“Trump is at the center of today's outburst of political violence, appearing to intimidate and incite people to take action for or against him. Trump has long favored violent rhetoric in political discourse, urging his supporters to punch bystanders, threatening to shoot looters and illegal immigrants, mocking the near-fatal attack on the husband of the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives and suggesting the execution of generals he deems disloyal,” Baker added.
Baker also joined MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday to discuss some of Trump's past comments, which have drawn criticism, including for downplaying a 2022 attack on House Speaker Paul Pelosi.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Bojangles' Coliseum, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
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“Two attempts on the life of a former president in two months tells us that we live in different times. That's not to say that there hasn't been political violence – there has been – but two assassination attempts in such a short space of time is certainly unusual.”
Baker said Trump was “not only an instigator of political violence but also a potential target of it.”
Don Lemon, a former CNN host who returned to the network as a guest after being fired last year, said this week that Trump would avoid harsh criticism if he changed his tune.
“If Donald Trump wants to stop Kamala Harris and others from saying he's a threat to democracy, then he should stop threatening democracy,” Lemon said.
Others have criticized Trump for his dissatisfaction with Democrats' rhetoric in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, including CNN's David Chalian, who argued that Trump is not a “credible communicator” in condemning rhetoric about political violence.
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The Bulwark's Sarah Longwell asserted on CNN that Trump “has created the specter of political violence that we are all living through now,” adding that “it's his rhetoric that has created this environment over the past eight years.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
