There have been two known assassination attempts against President Donald Trump in the past 65 days. In the lead-up to the first, Democrats and their allies in the media spared no expense vilifying and dehumanizing Kamala Harris' opponent — characterizing him as a threat to democracy, to minorities, and to freedom itself.
After the first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Democrats and media partisans were met with desperate appeals to tone down their vitriol and incendiary rhetoric, including by a victim of a recent Democratic terrorist attack.
Rather than engage in some soul-searching or exercise self-restraint, the left doubled down after both incidents.
Below are five claims Democrats and/or their allies in the media advanced that effectively set the stage for attempts on Trump's life.
The Washington Post complained Thursday about President Donald Trump's suggestion that he "took a bullet to the head" because of what Democrats and their allies in the media say about him.
Days later, Ryan Routh, a Democratic donor with an intense interest in Ukraine's war effort, allegedly tried to assassinate Trump in Florida.
New York magazine then couldn't wait a full day after the second assassination attempt to double down and restate, "Trump is a threat to democracy."
Unlike Thomas Matthew Crooks, Routh had a massive online presence, which sleuths managed to document before social media companies began their routine scrub. It is clear from Routh's posts that his radical views were informed in part by Democratic talking points — that contrary to the Washington Post's suggestion, Trump was right again.
Prior to his arrest, Routh reportedly posted about how "DEMOCRACY is on the ballot" this election.
This is one of Kamala Harris' go-to lines, which has also been parroted by other Democrats.
On July 2, Harris posted an image of Trump captioned, "Donald Trump vows to be a dictator on day one."
In the corresponding message, she wrote, "Democracy is on the ballot in November."
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Harris has also coupled this statement with combative language.
For instance, on June 21, Harris posted on Facebook, "Our democracy is on the ballot. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it."
Democrats routinely refer to Trump as a threat to democracy, which appears to be a euphemism for their hold on power.
'He is a threat to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms.'
Shortly after a Biden official's group got the Democratic incumbent's top rival temporarily removed from the primary ballot in Colorado late last year, Biden tweeted, "Trump poses many threats to our country: The right to choose, civil rights, voting rights, and America's standing in the world. But the greatest threat he poses is to our democracy."
Years after calling Republicans "enemies of the state," Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) similarly suggested in April that Trump is "a great threat to our democracy."
The Democratic National Committee has repeatedly recycled this language. For instance, on June 27, the DNC circulated the following message:
Donald Trump, who’s repeatedly promised to be a dictator on 'day one,' if elected and warned of a 'bloodbath' if not, continues to give election deniers and insurrectionists a platform — from installing dangerous conspiracy theorists to leading 'election integrity' efforts at the RNC and promising pardons for January 6 insurrectionists. Democracy is at stake this November and if Donald Trump retakes power the survival of our democracy will be at risk.
Kamala Harris also claimed on June 27, "He is a threat to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms" — a line she has repeated numerous times.
Short on imagination and desperate for a historical parallel to underscore Trump's supposed threat to America, Democrats and their media allies decided early on they would go with Adolf Hitler.
In a 2019 speech, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said that Hitler "rode a wave of nationalism and anti-Semitism to power. Replace anti-Semitism with 'all Latinos crossing our borders are rapists, drug dealers and murderers.' Does that sound familiar?"
'We'd better fight.'
Johnson, who is now facing re-election, added, "Americans, particularly black Americans, can't afford to make that same mistake about the harm that could be done by a man named Hitler or a man named Trump."
The Times (U.K.) noted that in December 2023, CNN talking head Jake Tapper compared Trump's rhetoric about illegal aliens to Hitler's genocidal rhetoric about Jews.
"If you were to open up a copy of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' you would find the Nazi leader describing the mixing of non-Germans with Germans as poisoning. The Jew, Hitler wrote, 'poisons the blood of others," said Tapper. "Donald Trump's language mirrors this directly."
Harris campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa similarly claimed, "Donald Trump parroted the autocratic language of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini — two dictators many U.S. veterans gave their lives fighting."
Former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill recently suggested on MSNBC that Trump is "even more dangerous" than Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
The New Republic ran a photoshopped image of Trump as Hitler on the cover of its June issue, claiming, "We at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, 'He's damn close enough, and we'd better fight.'"
In an article published on the website of Poynter, the outfit that runs PolitiFact, so-called media ethicist Kelly McBride and medical ethicist Art Caplan wrote, "Trump's racist rhetoric should be viewed in the repugnant tradition of Hitler." Politico captured the essence of the article prior to its apparent deletion.
There are, of course, various versions of the authoritarian smear. The Harris campaign apparently refrained from cracking a history textbook and simply suggested that Trump will sincerely become a "dictator" this time around.
In 2021, New York Democrats Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries claimed Trump was a "clear and present danger."
Ocasio-Cortez said Trump presents a "clear and present danger" both to the Congress and to the country.
Jeffries, who later turned his sights on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, indicated that every moment Trump is in office is a "clear and present danger to the safety and security of the American people."
Former Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig resurrected this talking point a year later, claiming Trump, his allies, and his supporters remained a "clear and present danger to American democracy."
The leftist press has dutifully kept this suggestion alive.
The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board, for example, ran a piece in January stating, "Donald Trump is a clear and present danger," while also making sure to play some of Democrats' other greatest hits, including "democracy is on the line."
Just days before the July 13 assassination attempt, President Joe Biden said on a private phone call with campaign donors, "I have one job, and that's to beat Donald Trump. I'm absolutely certain I'm the best person to be able to do that."
Biden added on the July 8 call, "We're done talking about the debate. It's time to put Trump in a bull's-eye."
Biden later told NBC News' Lester Holt, "It was a mistake to use the word."
While Biden tried to retroactively soften his meaning, the damage was done. After all, he had worked to characterize Trump as a villain worthy of a bull's-eye.
For instance, in his infamous red-lit September 2022 speech at Independence Historical Park in Philadelphia, Biden claimed, "MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic."
Although Biden's July "bull's-eye" remark is a relative standout, years earlier, Rick Wilson, the co-founder of the Lincoln Project — the anti-Trump group that staged a fake white supremacist rally in 2021 to smear then-candidate Glenn Youngkin ahead of the Virginia gubernatorial election — told MSNBC's Chris Hayes that the donor class will have to "go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump."
As with Biden, the argument in defense of Wilson's language was that it was supposedly figurative.
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Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and several other Republican lawmakers were practicing for a charity baseball game in 2017 when a leftist terrorist took aim at them and opened fire. Scalise, among the wounded, took a bullet to the hip. He suffered fractured bones, damaged organs, and severe bleeding.
Following the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump Saturday, Scalise noted, "For weeks Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America. Clearly we've seen far left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past."
"This incendiary rhetoric must stop," added Scalise.
While a handful of Democrats condemned the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, many in their party have spent years and untold sums of money vilifying Trump and his tens of millions of supporters.
"This MAGA threat is a threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions," President Joe Biden stressed in a speech last September. "It's also a threat to the character of our nation that gives our Constitution life, that binds us together as Americans, a common cause."
In December, Biden wrote, "Trump poses many threats to our country: The right to choose, civil rights, voting rights, and America's standing in the world. But the greatest threat he poses is to our democracy."
'He will destroy this country, our democracy.'
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) noted after the Trump rally shooting, "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."
Plenty of Democrats besides Biden have worked ardently to push this narrative despite knowing all along it was bogus.
Years after calling Trump and his fellow Republicans "enemies of the state," Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested in April that Trump is "a great threat to our democracy."
The Democratic National Committee has, for instance, has been running an ad campaign in multiple states labeling Trump not only a "fraud," a "liar," and a "denier" but also a "threat to our democracy," reported The Hill.
There have, of course, been variations on this theme.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Trump presents a "clear and present danger" both to the Congress and to the country. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), apparently reading from the same script, indicated that every moment Trump is in office is a "clear and present danger to the safety and security of the American people."
In May, California Rep. Maxine Waters (D), long a champion for street violence, attempted to paint Trump as a dictator in waiting.
Waters suggested to MSNBC talking head Jonathan Capehart that Trump would seek a third term and stated, "Donald Trump will do any and everything that he can possibly get away with. He does not at all support the Constitution of the United States of America. This is a man who we better be careful about."
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) chimed in, telling Capehart, "If Donald Trump gets re-elected, there is no doubt that he will try to stay in office beyond his four-year term. He will destroy this country, our democracy."
Biden — whose team lashed out at Trump for using the word "bloodbath" in reference to the economic fallout of continued offshoring of jobs under the current administration — suggested on a donors-only call last week that "it's time to put Trump in a bullseye."
The New York Sun noted that unlike Trump's "bloodbath" comment, Biden's "bullseye" remark "has no banal application."
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With just under six months left until the election, Democrats are desperately attempting to inspire fear about what horrific fates might befall the nation should Donald Trump retake the White House.
In past months, the Biden campaign and other Democratic outfits advanced the notion that democracy is under threat by a choice of candidate unfavorable to the Democratic Party. Having ostensibly exhausted this "democracy is on the ballot" narrative, Biden boosters now appear keen to paint former President Donald Trump as a dictator in waiting.
California Rep. Maxine Waters (D), long a champion for mob-rule street action, appears more than happy to take this new piece of hyperbole to new extremes.
Over the weekend, the 85-year-old Democrat resumed her apparent election-time role as a conjurer of alternate histories and paranoia, launching into a deranged rant on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show" wherein she not only articulated the new narrative but suggested that right-wing Americans aligned with Trump are plotting a civil war and that the Biden Department of Justice should surveil his allies.
MSNBC talking head Jonathan Capehart appeared to set Waters off Sunday with a reference to Trump's recent interview with Time, specifically the Republican's indication that he would not seek a third term, even if legally enabled.
In the Time interview, reporter Eric Cortellessa incorrectly suggested that the Heritage Foundation's Project 25 had proposed abolishing the 22nd Amendment that limits presidents to two terms. He then asked Trump, "Would you definitely retire after a second term, or would you consider challenging the 22nd Amendment?"
Trump answered, "Well, I would, and I don't really have a choice, but I would." The Republican presidential candidate added, "I'm going to serve one term, I'm gonna do a great job. We're gonna have a very successful country again ... and then I'm gonna leave."
Evidently dissatisfied with the innocuity of Trump's answer, Cortellessa pressed the issue, prompting Trump to clearly indicate that he would not be in favor of challenging the 22nd Amendment.
"Not for me. I wouldn't be in favor of it at all. I intend to serve four years and do a great job. And I want to bring our country back. I want to put it back on the right track. Our country is going down. We're a failing nation right now. We're a nation in turmoil," said Trump.
Capehart looked to Waters to resuscitate the claim of dictatorial aspirations despite Trump having effectively killed it in the cradle.
"Trump says in that in that Time interview that he would not seek to overturn or ignore the Constitution’s prohibition on a third term," Capehart told Waters. "Should the American people believe that? Do you believe that?"
"No! Absolutely not," said Waters. "As I said, you can't believe anything that Donald Trump has to say. Donald Trump will do any and everything that he can possibly get away with. He does not at all support the Constitution of the United States of America. This is a man who we better be careful about."
Waters explained to Capehart that she plans on asking the Biden Department of Justice and the Biden White House "what they are going to do to protect this country against violence if he loses."
"I want to know about all of those right-wing organizations that he's connected with who are training up in the hills somewhere and targeting, you know, what communities they are going to attack," said the Democrat. "We need to know now, given that he's telling us there is going to be violence if he loses, we need to know what his plan is and how we are going to be protected."
Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters floats a completely unhinged conspiracy theory that "right-wing organizations" are "training up in the hills somewhere"— (@)
Capehart cued Rep. Robert Garcia, another California Democrat, to confirm that "this isn't hyperbole, this is real."
Garcia obliged the talking head, saying, "This is dangerous, and I think what they are preparing to destroy our democracy, the way we have elections in this country, and the congresswoman is absolutely correct. ... If Donald Trump gets re-elected, there is no doubt that he will try to stay in office beyond his four-year term. He will destroy this country, our democracy."
"Not only are they planning on a civil war ... but he is spelling it out specifically how and what they are going to do and how he is going to get revenge, how he is going to attack his enemies, all of these things."
After having her fantasy affirmed by a fellow traveler, Waters added, "We know that there are people aligned — who are with him, who follow him — who are already practicing what their government is going to be under Trump. Not only are they planning on a civil war if they have to do that, but he is spelling it out specifically how and what they are going to do and how he is going to get revenge, how he is going to attack his enemies, all of these things."
Waters' apparent decision to fabricate rumors about civil war plots came just days after Rasmussen Reports indicated — on the basis of a national telephone and online survey — that 41% of likely U.S. voters believe that the country is bound to suffer a civil war sometime in the next five years.
According to Rasmussen, discussions of civil war "got a boost" after the Hollywood film "Civil War" made its debut as No. 1 at the box office last month.
Waters, having watered the seed of concern regarding another civil war, added that Trump is a "pure racist" who may attack non-whites.
Earlier in the interview, Waters said, "We have to be very concerned about a former president of the United States talking about attacking his own country, talking about perhaps a bloodbath, talking about perhaps there is going to be trouble. He said it in so many different ways. We should take him seriously."
Waters' calculated use of the term "bloodbath"was a rehash of the manufactured scandal over Trump's March 16 use of the term "bloodbath." Whereas the Biden campaign and its apparent allies at CBS News, Politico, NPR, Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today mischaracterized the Republican's remarks as threatening, Trump had actually used it in reference to the economic fallout of continued offshoring of jobs and automobile manufacturing plants under the Biden administration.
"This man does not believe in the Constitution. He wants to be a dictator. This is a dangerous human being. We have to know what our country is going to do to protect us from him," added the Democrat.
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Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) urged radicals to mob her political opponents in public in 2018. Having since received a taste of her own medicine, the 85-year-old leftist has apparently determined her tactic is not only unacceptable but perhaps racist as well.
Waters, presently campaigning to secure an 18th term in Congress, fancied herself the face of the "resistance" during the Trump presidency. She leaned into the role during a June 2018 toy drive, screaming to a crowd outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles, "History will record while [Trump] tried to step on all of us, we kicked him in his rear and step on him."
"If you think we're rallying now, you ain't seen nothin' yet!" added Waters.
"Already, you have members of your Cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants ... who have protesters taking up at their house, who say, 'No peace, no sleep! No peace, no sleep!" continued the geriatric radical.
Waters was referencing a recent incident where a group of Democratic socialists had mobbed then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen while she attempted to eat at a Mexican restaurant. The protesters derided Nielsen for attempting to secure the border and protect American sovereignty, yelling, "Kirstjen Nielsen, you're a villain, locking up immigrant children."
Evidently supportive of the tactic, Waters told the crowd at the charity event, "Let's make sure we show up wherever we have to show up and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome any more, anywhere."
A video excerpt of an undated interview with Waters recently went viral wherein she intimates that this sort of harassment is unacceptable — if directed her way.
Waters complains of an instance wherein someone confronted in a restaurant. The Democrat apparently construed the criticism as a surefire sign of a "racist attitude."
"They don't say racist things, but what they say is they don't like something I said. They don't like a position that I took."
Waters adds, "But you know that, you know, if you were not black you would not be approached that way."
— (@)
Multitudes of commentators mocked Waters' remarks online, many quoting back her apparent incitements to violence, which were not limited to the Democrat's 2018 remarks.
During former police officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial, Waters gave marching orders to prospective rioters just in case Chauvin was not found guilty in the death of George Floyd.
"Well, we got to stay on the street," said the Democratic congresswoman. "And we've got to get more active. You've got to get more confrontation. You got to make sure that they know we mean business."
Maxine Waters is marching in Brooklyn Center tonight and told people to take to the streets if Chauvin is acquitted— (@)
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The left's apoplexy over former President Donald Trump's recent of the well-worn term "bloodbath" continues to pay dividends.
The White House' repeated condemnations of the term exposed press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to questions Tuesday about whether President Joe Biden's use of "bloodbath" was similarly deserving of a formal denunciation.
Jean-Pierre did not fare well in her attempt to reconcile Democratic outrage with Biden's culpability.
On March 16, Trump used the word "bloodbath" in reference to the economic fallout of continued offshoring of jobs and automobile manufacturing plants under the Biden administration.
Trump addressed Chinese dictator Xi Jinping during his speech at the Dayton International Airport in Ohio, saying, "Let me tell you something ... those big monster car manufacturing plants that you're building in Mexico right now, and you think you're going to get that, you're going to not hire Americans, and you're going to sell the cars to us? No."
"We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys – if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they're not going to sell those cars."
Blaze News previously reported that Democrats and the liberal media — including CBS News, Politico, NPR, Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today — rushed to mischaracterize Trump's remarks while glossing over their own use of the term in recent months and years.
The social media account for Biden's re-election campaign helped perpetuate the false narrative, posting a de-contextualized excerpt of the video with the caption, "Trump: If I don't get elected, it's gonna be a bloodbath. It's gonna be a bloodbath for the country."
Trump and the Republican Party doubled down on the use of the term this week, applying it in other contexts.
The Republican front-runner criticized the Biden administration's failed border policies while speaking to a crowd Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at a podium emblazoned with a sign that read, "Stop Biden's Border Bloodbath," reported USA Today.
The Republican National Committee, similarly criticizing Biden over the fallout of his failure to secure the border, launched a website Tuesday entitled, "Biden Bloodbath."
The website claims that Biden "is allowing vicious criminals into the United States, and innocent Americans across the country are paying the price. Lethal drugs, cartels, gangs, and terrorists are taking advantage of the crisis to enter the U.S. and threaten America. This is an invasion aided and abetted by Joe Biden, supported by Democrats who vote for his dangerous and cruel policies. This is Biden's border bloodbath."
When asked about Trump's latest use of the term bloodbath during the White House press briefing Tuesday, Jean-Pierre said, "We have to denounce any violent rhetoric that we hear, certainly from our leaders, right, that tears our country apart."
"Any type of violent rhetoric, we're going to denounce that," added Jean-Pierre. "It doesn't matter who it comes from, we're going to denounce it."
White House correspondent Peter Doocy sought clarification, asking Jean-Pierre, "So when Donald Trump is talking about a bloodbath, it is violent rhetoric. What was it when Joe Biden said in 2020, 'What we can't let happen is let this primary become a negative bloodbath?'"
Biden made the remark in March 2020 when campaigning against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) in the Democratic primaries.
Doocy's question clearly put Jean-Pierre in a bind. After all, she had just vowed to denounce such "violent rhetoric" regardless of the source.
"So I'm going to be really mindful and careful about Donald Trump, but if you read — because he is a candidate — we're talking about a 2024 election, you should read what he said in its context. So you got to read what he said in context."
Doocy added, "I'm just saying, 'bloodbath' is an ugly word when Trump uses it. What is it when Biden uses it?"
"No, no, no," stammered Jean-Pierre. "Let's be very clear. You gotta actually ask me the question in the context of what it was said, right? And what was said when he said that, right, in his remarks, in his speech, right? And so that's being disingenuous in your question."
After Doocy followed up again with the direct quote from Biden, Jean-Pierre attempted to excuse the geriatric Democrat's language with the kind of context her allies previously denied Trump.
"He was talking about a group of people, a group of people," said Jean-Pierre. "That's what he's talking about. What the president was talking about during the primary was not to allow it to be the words and the primary and that election to become negative. Two different things. They're not the same. They're not the same, and your question is disingenuous."
While refusing to denounce Biden's use of allegedly "violent rhetoric," Jean-Pierre stressed that such denunciations were nevertheless important.
Before executing the in-person equivalent of an abrupt hang-up, the press secretary suggested that Trump's use of the word "bloodbath" in relation to the automotive industry was more inflammatory than Biden's use "because we saw what happened on January 6."
Q: Why was it acceptable for Biden to use the term "bloodbath" in 2020, but not when President Trump uses it?\n\nKARINE JEAN-PIERRE: *brain breaks*— (@)
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Despite a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in two months, Democrats refuse to relinquish their extremist rhetoric. This inciting rhetoric persists because a fixation on violence pervades the left. More than a political strategy, Democrats’ extremist rhetoric is the product of the leftist ideologies that now rule them. President Joe Biden kicked […]
A second assassination attempt is no surprise considering Democrats’ commitment to fanning the political flames.
The Democrat machine has not yet come out openly to declare that ‘hate is love,’ but they might as well. Because getting people to hate one another is their goal.
There is a simple way to test the sincerity of the haughty media types suddenly parroting this ‘lower the temperature’ mantra.
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