Trump’s allies are blaming Saturday's alarming assassination attempt on media and politicians who've pointed out the objective threat he poses to democracy and human rights.On Saturday afternoon, we all learned about the attempt on former President Trump’s life—whether it was through memes aboutof Trump you’ve ever seen on your timeline.
“When the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and that the Republic would end, it heats up the environment,” House Speaker Mike Johnsonon NBC on Sunday. Sen. Lindsey Graham also criticized Trump critics for emphasizing the stakes of reelecting Trump: “You know, if he wins, democracy is not going to end. He’s not a fascist. … The rhetoric is way too hot,” Graham said over the weekend.
“Framing specific electoral outcomes as necessary to the survival of the country amounts to the tacit endorsement of extreme actions,”In other words, Trump’s allies and even some “reasonable” centrist media voices are blaming the attempt on the former president’s life over the weekend on politicians, media outlets, and really any Trump critics who have fairly pointed out the objective threat he poses to democracy and human rights.
In any case, the suggestion that we can’t speak the truth about Trump out of fear that a deeply disturbed individual, empowered by our country’s awful gun laws (pose an existential threat to our democracy, and the policies he’s advocated for and the dangerous messages he’s communicated to his supporters push a chilling, fascist, and authoritarian agenda.
The election is a little less than four months out, and if the events of the last couple weeks show us anything, it’s that political headwinds move quickly and a lot can happen in a short amount of time. Nonetheless, it’s terrifying that Trump does, indeed, continue to pose this massive, existential threat, and the political party that is our last line of defense is seemingly just accepting the right’s nonsense and refusing to fight back.