Multiple media outlets featured guests discussing the most recent attempt on former President Donald Trump‘s life, many of whom seemed to blame the former president for the political climate and the latest assassination attempt.
The second assassination attempt against Trump on Sunday comes two months after he narrowly survived gunfire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Both attempts have occurred as he runs for president again. In the wake of the latest attempt on Trump’s life, MSNBC’s Alex Witt predicted there would be a “political fallout” from this, prompting MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan to suggest that Republicans and Democrats ought to ask what they can do “to take the temperature down.”
“But do you expect to hear anything from the Trump campaign about toning down the rhetoric, toning down the violence, or would that be atypical of the former president?” Witt asked.
Jordan said she would love to see a unity moment between the two parties but that such a moment would likely be “fleeting.”
Witt’s questioning about the Trump campaign asking to tone down “the violence” comes after her network, MSNBC, platformed speakers, such as Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) in July, who have claimed Trump is an “existential threat to democracy.” Just before the second assassination attempt on Trump on Sunday, MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki featured Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who argued domestic terrorism in the country is real and that Trump is “the guy that stokes it.”
Trump is ‘existential threat to democracy’ while Biden is ‘the best messenger’ for U.S.
President Biden touted his record with NATO in an exclusive interview with @Morning_Joe.
Rep. Gregory Meeks joined @jdbalart to show his support for Biden amid calls for him to step down. pic.twitter.com/qi1Izcw8U9
— MSNBC Reports (@MSNBC_reports) July 8, 2024
.@JasmineforUS: “The problem isn’t the people coming in. The problem is this guy and his people here that are doing the bomb threats throughout the country. Domestic terrorism is a real thing, and he is the guy that stokes it.” pic.twitter.com/lNvNyqnxH2
— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) September 15, 2024
NBC, meanwhile, featured anchor Lester Holt discussing the assassination attempt, saying it comes amid “increasingly fierce rhetoric” on the 2024 campaign trail. Holt argued that Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the former president’s running mate, are making “baseless claims about Haitian immigrants” in Springfield, Ohio, where there were bomb threats over the weekend.
NBC’s Lester Holt: “Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail. Mr. Trump, his running mate JD Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants” in Springfield, Ohio, resulting in bomb threats. pic.twitter.com/apw9WQ1liR
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 15, 2024
CNN also featured former FBI agent Tim Clemente, who suggested Trump’s statements on the campaign trail have led to the uptick in political violence. One of the statements Clemente cited was when Trump claimed there would be a “bloodbath” in the auto industry.
Fmr FBI agent @timclemente: “Sadly, the finger-pointing at Trump has lead to — you know, the line about the bloodbath, talking about the auto industry, being used as if he’s going to create a bloody coup if he loses, that kind of the verbiage is something you use in a third-world… pic.twitter.com/6C9zIz0yT2
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 16, 2024
The network conducted an interview between anchor Jake Tapper and former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney in October 2023, in which she warned that Trump is “the single most dangerous threat we face.” Tapper has compared Trump’s speeches to the writings of Adolf Hitler and his book Mein Kampf.
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On Truth Social, the former president blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for spreading “rhetoric” that has resulted in another assassination attempt against him. Trump argued Biden’s and Harris’s past comments calling him a “threat to democracy” are hypocritical, citing his four criminal cases as proof they are inciting violence against him.
After Trump’s first assassination attempt, podcast host Joe Rogan said he thought a victory by Trump in the 2024 election was all but guaranteed but cast doubt on the idea due to how the assassination attempt had been “memory-holed” by the press. He also suggested Harris could win because voters “just want no Trump, no matter what.”