BY MOSHE HILL OPINION COLUMNS JULY 17 2024
Shots were fired at former President Donald Trump, and only through a miracle did he survive them. By now, everyone must have seen the footage of the assassination attempt, and the quick head tilt that was the difference between having a nominating convention this week or a Civil War. It was a shocking moment in American history, but for anyone who has paid attention in the last decade, it is not surprising.
Last week, The New Republic, a liberal magazine, put a picture of Trump with a Hitler mustache on its cover. The entire Joe Biden campaign has been based on “saving democracy” and “stopping authoritarianism.” The Biden campaign’s July 4 message was a picture of the theocratic Handmaid’s Tale with a caption reading “July 4 in Trump’s America.” Everyone from Joy Reid to Johnny Depp to Maxine Waters to Nancy Pelosi to Kamala Harris and nearly everywhere in between has openly expressed desire to see physical violence or death on Trump and his supporters.
The tone shifted so suddenly when their dreams became reality that anyone watching could incur whiplash. Biden is now saying that “While we may disagree, we are not enemies. We are neighbors, friends, co-workers, citizens, and – most importantly – we are fellow Americans. We must stand together.” On June 28, Biden said, “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.” Does Joe Biden still believe this? Did Trump getting shot change his mind? Or was he lying then?
Calls for Trump’s “speedy recovery” came unironically from Biden, Harris, Barack Obama, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and all the other people who have been echoing the “Trump is a fascist threat to democracy” line. Why? If Vladmir Putin survived an assassination attempt, would the world wish him a “speedy recovery”? If so, wouldn’t all the claims made about the threat that Putin poses to the world have been, at the very least, scrutinized?
Then there are the calls to “tone down” the political rhetoric, but no acceptance of responsibility for their own rhetoric. Joe Biden gave an address from the Oval Office on Sunday night, claiming that “the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down. And we all have a responsibility to do that.” Yet he did not take ownership of statements like he made on July 8, when he said, “We’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” Or when he stood in front of a blood-red Independence Hall in Philadelphia in September 2022, flanked by Marines, and said, “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.”
This was the most predictable outcome possible given everything that has been happening in this country, and the Democrats knew it. Remember, these are the very same Democrats who lay full blame for the horrors of January 6 at the feet of Donald Trump for Trump’s rhetoric, using words like “fight” and “take our country back,” which can regularly be heard at political rallies. Joe Biden literally sicced his DOJ on his primary political opposition for this. The Democrats held years of Congressional hearings on this. Will the same be done for all the Democrats who have called for violence against Trump, sometimes even his death?
Yes, the political rhetoric has been extraordinary, and the temperature has surpassed the boiling point. Until the leadership class takes personal responsibility for the part they played in this, nothing will change. The rhetoric will only increase as we get closer to the election and the polling still shows Trump projected to win. The Democrats’ desperate attempts to cling to power will not allow them to sit idly by. When Trump does win, the same people who marched and smashed windows in 2017, burned down cities in 2020, and shut down traffic and attacked Jews in 2024 will be out on the streets once again, and we’ll see what the “calls for civility” are actually worth.
