Democrats have called Donald Trump a threat to democracy so frequently that Trump is now blaming them for the assassination attempts against him
The media has done the same thing while purporting to be neutral
Much of the media blames Trump for driving people to want to kill him
The story
In the few days since former President Donald Trump was the target of a second assassination attempt, he and many others have continued to shed light on the inflammatory rhetoric raising the temperature in the country.
When he was nearly killed two months ago, there was a brief moment of reflection from the mainstream media about whether their coverage of Donald Trump had been unnecessarily provocative. However, that moment passed, and left-wing politicians and pundits continued labeling Trump a threat to the republic and saying that democracy would end if he is re-elected.
While some on the left decry the “danger” of language as an excuse to, for instance, suppress conservative speakers on university campuses and social media, much of the talk from the media and politicians is demonstrably dangerous.
Two individuals, both Democratic donors who loathed Trump, had been driven to the point of attempting to murder him. And the most recent shooter had parroted mainstream media and Biden-Harris talking points.
It is worth examining the media and political class’ long record of using extreme language to assess Trump’s claims that Democratic rhetoric has contributed to the attempts on his life.
Democrats’ incendiary language
In December, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign posted a video to Facebook titled: “It’s simple: Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.” She also posted on July 4 that, “It’s on us to recognize the threat [Trump] poses.”
President Joe Biden has also made his fair share of escalatory comments about his Republican opponent. While he has called Trump a threat to the country for years, more recently, he was caught telling donors on a private call that “it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”
Biden also remarked that Trump is an existential threat to the nation and said Trump and “MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” This is some of the most radical language used to describe nearly half the country in modern American history.
Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), has made similar claims, referring to Trump supporters as “fascists” and calling them a “threat to democracy.”
In what was perhaps a Freudian slip, Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) lamented that “Donald Trump needs to be shot,” then quickly corrected herself to say “stopped.”
Former House Speaker and Democratic Party leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently called Donald Trump a “threat to our democracy of a kind that we have not seen.” Pelosi often does not even refer to Donald Trump by his name, as if he is somebody akin to Voldemort.
In total, there have been dozens of instances of members of Congress declaring that Trump is a “threat to our democracy.”
When America’s political class so nonchalantly refers to Trump in this manner, it is no wonder that normal Democrat supporters are becoming radicalized, and the radicals are now willing to use violence.
The media’s role
Perhaps even more significant than politicians demonizing Trump — which is expected from his political opposition — is the supposedly objective news media echoing Democratic talking points about him for nearly a decade.
Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), criticized the media's handling and double standards surrounding the assassination attempts on Trump, describing the coverage as "moral blackmail.”
Vance pointed out that if a prominent Republican had tried to assassinate a Democratic official, the media and Democrats would respond with outrage. Yet, in the case of Donald Trump, the media’s reaction has been dismissive.
NBC News, for instance, labeled the assassination attempt a mere "golf club incident," and a major Ohio newspaper published a letter to the editor claiming Trump brought his assassination attempts on himself.
Outlets like PBS quickly shifted focus away from the attempt on Trump’s life, spending minimal time on the incident and instead framing him and Vance as the true danger, accusing them of inciting bomb threats in Springfield, OH, over their remarks about migrants allegedly eating pet cats.
The bomb threats, according to the Ohio governor, have all been hoaxes.
The media, for years, has been engaging in an effort to paint Trump and his allies as instigators of violence and thus cannot be victims of the left’s charged rhetoric. When a Bernie Sanders (I-VT) supporter, for example, attempted to murder Senate Republicans in 2018 while yelling, “This is for health care,” the story was quickly forgotten since left-wing speech can supposedly never be inflammatory.
Why it matters
The media's treatment of assassination attempts on Donald Trump underscores a troubling double standard that has significant implications for American politics and political discourse. When violence is selectively downplayed or excused based on political affiliation, it erodes public trust in the media and further polarizes the nation.
By amplifying rhetoric that paints Trump and his supporters as instigators of violence, the media simply fuels division instead of taking Republican concerns seriously to foster healthy debate.
This behavior from Democrat politicians and the media not only deepens political divides but also weakens the integrity of the American political system and society more broadly.
