Congressional Republicans and prominent right-wing figures immediately leapt to action to incite violence against President Joe Biden and the left shortly after a shooting during a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Many congressional Republicans began laying blame on their political opponents just minutes after the shooting, without any evidence, and while it was unclear who was responsible for the shooting or whether or not a shooting had even happened at all. The comments are, at best, irresponsible, and at worst, designed to incite violence against the left — something that right wingers, including Trump, have long done.
Shots were first reported around 6:10pm Eastern Time, just after Trump took the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Officials are investigating the shooting as a potential assassination attempt, and Trump said on Truth Social that a bullet grazed his ear and caused bleeding. The Secret Service killed the suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, moments after the shooting.
Trump is in stable condition, and officials have said that the shooter and one rally attendee are dead, and two are critically injured. Biden has condemned the attack.
Around 30 minutes after the shooting, Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia tweeted, without any evidence, that Biden “sent the orders” for the shooting. He later posted that Biden should be prosecuted for “inciting an assassination” on social media.
Around the same time, House Judiciary Committee Republicans also posted a message implying that the shooting was Biden’s fault, based on reports of a private call with donors this week in which Biden apparently said that “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye” — a common metaphor taken out of context by the right in order to attack Biden.
“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. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye,” Biden reportedly commented on Monday as he was defending his decision to stay in the election.
Trump’s calls for political violence have, in contrast, been much more explicit — like when he recently promised a “bloodbath” if he lost the 2024 election. He has openly called for his supporters to shoot left-wing activists. In a speech on January 6, 2021, he told his followers to “fight” just before they stormed the Capitol in an attempted coup, during which five people died. Republicans have also embraced figures like Kyle Rittenhouse, who traveled across state lines in 2020 and shot three Movement for Black Lives activists, killing two.
Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, currently the favorite for Trump’s vice presidential pick, said that Biden’s political rhetoric against Trump “led directly to” an attempt on Trump’s life — in essence saying that criticism of the right is an incitement of violence.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote on social media. The statement seemingly lays the groundwork for the right to implement crackdowns on political rhetoric from those who criticize Trump and others on the right.
That Trump is an “authoritarian fascist” isn’t even a claim he necessarily denies; Trump has openly stated his desire to be a dictator in the past, and has praised right-wing dictators and despots many times.
Some Republicans and right-wing figures, including figures like Sen. Rick Scott (Florida) and Donald Trump Jr., immediately began blaming the left at large, even with no information known about the shooter and despite the fact that many studies find that the vast majority of politically motivated violence in recent decades has been perpetuated by the right.
“The radical left will stop at NOTHING, going so far as to try and assassinate their political opponents,” wrote Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in a now-deleted post on X at 6:49pm — again, at a time when virtually nothing was known about the shooting.
In reality, the right has been working to normalize violence of many kinds for years, with Republicans downplaying or even attempting to justify acts of violence committed against their opposition. Many commentators have noted that threats of violence against political opponents have become a de facto part of the Republican Party’s established rhetoric. Trump has long been central to this shift in the party, often encouraging his fanatical, sometimes heavily-armed followers to commit violence or at least create chaos on his behalf. At the same time, he and his party have actively scapegoated marginalized groups, placing targets on the backs of these communities — leading to horrific ends.
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