MILWAUKEE — An assassination attempt was made against Donald Trump after months of heated rhetoric aimed at the former president, including from President Biden, who a week ago said it was time to put his political rival “in a bull’s-eye.”
A day after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed Mr. Trump, Democrats called for toning down the rhetoric of the divisive 2024 presidential election.
Republicans, preparing to gather this week to nominate Mr. Trump for president, angrily denounced the “both sides” argument of his staunchest opponents.
Many of those opponents have vilified the former president as a “MAGA extremist,” an “evil” threat to democracy and the equivalent of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Critics said the litany motivated the shooter.
Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican on Mr. Trump’s short list for vice president, blamed the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life squarely on the heated words spewed by Democrats eager to rev up antipathy to the former president as Mr. Biden falters in the polls.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Mr. Vance said in a statement posted on X. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Democrats and others have cranked up their attacks on Mr. Trump now that Mr. Biden, 81, is faltering in polls after his poor debate performance in June and questions about his age and fitness for office.
Democrats’ incendiary calls are too numerous to count.
Appearing in Detroit on Friday, Mr. Biden told supporters, “Most importantly, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, Trump is a threat to this nation.”
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill told MSNBC that Mr. Trump was “even worse” than Hitler and Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Left-leaning cable TV hosts warned of the “threat of an authoritarian second term” if Mr. Trump defeats Mr. Biden in November.
In a short televised address from the Oval Office on Sunday night, Mr. Biden issued a plea to “cool it down,” though he specified no personal mistakes on this front and issued a generalized call.
“Yesterday’s shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back,” the president said.
“The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated,” he said. “It’s time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that.”
But Mr. Biden has long portrayed Mr. Trump as a dangerous extremist.
Last week, fending off calls that he withdraw from the race after his debate fumble, he told wealthy Democratic donors in a private call leaked to the media, “We’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat, called Mr. Trump a cult leader, “rapist and fraudster” in a CNN interview and then quoted the Bible in warning voters against supporting the former president.
“Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil,” Mr. Raskin said.
The verbal attacks on Mr. Trump are unprecedented, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
The attacks have been building for years, he told Fox News, and could well have played a role in motivating the shooter.
“It is undoubtedly the case that the rhetoric that has been just such a high level for so many years creates an increased likelihood that you get to an event just like you saw yesterday,” Mr. Pompeo said.
After the shooting, montages popping up on social media replayed Democrats publicly calling for violence against Mr. Trump.
Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Cory A. Booker of New Jersey said on television that Mr. Trump should be punched in the face. Rep. Maxine Waters of California pledged to “take out” the former president.
Rick Wilson, a “Never Trump” Republican, said Mr. Trump’s opponents would have to “put a bullet in Donald Trump.”
Someone tried to do that on Saturday, but the motivations of the shooter are unknown. Mr. Biden warned on Sunday, “Don’t make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations.”
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, had no social media record or obvious political affiliation. He was registered as a Republican, but his only known political donation was to the left-leaning Progressive Turnout Project on the day of Mr. Biden’s inauguration.
Speaking to reporters from Pennsylvania on Sunday, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, called the shooting, which killed a rally attendee and critically wounded two others, “a moment where all of us have a responsibility to take down the temperature, rise above the hateful rhetoric that exists, and search for a better, brighter future for this nation.”
Republicans weren’t in the mood for lectures from Democrats, who frequently blame Republican political rhetoric and stances for hate crimes against minorities and members of the LGBTQ community.
“They’ve endangered the life of every Republican and every American,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona Republican. “Their calls for lowering the temperature mean nothing until they do the same.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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