It’s a talking point in a campaign season, and an empty one.
Most of the political violence is coming from Republicans: The Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, threats against judges and election workers, talk of “civil war,” and the attempts to assassinate Trump. (Both would-be assassins were, or had been, Trump supporters.)
But GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA; photo, right) claims “rhetoric” from Democrats has “incited dangerous people to do dangerous things” (see story here).
What “rhetoric” is he talking about? His complaint is about Democrats calling Trump “a threat to democracy.” The only violence he referred to was the two assassination attempts against Trump.
Two things. First, calling Trump a threat to democracy is a more-than-fair criticism, considering he resorted to illegitimate stratagems and incited a violent mob to overthrow an election he lost. Johnson and his party have pooh-poohed those assaults on American democracy. Trump also has talked about being a “dictator” and a “king,” and openly admires other countries’ dictators, but they blow that off, too.
Trump is a threat to America’s democracy, this is a major issue in the 2024 election, and Democrats have every right to campaign on it. If Republicans don’t want their nominee characterized as a threat to democracy, then they shouldn’t nominate someone with authoritarian impulses who’s trying to undermine public confidence in our elections and refuses to accept an election loss as binding. And, by the way, incites his followers to violence.
Second, there is clear evidence that Democrats calling Trump what he is, a threat to democracy, had nothing to do with either assassination attempt. Thomas Crooks, who came from a Republican family and whose social media musings suggest conservative political leanings, was an attention seeker who investigated several potential targets, including Biden, and settled on Trump as a target of convenience.
Ryan Routh, who staked out a Florida golf course where Trump played, was motivated by support for Ukraine and Taiwan, and expressed hostility to Trump’s foreign policies, although he had supported Trump in the past. Nothing in his background suggests he cared about Jan. 6 or Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election.
Speaker Johnson’s remarks are predictable, given that nearly all Republican rhetoric is fact-free these days. He’s just a blowhard grasping at straws. This is the same GOP politician who said in an ABC News interview on Sunday, October 6, 2024:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: “Can you say unequivocally that Biden won the 2020 election & Trump lost?”
MIKE JOHNSON: “See, this is the game always played by mainstream media with leading Republicans. It’s a gotcha game.”
For this, and a lot more of the same, watch video here. No one should be surprised by any of this; Johnson makes a lot of non-factual and/or deflecting hyperpartisan statements. As his House GOP colleagues see it, that’s his job.