Donald Trump’s campaign published a list Monday of people that it appears to blame for the recent assassination attempt against the former president. The list did not include the actual assassin, but rather a slate of statements from journalists and Democratic politicians.
“Make no mistake—this psycho was egged on by the rhetoric and lies that have flowed from Kamala Harris, Democrats, and their Fake News allies for years,” read the campaign’s statement.
Trump—who has been accused of interfering with the 2020 presidential election, called his political enemies “ vermin ,” promised to imprison his opponents, vowed to begin the largest deportations in the history of the United States, and spread racist lies about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs—is now accusing the other side of going too far by … pointing out that he did any of these things.
Statements from Harris appeared on the list three times, and President Joe Biden six times. The campaign wrote that Harris had repeatedly called Trump “a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.”
The list also included statements from politicians such as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, with a link to him speaking about “weird” MAGA Republicans. “Are they a threat to democracy? Yes,” said Walz. “Are they going to take our rights away? Yes. Are they going to put people’s lives in danger? Yes.”
It also inexplicably listed Walz’s wife, Gwen, who had simply said , “Buh-bye, Donald Trump,” during a rally—not quite the threat Trump’s team are pretending it is. But the kind of magical thinking on display in this list is certainly in line with Trump’s victim complex, which predated any failed attempt on his life .
Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and “Top Harris surrogate Liz Cheney” were among more than two dozen other Democrats who had, at one point or another, called Trump a threat.
Trump’s campaign also claimed that any journalist who honestly reported on his blatant use of extremist rhetoric—which has incited violence time and time again—was actually guilty of inciting violence against him.
The campaign included snippets of “deplorable commentary“ from journalists and news outlets covering Trump’s second attempted assassination. The campaign’s decision to identify journalists by name shifted the purpose of its list, not to a round-up of statements but a list of political targets.
The campaign included NBC’s Lester Holt, who said that the “apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail” and cited the “baseless claims” of the Republican ticket. It’s unclear what Trump’s team found objectionable about this particular phrasing of facts.
The campaign listed MSNBC’s Alex Witt, who merely questioned whether the Trump campaign might consider toning down its rhetoric in response to the near violence.
The list included several other journalists by name, from The Bulwark, The Washington Post, Meidas Touch News, The Atlantic, and New York magazine. Each observation by an outlet seemed more self-evident than the last. At one point, the campaign seemed to take issue with NBC News referring to the assassination attempt as the “golf course incident.”
“Democrats and the Fake News must immediately cease their inflammatory, violent rhetoric against President Trump—which was mimicked by yesterday’s would-be [assassin],” wrote the campaign. “President Trump said it best: ‘Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!’”
If what’s happened in Springfield, Ohio, is anything to go by, attacks from the former president’s mouth seem to sprout bomb threats. It’s clear that Trump doesn’t care about any of that ( he said as much on Friday). Instead, the former president is taking the opportunity to continue painting targets on the back of anyone who says something he doesn’t like—and the repercussions could be dangerous.
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