Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
The Democrat Party and its allies in corporate media didn’t pull the trigger in Saturday’s suspected attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life, but their vitriolic rhetoric has certainly set the tone for such political violence, members of Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation tell The Federalist.
Trump was injured in the attack, but his campaign says he is doing “fine” following an apparent assassination attempt against the presumptive Republican nominee for president. An attendee at the Trump campaign rally was killed, as was the gunman, according to law enforcement. Officials say the shooter, who was killed by U.S. Secret Service agents, was not a rally attendee.
“I repeatedly hear Democrats in Washington, D.C, talking about Donald Trump being a threat to our democracy,” said Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. “It is repeated all the time time. I hear every day that Donald Trump is a threat. It’s amped up at such a level that some people are going to take it seriously.”
That’s exactly what a leftist Bernie Sanders-backing gunman did in 2017, when he shot up a congressional baseball game in Alexandria, Va., seriously wounding House GOP Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and four others. The left’s hatred for Trump, amplified by the accomplice media, has grown exponentially worse as their biggest enemy prepares to officially be nominated as the GOP presidential candidate a third straight time, this time in Milwaukee, swing state Wisconsin’s biggest city.
The U.S. Secret Service issued a statement this evening:
“During Former President Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the evening of July 13 at approximately 6:15 p.m., a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue. U.S. Secret Service personnel neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased. U.S. Secret Service quickly responded with protective measures and Former President Trump is safe. One spectator was killed, and two spectators were critically injured. This incident is currently under investigation. and the Secret Service has notified the FBI.”
Stoking the Flames
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., just like other members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle, condemned the shooting and said he was praying for the former president, the shooter’s other victims, and America. He said the direct point of blame for any shooting is the gunman, but Democrats and their eight-year war on Trump have stoked the flames of extremism.
While President Joe Biden said “everyone must condemn” the violent attack on his political opponent, Johnson noted that the Democrat’s own rhetoric in the heated campaign hasn’t helped matters.
“Biden just a few days ago said to donors that Democrats need to put Trump ‘in a bullseye,’” Wisconsin’s senior senator said.
Reeling from a disastrous debate performance late last month and calls by fellow Democrats to step aside, Biden told donors last week that the party needed to “move forward” — but he isn’t going anywhere.
“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 said, according to a recording obtained by Politico.
Johnson said no one in corporate media seemed to bat an eye at Biden’s turn of phrase.
“Can you imagine if a Republican would have said something like that?” the senator said.
‘Two Inches from Murder’
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman said it’s a miracle Trump survived the suspected assassination attempt. The former president reportedly was struck in the ear. Video shows he was whisked off stage with a bloody ear.
“That’s two inches from murder,” Grothman, who represents Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District, told me.
He said he recently had the unfortunate experience of watching more MSNBC than he wanted to, in an effort to get a sense of where the political left stands. What he saw shocked him.
“They literally have these Democrats whipped up to such a frenzy where they really think there’s going to be a dictatorship if Trump wins,” Grothman said. “I think their [Democrats’] mouthpieces in the media have to take the blame, too. Maybe it’s not that shocking that something like this would happen.”
Dissent Foreshadowing?
It’s not just the politicos and the left-leaning press.
In her recent dissent to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, left-wing Justice Sonia Sotomayor hyperbolically mused that the majority opinion would grant the commander-in-chief sweeping immunity to target political opponents with violence.
“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?” she wrote. “Immune.” The accomplice media played up the justice’s extreme — and false — dissent. Some followed up with a feeding frenzy of violent scenarios on social media, my Federalist colleague Brianna Lyman reported.
“According to the Supreme Court, Biden could now send in Seal Team 6 to take all of them out. He could send in the military to take out Trump. He has ‘immunity’ for official acts now!” the Democrats’ TikTok surrogate Harry Sisson posted on X.
Such tweets haven’t aged well.
Tiffany said it’s time to tamp down the extreme rhetoric, including ludicrous assertions about the GOP’s presidential candidate’s governance plans.
“That’s what’s happening with the Democrats at this point. They just say Donald Trump is a threat to democracy because they’ve got no policy arguments. All they have is vitriol toward Donald Trump.”
And, as the case may be, violence.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.