On a quiet Sunday afternoon in the presidential race, a Secret Service agent opened fire on a man who poked a rifle through a fence as Donald Trump golfed. Just two months earlier, a different gunman tried to kill Trump at a campaign rally. The shooting left one dead and two wounded.<\/p>\n
Bomb threats have forced evacuations and lockdowns in Springfield, Ohio, schools, city hall and hospitals after Trump and other politicians amplified a false claim and racist trope that Haitian immigrants there are eating pets.<\/p>\n
And both presidential candidates have had to speak from behind bulletproof glass at outdoor events. Federal authorities are already ramping up security for when Congress gathers to certify the winner in January.<\/p>\n
The 2024 election season has been repeatedly marked by extraordinary acts and threats of violence, escalating tensions in an already-heated political environment, prompting heightened security measures at events and becoming a more contentious issue in the race with seven weeks of campaigning left to go.<\/p>\n
Trump is blaming his Democratic opponents, declaring this week, as Sunday\u2019s incident was still under investigation, that \u201ctheir rhetoric is causing me to be shot at.\u201d Officials have yet to describe a motive, and there is no evidence that Vice President Kamala Harris or President Joe Biden specifically inspired the attack. At the same time as he has faulted the words of Democrats, Trump has often used incendiary language of his own to describe his rivals, labeling them \u201cthe enemy from within.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats are reminding voters that Trump inspired the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and has pledged to pardon rioters if returned to office, a core part of what his critics and historians cite in making the case that he poses a threat to democracy. They have also voiced alarm that his falsehoods will endanger the residents of Springfield. The attention on the city\u2019s Haitian population has led to bomb threats, and community events canceled for security reasons.<\/p>\n
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said that the dozens of bomb threats were \u201cunfounded\u201d and that many of them came from overseas. But they were disruptive and led to the deployment of state troopers in schools, and Haitian residents have told reporters that they\u2019re staying indoors for fear of reprisal attacks.<\/p>\n
While the country\u2019s history includes examples of violence upending campaigning and governance, from the upheaval of 1968 to the attempted assassinations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, this year\u2019s race stands out from others in recent memory, experts said, with some long-simmering fears of violent acts breaking into the open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States has an undercurrent of political violence, and periodically for different reasons it bubbles to the top and explodes into riots, insurrections, succession, assassinations and assassination attempts,\u201d said Barbara Perry, a professor at the University of Virginia who directs the presidential oral-history program. This year, she said, \u201cI think this undercurrent has now become the current. Right now it\u2019s at the surface, and it\u2019s rushing along. We\u2019re in a white-water rapids.\u201d<\/p>\n
As threats and major episodes of violence have become a recurring element of the political process, many across the country are beginning to accept the incidents as a grim new reality, some observers said, a striking shift from prior elections. Erik Nisbet, a Northwestern University professor who studies political violence, said he\u2019ll be watching political rhetoric in the coming weeks, with concern that the nation is hitting \u201ca new plateau\u201d in public tolerance for threats and bloodshed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes it become the new normal? Do we shrug it off? Are we careful about language or, no, we just don\u2019t care?\u201d Nisbet said. \u201cAre we accepting of this type of violence in our politics?\u201d<\/p>\n
The assassination attempt at Trump\u2019s July 13 rally in Butler, Pa., and what the authorities are investigating as a potential attempt at his golf club in Florida on Sunday have spurred plenty of bipartisan condemnations of violence, including from Harris and Biden. Investigators said they were not able to determine the first gunman\u2019s motive and did not find evidence he was driven by political ideology.<\/p>\n
But Trump and his allies claimed Democrats bore blame and ramped up the message this week as some evidence emerged that the second alleged gunman, apparently a onetime Trump supporter who later turned away from him, had criticized the former president. Trump\u2019s campaign has repeatedly accused Democrats of endangering him by labeling him a threat to democracy. But the Republican nominee has used the same attack line he has criticized, insisting his opponents are the real threat to democracy, claiming without evidence that they are behind his prosecutions.<\/p>\n
A social media account linked to the suspect posted on an array of topics, including the war in Ukraine, and wrote scathingly of Trump this year, saying, \u201cDEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.\u201d Trump\u2019s campaign Monday released a list of quotes from Harris and other Democrats calling Trump a threat to democracy and a video compilation of sound bites they said had stoked hate of Trump, going back to a moment when the comedian Kathy Griffin held up a mock severed Trump head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really believe that the rhetoric from the Democrats,\u201d Trump said in an interview with Washington Post opinion columnist Marc Thiessen on Monday, \u201cis making the bullets fly. And it\u2019s very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019s campaign declined to comment on Trump blaming her for violence. \u201cAs we gather the facts, I will be clear: I condemn political violence,\u201d she said in a statement Sunday.<\/p>\n
Democrats say there is no equivalence between their rhetoric and Trump\u2019s, pointing to inaccurate and inflammatory claims he and his allies have made, including about Springfield. Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have repeated false rumors about Haitian immigrants in the town, with Trump declaring from a debate stage in prime time last week that people are \u201ceating the dogs\u201d and \u201ceating the cats\u201d \u2014 something local police officials had rebutted.<\/p>\n
Rep. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) criticized Trump for not immediately denouncing the bomb threats in Springfield when a reporter asked about them. Trump said he didn\u2019t know about them. \u201cIf anyone asks me if I denounce a bomb threat it\u2019s a yes,\u201d Schatz wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
Trump also drew criticism last year for mockingly alluding to an attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s husband. A man broke into their home and beat Paul Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing his skull. \u201cShe\u2019s against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house \u2014 which obviously didn\u2019t do a very good job,\u201d Trump said of the California Democrat.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Trump reiterated his belief that Biden and Harris are \u201cdestroying the country, both from the inside and out,\u201d and his descriptions of political opponents as \u201cvermin\u201d and existential threats \u201cfrom within\u201d the country have particularly alarmed historians and political observers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly one candidate in this race has survived two assassination attempts, and it\u2019s not Kamala Harris,\u201d said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt when asked about Trump\u2019s heated criticism of Democrats even as he urges them to change their tone.<\/p>\n
A prominent Trump ally faced criticism for making violent references rather than tamping down the rhetoric this week. Tech CEO and vocal Trump backer Elon Musk wrote a social media post Sunday after the incident at Trump\u2019s golf course, writing, \u201cno one is even trying to assassinate Biden\/Kamala.\u201d Musk later deleted the message.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign did not comment on the post. Harris\u2019s campaign denounced it.<\/p>\n
The New Hampshire Libertarian Party deleted a widely criticized message it posted on social media Sunday saying that \u201cAnyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.\u201d The Secret Service is investigating the post as a threat against Harris, agency spokesman Nathan Herring said Monday.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just critics of Harris who have walked back comments. The wife of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman \u2014 a key witness in Trump\u2019s first impeachment \u2014 deleted and apologized for a social media post making light of the July assassination attempt that bloodied Trump\u2019s ear. \u201cNo ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday afternoon,\u201d Rachel Vindman, a Trump critic, wrote after Sunday\u2019s golf club scare, in comments that Trump\u2019s team amplified.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was flippant & political violence is a serious issue,\u201d she wrote on Monday. \u201cWhether it\u2019s aimed at a former president, the media, immigrants, or political \u2018enemies\u2019 & every incident should be addressed appropriately if we want to change the tenor of our political discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n
The threats of violence are also evident in the staging of the campaign trail stops. Trump has increased security at his events since the July shooting: He scaled back appearances at outdoor venues that are harder to secure, and the Secret Service last month approved a plan to surround him at outdoor rallies with ballistic glass normally reserved for select appearances by presidents and vice presidents. Vance has also used the glass recently, and Harris spoke behind a similar shield at her outdoor New Hampshire event this month.<\/p>\n
U.S. presidents have faced assassination plots over the years, but the attempt on Trump\u2019s life this summer was the closest call in a long time. A man threw a hand grenade toward George W. Bush during a foreign trip in 2005, but Bush was positioned behind a bulletproof barrier and unscathed. Further back, Reagan was seriously wounded by a man trying to kill him in 1981, and Ford survived two assassination attempts in a span of a few weeks in 1975.<\/p>\n
Historians also point back to 1968 \u2014 when leading Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated after the murder of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and when Democrats\u2019 convention in Chicago devolved into violent clashes between protesters and police.<\/p>\n
Brian Levin, a professor emeritus at California State University at San Bernardino who has studied extremism for decades, said that \u201ctargeted violence\u201d \u2014 aimed at specific targets such as government officials, public facilities or marginalized groups \u2014 \u201chas taken a turn for the worse over the last several years.\u201d He and other researchers pointed to environments that encourage vitriol, a \u201cbuffet\u201d of new paths to radicalization on the internet and growing numbers of guns, among other factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cOftentimes what we\u2019re seeing is the most aggressive and emotionally resonant types of messages are the ones that become viral, whether they\u2019re true or not,\u201d Levin said.<\/p>\n
People who monitor political violence or threats warn that attacks strain an already fragile security climate ahead of the election. After the shooting at Trump\u2019s July rally, an Institute for Strategic Dialogue report noted: \u201cAlthough calls for civil war often follow high-profile incidents involving the former president, they were elevated to one of their highest levels in the wake of the attack on Trump. Discussions were frequently accompanied by allegations that the assassination attempt was part of a \u2018Deep State\u2019 plot to instigate a civil war between Republicans and Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Sunday incident reinforced for many Trump supporters the idea that their candidate and their movement is in the crosshairs. On right-wing online forums, there were renewed expressions of outrage and fury along with a smattering of overt calls for violence.<\/p>\n
In memes and AI-generated images, some portrayed Trump as a defiant, muscled warrior with a \u201c2-0\u201d record against his would-be assassins.<\/p>\n
Maria Sacchetti contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On a quiet Sunday afternoon in the presidential race, a Secret Service agent opened fire on a man who poked a rifle through a fence as Donald Trump golfed. Just two months earlier, a different gunman tried to kill Trump at a campaign rally. The shooting left one dead and two wounded. Bomb threats have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}