Republicans casting blame on Democrats for the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump are playing with bright red political fire, a new Vox editorial contends.
An outraged Zack Beauchamp pointed the finger at Republicans such as Sen. J.D. Vance, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for casting blame on President Joe Biden after Thomas Matthew Crooks decided to fire a semi-automatic at the presumptive Republican nominee.
"Prominent Republicans were conjuring up a Democratic boogeyman, all but openly telling their supporters that Biden and his allies were behind the attack on Trump’s life," writes Beauchamp.
"That’s dangerous. Very, very dangerous."
According to Beauchamp, the problem becomes evident when compared to Democrats' condemnation of Republicans after the 2022 hammer attack on Rep. Nancy Pelosi's husband: evidence.
"In the days after the Pelosi assault, Democrats cited revelations about the attacker’s Facebook page and his stated opinions to justify their claims," Beauchamp notes. "At present, no similar evidence exists linking Biden’s rhetoric to Crooks’s actions."
Evidence that has emerged has, as of yet, proved inconclusive.
Crooks' voting records show he gave $15 to a Democrat-aligned political group but was registered as a Republican. Classmates from his high school in Bethel Park, Pa., say he was frequently bullied. His online activity suggest he liked to play chess and was learning to code.
Beauchamp notes none of this suggests, as Ramaswamy did, "Biden’s inevitable ritual condemnation of political violence" was to blame, or as Greene put it, "The Democrat party is flat out evil, and yesterday they tried to murder President Trump."
"The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs," Vance told his followers. "That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."
This language is unforgivable, Beauchamp argues.
""What Vance et al. are doing is beyond irresponsible," writes Beauchamp. "It is pouring a bucket of gasoline on a campfire and hoping that the forest doesn’t burn."
EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s ‘secretary of retribution’ has a ‘target list’ of 350 people he wants arrested
The bigger problem with blaming Democratic messaging, according to Beauchamp, is that the rhetoric only defamatory if it's wrong.
That's why Beauchamp encourages Democrats to keep reminding voters Trump tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election, was convicted of falsifying business records amid his bid to win the 2016 presidential election and has been found liable of sexual abuse and civil fraud upwards of $464 million.
It's Republicans, Beauchamp concludes, that need to tread carefully when it comes to managing the rage of their constituency.
"They believe that the Democratic Party is out to get them and destroy their way of life, and are willing to entrust power to a cruel demagogue in order to defeat the left," writes Beauchamp.
"A small portion of this base believes this so deeply that they’re willing to commit actual violence in order to stop Democrats."
