A conservative commentator got fact-checked on CNN for claiming that Democrats were to blame for a second apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
The U.S. Secret Service rousted an armed gunman from a hiding place Sunday near a West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where the former president was playing, and panelists on "CNN This Morning" debated whether political rhetoric encouraged that incident or the wave of threats against schools and government offices in Springfield, Ohio, after Trump and running mate J.D. Vance have spread false claims about migrants there.
"I've been struck by in the wake of this attack, there's just been no reflection from Democrats," said GOP strategist Brad Todd. "After the first attempt [in Butler, Pennsylvania] Democrats immediately reacted and sort of checked the campaign. This time none at all."
Host Kasie Hunt stepped in to point out that both president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris had condemned political violence, and she said Trump himself had spoken graciously about calls from each of them to discuss this weekend's scare.
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"That's not my point!" Todd said. "My point is that, yes, since Donald Trump came on the scene, Democrats have basically said that democracy will end if he's elected, which eventually some people with a screw loose, you're going to hear that and go, 'Wow, maybe it's justified if I do anything.' [House minority leader] Hakeem Jeffries' favorite phrase on him is 'clear and present danger,' which, that's the Supreme Court's code for when it can, government can suppress speech, and so I think we have to pull way back."
Todd argued that Democrats should focus more on Trump's policy proposals instead of highlighting the things he does and says to suggest he will not accept an election loss.
"This election is going to happen and someone's going to be sworn in and government will be go on, and it would be a little bit better if Democrats, I think, pulled way back with their apocalyptic rhetoric about Donald Trump being the absolute end of the republic," Todd said. "Criticize him on his policies, but don't act like the country ends."
Meghan Hays, a former director of message planning for Biden's White House, pushed back, saying that Trump himself had targeted individuals who had criticized him in the immediate wake of Sunday's arrest of the would-be assassin.
"Trump didn't reflect either here, instantly blamed the Democrats for their rhetoric, and he is putting out a press release with people's names saying what they have said about him," Hays said. "You don't think that people that targets people who – we don't know everyone's mental state. Those names being out there, that also makes people a target. What's going on in Springfield? I disagree that it's only Democrats. I think everyone needs to take a look at this and everyone needs to be reflective because something is going to happen. It's going to get worse if we don't control the narrative."
Todd concedes that Trump can be undisciplined, but he urged Democrats to campaign against him like a normal candidate instead of one who has been indicted in federal court and Georgia for attempting to subvert the 2020 election and had called for the "termination" of the Constitution because he lost.
"I've said on this network plenty of times, Donald Trump needs to rein it is his rhetoric, but I think we have to back off," Todd said. "Democrats have to back off the whole consequences and let everybody know, 'Look, guess what happens – we'll lower tax rates if he wins, we disagree with that.' Let's run the campaign on that."
Former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams pushed back, saying that simply reminding voters of Trump's statements and actions should not be considered as an incitement to violence.
"What I'm struck by on the defensive, or I guess on the attack on Democrats on this threat to democracy stuff, is that, for instance, Trump has not committed to accepting the results of the election, right?" Williams said. "That sounds to me like a threat to democracy, and I don't think it's that unfair to question and someone's commitment to democracy if they're saying that they can't commit to the results of election. Another one is, a lot of defenders of the former president have latched on this dictator concept, that Kamala Harris said that Trump might be a dictator – he said those words himself. He might have been joking, but he said, 'I will be a dictator on Day One,' and I guess I'm struggling with this idea that echoing those points is somehow putting chum in the water to drive up violence against the former president."
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