Trump camp says Dem rhetoric 'directly to blame' for past assassination attempts
After Vice President Kamala Harris compared former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler from the steps of her home yesterday at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Trump's campaign said that such rhetoric is "dangerous" and "directly to blame" for the kind of climate that led to two assassination attempts on his life.
"She continues to stoke the flames of violence all in the name of politics," Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.
Trump was not the only critic of Harris' words. Former third-party candidate-turned-Trump surrogate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., argued that the remarks comparing Trump to Hitler "inspires assassins."
"This type of rhetoric is dangerous to the life of Donald Trump and our Democracy as we know it," the Mississippi Republican Party said. Meanwhile, Jacob Helberg, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that as a person of Jewish descent with ancestors who endured the Holocaust, he thought it was a "disgrace" for Harris to compare Trump to Hitler.
"These dangerous rants by Kamala Harris, comparing President Trump to Hitler and calling him a fascist, are inciting more hate and vitriol, and ultimately leading to political violence against President Trump," argued Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the second-highest ranking Republican in the House. "It has to stop. This is extremely reckless and dangerous, and we have seen its consequences time and time again. How many more assassination attempts will it take before Democrat leaders tone down their rhetoric?"
Colin Reed, a Republican strategist and former campaign manager for former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, said it was "ironic" that Harris' closing pitch heading into the election compares the former president to Hitler, following "all the summer rhetoric about needing to lower the temperature and cool the discourse has fallen away."
"So much for the campaign of joy and vibes," Reed said.
Harris' decision to invoke Hitler while talking about Trump follows a report from The Atlantic that chronicled comments from Trump's former chief of staff, John Kelly, who recounted a moment working under the former president when he lauded Hitler for doing "some good things." Kelly also reportedly said that working with Trump showed him that the former president met the definition of a "fascist," which both the White House and Harris subsequently said they agreed with.
Meanwhile, Harris' remarks come after her critics already warned the Democratic presidential candidate that her party's rhetoric was contributing to the environment that has led to two assassination attempts on Trump's life.
"The recklessness of the hateful rhetoric constantly aimed at Trump by his political opponents, even after he was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania in July," said New York Post columnist Miranda Devine.
"No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people have tried to kill Donald Trump. I say that's strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and cut this crap out, somebody is going to get hurt," said Trump's vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.
The calls for the left to tone down the rhetoric mirror calls for Republicans to do the same following the 2012 shooting of former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords. Giffords was targeted at an event for constituents by a deranged gunman and shot in the head. The gunman murdered six people and injured 12 others – including one of Giffords' staffers.
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South Carolina's Rep. James Clyburn, the former number two ranking Democrat in the House, said following the shooting of Giffords, "We're living in a time that all of us should begin to take stock of how our words affect people, especially those who aren't very stable."
Some Democrats pointed their finger at Sarah Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska and onetime vice-presidential candidate, citing an online "target map" which featured stylized crosshairs over vulnerable electoral districts, including that of Giffords and others in the Democratic Party.
"We need to put the guns down. Just as importantly, we need to put the gun metaphors away and permanently," MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann penned in a 2011 op-ed.
The University of Michigan conducted research following the Giffords shooting on how charged political messaging can inflame violent attitudes, particularly among those predisposed to be aggressive in daily life. "The results presented here clearly refute the claim that violent political rhetoric is without negative consequences," a Michigan political science researcher said at the time.
"Last year, some Republican politicians used Second Amendment references (remember Sharron Angle and 'Second Amendment remedies' if Harry Reid didn't lose) and revolutionary talk to express how angry they were about the state of their country. They strongly and vehemently rejected the charge, from Democrats, that they were encouraging an atmosphere of violence," political journalist David Weigel recounted for the left-leaning Slate Magazine after the Giffords shooting. "When Giffords' opponent held a fundraiser and pitched it as 'help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office, shoot a fully automatic M-16 with Jesse Kelly,' Democrats saw the specter of violence, and Republicans saw political posturing."