IDonald Trump blamed Democrats for the multiple attempts on his life in comments to Fox News Digital on Monday. “I’m being shot at because of what they say and what they do. I’m in a position to save my country and they’re destroying it from the inside and out,” he said.
Also on Monday, the former president released a list of comments his campaign called inflammatory, with Kamala Harris’ statement at the top of the list that “Trump is a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.”
With seven weeks to go until the election, Democrats want to center the political debate on the threat of another political violence like the January 6 attack, but Trump can adopt the trope of victimhood because he was the victim in this one and the target of a second assassination attempt in less than two months. Democrats face a dilemma: how to effectively campaign against a candidate who has been the target of violence and who continues to claim that his opponent’s rhetoric incites it.
Democrats still call Trump a threat to democracy. But they’re no longer putting that at the forefront. Instead, Trump is a “crazy guy.” Project 2025 is nightmarish and unpopular. Abortion would be illegal. It’s harder for Trump to claim Democrats are inciting violence when they’re talking about unpopular policies.
Liliana Mason, who studies political violence in US electoral populations at Johns Hopkins University, says leaders can also effectively reinforce social norms against violence. “That’s very simple: say, ‘Political violence has no place in democratic elections,'” Mason says. “If you make that very clear, a very simple rejection of violence, often people will step back.”
Joe Biden delivered just that message on Monday, condemning political violence in a speech at the National HBCU Week conference in Philadelphia.
“There is no room for political violence in America. Absolutely none. Zero,” Biden said. “In America, we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box, not at gunpoint.” Violence “doesn’t solve anything. It only divides our country. We must do everything we can to prevent violence, not fuel it.”
Political messages against violence are most effective when they come from the political perspective of those who perpetrate them, Mason said. “The problem with these attacks on Trump is that the perpetrators aren’t actually clearly from either side.”
One of them is Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, who donated to Democrats and supported Ukraine’s war against Russia, but voted for Trump in 2016 and supported Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy to win the Republican nomination.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg remembers the public’s reaction when a gunman opened fire on him at his campaign headquarters while he was campaigning two years ago. He said he received an outpouring of support from both Democrats and Republicans.
“I think extremists on all sides need to tone down their rhetoric,” Greenberg said. “I don’t think anti-Semites or racists have a place in the political debate.”
Quintez Brown, a social justice activist running for Louisville City Council, broke into Greenberg’s office on Valentine’s Day and fired six shots, one of which pierced Greenberg’s sweater before staff barred the door. While support for Greenberg has been bipartisan, the rhetoric has not always been.
“I believe candidates and elected officials should be held to the highest standards and encourage civil debate that doesn’t stoke the flames of hatred and violence,” Greenberg said. “This happens often, sometimes directly, and more often indirectly through dog whistles and metaphors and tweets.”
Still, some believe Democrats need to tread carefully, given President Trump’s history of inciting violence.
After the events of Jan. 6 and the recent fabricated case about the actions of Haitian refugees that led to school closures due to threats, the idea that Trump could be criticized for sedition infuriated David Bland, a Democratic activist and activist in Atlanta.
“We have strongly condemned this individual’s actions in the strongest possible terms and have called for swift justice,” Brand said. “It is also ironic that he is being prosecuted by Haitian-American immigrants who would go on to defend Donald Trump’s civil rights. Donald Trump never gave Paul Pelosi the same respect that we are again giving him, nor did he give the same respect for the rule of law.”
But the Trump campaign argued that criticism of this contradiction was itself an act of incitement.
But concerns among Democrats about how to campaign effectively may not last long. What’s most surprising about the current political violence is how quickly people are resilient, Greenberg said.
“Whether it’s the current assassination attempt on President Trump, or other acts of political violence, or violence in general,” he said, “you just look at what happened in Georgia two weeks ago, the horrible school shooting. I know it shouldn’t be a surprise, but how quickly people forget how big an impact gun violence has on our country.”