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Yes. Trump Started The Fire. And Everyone Knows It.

 Member Newsletter
September 16, 2024 2:37 p.m.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JULY 31: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump participates in a question and answers session at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention at the Hi... CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JULY 31: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump participates in a question and answers session at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention at the Hilton Hotel on July 31, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. The convention is expected to attract more than 3,000 media professionals. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) MORE LESS

When a young man took a shot at Donald Trump in July it was the first time political assassination, attempted or otherwise, had intruded into presidential politics in more than 40 years. Now it appears to have happened a second time in two months. What’s going on here? It comes almost a week after Donald Trump and JD Vance began a campaign of racist anti-immigrant incitement focused on Springfield, Ohio, an effort so destructive and reckless that the Republican mayor and at least two of the three Republican County supervisors have either begged Trump to stop or publicly questioned whether they will even vote for him because they’re so upset about it. The city has been rocked over the last week by repeated bomb threats, school evacuations, the shuttering of one local college which has moved to remote study. This isn’t even counting the experience of Haitian migrants who are being terrorized by the pro-Trump extremists Trump and Vance have incited against them.

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