A Shattering Weekend Of Political Violence And Casting Blame For It

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

This Isn’t That Complicated

The initial shock and horror of Saturday’s shooting quickly gave way to MAGA attempts to flip the script and blame Democrats for stoking a toxic political environment and inciting violence against Trump.

For those in the back, deploring Trump’s embrace of violent threats, rhetoric and imagery is not itself an incitement to violence. Opposing Trump’s lurch toward strongman-ism is not tantamount to wishing him dead. Holding Trump accountable to the rule of law is not an invitation to take the law into one’s own hands.

For more on the MAGA post-shooting impulse to stifle criticism and disclaim responsibility for its own fetishization of violence:

• TPM’s Josh Marshall: “The anger of many Trump supporters is understandable and human. … But the moment [it] pass[es] into efforts to chill or silence temperate and accurate discussions of what a second Trump presidency portends we must reject them immediately, totally and categorically.”
• Joyce Vance: [T]rying to equate Democrats’ calls to defeat Trump in the election with calls for violence are wrong. They do nothing to take down the temperature in a moment when that is much needed. … Much like we should condemn the violence, this effort to place blame where it is not due should be rejected too.”
• Aaron Rupar (the Trump video aggregator extraordinaire who happened to take Saturday’s rally off): “[Y]ou can condemn Trump’s shooting while also acknowledging the ugly fact that nobody has done more to worsen the climate of political violence in this country than him.”
• David Frum: “Nobody seems to have language to say: We abhor, reject, repudiate, and punish all political violence, even as we maintain that Trump remains himself a promoter of such violence, a subverter of American institutions, and the very opposite of everything decent and patriotic in American life.”

A Historical Perspective

Yale historian Timothy Snyder:

If a radical-right politician such as Donald Trump is the victim of an assassination attempt, should we not presume that the perpetrator is on the radical left?

No, we should not.

That sort of presumption, based on us-and-them thinking, is dangerous.  It begins a chain of thinking that can lead to more violence.  We are the victims, and they are the aggressors.  We have been hurt, so it must have been them.  No one thinking this way ever asks about the violence on one’s own side. 

And this way of thinking is also very often erroneous.  The history of the far right tells a different story, one in which violence often refracts within and around a political movement that endorses it.

Steady, People, Steady

A key difference between crazy right-wing conspiracy theories and crazy left-wing conspiracy theories is that Democratic leaders have not embraced them, utilized them for political purposes, associated themselves with them as a signal to supporters, or otherwise picked up and incorporated the associated argot into their own political rhetoric. That is a huge difference and makes comparing the two fraught at best and deeply misleading at worst.

Still, the proliferation of “BlueAnon” conspiracy theories on the left over the weekend is notable and should be on your radar.

An Important Point

In his televised address last night from the Oval Office, President Biden noted that not only was the attempted assassination of Donald Trump an attack on democracy but so was the killing and wounding of his supporters, assembled freely at a political rally exercising core constitutional rights. A perhaps subtle but important additional point.

More On The Shooter

TPM’s Hunter Walker: Shocked Classmates Remember ‘Awfully Quiet’ Trump Shooter Tom Crooks

Secret Service Has A Lot To Answer For

In much the same way as the security failures in DC on Jan. 6 were open and obvious, the Secret Service cordon around former President Trump at Saturday’s rally was clearly flawed.

For anyone who has attended any public outdoors event featuring a Secret Service protectee, one of the defining elements is the presence of Secret Service sharpshooters and lookouts on rooftops and any other elevated positions with lines of sight to the protectee. It’s the thing about these events that makes the hair on your neck stand up. That’s part of what makes the initial reports about the shooter’s unfettered access so shocking.

Congress is already initiating investigations into the Secret Service’s handling of the event.

Republican National Convention Kicks Off In Milwaukee

Former President Trump arrived Sunday in Milwaukee ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention. By my count it is the fourth of the last five GOP conventions to open under the specter of outsized external events:

• 2008 (John McCain): Global financial crisis
• 2012: (Mitt Romney): Hurricane Isaac
• 2020 (Donald Trump): COVID pandemic
• 2024 (Donald Trump): Assassination attempt on Trump

National political conventions were already like mini-fortresses dropped into the downtown of an American city, but security will still be top of mind after Saturday’s shooting. Otherwise, the RNC looks poised to proceed more or less as originally planned.

Looking Ahead To Election Day …

• TPM’s Khaya Himmelman: GOPers Spin Up Fresh Conspiracy Theories About New Law To Block Baseless Election Challenges
• NYT: Unbowed by Jan. 6 Charges, Republicans Pursue Plans to Contest a Trump Defeat

Judge Dismisses Rudy G’s Bankruptcy Case

Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss can now resume collecting their $148 million defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani after a judge dismissed his Chapter 11 bankruptcy case Friday due to his failure to comply with the rules.

Ruth Westheimer, 1928-2024

Simpler times, perhaps:

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