The premier news source for Snohomish County

WEST PALM BEACH, FL—The Trump Campaign on September 16 released examples of what they consider “inflammatory, violent rhetoric” that “egged on” Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of North Carolina, a carry out the second assassination attempt on Republican Presidential Nominee and 45th President of the United States, Donald J Trump, at the Trump International Golf Club on Sunday, September 15.

“The Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!”

Trump then thanked the United States Secret Service, Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, and law enforcement “for the incredible job done” in keeping him “SAFE.”

Below is the rhetoric the Trump Campaign alleges lead up to the two assassination attempts against his life:

• Kamala Harris — repeatedly: “Trump is a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.”
• Kamala Harris: “It’s on us to recognize the threat [Trump] poses.”
• Kamala Harris: “Does one of us have to come out alive? Ha ha ha ha!”
• Joe Biden: “It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”
• Joe Biden: “I mean this from the bottom of my heart: Trump is a threat to this nation.”
• Joe Biden: “There is one existential threat: it’s Donald Trump.”
• Joe Biden: “Trump is a genuine threat to this nation … He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.”
• Joe Biden: “Trump and MAGA Republicans are a threat to the very soul of this country.”
• Joe Biden: “Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic … and that is a threat to this country.”
• Tim Walz: “Are [Republicans] a threat to democracy? Yes. … Are they going to put peoples’ lives in danger? Yes.”
• Gwen Walz: “Buh-bye, Donald Trump.”
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “[Trump] is a threat to our democracy of the kind that we have not seen.”
• Rep. Jasmine Crockett: “MAGA in general — they are threats to us domestically.”
• Rep. Dan Goldman: “He is destructive to our democracy and …  he has to be eliminated.”
• Disgraced Harris staffer TJ Ducklo: “Trump is an existential, urgent threat to our democracy.”
• Top Harris surrogate Liz Cheney: “Trump presents a fundamental threat to the republic and we are seeing it on a daily basis.”
• Rep. Steve Cohen: “Trump is an enemy of the United States.”
• Rep. Maxine Waters: “Are [Trump supporters] preparing a civil war against us?”
• Rep. Maxine Waters: “I want to know about all of those right-wing organizations that [Trump] is connected with who are training up in the hills somewhere.”
• Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Trump is an “existential threat to our democracy.”
• Rep. Adam Schiff: Trump is the “gravest threat to our democracy.”
• Rep. Gregory Meeks: “Trump cannot be president again. He’s an existential threat to democracy.”
• Rep. Dan Goldman: “Trump remains the greatest threat to our democracy.”
• Rep. Jake Auchincloss: “What unifies us as a party is knowing that Donald Trump is an existential threat to Democracy.”
• Rep. Abigail Spanberger: “Trump is a threat to our democracy … the threats to our democratic republic are real.”
• Rep. Annie Kuster: “Trump and his extreme right-wing followers pose an existential threat to our democracy.”
• Rep. Becca Balint: “We cannot underestimate the threat [Trump] poses to American democracy.”
• Rep. Jason Crow: “Trump is an extreme danger to our democracy.”
• Rep. Raul Grijalva: “Trump is an existential threat to American democracy.”
• Sen. Michael Bennet: Trump is “a threat to our democracy.”
• Rep. Stacey Plaskett: Trump “needs to be shot.”
• Rep. Steven Horsford: “Trump Republicans are a dangerous threat to our state.”
• Rep. Gabe Vasquez: “Remove the national threat from office.”
• Rep. Mike Levin: “Donald Trump is a threat to our nation, our freedom, and our democracy.”
• Rep. Eric Sorensen: “He is the greatest threat to law and order we have in our country.”
• Rep. Greg Landsman: “The threat is not over.”
• Rep. Pat Ryan: “Trump is an existential threat to American democracy.”
• Rick Wilson, The Lincoln Project: “They’re still going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump.”
• Former Harris-Biden staffer Kate Bedingfield: Democrats should “turn their fire on Donald Trump.”

“That doesn’t even include the dangerous rhetoric against President Trump spewed by deranged Democrats during the 2016 and 2020 elections, the impeachment hoaxes, and the Summer of Love,” the campaign alleged in its press release.

After Sunday’s second assassination attempt, both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris condemned political violence.

The campaign also provided examples of “deplorable commentary” shortly after Sunday’s assassination attempt from elected Democratic officials, Democratic supporters, and media outlets:

• Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: “We must stop [Trump].”
• Rachel Vindman, wife of disgraced impeachment hoax ‘witness’: “No ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday afternoon.”
• Rep. Mikie Sherrill: “This really seems to be the confluence of two very bad things going on in the Republican Party … the attempts to divide, to enrage the population.”
• State Rep. Steven Woodrow (D-CO): “The last thing America needed was sympathy for the devil but here we are.”
• Lester Holt, NBC Nightly News: “Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail. Mr. Trump, his running mate JD Vance, continue to make baseless claims…”
• Alex Witt, MSNBC: “Do you expect there to be calls from within the Trump campaign to [tone it down]?”
• Phil Bump, The Washington Post: “Another chance for Trump to frame Democrats as dangerous has emerged.”
• Bill Kristol, The Bulwark: “Vance … incite[s] potential violence with lies.”
• Ron Filipkowski, liberal commentator: “Was the golf course guy with the gun a migrant?”
• David Frum, The Atlantic: “Trump and his running mate have spent the past week successfully inciting violence … today they want to present themselves as near-victims of violence.”
• Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine: “Trump is a threat to democracy, and saying so is not incitement.”
• The Cincinnati Enquirer: “The former president, Donald Trump, brings a lot of this stuff on himself.”
• USA TODAY: “Hope in America.”
• NBC News: “Golf course incident.”
• Bloomberg: Trump “seizing on assassination attempt.”