Former President Donald Trump recently survived another assassination attempt, this time while golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, was hiding in a shrubbery with a rifle and a GoPro, waiting for Trump to come into range. Fortunately, a security agent conducting a sweep of the area spotted the barrel of the rifle and intervened, leading to Routh’s capture.
Despite the gravity of the situation, the media’s response has been woefully inadequate. Some pundits have downplayed the incident, suggesting it wasn’t a “real” assassination attempt because Trump wasn’t shot. Others have absurdly claimed that Trump will use the incident to his advantage in the election. Perhaps most egregiously, some have blamed Trump himself for the attempt, citing his allegedly “heated rhetoric” on the campaign trail.
This victim-blaming is a shameful display of hypocrisy. The same media outlets that are now trying to deflect responsibility for the assassination attempt are the same ones that have been peddling vicious rhetoric against Trump for years. It’s clear that they are more interested in advancing their own narrative than in holding themselves accountable for their own words.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in particular, has been guilty of this kind of hyperbole. Her own rhetoric has contributed to a climate of hatred and intolerance that has led to two assassination attempts against Trump in just 65 days. It’s time for Clinton and her media allies to take responsibility for their words and to stop peddling hate.
The narrative that liberals are pushing is that Trump is somehow to blame for the violence against him. This is a fundamentally Maoist ideology that prioritizes the ends over the means, even if it means sacrificing human life.
It’s a shameful display of moral bankruptcy, and it’s not going to sell to the American people.
