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Don't Let The Assassination Attempt Against Trump Stop You From Calling Him Out As A Fascist Wannabe Dictator

Submitted by Robin Messing on Thu, 08/01/2024 - 6:16pm

Numerous Republicans and right wing media outlets have blamed Thomas Crooks' assassination attempt against Donald Trump's on Democrats who have said that Trump is worse than Hitler. Derek Hunter writes in The Hill

If you are willing to call your political opponent literally worse than one of history’s greatest monsters, is it unreasonable to think that at least a handful of your listeners — perhaps a few mentally unstable people with a political obsession — might take you seriously and act to stop the threat?

 

“Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation,” Biden said just three weeks ago. “That is not hyperbole. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He is literally a threat to the America that we stand for.”

If you could go back in time and kill Adolf Hitler sometime in the mid-1930s, you would do it, right? So if Biden and Hillary Clinton believe their own assertions that Trump is an existential threat to our nation and our way of life, then how can they be happy that Trump survived the assassination attempt over the weekend?

J.D. Vance also got in on the fun of blaming Democrats for the shooting.

 

Never mind that in 2016, Vance couldn't decide whether Trump was a cynical asshole like Nixon or America's Hitler.

 

Was the left responsible for creating the atmosphere that led to Trump's shooting? Do those on the right have a point when they tell us to shut up and stop calling Trump a fascist? What is the origin of today's poisonous political violence? Before I start to answer these questions, I want to join millions of Americans on both the right and the left who have condemned the shooting. There have been a few miscreants who reacted to the shooting by posting their regrets that the shooter was not more accurate. The “He had one job” memes they posted were not funny, and I condemn their stupidity.

Having said that, we still do not know Crooks's motive for shooting at Trump, despite Republicans claiming that it was inflammatory rhetoric from the left that incited him. He left no manifesto behind, and he reportedly searched for images of both Trump and Biden on his phone, as well as for dates for both Trump's rallies and for the Democratic National Convention, suggesting that the shooting might not have been motivated by politics at all. We may never know, but it is possible that he would have shot at Biden had Biden appeared at a public event near his home town before Trump did. For all we know, Crooks' motive may have had nothing to do with politics. He may have just been a loser who felt so ignored and insignificant that the shooting was nothing more than the same anguished scream for acknowledgement that motivated the protagonist in Harry Chapin's masterpiece Sniper: "I WAS. I AM. AND NOW I WILL BE."

 

 

I will start by comparing what President Biden and the Democrat running for Congress in my local district have said about the shooting with what some Republicans have said about it. Then I will look at what Donald Trump and Don Jr. said when a nutjob came close to killing Paul Pelosi.

Then I will look at how we got here—how Donald Trump’s false claims and inflammatory rhetoric have done FAR FAR FAR more to set the stage for political violence than anything Joe Biden or any prominent Democrat has said.

And finally, since right wingers are blaming this assassination attempt on those on the left who have been (rightfully) accusing Trump of being a fascist wannabe dictator, I will use Trump’s own posts on Truth Social to prove that he is indeed a fascist wannabe dictator. (Note: Fascist does not necessarily mean Nazi. I am not saying Trump = Hitler, and I have never been a fan of that rhetoric. He is closer to Mussolini or Victor Orban than Hitler.)

 

Comparing Democratic and Republican Reactions To The Shooting

Let’s start by comparing the reactions of Democrats to this terrible shooting with reactions by some Republicans. I haven’t seen any prominent Democrats praising the shooting—only condemnation. Joe Biden has unequivocally condemned the shooting from the start This was his reaction the day of the shooting.

 

Biden addressed the nation the next day from the Oval Office, saying he hoped Trump would have a speedy recovery and condemning all forms of political violence.

 

Josh Riley, the Democrat who is running for Congress in my district (NY19) has joined many other Democrats in condemning the shooting as well.

 

Rocco Lucente, a frequent local critic of Josh Riley’s responded thusly. Make of it what you will.

 

The ever-so-thoughtful Marjorie Taylor Greene had this to say.

 

Prominent Right Wing Twitter personality, Joey Mannarino, has a few choice words about this.

Here’s another one from Joey Mannarino.

One more from the delightful Joey.

Lauren Boebert blames the left for the shooting, naming Kathy Griffin, Madonna, and ESPECIALLY Joe Biden for saying it is time to put Trump in a bullseye. She blames everyone who has called Trump a fascist and a threat to democracy. Watch 2:22 – 4:54.

 

Here is Congressman Mike Collins urging charges be filed against President Biden for inciting an assassination attempt against Trump.

And here is Mike Collins’s “evidence” for his outrageous claim, President Biden's statement that it is time to put Trump in the bullseye.

Before going further, let's discuss President Biden’s statement about putting Trump in the bullseye. If you view it in context, it was meant to emphasize that it was time to take the center of attention off of Biden’s poor debate performance and put it on Trump’s unfitness for office. It was not remotely a call for violence against Trump. Politico reports:

A defiant President Joe Biden insisted to his donors on Monday that he is “done talking about the debate” and implored the party to ignore any further distractions and direct its attention back to Donald Trump.

“We need to move forward. Look, we have roughly 40 days til the convention, 120 days til the election. We can’t waste any more time being distracted,” Biden said in a private call with donors Monday, according to a recording obtained by POLITICO.

“I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye,” Biden said.

 

How Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. Reacted to the Near Murder of Paul Pelosi

Now, let’s compare  how the Democrats have handled the aftermath of the shooting to the way Donald Trump and Don Jr. mocked Paul Pelosi after a nutjob nearly murdered him. Yahoo! News reports:

Donald Trump Jr. on Sunday reduced the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi to a Halloween gag. (See it below.)

 

Pelosi, 82, was hit with a hammer in the early hours Friday by a home invader who reportedly asked, “Where is Nancy?” Pelosi continues recovering after surgery for a skull fracture.

Trump apparently thought he could play the disturbing crime for laughs, posting a meme with a photo of underwear and a hammer with the caption: “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.”

Donald Trump mocked Nancy and Paul Pelosi as well—and the MAGA mob laughed with him at Pelosi. Watch starting at 1:18.

 

 

A Brief Look At Trump's History of Inciting Violence

Now, let’s look at Trump’s history of inciting violence. First, it is necessary to understand the concept of stochastic violence. Dictionary.com provides a through explanation of this concept.

Stochastic terrorism is "the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted."

The word stochastic, in everyday language, means "random." Terrorism, here, refers to "violence motivated by ideology."

Here’s the idea behind stochastic terrorism:

  1. A leader or organization uses rhetoric in the mass media against a group of people.
  2. This rhetoric, while hostile or hateful, doesn’t explicitly tell someone to carry out an act of violence against that group, but a person, feeling threatened, is motivated to do so as a result.
  3. That individual act of political violence can’t be predicted as such, but that violence will happen is much more probable thanks to the rhetoric.
  4. This rhetoric is thus called stochastic terrorism because of the way it incites random violence.

Trump posted a video on Truth Social of Biden bound with rope. Is this stochastic terrorism?

And Remember when Trump supporters tried to run a Biden campaign bus off the road on October 31, 2020?

 

Donald Trump tweeted a video indicating his approval of his supporters who tried to run a Biden campaign bus off the road. This IS stochastic terrorism.

Trump has been using rhetoric to incite violence or the threat of violence since 2016. First, he falsely accused Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa Caucus from him in 2016.

Trump again falsely accused Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa Caucus from him in 2016.

And again, Trump falsely accused Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa Caucus from him in 2016.

Roger Stone, acting as Trump’s surrogate, told Breitbart News that Cruz should be put in handcuffs for voter fraud. (April 2, 2016)

“Having worked very hard to collect evidence of voter fraud and irregularities in Oklahoma, Kansas, Utah, Hawaii and Texas, frankly, they ought to put the handcuffs on him,” said Stone, referring to Ted Cruz, “because the Trump people can go to credentials and challenge the seating of hundreds, literally hundreds of Ted Cruz’s delegates who were fraudulently elected.”


Asked  to elaborate, Stone said, “Go to StopTheSteal.org. . . . 

“Ted Cruz’s delegates in Texas were fraudulently elected. There are thousands  of examples of voter fraud. That means people voted for Donald Trump, but their vote was counted for Ted Cruz.

Then after Cruz beat Trump in the Wisconsin primary, Trump's campaign claimed Cruz was a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump"  (April 5)

Ted Cruz then beat Trump in Colorado, and the Colorado GOP chairman got death threats from Trump supporters. Cruz called Trump and Roger Stone out on it. (April 12)

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz significantly escalated his attacks against Donald Trump on Wednesday, portraying the billionaire as a spoiled thug running an incompetent campaign.

 

"Donald needs to stop threatening the voters. He needs to stop threatening the delegates. He is not a mobster," Cruz told Glenn Beck during a radio interview. The interview came after Trump supporters allegedly made death threats made against the Colorado GOP chairman following Cruz's victory there and Trump ally Roger Stone's insistence that he will release the names and hotel room info of anti-Trump delegates at the Republican convention.

"Roger Stone is threatening in Cleveland to put out the hotel room of any delegate that dare crosses Donald Trump," Cruz said. "That is the tactic of union thugs. That is violence. It is oppressive. The idea that Donald is threatening delegates we're seeing this pattern over and over again."

"Donald Trump now has a consistent pattern of inciting violence," Cruz said.

The Texas Senator called the threats and intimidation against Steve House, the Colorado GOP chairman, in the wake of Cruz's 34 delegate sweep in Colorado as perhaps "the most troubling" incident involving the Trump campaign thus far.

Listen to Ted Cruz saying Trump’s incitement of violence has no place in our democracy. Unfortunately, Ted Cruz has lost his balls since then.

Other Republican leaders who were against Trump  also received death threats from his supporters in 2016

In hotel hallways and across dinner tables, many party leaders attending this week’s meetings shared similar stories. One party chairman says a Trump supporter recently got in his face and promised “bloodshed” if Trump doesn’t win the GOP presidential nomination. An Indiana delegate who criticized Trump received a note warning against “traditional burial” that ended with, “We are watching you.”

 

The threats come months ahead of a possible contested convention, where Trump is all but certain to enter with a plurality of delegates bound to him on the first ballot, but he could lose support on subsequent ballots, as rules will allow delegates to vote however they choose. And although the harassers are typically anonymous, many party leaders on the receiving end of these threats hold Trump himself at least partly responsible, viewing the intimidation efforts as a natural and obvious outgrowth of the candidate’s incendiary rhetoric.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The party chairman who said a Trump backer threatened “bloodshed” at the convention also said the man told him he would “‘meet me at the barricades’ if Trump isn’t the nominee.” The chairman spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

Incidentally, Roger Stone put up a StoptheSteal.org website for Trump in 2016 which accused much of the rest of the Republican party of trying to steal the GOP nomination from him.

 

And before the 2016 election, Trump said Hillary was going to cheat to win. Then after he won the election but lost the popular vote by almost 2.9 million votes, he said he would have won the popular vote if Hillary didn’t get millions of illegal votes. And back in 2012 when he was pushing for Mitt Romney to beat Obama, he claimed the election was rigged against Romney when he lost. Accusing others of stealing the election from him was not just a 2020 and 2024 thing. That’s Trump’s schtick. It’s what he does. I document Trump’s long history of crying “Rigged Election” in great detail here.

And let’s not forget Trump’s aggressive stance towards protesters at his rallies in 2016. He once promised to pay the legal fees if someone at his rally knocked the crap out of someone about to throw a tomato.

 

The threat of Trump’s stochastic terrorism acts as a deterrent that keeps Republicans in line. Mitt Romney claims the fear of Trump-induced violence kept one or more Republican Senators from voting to remove him from office. 

Some of the reluctance to hold Trump accountable was a function of the same old perverse political incentives—elected Republicans feared a political backlash from their base. But after January 6, a new, more existential brand of cowardice had emerged. One Republican congressman confided to Romney that he wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety. The congressman reasoned that Trump would be impeached by House Democrats with or without him—why put his wife and children at risk if it wouldn’t change the outcome? Later, during the Senate trial, Romney heard the same calculation while talking with a small group of Republican colleagues. When one senator, a member of leadership, said he was leaning toward voting to convict, the others urged him to reconsider. You can’t do that, Romney recalled someone saying. Think of your personal safety, said another. Think of your children. The senator eventually decided they were right.

 

A Few Ads By Republicans Fantasizing About Violence Against RINOs and Democrats

Now let’s look at some ads by Republicans. Compare their tenor with that of Joe Biden’s “bullseye” comment and see which were most calculated to incite violence. These are just a few videos off this highly recommended thread by Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go)

 

Remember Congressman Mike Collins? The guy who blamed Biden’s “bullseye” comment for inciting the shooting. He’s got a video too.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the time that Marjorie Taylor Greene called for the execution of Nancy Pelosi.

Here is Senator J.D. Vance blaming this on Democrats who have been rightfully calling out Trump for what he is—an authoritarian fascist. 

 

Proving Trump Is a Fascist Wannabe Dictator

So Lauren Boebert, J.D. Vance, and other right wingers are saying the problem lies with those calling Trump a fascist and a threat to democracy, and not with the FACT that Trump is a fascist and a threat to democracy. They would like to shut us up and stop us from providing evidence that Trump is a fascist and a threat to democracy. Well, fuck you Lauren Boebert and J.D. Vance. We have to continue to point this out in order to prevent Trump from being elected and destroying our democracy. And I will do this using some of Trump’s Truth Social posts. But first, remember that Trump “joked” about being dictator for one day.

 

How many dictators have EVER relinquished power voluntarily? I can think of only one—Indira Gandhi. And the guy who refused to transfer power peacefully to Joe Biden is no Indira Gandhi. And Trump will never relinquish power if he faces even a remote chance of being sent to prison if he does so.

Now let’s look at some of Trump’s posts proving he is a fascist wannabe dictator. Donald Trump posted a word cloud on Truth Social that shows his main reason for running for president is to gain power to seek revenge—not to serve the American people.

 

Donald Trump says that the President can gut the Constitution when there is widespread voter fraud. Who decides if there was widespread fraud? The Court system? Donald Trump tried to convince the courts to rule that there was widespread voter fraud in 2020, but all the courts ruled against him (with the exception of one minor victory which didn't change the outcome in any election.) The President? Can President Biden can say there is widespread voter fraud and unilaterally throw out the election if Trump wins?

 

Trump calls the media “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” when he dislikes their coverage, and muses over the idea of restricting their reach. The phrase “The enemy of the people was also used by Stalin and Nazis to demonize their opposition.

 

Donald Trump mused about restricting CBS’s access to the airwaves because they gave President Biden softball questions in a 60 Minutes interview. That sounds pretty fascist to me.

 

Our Founding Fathers recognized that Freedom of Speech and a free press are essential for a healthy democracy. Dictators recognize that a free press threatens their rule by informing the people of their corruption. That is why every aspiring dictator makes it a high priority to attack the free press. Donald Trump even mused about shutting down Saturday Night Live because they mocked him and hurt his widdle feelings.

 

And here he calls his political opponents and those who want to hold him accountable for his crimes communists, Marxists, and fascists that live like vermin. You know who else used the term “vermin” to dehumanize their opponents? The Nazis in Germany.

 

Trump said illegal immigration is “POISONING THE BLOOD OF OUR NATION”. This is racist bullshit, and straight out of Mein Kampf.

 

Fortunately, if Trump is elected, he’ll be more like a benevolent dictator than a Caligula, right? Right??? Oh, wait. Here he is wishing his adversaries ROT IN HELL on CHRISTMAS DAY.

Still not convinced that Trump is a fascist? Watch Jason Stanley’s “The 10 Tactics of Fascism” and see how many boxes Trump ticks off.

 

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Thank you so much for reading this far. I am impressed by your stamina. Now, if you are a real glutton for punishment, read my six-part series on what a Trump dictatorship will mean.

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