In the wake of the horrific, stomach-churning assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos claimed that former President Trump and his supporters have contributed to “violent rhetoric” in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt. That comment came on Sunday, July 14, on ABC’s “This Week.”
Particularly, Stephanopoulos pointed to statements from supporters of the former president like Vivek Ramaswamy and Ohio Senator and Trump Vice President pick J.D. Vance, both of whom sounded off on the left for what they characterized as its overly heated rhetoric about the former president before the assassination attempt.
JD Vance, for example, tweeted that he sees the Biden Campaign as being based on smearing Trump as an authoritarian, something that unnecessarily raised the temperature of national conversation. He wrote, “Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Similarly, Vivek said, in part, “First they sued him. Then they prosecuted him. Then they tried to take him off the ballot. The only thing more tragic than what just happened is that, if we’re being honest, it wasn’t totally a shock. Biden’s inevitable ritual condemnation of political violence today (when it comes) will be insufficient and irrelevant. No amount of verbiage today changes the toxic national climate that led to this tragedy.”
Stephanopoulos, commenting on what he sees as irresponsible Republican rhetoric and an overly hot national conversation, said, “Of course, President Trump and his supporters have contributed to this violent rhetoric, as well.” Agreeing with him, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz said, “Absolutely, George.”
She continued, “We were just looking back this morning at some of the things President Trump has said. He warned last March of potential death and destruction if he were charged by the Manhattan district attorney, ‘our country is being destroyed as they tell us to be peaceful.’”
She then said, “Trump in January warned of bedlam in the country if the criminal charges against him succeeded. And of course, in March, he said, ‘If I don’t get elected, it’s a bloodbath for the whole, and that is the least of it, and it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it.’ He said he was partly joking and that that was taken out of context, but those are, indeed, his words.”
Trump, for his part, said, in a post on Truth Social, “As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts — The January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C., the Manhattan D.A.’s Zombie Case, the New York A.G. Scam, Fake Claims about a woman I never met (a decades old photo in a line with her then husband does not count), and the Georgia “Perfect” Phone Call charges. The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME. Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!”
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