The images of Saturday’s attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life will live on in infamy. America—and the world—were mere inches away from a situation truly unimaginable.
As I have watched and re-watched the footage of Trump’s fateful rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, I cannot explain the day’s events without an appeal to the hand of divine intervention.
Among the few positives to come out of the Trump assassination attempt are the expressions of unity currently flowing from both sides of the political aisle.
I was particularly taken aback by President Joe Biden’s initial statement that he was praying for Donald Trump and by his later remark that he had been seeking to reach his rival by phone. In times of deep political polarization, these comments are rare, and they go a long way to humanizing the opposition and healing some of the national divide.
There is a crying need for unity in America today. However, I am convinced that even these welcome comments from the president simply do not go far enough.
In an address to the nation on Sunday night, President Biden began with these words:
My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors. We’re friends, coworkers, citizens. And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans. And we must stand together.
Yesterday’s shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here.
The remainder of Biden’s speech was praiseworthy enough, but here’s what was missing:
My fellow Americans, let me be the first to take responsibility for raising the political temperature and for casting my political rival, former President Donald Trump, as an extremist and a threat to the very foundation of the American republic.
Why have I crafted this apocryphal mea culpa on behalf of Biden?
Because Biden has accused Trump in words to this effect ad nauseam for years on end, and every American paying attention is aware of that fact.
Take just two examples. In his September 2022 so-called “red speech” (due to the distinctive red-lit background) in Philadelphia—officially known as “The Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation,” President Biden claimed that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
While Biden clarified that he was not referring to all Republicans, he spent the better part of nearly a half hour demonizing his leading political opponent and tens of millions of his countrymen.
And in a tweet posted mere weeks ago, Biden again claimed that “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation”—that “He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.”
As some commentators have pointed out, this tweet alone could easily read like the recovered manifesto of a political assassin—though let me be quick to add that it is unfair to place direct blame for Saturday’s events at the feet of Joe Biden.
What is clear from Biden’s remarks about Trump—and there are countless more just like them—is that the sitting president has been seeking to convince Americans that their nation will effectively cease to exist if his rival were to retake the White House.
A head of state cannot make these outrageous claims for years on end without creating the conditions that led to Saturday’s shooting.
As President, Joe Biden is not just the commander-in-chief but also the example-in-chief. Sadly, many have followed his example and taken it even further, with a growing list of high-profile celebrities imagining the worst forms of violence against Trump.
The logic here is dangerously open-ended: If Trump really does present an existential threat to the American republic—if the nation’s survival depends on keeping him from regaining power—then fill in the blank. Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures.
Indeed, one of the great ironies seen in the days since the Trump assassination attempt is that his chief rivals have expressed gratitude and relief that the greatest threat to the nation is still alive.
Re-read that last sentence again if you need to. It’s a non sequitur. One of the clauses is obviously untrue—and I will give Trump’s critics the benefit of the doubt by assuming they know he is not the existential treat they have made him out to be.
Nothing brings clarity like an assassination attempt on a presidential frontrunner. That clarity, as captured by President Biden, is as follows and bears repeating: “We are not enemies. We’re neighbors. We’re friends, coworkers, citizens. And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans.”
Acknowledging this truth means conceding that all past rhetoric painting Donald Trump as a threat to America’s survival must be renounced, apologized for, and never uttered again.
That task begins with the sitting President.
Physician, heal thyself. Then America’s healing might follow.
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Image credit: public domain
