The day after an apparent assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said “they” are trying to kill the former president. Hours later, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance used the same word, saying that “they” were responsible for targeting his running mate.
It’s a line the Ohio senator has used before. Last month, while introducing Trump at a rally in North Carolina, Vance declared: “They tried to kill him.”
A month earlier, as GOP members of Congress said “they” were to blame for the Pennsylvania assassination attempt, retired wrestler Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt off during a Republican National Convention speech, while declaring that “they took a shot” at the former president. He added that “they” have “thrown everything at Donald Trump.”
At the same party gathering, Gov. Kristi Noem delivered similar remarks. “They’ve attacked his reputation,” the South Dakota Republican said, referring to Trump. “They impeached him. They tried to bankrupt him, and they unjustly prosecuted him”
Who, one might ask, is “they”? Republicans never quite get around to identifying this mysterious villain — which is an underappreciated problem.
Axios published a memorable report along these lines during the Republican National Convention, highlighting the party’s focus on its “mysterious enemy.”
To Trump supporters speaking here, “they” are responsible for Trump’s convictions in New York, his federal indictments, his multimillion-dollar fines in civil lawsuits, record illegal border crossings — and even the attempt to assassinate Trump last weekend. In Trump’s MAGA world, exactly who “they” are usually isn’t defined. But it’s typically some combination of Democrats, the federal government, what the former president’s supporters call media “elites,” and other shadowy forces.
The report added, “It’s all an escalation of the GOP’s rhetoric about elitist forces working behind the scenes to take down Trump, whose political identity is partly rooted in playing a victim who’s seeking retribution.”
As it relates to the apparent assassinations attempts, there’s no need to think “they” are responsible, because we know who “they” are. In July, a man named Thomas Crooks — a registered Republican — appears to have shot at the former president during a rally in Pennsylvania. Two months later, another man, Ryan Wesley Routh — a former Trump supporter — also apparently intended to do the candidate harm. It wasn’t some amorphous “they” who targeted Trump. The available evidence suggests Crooks and Routh did. But in Republican politics, it appears these details are insufficient. The party wants its base to believe that it wasn’t just two men who put the former president in danger, rather it was a larger and broader enemy who deserve the party’s contempt. No good can come of this. The more Trump’s supporters believe “they” are capable of endless misdeeds — up to and including trying to murder a presidential candidate — the scarier the political conditions become.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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