UPDATE (July 15, 2024, 3:33 p.m. ET): Former President Donald Trump on Monday announced Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate in the 2024 race.
The morning after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life, House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on the “TODAY” show and echoed a familiar sentiment. Those in the political sphere, the Louisiana Republican said, need to “turn the rhetoric down.”
Some in his party had already done so. Others had not.
“Joe Biden sent the orders,” Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia wrote online. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida added, “They tried to impeach him. They are trying to imprison him. Now, they have tried to assassinate him.”
Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania — who attended Saturday’s rally — initially described the assassination attempt as an “attack from the left,” though he later deleted the message.
But it was an argument from a GOP vice presidential contender that stood out as especially notable. NBC News reported:
Some Republican politicians and media personalities have begun to point fingers for Saturday’s shooting incident, assigning blame to Biden and Democrats. Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, part of Trump’s short list for a vice presidential running mate, tweeted Saturday that he believed the Biden campaign’s rhetoric directly contributed to an attempted shooting attempt.
“Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance wrote. “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.”
It’s worth emphasizing for context that the missive was published at 8:20 p.m. ET — barely two hours after the assassination attempt.
In other words, as much of the country was still learning about the heinous act, Vance’s instinct was to blame his domestic political foes. Amid talk of “unity” and bipartisan condemnations of the shooting, the GOP senator wasted little time in blaming Biden and his campaign.
Part of the problem with Vance’s assessment is that it’s rooted in a claim that’s plainly untrue: At no point has the incumbent Democratic president or anyone on his campaign team argued that Trump “must be stopped at all costs.” The list of contemporary American politicians who’ve dipped their toes in the waters of political violence is painfully long, but Biden’s name isn’t on it. But just as important was the fact that Vance, in the immediate aftermath of an attempted assassination, took on the role of partisan attack dog. David Axelrod, a veteran of Barack Obama’s team, argued online a day later, “If @JDVance1 is on the short list for VP, this Tweet, sent an hour after the assassination attempt in PA, ought to disqualify him in the eyes of the Trump campaign.” Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., was thinking along the same lines, writing that Vance’s rhetoric “should absolutely disqualify” him from vice presidential consideration. The public won’t have to wait too much longer to find out whether the former president agrees: The Republican National Convention begins Monday in Milwaukee, and Trump’s announcement about his new running mate is imminent. Watch this space.
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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