Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), on Monday said there’s a “big difference” between Republicans and Democrats: “No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris.”
Note that earlier in the day, Elon Musk wrote and deleted a similar post. From NY Times:
In response to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Mr. Musk, who has endorsed the former president and comments frequently on the U.S. presidential campaign, wrote: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” His post, which was captured by X users, included a thinking-face emoji.
Mr. Musk took down the post after it immediately drew outrage.
For Vance comments, see also NY Times, Vance says the left is to blame for the attempts on Trump’s life., and/or CNN, Vance blames liberal rhetoric for apparent assassination attempt against Trump :
“I know it’s popular on a lot of corners of the left to say that we have a both sides problem. And I’m not going to say we’re always perfect. I’m not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right. But you know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that we have — no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” the Republican vice presidential candidate said at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta.
“I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric, and needs to cut this crap out,” he continued.
Vance vowed to “do my part” to tone down the rhetoric and said he was speaking particularly to those who say that Trump needs to be “eliminated.”
“Somebody’s gonna get hurt by it, and it’s gonna destroy this country. Somebody is gonna get hurt. And you think about what an incredible wound it would open up in the United States of America, all of us, and I promise I will do my part to tone down the rhetoric,” Vance said. “But in particular, the people telling you that Donald Trump needs to be eliminated. You guys need to cut it out, or you’re gonna get somebody hurt.”
Thankfully, both Democrats and Republicans came together to disavow the New Hampshire Libertarian Party for this from Deadline:
Republican and Democratic Party leaders have condemned New Hampshire’s Libertarian Party for sharing a post saying that anyone who assassinated Vice President Kamala Harris would be “an American hero.”
The party later deleted the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, but appeared unrepentant about the message, saying it was removed because of the platform’s rules and complaining about restrictions on free speech.
What is that even supposed to imply? Is it supposed to mean “You’re doing something right, if they try to assassinate you”? Well, have they heard about a certainly popular assassination target of the 20th century, Mustache Man? On the other hand, just because someone doesn’t actively try to kill you, doesn’t mean you’re not important. Look at Merkel, for example. Once, a pretty controversial person to have become chancellor and quite important, too.
Vance and the rest – including Trump himself – are suggesting that the attacks are because Democrats are demonizing Trump and Democrats need to tone down the vitriol, ignoring that Trump has said Democrats are destroying America and that we won’t have a country left if they get in office and all the rest. At least Vance is – after saying on TV with Dana Bash that they have confirmed reports from Springfield (in an interview about the pet eating thing) – that he, too, ought to tone down his rhetoric, but let’s see if he can stick with that for more than a day.
Here’s a story from July about the left/right spread in toxic language: https://theconversation.com/trump-shooting-is-a-warning-about-how-toxic-language-leads-to-violence-234637
Note the disparity on their graphic: