As he did after the shooting in Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden also picked up the phone after the foiled assassination attempt in Florida and called his predecessor Donald Trump. The White House said on Monday that it was a friendly conversation in which Biden expressed relief that Trump was OK. The former president said it was a “very nice call” in which they discussed the protection provided by the Secret Service.
Not a word about the accusations that Trump had made shortly before. Biden had publicly reiterated that violence has no place in American politics and warned that it should never be fueled. This could be understood as an indirect reaction to a statement made by the Republican presidential candidate in an interview. In an interview with “Fox News Digital,” he said that the suspect “believed the rhetoric of Biden and (Kamala) Harris.” He later said that “bullet flying” is due to the rhetoric of the “left-wing communists.” Trump also predicted an increase in political violence: It will only get worse.
Trump’s change of strategy
The accusation is not entirely new. In the television debate with the Democratic presidential candidate, Trump had already said in reference to the assassination attempt in July that he was probably shot because of the things the Democrats said about him. The FBI has not yet commented on the motives for the attack – neither with regard to Pennsylvania nor Florida. In both cases, investigations are still ongoing. In the case of the man who was arrested on Sunday, however, it is known that he is an avowed opponent of Trump and wrote on social media months ago that democracy was up for election, a formulation that Biden and Harris themselves have often used.
Immediately after the shooting in Pennsylvania, Trump initially refrained from using the attack for his election campaign. The fact that he is now prepared to do just that, now that he has been on the defensive since the Democrats switched candidates, was also evident from the words of JD Vance, his candidate for vice president: The Democrats must “stop the bullshit” and tone down the rhetoric, he said at a campaign event in Atlanta. The big difference between conservatives and the left is that no one has tried to kill Harris in recent months. This is proof that the left needs to tone down its tone. Otherwise someone will get hurt – and that will destroy the country. The “ridiculous and inflammatory” political rhetoric must be reduced.
The Democrats are in a dilemma: How do they deal with a candidate they accuse of being responsible for the storming of the Capitol, who wanted to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election in his favor and who to this day does not recognize that Biden won? Are they allowed to call a candidate a threat to democracy who, because of the criminal prosecution against him, announces that he will take revenge if he is elected, who wants to purge the federal administration of alleged agents of the “deep state” and, with a view to his political opponents, announces that he will “exterminate the vermin”?
For the Democrats, it is clear that it is Trump who is using inflammatory language. But they too must consider it dangerous that their accusations could be interpreted by extremists or mentally disturbed people as a call to save America from the danger of tyranny. When Trump, who had been injured in the ear, was led off the stage bleeding in July and repeatedly shouted “fight, fight” to his supporters at the rally in Butler, there was brief concern that the country was about to experience a wave of violence.
But then came calls for calm from Republicans – including Trump – and Democrats. At the moment, Harris’ strategy seems to be to avoid addressing Trump and Vance’s allegations. Even before the two made them on Monday, the vice president had said she condemned political violence. She added: “We all have to do our part to ensure that the incident does not lead to more violence.”
