Trump and Democrats allegedly traded rhetoric after Hilton’s firing

I don’t want to hear more about motives.

If someone shoots a lot of people – or tries to kill the president – they are by definition crazy.

In the case of the Washington Hilton gunman, his motivation is explained in what we call a manifesto: He hates President Donald Trump.

Despite his background in engineering and teaching, he somehow became convinced that Trump was in cahoots with Jeffrey Epstein, calling the president a rapist and child abuser.

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But then again, who cares about motivation? Anyone who would attack an event protected by the Secret Service – knowing they could easily end up dead – is insane.

We do this all the time, trying to force a logical framework on irrational attackers.

The shooter was charged in court yesterday for attempting to kill the president.

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Another thing we often do is blame an entire class of people for the actions of one assailant.

After the Secret Service captured the California shooter — whom I’m not naming, under my usual policy of not giving them the attention they crave — many conservatives blamed “the left.”

Trump himself accused Democrats of “dangerous” and hate speech.

MS NOW expert Antonia Hylton countered that the president should have made more of a rousing speech.

In the past few weeks, he said, he has “written about the possible annihilation of all civilization on the Internet” and “called his political enemies ‘parasites, lunatics, scum, terrorists, the enemy within.’ He certainly contributed – at least – to the political discourse.”

Jimmy Kimmel has landed in hot water with First Lady Melania Trump over a joke that called her a “widow-in-waiting.” (Getty Images)

This conceptual finger-pointing is nothing new. Last year, a gunman posing as a police officer killed Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a Democrat and former speaker, and her husband in their home. The killer, who is a Trump supporter, also wounded the Democratic Senator and his wife in their home. Trump said he was “not aware” of the case.

Last year, a man with a history of mental illness and a criminal record set fire to the mansion of Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, on Easter Sunday. He said he would have attacked Shapiro with a sword if he had met him. He tried to convince his family to vote for Trump and criticized Shapiro for his position on the Palestinians. Trump did not contact Shapiro that day but did call the next day.

The gunman who fatally wounded Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, and killed six others in Arizona, many in the press say was inspired by Sarah Palin’s political map that puts political opponents at crosshairs. Turns out the killer never saw the map. The New York Times apologized and corrected the false accusation, and Palin’s suit against the paper was unsuccessful.

This goes back to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which President Clinton blamed on the atmosphere created by the rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh and other conservative broadcasters.

The lapse in security at the Washington Hilton was inexcusable. It is no accident that President Reagan was shot outside the same hotel in 1981, an attack that I experienced, when Reagan lost more blood than was initially revealed.

All the gunman has to do to defeat the system is to take the trains to Washington and enter as a guest. As with the White House Correspondents Association dinners, even checking tickets was inconsistent. Some journalists and other guests are only present at early parties hosted by news organizations.

As Red Letter reporter Abi Baker explains:

“I didn’t have a dinner ticket, an invitation to a pre-party, so I flashed my phone to be safe, and pulled out an email invitation. There was no barcode to scan, no list to check—just a welcome email to a network that anyone could send. At the event I was invited to, no one asked for ID, just my name. At others, I stood on my feet without a ball.”

Surprisingly, the Secret Service did not even install a high level of security at the event attended by the president, vice president, Speaker of the House and senior Cabinet officials. There were other events and receptions in the hotel at the same time, so the building could not be secured. There may be other reasons for ending the press conference, but it will no longer be held at the Hilton, a sprawling structure that has been hit by two assassination attempts on the president.

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Melania Trump, meanwhile, ripped Jimmy Kimmel for telling this joke:

While joking at a media dinner, he said: “Our First Lady Melania is here. Look at her, she’s so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, she has the glow of a widow in waiting.”

Tasteless, to be sure. But this was days before Kimmel or anyone else thought there would be guns at dinner.

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent speech is intended to divide our country,” the first lady said in a statement. “His comments about my family are not funny – his comments are offensive and deepen the political malaise in America,” he said in a statement. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to come into our homes every night to spread hate…

“He’s a coward, Kimmel is hiding behind ABC because he knows the network will continue to work to protect him. Enough is enough. It’s time for ABC to step up. How many times will ABC leadership condone Kimmel’s bad behavior at the expense of our community.”

The president added his voice yesterday, saying that because of his “bad reputation for violence,” Kimmel should be “immediately fired by Disney and ABC.” In fairness, Kimmel wasn’t calling for violence, he was doing a comic strip, but his words were offensive.

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In December, as part of their long-running feud, Trump called Kimmel a “dead man walking!” and that CBS should “put him to bed … it’s a humanitarian thing!”

The White House Press Secretary, Caroline Leavitt, said yesterday that Trump has been referring to “completely misguided” statements since he first ran for president. He blamed a “culture of left-wing hate.” By falsely accusing him of being a “fascist” and a “threat to democracy,” he said, elected Democrats and others in the media “helped legitimize this violence and brought us to this dark moment.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, while calling for a drop in temperature, said “you have some very prominent people in the House and Senate on the Democrat side effectively calling for war. They use those kinds of metaphors. And it fuels violence, because there are crazy people in the community, and they get radicalized on the internet.”

White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said Trump was the victim of “totally misguided” rhetoric. (Evan Vucci/Reuters)

During an interview with “60 Minutes,” Norah O’Donnell read from the shooter’s text. After becoming somewhat convinced that Trump was part of Jeffrey Epstein’s child abuse network, he wrote: “I am no longer willing to let a child abuser, rapist and traitor get my hands dirty for his crimes.”

“I was waiting for you to read that,” Trump said, “because I knew you were going to read that — because you’re horrible people…I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody. I’m sorry, I’m not a child abuser. You read that from a sick person… You should be ashamed of yourself, reading that — because I’m not one of those things.”

O’Donnell said he was simply quoting the shooter.

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It is important to note that Trump also has a history of violent speeches. He accused journalists of “treason,” a crime punishable by death.

He said “if I am elected there will be bloodshed,” although he was talking about the car industry.

During the campaign, he said the Democrats were running a “Gestapo administration.”

In 2020, he reposted a video of a supporter saying, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”

Trump himself rarely talks about violence. (Salwan Georges/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Two days before the election, he said this about Republican renegade Liz Cheney:

“He’s a war hawk. Let’s put a gun on him standing there and shoot him with nine barrels, OK? Let’s see how he feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on his face.”

And, of course, he forgave and praised the revolutionaries of January 6.

A Utah prosecutor said the man charged in September last year with murdering conservative activist Charlie Kirk, despite coming from a Republican family, has turned to leftist views, and is “deeply concerned about gay rights.” (She had a transgender roommate.)

The shooter, in court last week, requested that the media be prevented from talking about the case because it pollutes the judge.

But that brings us back to the irrelevant question of motives. Who cares? There is no doubt that the recent violence has come from shooters and suspects who can at least be described as anti-Trump.

Some have criticized the president for bringing his ballroom to the White House, because it will be bulletproof and highly secure. It’s no surprise that he’ll use this event to plug his pet project.

But a potential disaster was thankfully averted.

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FBI Director Kash Patel, who was at the Hilton dinner, said at a press conference yesterday that Trump delivered a “message of unity” after the shooting on Saturday night. We could use more of that, on both sides.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said “political violence and rhetoric must end.” He did not leave out “many in this room” for speaking badly of the president.

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Fortunately for all of us, the Secret Service did its job at the last checkpoint to stop the reckless gunman from opening fire in the room below.