Speaker Mike Johnson on Trump shooting: ‘Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down’

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/speaker-mike-johnson-trump-shooting-political-rhetoric-rcna161762

24 comments

  1. Republicans? Turning down the rhetoric? Yeah I’ll believe it when I see it.

  2. Highlighting your opponent’s negative qualities is a product of the American electoral system, and always has been. There is zero problem in making dire predictions about what your opponent will do if they gain power, especially when those predictions are rooted in evidence, as they are in the case of Trump. Oh, and if villainizing your opponent IS wrong, well, Trump’s hands are far from clean here. In fact, there may be no presidential candidate in history whose hands are dirtier when it comes to that particular issue.

    The problem comes when a candidate (or their campaign) moves beyond mere villainization of their opponents, and starts talking about the use of violence as a legitimate means for countering their opponents. And I am not willing to entertain a “both sides do it” argument here; this is almost 100% coming from Trump, his acolytes, and his enablers in the media. Hundreds of times, Trump has called for violence against Mexican immigrants, up to and including an armed incursion into Mexico. When was the last time a Democrat called for violence against evangelicals, or for an armed incursion into Alabama? Trump called for Hillary Clinton to be locked up, without benefit of charge or trial, and then said Joe Biden should receive the same treatment. While Democrats certainly approve of Trump being held accountable for actual crimes he’s been indicted for, none of them have called for Trump to be a victim of the sort of summary, drumhead-trial “justice” he regularly advocates. And just last week, the president of the Heritage Foundation threatened that if anyone opposed Trump during a second presidential term, there would be bloodshed. We don’t recall, say, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) ever warning that people can either chose the Green New Deal or they will be put up against the wall.

    No, there is no “both sides” here. It is one faction that has normalized violence as a political tool, and the J.D. Vances and Jonathan Turleys of the world should not be taken seriously when they make spurious arguments to the contrary.

    In contrast to the Trump acolytes, Democrats responded to yesterday’s shooting like grown-ups. Joe Biden had some strong, anti-violence words at a press conference. Thereafter, the President spoke to Trump on the phone to extend well-wishes, and issued the following statement:

    > I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information. Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it.

    The Biden campaign is also pausing all messaging, and is working to suspend its TV commercials as rapidly as is possible.

    Kamala Harris said nearly the same thing in her statement:

    > Doug and I are relieved that he is not seriously injured. We are praying for him, his family, and all those who have been injured and impacted by this senseless shooting.
    >
    > We are grateful to the United States Secret Service, first responders, and local authorities for their immediate action.

    There were also messages along these lines from Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and a host of others.

    Similar messages also have been reported from various leaders around the world, Vladimir Putin being a glaringly obvious exception.

    The shooter was 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and he lived in Bethel Park, PA, which is about 45 miles south of where the rally took place. Thomas was a white registered-republican male, making this republican-on-republican violence. Maybe he was upset about the convicted felon donald trump watering down the abortion language? What does it say when a second-amendment citizen thinks a member of his own party is such a threat to society as to feel the need to invoke “sic semper tyrannis”?

  3. So… they figured out it was a republican who was the shooter

  4. ~~We need to stop doing awful things~~

    The _democrats_ need to stop _talking about_ the awful things we do.

    Insert Drake meme

  5. What rhetoric from the Democrats caused this? Trump has repeatedly said he won’t recognize the election if he loses, it’s not rhetoric to say that’s a threat to Democracy. If the rumor is true the shooter was some alt right republican then it’s the rhetoric of the right that caused this.

  6. Mike means that we need to stop pointing out all the negatives of Trump.

    That will be the result of this. The media and Democrats will not point out he was friends with a sex trafficker pedo, that he is a rapist, that he acts like an authoritarian and praises other authoritarians.

    This entire situation reminds me of Trump saying that Nancy Pelosi’s husband was having a lovers fight with the guy smashing him in the head with a hammer.

  7. Republican shooter, white, American born male, shoots Republican candidate, white, American born male…

    Democrats have nothing to do with that, minorities have nothing to do with that, women have nothing to do with that, immigrants have nothing to do with that, as far as we know the LGBTQ2S+ community has nothing to do with that, drag queens have nothing to do with that, progressives have nothing to do with that…

    The shooter is a product of Republican politics, them, alone, have to bear the responsibility.

    If a guilty party must be found, the GOP should look among its ranks.

  10. Funny how these same folks laughed when Pelosi’s husband was nearly killed by a maniac with a hammer.

    Typical conservative bullshit. It’s only real when it happens to them.

  11. Oh how convenient. The shooter is a Republican gun nut who used an AR-15. Now Mike Johnson wants to turn down the rhetoric.

  12. “We have to get over it” – Trump, six months ago in response to a school shooting in Iowa that killed one student and injured several others.

    Republicans only care about something tragic when it affects them personally. Their lack of empathy is the driving force behind most of their world views. They are going to bring this up constantly, all the way to November, in order to keep it fresh in the news cycle so we aren’t talking about Trump’s rape allegations or his theft of classified documents.

    Now that everyone has sent their statements, let’s take Trump’s advice for once and get back to dealing with how to hold him accountable for his crimes so he doesn’t end up winning the election and escaping justice.

  14. No need to tamp down rhetoric.  We need more rhetoric in fact.

    Trump is a fascist who, if he is elected President again, will be a threat to our freedom and a risk to the lives of millions.

    People need to let that soak in, imagine the horrible future Trump represents, and then be responsible citizens by defeating him at the ballot box, both as repudiation of the authoritarian Trump, but also his toadies and the glassy eyed fools who support him.

    I am deeply glad Trump is still alive and well so that he may be politically annihilated by processes of our democracy and civil society. Assassination is no rescue for a chickenshit society. 

  18. Donald Trump is still a threat to democracy and the safety of the planet. He must be stopped at the polls.

  20. I’m curious what rhetoric from the Left needs to be cooled down?

  21. Tell that to Mike Collins (R) Georgia. X post: “Joe Biden sent the orders.”
    Frigging disgraceful.

  22. I’ll keep my rhetoric right where it is. Donald Trump and his followers are the biggest threat this country’s seen since Hitler and must be defeated at the ballot box, not through terrorism.

  23. Fucking Jake Tapper on CNN, with his sad dopey face, going on about the problem of political violence – showing violence against both Republicans and Democrats, but not saying a God damn thing about how it has been non-stop rhetoric from REPUBLICANS leaders that’s gotten us here and how the God damn media has only worked to amplify those voices non-stop for the past 2 decades. Fuck off Jake.

  24. Did Mike Johnson condemn the Jan 6 insurrection? Asking for a friend.

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