Trump and Democrats trade blame over rhetoric after Hilton shooting

I don’t want to hear any more about the reasons.

When someone commits a mass shooting or tries to kill a president, that person is, by definition, crazy.

The Washington Hilton shooter’s motive is made clear in his so-called 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 and called the president a rapist and pedophile.

HOW TRUMP SURVIVED: FIGHTING WITH THE MEDIA, FORMER ALLIES AND ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS

But again, who cares about the motive? Anyone who attacks a Secret Service-protected event knowing he could easily be killed is not in his right mind.

We do this all the time, trying to impose a rational framework on irrational attackers.

The attacker was accused in court yesterday of attempting to assassinate the president.

COLE ALLEN ACCUSED OF ATTEMPTED TRUMP ASSASSINATION IN HIS FIRST COURT APPEARANCE AFTER WHCA DINNER GIVEAWAY

Another thing we do regularly is blame an entire class of people for the actions of a single attacker.

After the Secret Service caught the California gunman (whom I will not name), many conservatives blamed the “left” for not giving him the attention they desired, as is my usual policy.

Trump himself accused Democrats of “dangerous” and “hateful” rhetoric.

MS NOW host Antonia Hylton countered that the president should have said more about inflammatory rhetoric.

Just weeks ago, he said, he “posted online about the possibility of destroying an entire civilization” and “called his political enemies ‘vermin, lunatics, scum, terrorists, the enemy within.’ He certainly contributed – at the very least – to the political rhetoric.”

Jimmy Kimmel got in hot water over a joke that called First Lady Melania Trump a “widow in waiting.” (Getty Images)

This ideological finger-pointing is nothing new. A year ago, 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 murderer, who was a Trump supporter, also injured a Democratic senator and his wife in their home. Trump said he was “not familiar” with the case.

A year ago, 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 the first night of Passover. He said he would have attacked Shapiro with a sledgehammer if he had encountered him. He had tried to persuade his family to vote for Trump and criticized Shapiro for his stance on the Palestinians. Trump did not contact Shapiro that day but called the next day.

Many in the press said that the gunman who seriously injured Democratic Representative Gabby Giffords and killed six more people in Arizona was inspired by Sarah Palin’s political map, which targeted political opponents. It turned out that the killer had never seen the map. The New York Times apologized and corrected the false accusation, and Palin’s lawsuit against the newspaper was unsuccessful.

This dates back to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which President Clinton attributed to the atmosphere caused by the rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh and other conservative broadcasters.

The security lapses at the Washington Hilton were inexcusable. It is no coincidence that President Reagan was shot outside the same hotel in 1981; I stated that Reagan lost much more blood in this attack than was initially announced.

All the gunman had to do to beat the system was get on the train to Washington and register as a guest. As at past White House Correspondents’ Association dinners, even ticket checking was inconsistent. Some journalists and other guests are only there for pre-parties hosted by news organizations.

As Red Letter reporter Abi Baker explains:

“I didn’t have a dinner ticket, just a pre-party invitation, so I showed security my phone and opened the email invitation. There was no barcode to scan or a list to check, just a network news reception email that could have been forwarded by anyone. At the party I was invited to, no one asked for ID, just my name. At others, just steps from the ballroom, I walked in without being stopped.”

Incredibly, the Secret Service did not even implement the highest level of security for an event attended by the president, vice president, House speaker, and senior Cabinet officials. Other events and receptions were being held at the hotel at the same time, so the security of the building could not be ensured. There may be other reasons to get rid of the press dinner, but it may never be held again at the Hilton, a sprawling structure that has now been the target of two presidential assassination attempts.

KIMMEL CALLS MELANIA TRUMP ‘THE EXPECTED WIDOW’ AHEAD OF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOT

Meanwhile, Melania Trump slammed Jimmy Kimmel for telling this joke:

During a parody skit about the press dinner, he said: “Our First Lady Melania is here. Look at her, she is beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have the radiance of an expected widow.”

Tasteless, of course. But that was days before Kimmel, or anyone else, imagined there would be gunfire over dinner.

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric aims to divide our country,” the first lady said in a statement. “His monologue about my family is not comedy; his words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness in America,” he said in a statement. “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to break into our homes every night and spread hate…

“Kimmel, a coward, hides behind ABC because he knows the network will continue to hide to protect him. Enough is enough. It’s time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership allow Kimmel’s brutal behavior at the expense of our community?”

The president added his voice yesterday, saying Kimmel “should be fired immediately by Disney and ABC” in light of his “despicable call to violence.” To be fair, Kimmel wasn’t calling for violence, he was doing a comedy skit, but his words were offensive.

MELANIA TRUMP Calls on ABC to Fire JIMMY KIMMEL BECAUSE OF ‘HATERATE AND VIOLENT SPEECH’

In December, as part of their long-running feud, Trump called Kimmel a “dead man walking.” and CBS “needs to put him to sleep…it’s the humane thing to do!”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday that Trump has been the target of “completely unbalanced” rhetoric since the first day he ran for president. He blamed the “leftist culture of hate”. He said elected Democrats and some in the media unfairly accused him of being a “fascist” and a “threat to democracy” and “helped legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment.”

In calling for lower temperatures, House Speaker Mike Johnson said: “Some of the leading Democratic figures in the House of Representatives and the Senate are effectively calling for war. They’re using these kinds of metaphors. And it’s encouraging violence, because there are crazy people in society and they’re being radicalized on the internet.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was the target of “completely unbalanced” rhetoric. (Evan Vucci/Reuters)

During an interview on “60 Minutes,” Norah O’Donnell read the attacker’s document. After convincing herself that Trump was somehow part of Jeffrey Epstein’s child abuse network, she wrote: “I will no longer allow a pedophile, rapist and traitor to have my hands covered with his crimes.”

Trump said, “I was waiting for you to read this, because I knew you would, because you are terrible people… I am not a rapist. I have never raped anyone. I’m sorry, I am not a pedophile. You read this nonsense from a sick person… You should be ashamed of yourself reading this, because I am none of those things.”

O’Donnell said he was merely quoting the attacker’s words.

TRUMP CALLS ’60 MINUTES’ HOST ‘SHAMEFUL’ FOR READING WHCD SUSPECT’S ALLEGED MANIFESTO ON AIR

It’s important to recognize that Trump also has a history of violent rhetoric. He accused the journalists of “treason”, a crime punishable by death.

“If I’m not elected, this will turn into a bloodbath,” he said, although he was referring to the auto industry.

During the campaign, he said 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 is no stranger to violent rhetoric. (Salwan Georges/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Here’s what he said about renegade Republican Liz Cheney two days before the election:

“He’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put him in there with a rifle and have nine barrels shooting at him, okay? Let’s see how he feels about it when the guns are pointed in his face.”

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

The man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk last September has turned to left-wing ideology despite coming from a Republican family and has become “increasingly concerned about gay and transgender rights,” a Utah prosecutor said. (He had a transgender roommate.)

The attacker, who appeared in court last week, demanded that the media be banned from covering the case because it would contaminate the jury pool.

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

Some criticized the president for bringing up the planned ballroom at the White House because it would be bulletproof and heavily guarded. It’s no surprise that he used this opportunity to complete his pet project.

But a tragedy that could have been much worse was thankfully averted.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF OF THE TODAY’S TOP STORIES

FBI Director Kash Patel, who attended Hilton’s media dinner, said in his briefing yesterday that Trump gave a “message of unity” after the shooting on Saturday night. We could use more of that on both sides.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said “political violence and rhetoric must stop.” He did not single out “many people in this room” for negative coverage of the president.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION

Fortunately for all of us, the Secret Service did its job at the final security checkpoint, preventing the irrational gunman from opening fire into the room below.