'Megaphone for hate': Vance’s slam of Dem 'rhetoric' backfires in 'Streisand effect'

17 September 2024

Freshman U.S. Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, in a speech and in a 1200-word social media post on Monday attacked Democrats for what he claimed is “rhetoric” fueling the two alleged assassination attempts on his running mate, ex-president Donald Trump. His efforts were both refuted as false and hypocritical, and served as an invitation for countless examples of how he and especially Trump have been engaging in dangerous rhetoric.

On Tuesday Vance continued his attacks, claiming he and Trump now deserve apologies because the dozens of bomb threats inflicted on Springfield, Ohio, after they both lied about immigrants stealing pets and eating them, allegedly came from overseas.

“I’m still waiting on a correction and apology from the left wing journalists,” Vance wrote on social media. “They lied about these bomb threats to silence us.”

Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine told reporters there had been 33 bomb threats against 22 facilities in Springfield in under a week after Trump’s false claim Tuesday night. But now, without any proof, Republicans are claiming the bomb threats came from overseas, as if somehow that absolves them of any guilt for having fueled them.

Vance admitted to CNN that the allegations, which led Donald Trump during last week’s presidential debate to lie that immigrants are “eating the cats,” and “eating the dogs,” was a story he had created to advance his agenda.

The Atlantic’s David Frum, a conservative and former Bush White House speech writer, on Tuesday wrote: “The difference: The upsetting things said by Trump and Vance are not true. The upsetting things said about Trump and Vance are true. Trump really did mount a violent coup against the Constitution. He and his relatives really did take bribes in office, including from foreign governments. He really was helped into power by Russian espionage agencies. He really did steal secret documents from the US government after his election defeat. And Vance really did, and by his own admission, intentionally “create stories” for political advantage that put residents of his state at risk of physical harm.”

Vance responded: “I’d say the most important difference is that people on your team tried to kill Donald Trump twice.”

Frum replied, “They’re going to rename the Streisand Effect after this guy.”

For those who don’t know, the “Streisand Effect” in short, is when an attempt to tamp down something leads to it being given a lot more attention.

That’s exactly what happened when Vance on Monday told Democrats to “tone down the rhetoric,” which he alleges led to the two Trump assassination attempts. He offered only one example, of a Democratic Congressman calling for Trump to be “eliminated,” from the ballot for president. A call for which he later apologized for not being clearer.

Vance’s attack led to a flood of people explaining why Donald Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous.

“This isn’t easy to write, but it needs to be written,” wrote Joe Walsh, the former Republican Tea Party Congressman. “The sad truth is this: It’s not at all surprising that someone would try to kill him,” he said of Trump.

“I mean, think about it. Every day for 9yrs, he’s spewed hate, spread division, and incited violence like no other. Every day. Ever since he came down that escalator. Every day, he’s attacked this person or that person, this group or that group. In cruel, ugly ways. Every day for 9yrs he’s been hating on people and inciting violence against people. Remember earlier this year, when he actually shared a meme of a hogtied, kidnapped Joe Biden? He’s been like a juvenile delinquent who has thrown a firecracker into a crowd of people every day. Eventually, someone is going to go after that boy. Political violence must be strongly condemned. Always. It’s wrong that someone would try to kill him. Terribly wrong. But it’s not surprising. Not at all. It really isn’t. He has been the country’s megaphone for hate.”

On Monday, Walsh had noted: “In blaming Democrats’ rhetoric for the assassination attempt, Trump accuses Democrats of ‘wanting to destroy this country’ and calls Democrats ‘the enemy from within.’ Dangerous rhetoric coming from Democrats, huh?”

And conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes noted: “On the same day Ohio’s GOP guv sent state police to 17 schools in Springfield after threats of violence, the men who incited those threats are demanding that the rest of us tone down our rhetoric. This is rich. By which I mean unmitigated bullsh*t.”

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