A grim question that must be asked

Many explanations have been offered for why two assassination attempts have been made on Trump over the last two months. Some blame easy access to assault weapons. Others blame social media.

Trump blames Kamala Harris and the Democrats. This time, the apparent assailant “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said in an interview Monday with Fox News Digital. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”

On Monday, Trump wrote in a social media post, “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!”

Trump’s campaign circulated a laundry list of so-called “incendiary” remarks Democrats have made against Trump and posted a web video with clips from top Democrats calling the former president a “threat.” An email from his joint fundraising committee accused Harris of “trying to incite the most extreme elements in her base.”

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But the most significant cause of the upsurge in political violence — including the two attempts on Trump’s life — is Trump himself (along with his allies, such as Elon Musk).

Trump has a proclivity for violence. It was evident when he incited his followers to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. It was evident when he encouraged supporters to beat up hecklers; when he mocked the near-fatal attack on the husband of the Democratic House speaker; when he suggested that a general he deemed disloyal be executed; when he threatened to shoot looters and undocumented migrants; and when he claims “Babies are being “executed after birth.”

Trump has never taken any responsibility for the consequences of his incendiary language. He still insists he was not responsible for the attack on the Capitol, although he had stirred up the mob immediately preceding the attack and knew they were carrying dangerous weapons. Since the attack, he has even suggested the mob might have been correct in wanting to hang his vice president. He has called for those arrested in connection with the attack to be released, casting them as “hostages,”“political prisoners,” and “patriots,” whom he will pardon if reelected.

His incendiary rhetoric about immigrants is causing anxiety for many Americans, both born here and those newly-arrived. The United States is under “under invasion” from “thousands and thousands and thousands of terrorists,” Trump told a rally on Friday in Las Vegas.

Last week, his baseless allegations that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets generated bomb threats that caused schools and government offices there to be shuttered. On Monday, after 33 such bomb threats, Ohio’s governor said that law enforcement would conduct daily sweeps of schools in the town.

When Trump was asked if he denounced the bomb threats, he said, “I don’t know what happened with the bomb threats” and repeated the lie that Springfield had been “taken over by illegal migrants, and that’s a terrible thing that happened.” Haitian immigrants are in Springfield legally.

Hours after Sunday’s alleged assassination attempt on Trump, his multibillionaire ally Elon Musk posted that “no one is even trying” to assassinate President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. (Musk has since deleted the post and said it was intended as a joke.) Musk later wrote: “The incitement to hatred and violence against President Trump by the media and leading Democrats needs to stop.”

Musk’s own X — and his blatant failure to moderate hate on the platform — is also contributing to the terrible climate of political violence.

Obviously, the Secret Service must do more to protect Trump — as well as to protect Harris, Vance, and Walz. But Trump, Vance, and their ilk must stop their hateful messaging.

Which brings us to today’s grim (apologies) Office Hours question: Given all this, do you believe there will be further assassination attempts before the election — on Trump, or on Harris or others?

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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/."