Yesterday, Donald J. Trump nearly lost his life. An armed gunman waited for him in the bushes. He brought a go-pro camera to record it. A secret service agent spotted the barrel of a gun through a fence and shot at the gunman. The gunman fled. He was caught. And now we slowly learn about him and his motive.
President Trump is my running mate, and my friend, but he is more importantly a father and grandfather to people who love him very much. I want him to have many more years with his family. (And selfishly, I'd like many more with my own.)
I admire the president for calling for peace and calm. The rhetoric is out of control. It nearly got Steve Scalise and many others killed a few years ago. It nearly got Donald Trump killed twice. But I want to say something about yesterday's news, and how it illuminates the difference between vigorous debate and violent rhetoric.
Here is what we know so far: Kamala Harris has said that "Democracy is on the line" in her race against President Trump. The gunman agreed, and used the exact same phrase. He had a Kamala Harris bumper sticker on his truck. He was obsessed with Ukraine's "fight for Democracy" and absorbed many unhinged views about the Russia-Ukraine war. HIs name is Ryan Routh, and he donated 19 times to Democrat causes and zero to Republican ones.
How do you think the Democrats and their media allies would respond if a 19-time Republican donor tried to kill a Democratic official? It's a question that answers itself. For years, Kamala Harris's campaign surrogates have said things like "Trump has to be eliminated." And how have their media allies responded to the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump in as many months?
NBC News called the attempted assassination a "golf club incident." The LA Times told us "Trump Targeted at Golf Club." The USA Today's top of the fold headline is "Hope in America," and they published a preposterous letter to the editor arguing that Trump "brings these assassination attempts on himself." CNN's Dana Bash--who just yesterday bizarrely accused me of inciting a bomb threat--said today that Harris campaign rhetoric didn't motivate Routh even though he echoed their rhetoric explicitly.
PBS's weekend show perfectly illustrates the double standard of Kamala Harris's media friends. After spending 30 seconds on the second assassination attempt on President Trump, they then focused on the real danger: me and President Trump, who are, according to them, personally responsible for bomb threats against Springfield. Of course, I repeatedly condemend those threats. And reports today suggest they came from a foreign country, not--as the media suggested--a deranged Trump fan.
The double standard is breathtaking. Donald Trump and I are, by their account, directly responsible for bomb threats from foreign countries. Why? Because we had the audacity to repeat what residents told us about the problems in their town. Meanwhile, Harris allies call for Trump to be eliminated as the media publishes arguments that he deserved to be shot.
This seems like a double standard. But at a deep level, it is entirely consistent.
Consider Springfield. Citizens are telling us that there are problems. These include the undeniable truths of higher car accidents, unaffordable housing, evictions of residents, overcrowded hospitals, overstressed schools, and rising rates of disease. They also include the infamous pet stories--which, again, multiple people have spoken about (either on video or to me or my staff).
Kamala Harris's first strategy was to ignore these people and their concerns. Yes, she had prevented the deportation of millions of illegal aliens, and some of them made their way to Springfield. But it was a small town with no voice. Some of the local leadership even loved the cheap labor. So the suffering of thousands of American citizens went ignored.
Their next move with these stories is censorship. In Springfield, a psychopath (or a foreign government) calls in a bomb threat, so they blame that on President Trump (and me). The threat of violence is disgraceful of course, yet the media seems to relish it. They cover a bomb threat, but not the rise in murders. They cover the threat, but not the HIV uptick. They cover the threat, not the schools overwhelmed with new kids who don't speak English. They cover the threat, not rising insurance rates or the car accidents that caused them. They cover the threat, not the failures of Kamala Harris's leadership.
The purpose is not to turn down the rhetoric. If anything, covering the bomb threats gives whoever makes them exactly what he wants: attention. The purpose is distraction and shame. How dare you talk about the problems of Haitian migration in Springfield? You're endangering people, simply by discussing the problems of Kamala Harris's policies. It's a form of moral blackmail, designed not to make anyone safe but to shut everyone up.
Springfield is the most recent, but hardly the most egregious example. There was the Hunter Biden laptop story, censored by BigTech. And who can forget that anyone who didn't support Kamala Harris's Ukraine policy was drenched in the blood of Ukrainian children. That last one appears to have had some effect on Routh--the most recent would-be assassin. The message is always the same: don't you dare express an opinion on the public affairs of your nation. The message is: shut up.
This is the difference between debate--even aggressive debate--and censorship. It is one thing to attack Kamala Harris for "destroying the country" and quite another to say that President Trump should be "eliminated." It is one thing to criticize overheated rhetoric, and another to say that a former president has invited an assassination on himself. It is one thing to say that Donald J. Trump's arguments about the election of 2020 are wrong; it is another thing to attempt to remove him from the ballot over it.
It is one thing to say that pets are not, in fact being eaten, and another thing to say that anyone who disagrees is trying to murder people. Dissent, even vigorous dissent, is a great tradition of the United States. Censorship is not.
For the next 7 weeks of this campaign, I will vigorously defend your right to speak your mind. I believe you have every right to criticize me and Donald J. Trump, even if you say terrible or untrue things about us. But when I ask you to "tone down the rhetoric" it's not about being nice--our citizens have every right to be mean, even if I don't like it--or empty platitudes.
Instead, I'm asking all of us to reject censorship. Reject the idea that you can control what other people think and say. Embrace persuasion of your fellow citizens over silencing them--either through the powers of Big Tech or through moral blackmail.
I think this will make our public debate much better. But there's something else. Reject censorship and you reject political violence. Embrace censorship, and you will inevitably embrace violence on its behalf.
The reason is simple. The logic of censorship leads directly to one place, for there is only one way to permanently silence a human being: put a bullet in his brain.
.@RobertIger
Dear Bob,
I assume that you have been made aware of this affidavit which was made public earlier today in which a whistleblower states that @ABC worked closely with the @KamalaHarris campaign in sharing the substance of the questions, avoiding certain topics, agreeing on the staging, committing to fact check @realDonaldTrump and not Harris, and more disturbing details.
I find the allegations credible as written and also because the affidavit was apparently made and filed the day prior to the debate and makes mention of Harris’ smaller podium and other details that only became public thereafter.
While I can’t determine the veracity of the allegations, they do match substantively what took place during the debate. The moderators of the debate — @DavidMuir and @LinseyDavis — have yet to respond to the allegations. Since they have not yet done so, one must draw a negative inference.
In light of the seriousness of the allegations and the implications for this presidential election and for ABC’s reputation and thereby @Disney’s and the office of the CEO, I strongly encourage you to launch an immediate investigation of this matter.
Our democracy depends on transparency, particularly with regard to events which can impact the outcome of the presidential election.
I ask on behalf of all voters that you treat these allegations with the seriousness they deserve.
Thank you.
Bill
Here is the entire Joe M collection in one video!!! Including the one video I still cannot get to load.
Save it and file it because all of his stuff has been purged before!!
Share far and wide! This is an excellent red pill!
BREAKING: Joe Biden’s wild economic claims during his State of the Union address were fact-checked six times by The New York Times.
1. “15 million new jobs in just three years — a record,” Biden claimed.
• The Times ruled the claim needed context because the job gains “were beginning to return” before Biden came to office from the huge losses during the pandemic.
2. “My policies have attracted $650 billion in private sector investment, in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs here in America!”
• The Times ruled Biden’s statement lacked context and Biden calculated $650 billion based on “public announcements of investments — not necessarily dollars spent — across industries targeted by Mr. Biden’s legislative accomplishments.”
3. ���I am cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030.”
• The Times determined that Biden’s statement lacked context and Biden confused his goal of cutting emissions in half with what his actual policies would cut.
4. “We’ve already cut the federal deficit over a trillion dollars.”
•The Times ruled Biden’s claim needed context:
Under Mr. Biden’s watch, the federal deficit dropped to $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2022 from $3.1 trillion in fiscal year 2021 — but much of that reduction was attributed to the expiration of coronavirus relief spending. The deficit then rose in 2023, to about $1.7 trillion. The deficit remains higher than it was before the coronavirus pandemic.
5. “You know, there are 1,000 billionaires in America. You know what the average federal tax is for these billionaires? They are making great sacrifices: 8.2 percent. That’s far less than the vast majority of Americans’ pay.”
•The Times reported Biden’s claim did not “technically” reflect the current tax rate.
6. “Many of my friends on the other side of the aisle want to put Social Security on the chopping block.”
•“Republicans are not currently calling for cuts to Social Security,” the Times said. Former President Trump, in fact, said in 2022 that he would never cut Social Security.
The Gnadenhütten Massacre, (March 8, 1782), involved the murder of 96 Ohio Indians, mostly Delawares, by an American Revolutionary War officer, Captain David Williamson, and his militia at Gnadenhütten Village, south of what is now New Philadelphia, Ohio. The Indians, who had been converted by Moravian Brethren and were peaceful Christians, were under suspicion because of their neutrality in the war. Williamson and his 90 volunteers, seeking revenge for Indian raids on frontier settlements, pretended friendship and disarmed the tribe; on the following morning they slaughtered the villagers in cold blood. Two scalped boys escaped to relate the incident. A 9-acre memorial now marks the site of what has been called the greatest atrocity of that war.
Note that the atrocity was easily executed once the peaceful Indians had surrendered their arms. An armed populace may lose a battle or an even eventually a war, but led to the slaughter like sheep they will never be.
Thank you, Encyclopedia Brittanica.
BREAKING: Fulton County Board of Ethics will be taking up multiple ethics complaints concerning District Attorney Fani Willis in a “special meeting” that will be open to the public.
Why won't President Biden's administration give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Secret Service protection?
He's a Kennedy in second place in the Democratic Primary who is facing threats against his life.
Obama got Secret Service protection in a similar situation in 2007.
You know what this is called?
CYA
(Cover your ass)
Garland knew their scam of giving Hunter a sweetheart plea deal was exposed
Now that Hunter is actually going to trial, facts will be exposed about his corrupt sweetheart deal
So now he’s making Weiss a Special Counsel to give the *appearance* of an independent investigation
Too little, too late
@simonateba@chickyldy@realDonaldTrump Merrick Garland will go down as the most politicized and corrupt AG in American history. He is doing everything he can do to prosecute Biden's political enemies. I hate to think what could happen in this country if Garland is not replaced soon.