Last week we met with other academics at Ground Zero for a conference on terrorism and political violence. The mood was sombre not only with thoughts of 9/11 but also with painful predictions of future violence. No one would have been surprised if they had been told that within days there would be an assassination attempt on the former president.
Of course, this wasn’t just the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump. In recent years, there have been many more plots targeting politicians of all stripes that never got to the point of exchanging bullets. The plots suggest a broader zeitgeist: we are under threat of political violence.
For example, recent Republican rhetoric against a Haitian immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio, has resulted in dozens of bomb threats against the community. close schools and hospitals. Man in October 2022 attacked her ex-husband Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the HouseDemocrat, during the attempt to kidnap him. In 2020, the authorities prevented a person He was trying to kidnap Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan.
There is a distinct and terrifying possibility that a violent wave of assassinations and domestic terrorism will now spread not only against the former president, but also against Democratic officials and groups, Trump scapegoats and Trump supporters.
In this presidential election, both Democrats and Republicans are portraying the other side as an existential threat to the country, so the volatile ones are being bombarded with messages that have exacerbated an already volatile situation. It will be violent before Election Day, but it won’t be the end – imagine what could happen after the election.
If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the November election, there are serious concerns about violence from Trump supporters who may believe the election was rigged or “stolen,” as Trump did in 2020 after losing the popular and college votes, the activist said. Stop the Stealing movement and the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
If Trump is elected, many expect a visceral reaction from the far left, including some who might resort to violence. Trump’s election could also embolden all kinds of violent supporters, potentially fueling more terrorism against immigrants, people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, and others. If he continues to praise the January 6 terrorists and even pardon those who have been convicted, Trump will call for continued vigilance.
As we have seen two assassination attempts on Trump in the past two months, some Republicans are wondering how to deal with the apparent threat. They are right to call for a lower political temperature and need to reflect on their party’s role in promoting violent rhetoric – the normalization of extremely violent political speech that some have called “mainstream extremism.” Trump himself not only called those charged on January 6 “hostages,” “political prisoners,” “martyrs,” and “combatants,” but he also reacted with a similar reaction to the attack on Paul Pelosi. a joke in the form of a campaign: “We will stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi who has destroyed San Francisco. Who knows what her husband looks like?” In 2020, she publicly told members of a white supremacist group that “back off, step aside“.
In response to the latest assassination attempt, vice presidential candidate JD Vance opined, “The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last two months.” His analysis is, simply put, completely wrong. For example, in West Virginia, a 66-year-old man was arrested for threatening Harris. His social media posts include the following: warning“AR-15 IS LOCKED AND LOADED.” This is just one of countless threats and plans; most are investigated by the Secret Service and not made public.
Politicians have contributed to the rise in violence not only through rhetoric, but also through their actions and inactions on gun policy over the past several decades, leading us to this point where assault weapons are available to anyone who files a complaint.
The truth is that the United States remains in the eye of the perfect storm: a highly polarized political climate where extreme rhetoric is valued over moderation, in a heavily armed country vulnerable to disinformation and digital manipulation.
Fighting the threat of political violence is your duty donkey However, the United States also has a responsibility to our elected officials to suppress violent rhetoric. Getting out of this crisis will be difficult and will require effective condemnation of political violence from across the ideological spectrum.
Jacob Ware is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he studies domestic and international terrorism and counterterrorism.terrorism colin p. Clark is director of research at the Soufan Group, an intelligence and security consulting firm in New York.
