The Trump Campaign Is Doubling Down on a Dangerous Lie

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Campaigning in Atlanta on August 3, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance blamed Democrats without any evidence for the recent assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

In his brief remarks introducing the former president at a Georgia State University arena, Vance told the crowd: “They couldn’t beat him politically, so they tried to bankrupt him. They failed at that, so they tried to impeach him. They failed at that, so they tried to put him in prison.” Then, gesturing emphatically, Vance declared: “They even tried to kill him.”

After three weeks of intensive FBI investigation, no evidence has emerged supporting that claim. The motive of the deceased 20-year-old gunman, who was registered as a Republican voter but appears not to have been driven by partisanship or political ideology, remains unknown.

As I’ve reported in the weeks since the horrific shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, top Trump allies repeatedly have promoted unfounded conspiracy theories and blamed Trump’s political opponents without evidence. Multiple threat assessment and law enforcement leaders have told me that this rhetoric is adding to already heightened concerns about political violence heading into the November election. Those concerns, they said, stem foremost from domestic far-right extremist groups and Trump’s MAGA movement.

As one threat expert put it regarding the rhetoric from Trump world since the assassination attempt: “Now they’re piling on the idea that the opposition is so out to get Trump that they even tried to kill him, and therefore retaliation is justified. Only a small number of people might take violent action on this, but you don’t need much for things to get worse.”

This has been a clear pattern of incitement from high-profile supporters of the former president. Trump backers pushing baseless narratives about the shooting have included congressional members Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike Collins of Georgia, Trump’s sons Don Jr. and Eric, and Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana, a former Trump cabinet official. Vance’s rhetoric on Saturday echoed comments that Don Jr. made during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he declared that Democrats had targeted his father: “They’re now trying to kill him.” Vance has participated in this messaging since the first hours after the shooting, when he posted on social media that Biden campaign rhetoric focusing on Trump as a threat to democracy “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Trump himself made that claim during his speech in Atlanta on Saturday: “Remember the words they use, ‘they are a threat to democracy,’” he said. “They’ve been saying that about me for seven years. I think I got shot because of that, OK.” He also promoted a conspiracy theory circulating on his Truth Social platform about a supposed FBI coverup.

Two days after the assassination attempt, Vance was officially nominated for the ticket at the RNC, where Trump’s brush with death led to his being hailed repeatedly as a divine political martyr. Trump had long made violence a more accepted part of Republican politics, and now he was at the center of showcasing it in a stark new context.

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