In the immediate aftermath of an attempted assassination of the former President of the United States and certain 2024 Republican nominee, some in the press are abandoning calls to “lower the temperature” of the post-shooting rhetoric, and have begun to blame Trump for getting himself shot.
Watch ABC’s Martha Raddatz as she does precisely that on ABC This Week:
ABC THIS WEEK
7/14/24
9:15 AM
MARTHA RADDATZ: Also, George, we have to point out: no matter who the shooter -- what the shooter's motives were, no matter who the shooter is, you are going to hear conspiracy theories going forward.
GEORGE STEHANOPOULOS: No question about that. But as you point out, the statements from JD Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy. Of course, President Trump and his supporters have contributed to this violent rhetoric as well.
RADDATZ: We were just looking back at some of the things that former President Trump has said. He warned last March of potential death and destruction if he were charged by the Manhattan District Attorney, “our country is being destroyed as they tell us to be peaceful”. Trump in January warned of bedlam in the county if the criminal charges against him succeeded. And, of course, in March he said “ now, if I don't get elected it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole- that’s going to be the least of it, it's going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it.” He said he was partly joking and that that was taken out of context but those are, indeed, his words. And you have heard it from supporters as well and supporters are certainly, in some parts, angry. And let's remember January 6th. In so many ways for the campaign, January 6th will probably be in the background after yesterday's event. This is a very difficult time for this campaign. I'm sure, this week in Milwaukee, that President Trump will highlight this, and President Biden is going to have to figure out how to go forward with his campaign and what exactly they say.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Martha Raddatz, thanks very much.
The media rushed into self-preservation and exculpation modes, not heeding calls to tone things down. Stephanopoulos, in his first appearance on This Week since getting in trouble for offhand remarks about the state of the Biden campaign, set Raddatz up by attempting to both-sides the rhetoric leading up to the shooting. In so doing, Stephanopoulos ignores HIS OWN incendiary rhetoric, as exemplified by the screechy editorial he gave citing “the stakes” of this election, which included a callback to the Civil War. Somehow, that didn’t make it into the call for restraint.
Which brings us to Raddatz. That entire recitation was disgusting, especially the January 6th reference. But that pales in comparison to the resuscitation of the broadly debunked “Bloodbath Hoax”, which Raddatz herself helped spread at the time along with the rest of the media.
The entirety of the media KNEW that the remarks were made in reference to what might happen to the domestic auto industry in the event of a Biden re-election, but went ahead and screeched “political violence” to the American public. Raddatz knew better THEN, and certainly knew better this morning, but chose to rehash that hoax despite the clear context of Trump’s remarks being a matter of record. Absolutely disgusting.
There can and will be no full “cooling down” of the rhetoric until the media acknowledge their own role in building up to the moment wherein a deranged 20-year-old took it upon himself to take matters into his own hands. Scream “threat to democracy” and “American Hitler” enough, and somebody’s going to heed the call.
