PBS’s Christiane Amanpour invited Never Trumper David Frum of The Atlantic to Wednesday's episode of Amanpour and Company, where he delivered his usual rigmarole of anti-Republican nonsense. This time, he downplayed the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, claiming he was using it “in an improper way.”
Amanpour led with a “devil’s advocate” question about recent claims that the shooting had changed Trump’s character, wondering whether he “deserve[d] the benefit of the doubt and should one reserve judgment until he’s actually spoken?”
Dismissing the apparently ridiculous suggestion, Frum doubled down on his hatred of the former president, insisting that “at the age of 78, and after a half century of a career as one of America's leading commercial fraudsters, I think change is unlikely.”
Frum continued to condemn Trump for what he called “exalting, and delighting, and gloating, and using this event, that ought to be a unifying event, in an improper way.” Far from simply sensationalizing the shooting, Trump had been driving the message of unity, as evidenced in several posts on his Truth Social account as well as his plan to adjust his speech at the Republican National Convention.
After Amanpour asked him for clarification, Frum scrambled for a substantial explanation, pathetically deciding that “a different kind of person would not have allowed his surrogates immediately to pin the blame, for this attempted assassination, on his rival.” He cited a recent X post from Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), Trump’s vice presidential pick, stating, “His own vice president has said this assassination attempt was Joe Biden's fault.”
In fact, the post does not specifically lay the blame on President Joe Biden himself but denounces the Biden administration for their incendiary rhetoric, which he emphasizes was directly responsible for the shooter’s motives.
Today is not just some isolated incident.
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) July 14, 2024
The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.
That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination.
Frum further brushed off the shooter as a lone actor with no political influence. “There was no evidence for that, and, indeed, as the evidence has come in, the shooter looks to be the very familiar, American disturbed loner seeking some kind of glory through crime and bloodshed,” he argued.
Though supposedly a Republican himself, Frum summarized his rant by decrying Republicans, firmly declaring, “They are unchanged. They are the same people. Donald Trump at 78 is not going to become a different human being.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
PBS Amanpour and Company
7/17/2024CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, devil's advocate, obviously, benefit of the doubt. There are many, many people, including himself, who have said that this event last Saturday has changed him. His son says it's changed him. People who’ve been around him say he looks changed. He says he's changing the content of his acceptance speech, which will be on Thursday night. Does he deserve the benefit of the doubt and should he–should one reserve judgment until he's actually spea–spoken?
DAVID FRUM: Um, at the age of 78, and after a half century of a career as one of America's leading commercial fraudsters, I think change is unlikely. Um, and, of course, to this–at this moment, he is exalting, and delighting, and gloating, and using this event, that ought to be a unifying event, in an improper way. Um, he should be…
AMANPOUR: What do you mean by that?
FRUM: …um, I mean–if he…well, a different kind of person would not have allowed his surrogates immediately to pin the blame, for this attempted assassination, on his rival. Um, his own vice president has said this assassination attempt was Joe Biden's fault. He said that on Twitter, or X as we now call it.
Um, now, there was no evidence for that, and, indeed, as the evidence has come in, the shooter looks to be the very familiar, American disturbed loner seeking some kind of glory through crime and bloodshed. That–that looks to be the story.
Um, a candidate for vice president of the United States should not be quick to accuse others of responsibility, culpability for such a heinous act, but they were. They are unchanged. They are the same people. Donald Trump at 78 is not going to become a different human being.
(...)
