Trump is not Gerald Ford - taulaentitatssarria.cat

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Every American has the right to participate in public life without violence, and that includes Donald Trump. Personally, I think he probably belongs in jail, but that is a matter for the justice system. I also think he is easily the worst president in American history and one of the worst people in our national life. But my feelings have no bearing on his rights or his safety. He is an American, and I want him to be treated fairly in a court of law. He is my fellow citizen, and I want him to walk our streets without danger. He is a candidate for public office in the United States, and I want our government to keep him safe. I am willing to pay taxes to pay for his safety.

If only Trump and his homunculus, JD Vance, cared as much about the safety of others as so many others care about their own safety.

My colleague David A. Graham has already noted the misery Vance is causing his own Ohio constituents, using anti-immigrant hatred to pit neighbors against each other, a conflict that has led to the closure of schools and the lockdown of two hospitals. Vance is a product of such a blue-collar city, but in reality he is a wholly synthetic politician, a power-seeking drone who will do almost anything to advance his political fortunes. In this case, he is casting the innocent people of Springfield, Ohio, in his own obscene little drama about immigrant savages roaming the streets of the heartland, trying to sink their teeth into Fluffy and Fido. Sure, it’s a bunch of lies — Vance admitted on CNN that he and Trump are “creating narratives” — but it’s all for the greater good, you see, to further the career of the hillbilly senator.

Trump, meanwhile, is using the violence against him to sow more political hatred. In July, a young man, a loner with no apparent political agenda, tried and nearly succeeded in assassinating Trump in Pennsylvania. And now another man has been arrested on possible murder charges after he was discovered at Trump’s golf course, apparently lying in wait for the former president. Once again, the suspect appears to be an oddball who said he voted for Trump in 2016 but then, according to federal campaign finance records, started donating to Democrats in subsequent elections. One would hope that these brushes with death would give Trump a moment of reflection and maybe even some semblance of mercy. But if Trump were capable of such a response, he would not be the man he is.

After the July attack, Trump engaged in some self-righteous bluster at the GOP convention, but he didn’t blame the Democrats; he left that to his party proxies. This time, he’s not even bothering with that outsourcing, using this latest incident to blame his political opponents, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, for putting him in harm’s way. He’s also blaming the justice system and the charges brought against him—multi-venue charges brought on behalf of the state of Georgia, the people of New York State, and the United States of America—for encouraging others to try to kill him.

He posted the following today on Truth Social and X, and I’m presenting it here verbatim and in its entirety:

The rhetoric, lies, as exemplified by Comrade Kamala Harris’ false statements during the highly biased and rigged ABC debate, and all the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to damage Joe’s, then Kamala’s, political opponent, ME, has taken politics in our country to a whole new level of hate, abuse and distrust. Because of this communist leftist rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse! Allowing millions of people, from places unknown, to INVADE and take over our country is an unforgivable sin. OUR BORDERS MUST BE CLOSED, AND THE TERRORISTS, CRIMINALS, AND THE MAD, REMOVED FROM AMERICAN CITIES AND TOWNS, BACK TO THEIR COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN IMMEDIATELY. WE WANT PEOPLE TO COME TO OUR COUNTRY BUT THEY HAVE TO LOVE OUR NATION AND COME LEGALLY AND THROUGH A MERIT SYSTEM. THE WORLD IS LAUGHING AT US LIKE CRAZY, THEY STEAL OUR JOBS AND OUR WEALTH. WE CAN’T LET THEM LAUGH ANYMORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

In other words, Trump is blaming anyone who doesn’t openly side with him for two potential assassination attempts. That includes Biden, Harris, myself, and millions of other Americans.

Self-awareness is not part of Trump’s personality: He complains about overheated rhetoric while constantly spewing such rhetoric himself. He has called Harris various names, and he calls everyone he doesn’t like “vermin” and “scum” and other insults. (Today he called the sitting president and vice president of the United States “the enemy within.”) Many of Trump’s political opponents and public critics have been the targets of plots and threats, including a pipe bomb campaign. At this point, with two apparent plots against him foiled, a more thoughtful person might consider what he could do to help lower the temperature in the country. But then again, Trump is not that kind of man.

America has had such leaders, though. Many of Trump’s social media supporters, plagued by short memories and a lack of historical awareness, seem to believe that the attacks on Trump are unprecedented. Two assassination attempts in about two months is indeed horrific, but it is not unprecedented: In 1975, President Gerald Ford survived two such attempts in less than three weeks. One of the attackers was a West Virginia woman named Sara Jane Moore. The other was an acolyte of the killer Charles Manson, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme. Both came within a stone’s throw of killing Ford.

Ford was a decent man and an underrated president, and he certainly had enemies, especially after he pardoned Richard Nixon. (Moore was obsessed with the Vietnam War and thought Ford’s assassination would spark a violent national revolution.) But he didn’t blame his opponents for the attempts on his life. He didn’t blame America, the courts, or anyone else. Nor did he use Moore and Fromme’s attacks to raise money: Trump used his attacks to make money in a matter of hours. Instead, Ford acquiesced to the Secret Service’s request that he wear a trench coat with a zip-in Kevlar vest. (It was very uncomfortable, and he didn’t like wearing it.) He then went back out in public and ran for president, which he lost.

Trump does not deserve to be the target of violence, nor do his opponents, even if his own rhetoric has led to multiple threats against public figures – and of course an incendiary outcry. We are a better country and a better people than Trump, and every good American citizen should insist on his protection and safety. But he and Vance seem incapable of insisting on of us—a fundamental duty of elected officials—and this makes them unfit to hold American public office.

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Today’s news

The man suspected of yesterday’s apparent assassination attempt on Trump has been charged with two federal firearms charges. The investigation is ongoing and more charges could be added, according to officials familiar with the situation.
Lawyers for TikTok appeared in federal court to argue against a law that gave TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, less than a year to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company or face a nationwide ban.
At least 17 people have died and thousands have been displaced after Storm Boris battered central Europe with extreme rainfall.