The pain of losing out on being the first female American president must be too much to bear for Hillary Clinton. Back in 2016, she was assured by everyone — her political allies, her political enemies, the media, pollsters — that she was a shoo-in to become president. To a stunned Democratic Party, to a stunned Washington political establishment, to a stunned country, to a stunned world, and to a stunned Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump won the election. Thus began a series of political and legal moves, supported and reinforced by the media, to undermine the Trump presidency even before it began. These political and legal moves consumed the Trump presidency just as they have consumed Trump’s candidacy in the 2024 presidential contest. Clinton and her media allies repeatedly said that Trump was a threat to American democracy, a dictator in waiting, and a Hitler-like authoritarian. At least two men — Thomas Matthew Crooks and now Ryan Wesley Routh — apparently took these claims to heart and tried to kill the former president. Undeterred, Hillary Clinton, the day after the second assassination attempt on Trump, took to the airwaves on MSNBC to remind everyone that Trump is a “danger to our country and the world,” and called upon her media allies to present a “consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is.”
Clinton is promoting her latest memoir, so her appearance on MSNBC also had greed as a motive. The Clintons are always willing to make a buck — which is fine — but Hillary couldn’t limit her remarks to promoting the book, she had to warn the country — presumably including future Thomas Crooks and Ryan Rouths — that “We can’t go back and give this very dangerous man another chance to do harm to our country and the world.”
In an interview in 2017, Clinton called President Trump a “clear and present danger to our democracy, to our institutions, to the rule of law, to the civil rights and human rights of so many Americans.” So the narrative of Donald Trump as a threat to our democracy started shortly after the 2016 election.
Though much is made about Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen or rigged, Hillary Clinton expressed similar sentiments after her loss in the 2016 election — yet the media didn’t call her an “election denier.” According to the Washington Post, she even called Trump an “illegimate president.” The 2016 election, Hillary said in an interview on the Atlantic’s podcast, “was not on the level.” Trump, she said in 2020, was a “puppet of Putin.”
And who does Clinton blame for the assassination attempts on Trump? Why, Trump, of course. Hillary claims to have reacted in “horror” to the second assassination attempt on Trump, but blamed Trump for throwing “red meat out there to get people riled up.”
Apparently, her own remarks, just one day after the second assassination attempt, in which she called Trump a danger to our country and the world, and a future dictator, are not “red meat” that get people “riled up.” Well, we know from media reports that Routh was “riled up” about Trump. Routh lamented his support for Trump in 2016, and wrote on X in April 2024 in support of Biden that “Democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose.” In another post, he urged Biden to keep “America democratic and free,” and said that Trump wants to make Americans slaves against master.” He also reportedly urged Iran to assassinate Trump. “Democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose.” Does that sound familiar?
Clinton on The View last November reminded the hosts that Hitler was duly elected, and that if Trump is elected in 2024, “it would be the end of our country as we know it.” Trump, she said, has “dictatorial, authoritarian tendencies.” Clinton yesterday urged the media to present a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is. After the first assassination attempt, some in the media continued the “Trump as danger” narrative. Some in the media (Jonathan Chait, Bill Kristol) are already obliging her. Who will be the next would-be assassin who takes to heart that consistent narrative?
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