For the second time in under three months, a gunman has attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, this time at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while the Republican presidential candidate was playing a round of golf.
Unlike the attempt on the president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, the shooter was unable to fire any shots, and Trump walked away from the scare unscathed. Secret Service spotted the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh of Hawaii, when he was between 400 and 500 yards away from the former president, well before he was close enough to fire at Trump with his AK-47-style rifle.
Unlike Thomas Matthew Crooks, who wounded Trump in Pennsylvania and, by all available information, fit the bill of a politically unaffiliated madman whose only goal was to make a name for himself, Routh fits the bill of a man radicalized by left-wing rhetoric.
James Hodgkinson, who opened fire on Republicans at a congressional baseball practice in 2017, wounding Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) as well as two Capitol Police officers and a lobbyist, was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and posted frequently on social media his disdain for Trump and Republicans, echoing talking points frequently used by corporate media.
Similarly, Routh appears to have been moved to action by the same type of unhinged behavior from corporate journalists.
Routh frequently condemned Trump on social media using standard media talking points, saying Democrats would “keep America democratic and free” while Trump would “make Americans slaves again.”
In his book Ukraine’s Unwinnable War, Routh encouraged the Iranians to assassinate Trump after the decision to pull out of the Iranian nuclear deal.
While most people in the United States hope to see Ukraine fend off the Russians after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of the country, many on the Left, who still believed the thoroughly discredited Russian collusion propaganda distributed by the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, went overboard in their support for the corrupt, oligarchic Eastern European nation.
Routh traveled to Ukraine and encouraged Afghans to fight for Ukraine, even though Ukraine prohibits Middle Eastern people from joining the fight.
Routh posted on X, “[W]e need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.”
The New York Times and Semafor both interviewed Routh at the time, with the latter outlet calling his support for Ukraine “a bit over the top.”
Of course, corporate journalists don’t actually believe Trump is the second coming of Adolf Hitler, nor do they believe Ukraine is a bastion of Jeffersonian democracy. But they have no problem shamelessly lying to their audiences if it leads to their beloved Democrats scoring points against Republicans.
Broadcast TV’s coverage of Trump since the start of his political career has been an astounding 95% negative, and even after two unsuccessful assassination attempts, journalists are showing no signs of changing their rhetoric. The narrative after Sunday’s near-tragedy is the tried and true “Republicans pounce” as if Republicans being upset that people keep trying to murder their party’s standard-bearer is noteworthy or unusual.
A CNN headline from Tuesday morning reads, “Trump pivots from second apparent assassination attempt to more incendiary claims.”
The Hill went right back to attacking Trump’s character, and the New York Times predictably blamed the guns.
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With the complete lack of introspection or changed behavior from corporate journalists, it is fair to question whether the radicalization of Democratic media consumers to political violence is a feature, not a bug. It is unlikely that anything, up to and including the unthinkable, will change how the press does business. The temperature will cool when corporate journalists are forced to learn to code, and not a second before.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.