Columns, Criminal law, Media, Politics

The Attempted Assassination of Trump is Not Nearly as Surprising as it Should Be

Below is my Hill column on the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump. We all watched as the horrific scene unfolded on television. It was a traumatic moment for the entire country, but it was hardly surprising given this age of rage. We are still learning about the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He was able to use a roof top 130 yards away from the rally for the assassination attempt. He is being described as a registered Republican but donated to a Democratic political organization.

Here is the column:

The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump left a nation stunned. But the most shocking aspect was that it was not nearly as surprising as it should have been. For months, politicians, the press and pundits have escalated reckless rhetoric in this campaign on both sides. That includes claims that Trump was set to kill democracy, unleash “death squads” and make homosexuals and reporters “disappear.”

President Biden has stoked this rage rhetoric. In 2022, Biden held his controversial speech before Independence Hall where he denounced Trump supporters as enemies of the people. Biden recently referenced the speech and has embraced the claims that this could be our last democratic election.

I discuss this rage rhetoric in my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.” We are living through an age of rage. It is not our first, but it may be the most dangerous such period in our history.

Some of us have been objecting for years that this rage rhetoric is a dangerous political pitch for the nation. While most people reject the hyperbolic claims, others take it as true. They believe that homosexuals are going to be “disappeared” as claimed on ABC’s “The View” or that the Trump “death squads” are now green lighted by a conservative Supreme Court, as claimed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

Rage is addictive and contagious. It is also liberating. It allows people a sense of license to take actions that would ordinarily be viewed as repulsive.

As soon as Trump was elected, unhinged rage became the norm as with Kathy Griffin featuring herself holding the bloody severed head of Trump.

Just recently, another celebrity, actress Lea DeLaria, begged Biden to “blow [Trump] up” after the recent presidential immunity decision. DeLaria explained that “this is a **** war. This is a war now, and we are fighting for our **** country. And these a**holes are going to take it away. They’re going to take it away.”

For months, people have heard politicians and press call Trump “Hitler” and the GOP a Nazi movement. Some compared stopping Trump to stopping Hitler in 1933. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) declared Trump “is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy and he has to be eliminated.” He later apologized.

Others say that Trump “will destroy the world” unless he is stopped.

I do not believe that the politicians or pundits engaging in what my book calls “rage rhetoric” want actual violence. But they have knowingly created conditions for extremist views and, yes, extremist actions.

The media has been quick to denounce reckless rhetoric from the right while largely ignoring the same language on the left. That included threats against conservative Supreme Court justices before the assassination plot against Brett Kavanaugh.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) went to the steps of the Supreme Court and called out Kavanaugh by name: “I want to tell you, (Justice Neil) Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

Again, I do not believe that Schumer wanted Nicholas Roske to go to the home of Justice Kavanaugh to kill him. However, these politicians also know that some citizens will hear this rhetoric as a justification for violent conduct.

Thus, when the president is claiming that the election may end democracy in the nation, it can be heard as much as a license as a warning, particularly when he adds “we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”

We still do not know about the shooter in this assassination attempt. However, we know all too well how unhinged people can find justification in the incendiary rhetoric of our politics. This moment did not occur in a vacuum; it occurred in a time when our leaders long abandoned reason for rage.

We have come full circle to where we began as a Republic. In the 1800 election, Federalists and Jeffersonians engaged in similar rage rhetoric.

Federalists told citizens that, if Jefferson were elected, “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes.”

Jeffersonians warned that, if Adams were reelected, “chains, dungeons, transportation, and perhaps the gibbet” awaited citizens and they “would instantaneously be put to death.”

Both sides stoked the anger and fears of the public, and violence was seen across the nation.

In our current age of rage, politicians have sought to use the same anger and fear to rally support at any cost.

This is the cost.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster, June 18, 2024).

516 thoughts on “The Attempted Assassination of Trump is Not Nearly as Surprising as it Should Be”

  2. Solid piece, Mr. Turley, but I wish you would give the standard dodge, “on both sides,” a rest. We both know the viciously violent rhetoric is NOT coming from both sides. Yeah, you can find the occasional right-winger who says something vicious and stupid – but they are the outliers. Vicious and stupid is now the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

  3. Today I said the prayers and I lit the candles. Those in power do not hesitate to pull the dagger when threatened. I pray that Mr. Trump remains vigilant, and those around him.

    1. Thank you Andre for praying for America and lighting candles. We went to Mass this morning as a family, as we always do on Sundays. Our pastor, a Jesuit, tied the political violence in America to today’s Gospel. I thought you might appreciate it. He called on us Catholics to cast out “demons”. The demons here, of course, were those who divide America into 2 camps (left vs right), those possessed with hatred, who do not know love, do not know intimacy, live in darkness, do not know God. We were very impressed how he tied the Gospel to current events

      Oremos!

      Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
      and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
      He instructed them to take nothing for the journey
      but a walking stick—
      no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
      They were, however, to wear sandals
      but not a second tunic.
      He said to them,
      “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave.
      Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
      leave there and shake the dust off your feet
      in testimony against them.”
      So they went off and preached repentance.
      The Twelve drove out many demons,
      and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

      Gospel of Saint Mark, chapter 6, verses 7-13

      1. The Bible says that light has no fellowship with darkness and the righteous will always contend with the wicked. Religious leaders who call for good to unite with evil and be as one are false teachers leading people to hell.

      2. Estovir: you speak of “demons here, of course, were those who divide America into 2 camps (left vs right), those possessed with hatred, who do not know love, do not know intimacy, live in darkness, do not know God. We were very impressed how he tied the Gospel to current events.”

        Tell us, do any of these positive attributes apply to Trump? He calls migrants “vermin, animals, murderers and rapists”. He called John McCain, a true American hero, a “loser”, a name he also applies to members of our military, along with the word “suckers”. How about the manner in which he speaks about women, including E. Jean Carroll, and his verbal attacks on the Judge and prosecutor in NYC? He praised Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “genius” and “wonderful”–hundreds of thousands of people have died for the cause of Putin’s need for power including Russian soldiers and Ukrainian military and civilians. Trump admires Putin and wants to help him take over Ukraine entirely by threatening not to honor our NATO commitments. Trump started an insurrection because he lacks the moral character to accept the fact that he lost. He has never apologized, and never will, for the Big Lie or for the death of Ashli Babbitt, who died because she believed him. Trump does not attend church regularly, if at all. His “god” is attention, adulation, praise, power and money. That’s why I fail to comprehend how or why church-going people could consider supporting this person.

  4. I saw a commentary of a person that went to the rally in Butler yesterday and one 4 years ago. He told there was a complete difference in security. He said in the previous one 4 years ago there was a Secret Service Sniper on every building he could see and in the one yesterday most buildings did not have anyone on them.

  5. This is a massive political disaster for Democrats.

    While there is still the tiny possibility Trump was hit by flying class from the Teleprompter – though there is AP video that appears to catch the bullet whizzing past Trump’s ear.

    This is almost perfect for Trump. He was actually hit by an assassin. with a prominent but almost the least consequential possible wound, while at the same time a few centimeters from a kill shot.

    This fist in Perfectly with Trumps rhetoric and the image he memes of himself.

    Worse still for Democrats his immediate reactions was near perfect, From “Wait let me get my shoes” as the bullets are still flying to mouthing Fight and the defiant Fist Pumps with the american flag in the background and blood on his head.

    If Trump had planned this himself it would have been hard to choreograph something more perfect for his image.

    Worse still – Biden had used language asking Trump to be Targeted and putting a Bullseye on him in the last week.

    It is remotely possible this weakens the effort to dump Biden as the press has a new shiny story to follow.
    But this immediately precedes the GOP convention

    Trump should show up with some kind of Golden ear.

    The next round of polling is likely to be really bad for Democrats.

    Further – outside of the truly left wing nut loons on TickTock lamenting that the sniper missed by 2cm and getting a million likes,
    Every major political figure in the world is publicly expressing their condolences to Trump – even people who Hate him.

    While technically this has no legal significance for Trump it amplifies his claims for immunity and his claims that his lawfare prosecutions are setting him up for assassination.

    1. Does anyone understand why Trump needed to get his shoes? Does he take them off at these rallies?

      1. I would bet they are not conducive to being able to move quickly. Slick soles maybe?

    2. Thank you John Say for your astute analysis, and thank you Jonathan Turley for your fair minded reasoning during these past years to a media that has egged on false narratives, censorship, lawfare and fomenting division. An especial thank you to Pres Trump for standing up against the Deep State and standing up for average American citizens and for our Republic

    3. It’s still 4 months till the election. Trump will have a hard time keeping up the victimhood narrative that long.

      His new slogan….”Look, I got shot at…vote for me”. Never mind his agenda, poor Trump almost died.

    4. When a President has been targeted for real, secret service completely covers him and drags him away at high speed. They don’t stand there for a photo op waiting to see if someone else in the crowd wants to take a shot.

  6. Maybe we just accept that Joe can’t find the West Wing at sundown and that Trump is a clown and get down to the real issues (I’ll bet everyone has at least eight of these on their Top 10 list even if they do not agree with my characterizations)
    – Fundamentally, forgetting the words meanings with capital letters, one party is democratic and one is republican
    – One party is for open borders and one is not
    – One party is full of one worlders and one thinks the UN and similar organizations are totally failed experiments (but nice try FDR)
    – One party is in favor of fiscal sanity (but can never achieve it when in the majority) and the other believes 10 billionaires can fund its quadtrillion dollar wish list
    – One party wants to build a railroad tunnel to Honolulu and kill all cows and the other does not
    – One party favors four new left wing states, claiming Wyoming causes all “Democracy’s” problems (but never mentions Vermont. RI. DC and Delaware)
    – One party says “Never Again” relative to Israel, as does the leader of the other party, whereas most of the other party says “Screw Israel”
    – One party supports killing babies at any point from conception to a few hours after delivery… no questions asked. The other does not.
    – The midsections of both parties support U.S. involvement in the Russian Civil War while the extremes of both parties oppose that
    – One party wants to remove “In God We Trust” from the dollar bill

    Some would remove some of these items and add some combination of gun violence/crime, China, Medicare/SS (but that’s part of fiscal sanity) and a few other buzzwords to their lists

  7. Biden and Trump both support abortion. Biden and Trump both support feminism. Biden and Trump both support homosexuality. Trump locked us down with a fake virus and a deadly vaccine. Biden ties us up with endless taxes that go to the crown of England. Both of them have huge egos. Both are globalists.
    So I don’t see why it matters which one we vote for. Neither one of them gives a flip about what God says about anything and both try to appear religious when it suits their public image. If they appear to be in conflict, it’s only for the purpose of turning the people against each other to give politicians more power.

  8. Its time to kill democrats. That kind of language is whats wrong with our country. Independent Bob.

  9. …….and then all of the Democrat Communists say it is Conservatives who caused this and we must “tone down” the Rhetoric”? What should President Trump do? Apologize for being in the way of a BULLET?

    RINOs and Communists are out to KILL the rest of America folks. They want us dead. They shoot us and kill us in our schools, in our baseball fields, in our churches, and even in the Halls of Congress. And now This. And it is….according to Communists….OUR fault.

    This is a Civil War but the only ones shooting are the Democrats.

    Who will they kill next?

  10. You’d think this would unite us, make us want to stop the divisiveness and start examining what’s going on around us, or at least come together as a people for a few days in light of an assassination attempt on a former US President and current front runner for the job again.

    But the liberal trolls have no class whatsoever and are literally out insulting Trump and anyone who supports him a day after he was apparently almost killed, and the conservatives are speculating over possible scenarios then immediately accusing democrats of it before we even know the motive of the shooter.

    I’ve been a alive a pretty long time, I even remember President Kennedy’s assassination. But I’ve never seen the American people more pigheaded or stubborn and unwilling to act like Americans, than I do today.

    On both sides.

    My Dad, a WWII era vet God rest his kind soul, used to say “it takes two to tango” when we kids got into a fight and BOTH got punished.

    See the parents didn’t care who was right or wrong or who “started it”.

    They cared about us learning to control ourselves, and learn to get along with others even when we don’t like what they’re saying or doing. Very seldom did a fight start because one kid just walked up and punched another kid for no reason, (like some do today amazingly) . It usually started with two kids bickering over something, until one finally threw the first punch. But they were both bickering, so they both got punished.

    The former President of the United States and likely next President of the United States was almost assassinated less than 24 hours ago and all the liberals and conservatives can do is go even harder at each others throats.

    Like we learned nothing from last night.

    I think you both need a Time-out.

    1. So…..according to You…..when people shoot at someone and miss….the intended victim should quickly run over to the wannabe murderer and apologize and buy him a chocolate shake.
      Let me tell you something lad.
      It is people like YOU who are the main problem because we do not know whose side you are on.
      Coward

      1. The only Coward is you, the anonymous mouse hiding behind a fake name because you’re too ashamed of the crap you write to put your own name on it.

        And a coward too afraid to put his name on his words doesn’t know a thing about right and wrong, so stow the “pick a side” pressure. NAZI’s did the same thing in 1930. You ain’t doin it here pal.

        And I’m 64 years old troll, and I climb and cut trees for a living. The only lad in this conversation is you.

  11. Are republicans going to make the father of the alleged shooter a hero? He was being a good dad and bought his son a gun. Isn’t that what all dads should do?

    1. You are an idiot! A good father would only buy his son a gun in and when his son demonstrated the respect for others and the gun!

        1. Maybe it wasn’t either one of them. Maybe it was a hired gun. You know those hired guns just get up and shoot people on their own if you pay em enough.

      1. He’s Joe Biden stupid
        He’s so stupid when God said brains he thought he said rain and he ran for cover! (Hey redneck ARS)

    3. No. A good father would have raised him as a Christian and had evil sons such as yourself arrested.

      1. Prior to yesterday all you gun nuts were saying how you have the guns and the demos don’t. Guns guns guns. No restrictions. 2nd amendment says get guns. Guns more guns. Well one of your own got a gun. How’d that work out?

    4. The weapon belonged to the shooter’s father. His father didn’t buy it for him.

    1. Just as the logic of an assassination attempt against SCOTUS justices was compelling after the leak of the Dobbs decision (as I wrote in these comment pages at the time), so the logic of an assassination attempt against Trump is compelling after the failures of the Russia collusion hoax, impeachment 1, impeachment 2, 14th Amendment ballot removal and lawfare. How else will an “existential threat” to “our democracy” be stopped? The left will do everything it can to eliminate Trump, the new Hitler. It will be interesting to see if the motives of this shooter are kept under wraps as were the transgender shooter’s. Count on it if he turns out to be a progressive.

  13. Floyd posted:
    From what I have seen, the Secret Service was, at the very best, grossly negligent… The only reason I am not going full-blown conspiracy theory this morning, is that the shooter appears to be an unconnected nobody.

    How about connections about how the Secret Service has been operating for years? Not as a conspiracy theory they were in on the assassination attempt, but the connections that paint the picture of the Secret Service in recent years and who their failures and unsupportable actions benefit.

    The Secret Service who went to the gunshop where The First Felon Son Hunter Biden (at that time The Crackhead Kid) illegally bought a handgun, demanding the owner surrender his copy of the perjured background check form filled out by The Crackhead Kid. What in the hell was the Secret Service doing, dispatching agents to try to get that document that they had no legal right to – when The Crackhead Kid was not under Secret Service investigation at that time?

    The Secret Service who mysteriously lost all cellphone and text messages, AND the computer backups, from the day of the January 6th riot when Republican oversight committees requested copies of them.

    The Secret Service and their K9 detector dogs, whose sweep of Soviet Democrat HQ on January 6th prior to the arrival of VP-elect Senator Cackling Hoe missed a pipe bomb laying in plain view – later spotted in plain sight laying beside a bench by a passerby on their way to work for the DNC. You miss that… and then you miss the threat that nearly murdered Trump?

    It’s a long list…

    Question: what would the Soviet Democrat apparatchiks here today who have no questions about that be saying today if it were Bolshevik Barack or Bribery Biden instead of Trump who came about two inches from having his head blown off.

    1. Again I reiterate there are no coincidences here. This is the perfect cover for a deep state hit. The scapegoating of the USSS by govt will be intentional to cover their fingerprints on this.

  14. Rage is all the left has. It is the sorea$$ funded, BLM, Hamas, mentally ill freaks who are the army of the left. They cannot engage in discourse because they have no fundamental mores or respect for their fellow human. Their regard for others who do not goosestep in line to their ideology is not unlike the filth espoused about the Jews dating back to Martin Luther, assimilated and effected by the Nazis and Soviets, and adopted and transmitted by effete liberals and Hamas subscribers today. These are the Pelosis, Schumers, Waters, AOC, Omar, Talibs. They are the ones who promulgate violence and need to be held to account.

  15. AND THE OBAMA COUP D’ETAT IN AMERICA GOES ON
    _____________________________________________________________

    “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

    – Barack Obama
    ___________________

    “We will stop him.”

    – Peter Strzok to FBI paramour Lisa Page
    _____________________________________________

    “[Obama] wants to know everything we’re doing.”

    – Lisa Page to FBI paramour Peter Strzok
    _____________________________________________

    “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before 40.”

    – Peter Strzok to FBI parmour Lisa Page
    ____________________________________________

    “People on the 7th floor to include Director are fired up about this [Trump] server.”

    – Bill Priestap
    ________________

    The Obama Coup D’etat in America is the most egregious abuse of power and the most prodigious crime in American political history. The co-conspirators are:

    Kevin Clinesmith, Bill Taylor, Eric Ciaramella, Rosenstein, Mueller/Team, Andrew Weissmann,

    James Comey, Christopher Wray, McCabe, Strozk, Page, Laycock, Kadzic, Sally Yates,

    James Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan, Campbell, Sir Richard Dearlove,

    Christopher Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, Stefan “The Walrus” Halper,

    Azra Turk, Kerry, Hillary, Huma, Mills, Brennan, Gina Haspel, Clapper, Lerner, Farkas, Power,

    Lynch, Rice, Jarrett, Holder, Brazile, Sessions (patsy), Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi, Obama,

    Joe Biden, James E. Boasberg, Emmet Sullivan, Gen. Milley, George Soros, John McCain,

    Marc Elias, Igor Danchenko, Fiona Hill, Charles H. Dolan, Jake Sullivan, Strobe Talbot,

    Cody Shear, Victoria Nuland, Ray “Red Hat” Epps, Don Berlin, Kathy Ruemmler, Rodney Joffe,

    Paul Vixie, L. Jean Camp, Andrew Whitney, Lisa O. Monaco, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg,

    Matthew Colangelo, Merrick Garland, Juan Merchan et al.

  16. One of the New York Times’ most ‘respected’ columnists recently called for the assassination of Donald Trump. He is also an associate professor at Columbia.

    And John McWhorter is one of the more ‘reasonable’ people on the left. The substance of his ‘apology’? I shouldn’t have said it in a public forum. McWhorter still has his job with the Times. He still gets to hang out with the cool kids in the faculty lounge.

    This is the terrible reality of what we are dealing with as a nation.

    https://glennloury.substack.com/p/did-john-really-say-what-i-think

    3. And unfortunately, the only courses of action available, that aren’t extremely ugly (I’ll leave the details to your imagination), is the one that equates to complete submission to the insanity of the perverted, atheistic, leftist/communist consortium.
      We need a miracle, the kind that can only come from God.
      JDU
      Tyler, TX

      1. I think Trump surviving by a miss that close IS a miracle. Now is the time for good men to stand up and demand accountability and justice.

    4. And did the Secret Service or FBI pay him a little call which they would have done if the call for assassination had been against a Democrat? I doubt very much they did. Except maybe to tell him off the the record that they were working on it. a la Peter Strzok.

  17. Good article (with pictures) on the sloppy security, by Erik Prince, of Blackwater:

    Donald J Trump is alive today solely due to a bad wind estimate by an evil would be assasin [sic].

    As the graphics show the full value wind of just 5mph was enough to displace the unconfirmed but likely light 55 grain bullet two inches from DJT’s intended forehead to his ear.

    DJT was not saved by USSS brilliance. The fact that USSS allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence. Clearly there was adequate uncontrolled dead space for a shooter to move into position and take multiple aimed shots. Watching the newsreel one can hear how proximate the shooter is by the very short time lapse between the crack of arriving bullet (supersonic) to the boom of muzzle blast (sonic).

    The law enforcement sniper (unclear if USSS) in newsreels was clearly overwhelmed as his face came off his rifle instead of doing his job to kill the shooter. Clearly they were watching the shooter but apparently have a no “first shot” policy. The only positive action was an apparent 488yd shot by one USSS sniper which despatched the assasin but after the assassin launched at least 5 rounds, wounding DJT and killing and severely others in the crowd.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/massive-secret-service-failure-led-nearly-successful-assassination-donald-trump

  18. The group that has SLAUGHTERED Ukranians for years on their insane whims of Putin Orange man hatred has no compunction helping out an assassination of Trump.
    The snipers had a direct bead on the man pointing right at him for many minutes, and were alerted many minutes in advance BY THE PUBLIC, it is obvious the plan was let him shoot the President dead then take him out. The public maps and videos show this clearly, we even have the snipers reacting and shooting, much too late of course, even though they were looking right at the shooter through their weapon optics as he fired many times. SCREENSHOT THIS
    Do not fall for their excuses.
    “let him take down the eagle then take him out”
    “10 4”

    I’m certain 99% of you are sleep walking right now, desperately begging yourselves not to notice. I’m sure we’ll also have experts spewing their correct from authority BS. GET YOUR TENTH BOOSTER SHOT, YOU ARE OVERDUE AGAIN.

    No dope no drugs no drink no jabs no tests no tokes NO PROBLEMS, CHECKING IN.

  19. Sorry, Prof. Turley – while the hyperbolic rhetoric is wrong and unjustified, it is also protected speech and must remain so.

    The shooter is the person to blame for this – not Trumkp, Not Biden, Not Schumer or Goldman or ….

    It is Wrong, of us and of YOU to blame the rhetoric for the shooting.

    That is the same logic that is behind the Trump gag orders and it is a cure that is worse than the disease.

    We know little about the shooter right now. But it is near certain what we will learn will fit the standard pattern.
    Young, White Male, seriously mentally disturbed who has fabricated a nonsensical personal ideology made of bizzare bits and peices of left right and other ideologices. The Giffords shooter was “motivated” by Grammar.

    The FACT is this person was highly likely to do something bad. At the very most the ratcheted up political rhetoric picked a target for him.

    Depending on the randomness of the universe it could just as easily been Biden or Rachel Levine.

    We can not reason from the heinous act or event from whatever the purported ideological motivations of the shooter to claims about the ideology that the shooter parodied and was purportedly motivated by.

    We SHOULD see and end to hyperbolic political rhetoric – but NOT because it drives assassins – it does not. But because it is lies.
    And the consequence should come from the public – from declining ratings from who we vote for.

    We should start beleiving people when they tell us who they are – especially understanding that when they are repeatedly caught lying – that they are liars.

    I do not agree with your “both sides” analysis – absolutely there are people on both the right and the left engaged in hyperbolic nonsense about the other side. But the degree of hyperbole is not the same left to right. The extent of the lies are not the same. The stature of those engaged in the hyperbole are not the same, and the literalness of their rhetoric is not the same.

    All of these and more are why we can not regulate speech. It is impossible to make objective judgements about what speech leads to violence and what does not.

    Further the reality is that mental health issues are actually what leads to violence – the speech MIGHT contribute – broadly – not individually to mental health trends.

    The left is increasing driving anxiety and depression. Worse for them, they are driving it primarily in those who share their values.

    High levels of anxiety and depression lead to other metnal health issues. Lead to unhappiness, and lead to both victimization as will as committing crimes. When you beleive that the election of someone like Trump (or Biden) will be the end of the world, it is easy to make immoral conduct moral – especially if your mental health is already poor.

    People must CHOOSE to fix their own lives. They must choose to end their addiction to anxiety and depression – and that is as hard as recovery from Crack or alcohol and equally debilitating.

    1. John Say you should know that the professor is not suggesting outlawing the heated rhetoric, he is criticizing it. His criticism is not in the least like a gag order, which outlaws the speech. I agree with his criticism although like both you and the professor I don’t favor making such rhetoric prohibited by law. I agree that such rhetoric is reckless and likely to cause mentally unstable people to act out violently. The despicable people who have suggested Trump should be assassinated do bear some of the blame for this. They do have blood on their hands.

      The one thing I disagree with about what the professor wrote is his both-sidesism, which is unsupported by the evidence; notably in that regard, he cited only mainstream liberal speakers, and he did not supply even a single example from a mainstream conservative speaker. Anyone who is paying attention knows that the vast majority, if not all, of the violent rhetoric in the mainstream media is coming from liberals, not conservatives.

      1. Turley didn’t say anything about outlawing language and you are wrong about rhetoric inciting violence. It was what the Dems were saying in 2016 that caused a man to travel from Illinois to DC with a list of GOP lawmakers as a hit list. The man had a long history of anti-Republican rhetoric including 27 letters to the local paper.

        Trump and Lakes rhetoric about the Maricopa County Recorder caused credible death threats and 7 people have been arrested because they believed the nonsense Trump and Lake he destroyed election information.

    2. “We should start beleiving people when they tell us who they are…”

      or say. You say the rhetoric has nothing to do with it. It’s just hyperbolic inflammatory rhetoric, but the shooter, a Republican, committed an act of violence because he was motivated by the rhetoric. Rhetoric can influence others to act. Those who spew such rhetoric are just as responsible. We limit speech that incites others to commit violence. Rhetoric can and does have the same effect.

      Why is it always about mental health when it’s a Republican but not a Democrat? Once it was reported the shooter is a registered Republican it’s all about a “lone nut job with mental health problems”. Nearly everyone at Trump’s rallies would be considered people with mental health problems.

      Rhetoric can be dangerous when you don’t know when someone will take it literally. Those spewing inflammatory rhetoric are not concerned about how it will affect others. Freedom of speech is also about being responsible for what you say. People like Trump don’t believe they are responsible for what they say. It’s not their problem. But when they know that and willfully use rhetoric to rile up and agitate it becomes a problem. That’s why Holmes famous phrase “ you can’t tell fire in a crowded theater” makes sense. Yelling fire when you know there isn’t and cause a panic and people get injured or killed is in the same vein as inciting a crowd to violence.

      Turley can’t argue what you’re trying to argue because it avoids personal responsibility and accountability for saying something that causes others to act on or believe. Freedom of speech is not just the freedom to say what you want. It’s also about accepting the responsibility for the consequences of exercising it and being held accountable for it when it’s merited. In your view defamation shouldn’t exist. Your speech is exempt from being right or wrong regardless of the consequences. No personal responsibility required.

      1. The alleged gunman donated to ACT BLUE. The registered R thing is a lie.

        1. Alleged gunman? He IS the gunman. He was identified and is a registered Republican voter.

        2. The alleged gunman donated to ACT BLUE. The registered R thing is a lie.

          The gunman was a registered Republican, age 20. That he donated to Act Blue is new info to me. On the other hand, the troll to whom you are replying, “George” is employed by ACT BLUE vis a vis Media Matters. Small world, huh?

          It’s not just Act Blue, the MSM/DNC or left wing outfits like Media Matters. Academic medicine has been no slacker when it comes to using dangerous rhetoric against Trump et al. I was a registered Democrat all of my adult life, switched to Independent in 2020. I never voted for Trump or any other Republican. In 2020 I became disgusted with Democrats, and then academic medical journals when COVID-19 emerged.

          The 2 leading medical journals in America, JAMA and NEJM, all were unambiguous in their disdain for Donald Trump and his administration. I hold them culpable as well for the attempted assassination. They got so bad, that even though I receive their journals via email weekly, I just delete the emails because I know their content is so left-wing, it is of no use to me in the clinic nor in research. To wit:

          Gostin LO, Wetter S. Health Is on the Ballot in the Presidential Election. JAMA Health Forum. 2024;5(5):e242052. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.2052

          Fernandez Lynch H, Kesselheim AS. The FDA in the Crosshairs—Science, Politics, and Abortion. JAMA. 2024;331(15):1269–1270. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.2229

          Mullen, E., Topol, E.J. and Verghese, A., 2024. Academic Freedom in America—In Support of Institutional Voices. N Engl J Med 2024;391:1-3 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2314430

          The above Mullen, E., Topol, E.J. and Verghese, article is particularly egregious. I used to respect Dr Eric Topol as a Cardiologist. Now I disregard him as do many academic physicians and researchers. The monolithic thinking by US medical journals today is not only anti-science, it is cult-like, demagoguery, and incites hatred. Excerpt follows:

          During the Covid-19 pandemic, the inherent tension between the freedom of faculty members to speak without institutional interference and the freedom of institutions to regulate their faculty surfaced publicly at Stanford. In August 2020, Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and former faculty neuroradiologist, joined the Trump administration as a Covid-19 advisor. His public pronouncements disputing the efficacy of masks in protecting against viral spread and supporting a policy of allowing the virus to spread to generate natural herd immunity drew condemnation from 98 other Stanford physicians and researchers, expressed in a public letter — but only after the university decided not to speak publicly on the matter. Then-President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s defense of Stanford’s decision to stay silent could have been penned by the AAUP a century earlier: the “function of the university would be seriously eroded if we were to publicly take sides either to disavow or to support the specific positions of a faculty member engaged in such a debate.” But should the institution have remained silent when lives were potentially at stake? In our opinion, both U.S. history and precedent suggest that the university’s reticence was misguided because it failed to consider three important distinctions outlined by scholarship on academic freedom.

          Not surprisingly, neither JAMA or NEJM have commented online on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Nothing. Zero. Nada. And this from a holier-than-thou uppity pointed headed academics who continually rail about violence and hate speech in America…by the right, of course. They’re just pathetic at this point.

      2. “Why is it always about mental health when it’s a Republican but not a Democrat?”

        It isn’t, the Republicans and Democrats alike actually talk about it being a mental health issue in general mass shootings. You conflating two fully different types of events is a fundamental flaw.

        “Once it was reported the shooter is a registered Republican it’s all about a “lone nut job with mental health problems”
        Incorrect, those questions were being raised prior to knowing the identity or anything of substance about the shooter. Indeed, it was only after the reports of him being a loner and bullied in school that the question went right to it, particularly combined with a lack of large obvious evidence of his reasoning in any way. He was registered as a Republican but donated to ACT Blue, so nothing there is conclusive.

        “Nearly everyone at Trump’s rallies would be considered people with mental health problems.”
        And now you’ve shown you are being disingenuous and are not acting in good faith.

        Now, that flaw of tours aside, the fact is that historically, the most common elements of Presidential assassins (candidates and sitting POTUS) and would-be assassins are a strong Left wing identification and/or acting alone. Precisely zero of them to date have had a right-wing political motivation. Even Oswald (crapshoot that whole things is aside) was communist, ie. left wing. The closest you get is Guiteau, a self-identified Republican who shot Garfield, over not getting a political appointment. He had a history of instability and delusions of grandeur. Yet given they were both on the same team, you can’t argue it was partisanship based.

        On POTUS assassination attempts the historical record clearly shows that most were mentally unstable (in fact Garfield’s assassination really brought the problem to the public forefront for the first time). By most I mean more than 60% showed clear signs of instability.

      3. “But they [the founding fathers] knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies, and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law — the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.”
        Whitney V. California

        Brandeis and Holmes concurrance.

    3. “Registered Republican” likely Party Registration in order to Vote Against leading Republicans in Primary.

      1. He was 20, you can’t register until you are 18. That’s two years without a presidential election. Had he ever cast a vote in a federal election? I pity this kid and his family, mentally unstable? The torrent of hell will now be unleashed upon them. Thank God for his wisdom, this is truly good versus evil now, no matter what Trump must prevail.

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