Prominent conservatives were all over Twitter yesterday blaming Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats for the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. But were prominent Democrats acting just as badly?
A real glimpse from @kadiagoba at the extent to which deeply conspiratorial thinking is pretty widespread among Democratic elites https://t.co/oAlJj5aE7O
— Ben Smith (@semaforben) July 14, 2024
It turns out this is about Dmitri Mehlhorn, who suggested the attack could have been staged. And who is Dmitri Mehlhorn? He's an aide to a donor to Democrats and he apologized immediately after his private email became public.
Is that really the best they can do? One guy who's completely unknown and quickly apologized? I'll take that as evidence that liberals generally acted pretty well after the attack.
POSTSCRIPT: The Semafor story also mentions that some guy at a nail salon wondered if the attack was staged. And some random people on social media. So there's that. Sheesh.
"...One guy ..."
It wasn't one guy in the Lawyers Guns and Money comments. Even worse of course were the guys lamenting that the attempt was unsuccessful.
LOL! And we care about a comment thread at Lawyers Guns and Money . . . why?
Get a grip.
"...why?"
I expect they are representative of millions of people. In any case they are the lefty blog that I follow. You have examples of lefty blogs without that sort of thing in the comments?
EXACTLY! We KNOW what they all are thinking! Even if they DON'T put comments in their lefty blogs because they know we're watching their every move!
Oh, and you might want also to research the number of right-wing commentators accusing the Biden administration of deliberately under-resourcing Trump's Secret Service protection, including, ahem, one sitting Republican Senator.
Honestly, the paranoia of the Right knows no bounds. And here is yet another of the thousands of examples demonstrating that Every Accusation Is A Confession.
Go take a cold shower.
It's manifestation of guilt. That's all it is. They know deep inside that they're guilty and they must run from that, find distance. We've all been taught that guilt of crime, lying, desire, bigotry etc is worse than any of the sins themselves. By our culture. There is only way to go about things and that is to be never wrong, always in charge, and not guilty.
So that mommy loves us and daddy is proud of us.
"In any case they are the lefty blog that I follow."
You? Who are you?
"You? Who are you?"
Since I post under my real name this seems like a silly question.
Well, you're no E. F. Hutton. And -- as per usual -- the point Joel was making flew way over your head, in fact, so far over your head it's like you're standing in the Mariana Trench while said point comfortably clears Mt. Everest.
I don't know what I or anybody else can do about that.
LOL! I didn't ask what your name is, I asked who you are. As in, why should I care which blogs you follow, you're a nobody.
Smarter trolls, please.
wonkette, oddly enough.
"wonkette, oddly enough"
This seems to be correct. Although I didn't look through all 1897 comments to the Trump post. On the other hand Schoenkopf felt she had to start the post with:
"FIRST: Not a single one of you perfect angels will write ANYTHING in my comments that can be construed as wishing that an apparent projectile of some sort had succeeded. No matter what you think quietly in your brain."
and eventually close the comments with
"Okay guys, it's not that you're not being good, but I don't trust you. Because you're terrible.
Ima close the comments .."
that's just continued self-flagellation over the previous ownership of wonkette (the scumbag leftist ken layne) having endured a heap of trouble over contributor jack steuf going rogue on the occasion of trig palin's 5th birthday with some truly tasteless, but very funny, & it would turnout deserved*, jokes about his provenance & mental difficulties.
*i am of course referring to the picture sarah palin posted to her own instagram or facebook account a bit after steuf's post of trig standing on the family dog like a stepstool to reach the counter. it seems animal abuse is ok in the palin household.
Nutpicking defined. Point me to evidence of anyone prominent holding that view, nope you won't find that. Also you won't find much anywhere else save for accounts that end up being Bots.
+1. The peanut gallerists are gonna throw peanuts anytime anything happens. I expected nothing less.
Elected officials, those seeking elected office, and serious commentators with established reputations for thoughtfulness are the ones whose opinions should be reported on and treated like they matter. Randos both can and should be ignored.
Fuck off troll
Now now, it could be simply the james is dimwitted in the extreme, almost implausibly so. So let's be charitable, take him at his word, and treat him like any other mentally challenged person struggling to pass a competency exam. OTOH, maybe he's losing it; in either case I suggest we advise him repeatedly and at length to get a comprehensive neurological exam.
Even if staged, nothing good comes from any political violence (unknown blowback) and it'd be extremely risky to take such a high shot (and accidentally make a kill-shot because you're off by a couple of freedom units) than a low shot targeting the arm.
That's what makes it difficult to believe it was staged.
Having said all that, it's unavoidable that lots of people are thinking it was staged. But most people have internal filters and controls, so very few are saying it, including feelings of regret that the shooter missed. If Trump wins and the worst comes to pass, I think we'll be revisiting this because of the counterfactual possibilities.
On a side note, Biden looked and sounded damn good in his immediate, very short address.
I don't think anyone believes Trump would willing stand for having his ear nicked by a bullet fired from a distance.
I also don't think anyone (with any sense) believes such accuracy would be reliable, even if his feet were set in concrete.
I've seen claims that it wasn't a bullet, but a fragment of shattered plastic from the Teleprompter. A much bigger target than Trump's ear.
To be fair to the folks who's minds jumped to conspiracy, Trump DID used to work with the World Wrestling Federation. Flopping on the ground and cutting your ear with a razor is definitely standard practice in the ring.
Kayfabe exposed. I hope you have insurance.
(｡•̀ᴗ-)
Are there any known staged assassinations in modern history?
I assume they are like conking people over the head to knock them out temporarily: A device useful in movies but not something possible in real life.
A staged false-flag attack involving an individual requires dumping their body at the site, as Hitler did before the invasion of Poland, or drugging or restraining them somehow. The result is unlikely to be convincing.
If you binge on reruns of Dateline NBC you see that all the time for ordinary murders, usually husbands or family members. Maybe you could argue that some of the Russian Shenanigans qualify?
the viktor orban was just at maralago piece.
As you say, an actual assassination requires a body. An apparently failed assassination attempt, on the other hand, can be staged. For various reasons stated by other posters, I don't believe this apparently failed attempt was staged.
Well, that's only if you're not Cigarette Smoking man who cut capers like that right and left with nary a hair turned. Raoul Bloodworth, we salute you!
JFK
Malcolm X
MLK
RFK
George Wallace
Gerald Ford (x2)
John Lennon
Ronald Reagan
The Pope
That's a quick list of assassinations (and attempts) that were big news before I turned 25. Luckily, we don't get news like that much anymore. (Still happens, but when it does it tends to be less-important political and cultural figures; e.g., Giffords, Scalise, Navalny, Rushdie).
Journalists today (Ben Smith and his contemporaries) don't remember the old days, and when I turn on the television or read about yesterday's news I'm often getting a whiff of This is the biggest story evah! Not to mention, the myth-making. That picture! The raised fist! The blood on the cheek! The defiance! I've heard people suggest he was saved by divine intervention, and one dude compared him to Napoleon.
I'd just like someone to remind their readers and viewers that we've been here before. Trump had the bad fortune to be in someone's crosshairs, and the good luck to be able to walk away. That's happened before, and it'll happen again. It could have ended worse. There's no need to make him a demi-god.
One thing different with Trump than the others on that list: he couldn't hold a candle to any of them.
Another thing: the journalists of this generation may want to hold on before blaming Democrats for everything that goes wrong. Maybe they could point their cameras and pens for a minute at those who incite political violence (like Trump), at those who celebrate the gun nuts and NRA agenda that make it so easy for some twisted kid to try to make history (like the entire GOP).
To his cultists he already IS a demigod. And most of the rest of the Good
GermansRepublicans are willing to go along with that.Giffords was our representative. It was a mass shooting and assassination attempt. 19 people shot and six killed.
Oh, yeah: Sarah Palin's crosshair ad against Gabby Giffords. "Don't retreat. RELOAD!" Nothing controversial about that. (sarc on).
those were surveyors marks.
Blaming Democrats for everything that goes wrong is the business model of the conservative media.
you didn't need to modify media with conservative.
Oh yes I did. The MSM can make money just fine by faulting both sides, and they do. I see them faulting Republicans plenty often.
lol.
lmfao.
I give this 10, plus 2 thumbs up.
Republicans can dish it out by the shovelful but can’t take even a teaspoonful.
Bonus points for stating the undeniable. Lone gunmen are way less funny when they shoot at your guy.
ben shapiro, sowing: hahaha suck it libz pens
ben shapiro, reaping: what the fuck this sucks
It's not for nothing to note that Republican Gun Control such that it happened in California was when the Black Panthers were open carrying haha????.
Yeah still waiting for the chorus of Republican voices asking why a 20-year-old was toting around an AR-15 (-type) rifle and whether maybe possibly we might consider some sort of sensible restrictions on that sort of thing.
e.g. If Donald Trump had been armed, this wouldn't have happened.
Mulford Act, signed by Reagan in '67.
If you read unbiased historical analyses of the passing of the 2nd Amendment it's very clear that the whole point was to keep slave patrols armed and out of the U.S. Army, and to keep firearms out of the hands of nonwhites.
This can't be stressed often enough. Worse, that's the price the North had to pay to the South in exchange for the South not letting foes of the Northern states march unopposed through their ratty little fiefdoms.
Classic projection.
So very true.
It's not even Monday yet and the blame game has really yet to begin. Will we ever see sanity again and may the mega's forget that t-Rump took a bullet to the ear by November. We do not need him as president, even if he did survive.
"deeply conspiratorial thinking is pretty widespread among Democratic elites"
Yeah, well I forget who correctly pointed it out here, but liberal conspiratorial thinking tends to be correct. Iran-contra, Bush's lies leading us into war, Nixon deliberately extending the Vietnam war for his own political benefit, and so on. So no I don't want to hear about it, including in this case.
The right has a long history of false flag operations. The lone "antifa" with a gun action at the BLM protests was a false flag operation. The Nazis claimed the Germans were always ill used by the evil Poles and Czechs and set up the appropriate atrocities. It's natural, when a right wing politician is attacked to think it might be a false flag operation. In the US, however, we have a long history of nuts with guns killing people, so there's a good chance it was just a nut with a gun.
"In the US, however, we have a long history of nuts with guns killing people, so there's a good chance it was just a nut with a gun."
+1, and LOL
One young man took a shot at trump. One out of a country with 330 million people. Just one. And that young man paid with his life. No trial, no jury verdict. Immediate execution.
The rest of us groaned, cried, or had some other reaction. I thought it was hilarious, but I'm told I'm a terrible person for thinking that. Also hilarious.
If the republicans want someone to point to, I volunteer. I despise Trump. I despise everyone at that event, except the shooter. May he rest in peace. Clearly he was not a peace while living.
Mohamed Bouazizi: The man who sparked the Arab Spring. Maybe this young man is someone who will inspire cowardly Americans to stand up to trump. Surely no one commenting on this site is going to stand up. They are all useless cowards. Good night!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn9oXU8k5qE
Don’t feed the troll.
michael crooks got the michael reinohl treatment.
If security for the rally had been properly organised, the wannabe shooter would never have gotten close to being able to take a shot at Trump. He'd have been stopped, questioned and told he could go no further carrying a rifle. Then he would have been closely watched until he left.
This was not the start of a new dark chapter in American politics, or the result of intemperate Democratic rhetoric; it was an incident of the kind which has always been a risk in the US, enabled by an astonishing policing failure. And surely ultimate accountability for ensuring the safety of its candidate rests with the Trump campaign itself; if they aren't satisfied with the arrangements for an event, they should cancel it.
By 09:00 EDT tomorrow, every Republican in America will be insisting that every Democrat says the assassination attempt was staged.
Sure ok it was not “staged” - and as the Biden campaign stops, every last Republican and media ally will be pushing any bit of crap they can make up and repeat endlessly with each vituperate repetition more insane. Oh wait - that started with minutes…
First, we all know if everything that happened to Trump yesterday had happened to Biden far more people would be shouting “fake” from the rooftops. Alex Jones would be calling the dead and wounded “crisis actors” and there would be plenty of people in congress saying Biden should release his medical record and that the “blood” was fake. They would loudly question the photograph as being staged and pointing to the photographer as part of the conspiracy. They would say it was all staged to make people forget about Biden’s debate performance and to try to take away our guns. Also, people like Trump Jr. would be mocking Biden and lamenting the failure to kill him. Trump would say no one would dare try that against him.
We know for sure this is true.
Second, unless the shooter left some sort of trail or manifesto we may never know his motive. Note that they still don’t know the motive of the Las Vegas shooter. Perhaps the guy just wanted to go out with a bang and the rally was just an opportunity to do that. Perhaps there was some other unfathomable thing going on in his brain. Of course, this will lead to endless conspiracy theories.
it would be the republicans poopooing hillary's landing at sarajevo while first lady on 1970s grade east german steroids.
The Dem response is more likely to be conciliatory, like this classy statement from gov Shapiro about the man who was killed ….
"Corey died a hero. Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally," Shapiro said. "Corey was the very best of us."
Comperatore was survived by a wife and two daughters.
"Corey was a girl dad," Shapiro said.: "Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community and most especially Corey loves his family."
Shapiro also described the victim "as an avid supporter of the former president."
Is there any Republican who could be that classy
About a Dem? Seriously I can’t think of one.
we already know they wouldn't.
greg abbott pardoned daniel perry just a few weeks ago.
It's projection. Had Biden or Harris been photographed before an American flag, bleeding and fist raised, just after an assassination attempt, they'd immediately think the whole thing was staged. Ergo, surely the left thinks that way too. Then google and cherrypick to prove it.
But behind it is also triumphalism. You don't stage something that's not real good for you. They expect Trump to easily win now. So, tbh, do I. Alas.
an actually sensible post from ruralhobo?
i think I might fallout.
People don't like Donny because he's a spy, a traitor, a rapist, and a promoter of political violence including assassination.
Donny getting shot isn't going to change anyone's minds about that.