The outlets blaming Trump for his own assassination attempt

Within twenty-four hours of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump, several outlets were calling on his fellow Republicans to tone down their violent rhetoric. On ABC’s morning show, Martha Raddatz and George Stephanopoulos cited what they called “conspiracy theories going forward” and stated that “President Trump and his supporters have contributed to this rhetoric as well.”

On CBS, Margaret Brennan grilled Steve Scalise, who himself narrowly survived the Alexandria, Virginia softball field mass shooting by a Bernie Sanders campaign volunteer. She pointedly asked him if he had “specifically asked some of his members to reign in some of the rhetoric that some are using online” to blame the Biden administration for creating an atmosphere of political violence.

Axios mused how this incident could help President Biden’s campaign, while former White House press secretary and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki demanded that Republicans “change their tone” at the convention to “restore civility.” David Frum at the Atlantic wrote, “Violence stalks the president who has rejoiced in violence to others.”

These are just a handful of examples of the media blaming the target of an assassin’s bullet on the target and the members of the party itself. The reasons for this behavior go beyond simple bias or malpractice in media and is rooted in their combativeness with Trump. Trump cannot be seen as a victim, in any circumstances, even when he is the target of a would-be assassin’s attempt against his life.

This is also in the media’s playbook of stochastic terrorism. It was deployed shortly after a nonbinary female committed a mass shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee. The Biden administration quickly elevated the narrative of gun control, taking the focus off of the shooter. LGBTQ allies online blamed Tennessee’s conservative Christian policies, and the shooter was quickly martyred as a victim.

When a sitting president, the Democratic Party and their allies in the media call Biden’s main rival an existential threat to democracy, someone is bound to act on their rhetoric. Earlier this month, the high-brow, leftist New Republic released a cover-to-cover issue of Trump in Nazi Hitler garb, citing what they claim to be parallels between the two men.

The media has a reflexive instinct to oppose anything Donald Trump says or does. Morning Joe, which was conspicuously removed from the air Monday, has promoted these same ideas, and now a narrative is taking hold to keep those comparisons going at such media outlets as the Bulwark.

This is where the need to blame the person and party being shot at comes from. The left says they condemn political violence, yet look the other way when antifa attempts to burn down a courthouse. Since 2017, there have been several attacks against members of the Republican Party, including Steve Scalise, Rand Paul (which several media members quipped about), Lee Zeldin and the assassination attempt on Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, after wildly pointed remarks by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

So I guess I have to ask to obvious question: why is the side being shot at being asked by the media to tone things down? The media has long viewed themselves as the protagonist to a menacing Donald Trump. Trump has done himself no favors in the past with his off-the-cuff comments, which are often parsed word for word, but that doesn’t mean he or members of the Republican Party are to blame for violence.

Perhaps cable news commentators should look inward, at their own rhetoric, such as MSNBC apparently did, when they put Morning Joe on hiatus. That would be a good place to start, and apparently the higher-ups at MSNBC agree.