When Donald Trump pardoned the January 6 protesters, or commuted their sentences, it prompted a wave of complaints from Democrats that he was putting their lives in danger. The appalling Chris Murphy of Connecticut, for example, asserted that as a result of Trump’s pardons, “political violence just got legitimized in this country. And you’re going to see it again and again and again, specifically directed towards Democrats.” This talking point was repeated by other Democratic politicians and by Democrats in the press.
I seriously doubt that a single act of violence against anyone, Democrat or otherwise, will be committed as a result of Trump’s J6 pardons. Murphy didn’t worry that Joe Biden’s pardons and commutations of the sentences of an amazing number of murderers, rapists, etc. would lead to violence. The supposed connection between pardons and violence is mythical, except to the extent that a murderer pardoned by Biden might kill again.
This is an instance of a broader phenomenon. Democrats love to whine that they are threatened by violence, and therefore our rights must be restricted and Republicans should be denounced. But against whom does political violence actually occur?
There were two attempts by Trump-haters to assassinate him, at least one of which almost succeeded. James Hodgkinson shot up the House Republican baseball team, coming within an inch of murdering Steve Scalise. A liberal tried to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, following the Democrats’ disgusting smear campaign against him.
And here is another one, courtesy of Breitbart News. Maybe liberal news outlets have reported on it, but if so, I missed it:
A man was arrested at the United States Capitol Building with a knife and Molotov cocktails after he revealed that he had intended to kill House Speaker Mike Johnson, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to court filings.
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[Ryan] English reportedly also admitted that if he “was able to get close enough to Bessent,” he “would have stabbed him with the knife that ENGLISH brought from home,” according to the affidavit.After English had conducted “surveillance of U.S. Capitol Grounds,” he reportedly concluded that he “would have to kill, at least, three U.S. Capitol Police Officers to get to Bessent and kill him,” according to the affidavit.
Mr. English is no doubt a marginal personality. But he is a left-wing marginal personality, and how do Democrats expect such people to respond to their incessant–if completely insane–assertions that Trump is the next Hitler, so that those who work for him are helping to bring about a fascist dictatorship? Most recently, the Democrats have, with one voice, accused the libertarian Elon Musk–absurdly–of being a Nazi.
Currently there is a movie about Dietrich Bonhoeffer that depicts that German minister and theologian as a hero because he participated in a plot to assassinate Hitler. That is true, he was a hero. But how is a loyal Democrat supposed to respond to his party’s incessant claims that Donald Trump is Hitler, too? Assassinating Trump or any of his minions would be a heroic response.
Democrats may argue that the actions of James Hodgkinson, Nicholas Roske, Thomas Crooks, Ryan Routh and Ryan English are those of unhinged individuals for whom the party is not responsible. But in my view, they are the actions of loyal Democrats who took the cynical lies of their party seriously. And the numbers are adding up.
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