The second assassination attempt on Donald Trump has produced a variety of ridiculous hot takes over the last day. RedState has covered many of those, including the gross rantings of the Vindman family and Adam Kinzinger. The press has been no better, with MSNBC trotting out numerous “analysts” to blame Trump for people trying to shoot him.
ALSO SEE: Trump Campaign Drops Bomb After Assassination Attempt, Releases Mountain of Receipts
On Tuesday, CNN’s Scott Jennings, the rare voice of reason on that network, finally had enough. When the afternoon host tried to claim that “the rhetoric is on both sides,” he exploded on her and ripped her talking point to pieces.
I’m not interested in “the rhetoric on both sides” today. Trump is the target. He’s survived two assassination attempts. He’s in danger and it’s probably too late to de-radicalize everyone who thinks the country will end if he wins. My latest for @cnn pic.twitter.com/4xD2NXGWT4
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) September 16, 2024
HOST: But the rhetoric is on both sides, it’s coming from the right, it’s coming from the left
JENNINGS: The rhetoric, they have tried to kill this man twice. He got shot in the ear, and this guy was setting up shop outside of a golf course to try to kill him this weekend, and I know after something like this happens, it’s very fashionable to, you know, talk about rhetoric on both sides.
Donald Trump is the target. He’s the current target, and it’s happening, and it’s happening again, and I just, honestly, we have to have a conversation about elections. If you lose an election, the country is not going to come to an end, okay. What I want Democrats to do, honestly, is to say, it’s okay. Like, if Donald Trump wins, democracy will not end, the constitution will not end, we’re not going to live in a dictatorship, there will not be a bloodbath. All the things they say are totally fabricated to me, it would be a good day to stop doing that.
Later in the above clip but during a different exchange, Jennings then made a very astute observation about where things stand.
JENNINGS: And I know everybody’s talking today about all the rhetoric in this country and what are going to do to fix it going forward. It’s too late. Folks, it’s too late in my opinion because all of the rhetoric about Donald Trump over the last several years, that he’s a threat to democracy, that the country will come to an end if he gets elected president again. You know, even over the weekend, we had people blaming him and JD Vance for a bomb threat in Springfield.
Well, if you have believed that over the weekend, then how could you not believe the rhetoric leading up to today is not somehow responsible that this man has now somehow survived two assassination attempts?
He’s right. It is too late to fix any of this. We have had nine years now (and perhaps more in some circles) of Donald Trump being compared to Adolf Hitler. They have claimed he’ll institute a dictatorship and round and imprison anyone who disagrees with him. They’ve shouted from the rooftops that Trump being elected would cause our republic to collapse. That isn’t the kind of thing you can un-indoctrinate in a few weeks. Democrats have done what they’ve done, and the consequences will continue to emanate.
Of course, what Jennings is saying is a pipe dream anyway. Democrats are never going to admit they’ve taken things too far. Instead, they’ll keep doubling down, essentially saying, “Please stop making us try to murder you.”
But as Jennings pointed out, this is also about holding Democrats to their own standards. These are the same people who were whining about fake bomb threats all weekend in Springfield, insisting that Republicans were responsible. Yet, someone trying to take Donald Trump’s head off again isn’t caused by left-wing rhetoric? Democrats and their press allies can jump in a lake with that logic.
