The Storm Before The Calm

posted by Derek Hunter at Townhall 

Political fundraising emails have stopped in the wake of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. For now, anyway. It won’t last. But how they return will be telling – will they reflect the “new tone” of dialing back the rhetoric of “Trump is worse than Hitler!!” or will they return to the hate-for-cash they have been? To know if we are entering the calm after the storm, let us take a look at the storm just before this calm.

On Saturday afternoon at 3:36, I received an email from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee with the subject line, “On a scale of 1 to 5…” Once opened, it continues, “How worried are you about Trump returning to power?”

If I didn’t know better, I’d say Democrats were trying to stoke fear of Donald Trump in their br. Fear that someone might take it seriously if they didn’t know any better. 

It continues, “Despite dozens of felony counts, a track record of complete failure, and claiming he wants to be a ‘dictator’ on ‘day one,’ Donald Trump is going to be the GOP's nominee for president.  We've launched an URGENT Live Poll to prove that Democrats are ready to stop Trump's horrendous plans for America, but it's only open until midnight, and we haven't heard from you! Please, Derek, tell us NOW.”

It sure seems to me like Democrats wanted people to believe Donald Trump might bring about the end of life as we know it, or at least the end of the country. What might a mentally unstable BLM/ANTIFA mutant do upon hearing that enough times?

Adam Schiff, just about an hour before the shots rang out, sent a fundraising email declaring, “There’s no way around it — Republicans have built a massive fundraising advantage in the blink of an eye following Trump’s 34 criminal convictions. They are ready to throw our democracy in the dustbin of history to hand him almost totally unchecked power.  We are the only thing standing in the way.” 

Schiff is running in California and will win easily because he’s a leftist Democrat, so he doesn’t need the money. He just wants it so he can spread it around to other races and try to build up power for himself. He has been constantly stoking fear and hate because it works for him. 

Then there was this beauty from the Biden-Harris campaign, signed by “Team Biden-Harris.” Its panic-inducing subject line reads, “We need people across the country to rush their immediate grassroots support.”

It’s telling how they simply can’t ask for support or donations—it always has to be imbued with this unrealistic sense of urgency, like everything will come crashing down if you don’t chip in a couple of bucks for the cause RIGHT NOW!!!

Biden’s email opens, “A lot has happened over the last two weeks. FIRST: Polling showed President Biden and Donald Trump neck and neck. THEN: Far-right billionaires flooded Trump’s campaign with millions and millions of dollars in an effort to outraise us and tip the scales in their direction. NOW: We need folks across the country to rush their immediate grassroots support. We can’t stress this enough: This election is the fight of our lives.”

The fight of our lives?

The morning of the would-be assassination, Kamala Harris sent out an email reading, “Let’s be clear, Derek: It is one of the foundational principles of our system of justice that no one is above the law. That was the case until the United States Supreme Court granted Donald Trump wide-reaching immunity for his actions as president.  I know this is a big deal as a former prosecutor and district attorney. In Donald Trump, we have a candidate who has openly said he will be a dictator on day one and that he will weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies. And it is very likely that he could be immune from those kinds of acts. Immune, Derek.  We have to take the stakes of this election seriously. The Donald Trump running for office right now is not the same one that we ran against in 2020. He is more unhinged. He is more dangerous. And he has nothing to lose.”

I’m not saying Harris or any of these people were sending a message to the mentally unstable to take matters into their own hands, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t. The result is the same whether they meant to do it or weren’t thinking. After years of whining about what they call “Republicans violent rhetoric” and how “words are violence,” to hear these people try to wash their hands of any responsibility simply cannot be allowed to fly. Especially when you know they’ll be back to their old trick and rhetoric by the end of the week, if not sooner. Fear and hate are all they have.

X22, Christian Patriot News, and more- July 15 (RNC Night 1)

 

Before I start, let me just say...

YES!! An Ohioan will be the next VP of this country!!!! 🥳🥳🥳

A New Offensive: Trump, the GOP, and the Battle for America’s Future

Like the German army as the end loomed, the Democrats have been driven to desperate expedients.

by Roger Kimball for American Greatness

Having just spent a week padding about battle sites around Verdun and the Somme,  I could not help but register the historical vibration of certain dates. Was it entirely coincidental that on July 18, 1918, Ferdinand Foch, the Allied Supreme Commander, launched a major counteroffensive against the Germans in the Second Battle of the Marne? That operation  was the beginning of the end for the Boche.  They sued for peace in November after American General John Pershing crushed the German forces near Montfaucon, northwest of Verdun.

This Thursday, July 18, 2024, Donald Trump will deliver his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. I like to think that Trump’s address will mark the beginning of a potent counteroffensive against the soul-blighting, woke forces of the Democratic juggernaut.

Like the German army in the summer of 1918, the Democrats are in rabid disarray.  On paper, they still command impressive force.  They continue to jail their political  opponents and shower Donald Trump with potentially lethal legal shrapnel. [UPDATE: I wrote this column  before the assassination attempton Donald  Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania yesterday.  I will have more to say about that in due course.]

But though their guns may continue their periodic eructations, morale among the troops teeters on despair. Their leaders are panicking.

Of the Kaiser, Winston Churchill once remarked that “in every crisis he crumbled.  In defeat, he fled; in revolution, he abdicated; in exile, he remarried.” What would Churchill say about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? Addressing NATO a few days ago, the leader of the free world introduced the President of Ukraine as “President Putin.” Asked whether he really thought Kamala Harris was up to the top job, Biden said, “I would not have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I did not think she is qualified to be president. Let’s start there.”

Shall we start there? Harris, the half-Indian, half-Jamaican scion of slave owners,  may be a certified “person of color.” But she is also living proof that senility is not the only form of cognitive-rhetorical incapacity.

Like the Germans in the summer of 1918, the Democrats and their media poodles are full of sound and fury.  The New York Times, for example, is regularly on the battlements, delivering anguished rhetorical air-raid sirens. They understand that “Biden’s Path to Re-election Has All But Vanished.” Hence, the Times, along with other besieged media battalions, are engaged in a desperate pantomime to diffuse the biggest threat to their franchise. Donald Trump is “unfit to lead,” they skirl; Republicans will rue the day Trump is reelected, they insist. He’s a dictator in waiting, a bully, and a man of bad character who tramples upon the rule of law.

This signal-jamming wall of static is impervious to fact—including the fact that almost every item of the Democrats’ bill of indictment is a morsel in the giant feast of projection that Trump’s opponents have laid on.  We’ve already seen what Trump as president looks like.  He had an amazingly successful, if tumultuous, first term.  He did not jail his political opponents. He did not weaponize the Department of Justice or instruct his Attorney General to tie up leaders of the opposition with groundless (but very expensive) lawfare.  Everyone can see that a second Trump term, more mature and much better organized, is almost certain to be even better than the first.  Trump is, as Batya Ungar-Sargon recently observed, “a moderate.”

That, of course, is precisely what the junta in charge is worried about. Trump’s success will be the success of the American people.  But it will be the defeat of our version of the Central Powers.  One sign of what is to come was released a few days ago when the Republican National Committee published its party platform.

In recent history, these documents have been bloated, bloviating repositories of political verbiage, scraps of hustings rhetoric and special-interest slogans. In the last few decades, they have typically weighed in with tens of thousands of words.  The 2024 platform is a svelte 5200 words.  Moreover, it is a robust, plain-speaking 5200 words.

Dedicated “To the Forgotten Men and Women of America,”  the leitmotif of the document is “common sense.” In eloquent but plain-spoken language, the platform underscores what we all know but what the Democrats have mesmerized us to disbelieve:

• That a country without a border is not a country.
• That “if we don’t have domestic manufacturing with low Inflation, not only will our economy—and even our military equipment and supplies—be at the mercy of foreign nations, but our towns, communities, and people cannot thrive.”
• That a key to prosperity (and hence to national security) is an abundant supply of cheap energy, which means in turn that we must exploit our untapped fossil fuel resources.
• That a strong military is the best safeguard for our national security—what Ronald Reagan called peace through strength.  (The Roman military historian Vegetius summed up the point neatly: si vis pacem, para bellum: if you want peace, prepare for war.)
• That “equality” means “equal treatment for all,” not the Animal Farmsubterfuge, according to which “some animals are more equal than others.”

All these pillars of the 2024 GOP platform are matters of common sense.  But we live at a moment when common sense, having been censured by the engines of political correctness, is among the least common and least permitted of virtues.

The preliminary observations of the 2024 GOP party platform provide the groundwork for 20 crisply articulated imperatives: “Seal the Border and Stop the Migrant Invasion,” “End the Weaponization of Government Against the American People,” “Cut Federal Funding for any School Pushing Critical Race Theory, Radical Gender Ideology, and Other Inappropriate Racial, Sexual, or Political Content on Our Children,” “Strengthen and Modernize Our Military, Making it, Without Question, the Strongest and Most Powerful in the World,” “Make America the Dominant Energy Producer in the World, By Far!”

Like the German army as the end loomed, the Democrats have been driven to desperate expedients.  Anyone who was paying attention has known since before Biden was elected that he was a cognitive basket case, but in order to keep themselves in power and promulgate their woke agenda, the Democrats pretended, and the media supplied the props for the pretense, that Biden was fine, “sharp as a tack,” and fully in command of his administration.  They knew otherwise.  But they deliberately misled the American people in order to preserve their perquisites.

Now that the truth is out, whole divisions are in mutiny, scurrying to replace their failing standard bearer, never mind that their machinations are utterly undemocratic. To save “Our Democracy™”—that’s “their oligarchy” in English—democracy may just have to be sacrificed.

The farce unfolding in Washington and in the pages of our woke media is more disreputable than funny.  But it highlights the manly, clean, and robust alternative gaining force in Milwaukee and throughout the country.  Finally, at last, common sense will have its day in the sun.

They Tried to Kill Trump – Now We’re Going to Fight Twice As Hard

posted by Kurt Schlichter at Townhall 

The nerve of Donald Trump, inciting that scumbag to shoot him by being literally Hitler, according to the regime media and the regime husk. And then his supporters shockingly dared to get mad about it – why aren’t they uniting around gun control, even though Trump was protected by guns and guns killed the scumbag, and even though guns are the only thing keeping Democrat-supported criminals and Democrat–supported tyranny at bay? But we know whose fault this is. And they know whose fault this is. And they’re going to lie about it anyway.

This was inevitable. Even if this wasn’t a specific plot, it was what they hoped for, and they did everything they could to encourage it. How incredibly shortsighted. Both Trump and America literally dodged a bullet, but the left did as well and doesn’t even know it. The scumbag crawled onto an open building roof with a view of the podium that somehow wasn’t covered or defended and got off several shots that - but for one inch - would have blown Trump’s brains out. The convulsions that would’ve followed in our society are terrifying to imagine. Unfortunately, he did manage to murder one Trump supporter and wound another. You could almost feel the disappointment in the coverage by the regime media. After the regime media reluctantly admitted it was an assassination attempt, which took hours, it was followed by a few halfhearted thoughts and prayers from the left, as well as more than a few social media cheers. Major Democrats are now publicly shaking their collective collectivist head over political violence for once. Out of public view, they are probably pounding their collective collectivist head against the wall because they fear - rightly - that Trump’s glorious defiance in the face of his attempted murder may have just won him a landslide against their dementite candidate, a corrupted, perverted zombie who thinks Matlock is a real lawyer and that Hunter ought to hire him for his next trial.

The administration didn’t have to arrange this specific incident to make it happen. The hatred it stirred up was always intended to get some lunatic to take a potshot at Trump as a fringe benefit of the main objective of motivating borderline clinical moron voters. As is typical these days, incompetence played a huge role. If only we had some sort of secret agency that provided a service of defending public figures. Well, some public figures. Under this administration, the Secret Service doesn’t protect Robert Kennedy, Jr., whose father was murdered by a Palestinian scumbag. It doesn’t protect senior members of the Trump administration who the Iranians have promised to murder. And it is now clear that it barely protected Donald Trump. 

Yeah, when the shooting started, some of the Secret Service agents quickly scrambled to cover Trump. OK. They adequately performed one of many of their essential tasks. They blew the others. How the hell does somebody get on a rooftop overlooking the podium of a presidential speech with a rifle, have time to set up, take aim, and fire several shots before getting his brains blown out? There are reports that the Trump security detail had been asking headquarters for more support and had been rebuffed. There’s no doubt that’s true. In fact, Democrats have been trying to take away Trump’s security. They have been urging violence, so let’s have some Real Talk. They want someone to murder him, and spend a little time on social media and you’ll see leftists admit it (inducing passive aggressively), but the Biden administration did not dare leave Trump totally exposed. The Biden administration just left him mostly exposed. 

You can attribute some of this catastrophic failure of yet another institution to malice, but let’s not forget the incompetence component. The current head of the Secret Service is a former Pepsi executive. They couldn’t even get the one from the best cola. What’s her priority? DEI, of course. Who cares about protecting people, you know, the actual job of the Secret Service? As with all our institutions, the incompetent at its head doesn’t prioritize the actual job of the institution but instead the communist ideology of her ruling class friends. Making sure that agents had great-grandparents from the right continent and held the correct penis status are her big issues. As you saw, some of the short/round female Secret Service agents couldn’t even figure out how to holster their guns. Some of them seemed to have some heart, but heart doesn’t equal mass, folks. Ironically, that iconic picture of a defiant Donald Trump raising his fist would not have been possible except that the female secret service agent in front of him was so tiny that she couldn’t block his 6’3 frame – and blocking the target is, or was, an important part of the job before having the right genitalia took priority.

Of course, we’re going to hear that the scumbag murderer was a Republican because three years ago – 15% of his life ago - he registered Republican, though more facts seem to be coming out showing that his politics were left. Whether he was an active leftist or just a mutant loner, or both, remains unclear and will probably remain unclear if the truth is remotely harmful to the Democrat/regime media’s approved narrative. If you think the Biden administration’s investigation of the Biden administration’s failure to protect Donald Trump is going to be comprehensive, competent, or honest, I’ve got several bridges I’d like to sell you. Do you do Venmo?

You could see the fix was already in when they finally got around to the initial midnight press conference. The initial reporting by the regime media was about “loud popping noises” and Trump’s “fall.” At least the press conference forced the regime media, hours after it happened, to finally concede that this was an assassination attempt. It was all downhill from there. We had an FBI agent who came out and said that he essentially knew nothing. As always, when a Republican is a victim, the motivation remains opaque and unknowable. Then we had some folks from the state police who said pretty much nothing. What we didn’t have was the Secret Service. Apparently, the agency was not available to explain its failures. The stonewalling is already in effect. Congress is going to call immediate hearings and what we’re going to hear is a big fat nothing. You see, the investigation is continuing, and telling the American people anything, especially the truth, is going to make it impossible to adequately cover up the truth. 

One truth we won’t hear publicly is that the Democrats are sorry this scumbag missed and horrified about the iconic photos of a defiant Trump. They know what it means. When Biden finally staggered out, without a tie, to speak to the American people about the first presidential assassination attempt in over 40 years, the alleged president didn’t seem too upset. In his defense, he’s senile so we can’t really be sure he knew what was happening at all. He mumbled a few platitudes and staggered off. That set the tone for what we’ll see going forward. 

We already know the investigation is going to be a complete cluster because there’s apparently nobody in charge. The FBI is doing some stuff, the state police is doing some other stuff, and the Secret Service seems to be in full CYA mode. So, we’re not going to get any information about what really happened. We’re going to get lies, and the administration is going to issue some report assuring us that it did the very best job it could, and that Donald Trump was really at fault for getting in the way of those bullets. The unspoken theme will be to ask whether you can really blame the aspiring assassin for trying to take out the guy who wants to use Project 2025 to put all women into handmaiden outfits.

What’s the political effect of this going to be? More cynicism, all of it justified, by the American people. Yet another vaunted institution has failed to perform its job adequately. We’re getting used to it. When institutions are headed by Kendi-obsessed quota queens selected for their adherence to Marxist ideology rather than competence, and when they prioritize their ridiculous ideology over the job the institution is supposed to do – whether it’s the Secret Service, the FBI, the military, the NFL, the DMV, Houston’s power company (As I write this, I am on day six out without power) - you’re going to get failure. And we’re tired of failure. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. America doesn’t work anymore. That’s why you see social media filled with video clips of people living joyously in the amazing 80s. This nostalgia is because America worked back then, and it does not work now. Joe Biden represents the failed present. The secret of Donald Trump is that he represents both our glorious past and a future where things work, and if you screw up, you hear that “You’re fired.”

And that’s why Donald Trump’s glorious defiance on stage, lifting his fist and refusing to give in, was so inspiring. He is the avatar of our vision of ourselves as Americans. They attempted to kill him, but they really wanted to kill us and, for one of us, they succeeded. It won’t work, though. They can lie about us and create fake scandals. They can try and silence us. They can try to frame us in kangaroo courts. They can try to murder us. But we’re not going to quit. We’re not going to surrender. We’re going to win. Raise your fists, patriot. America will be great again.

🎭 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓

Welcome to 

The 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓 

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No politics or divisive posts on this thread. 

This feature will appear every day at 1pm mountain time. 

Trump Under Fire Shows Us What Leadership Looks Like

Jennifer Oliver O'Connell reporting for RedState 

In my colleague Nick Arama's terrific piece, What Is the Measure of a Man? she wrote:

How do you take the measure of a man? 

There was a lot of bravery shown in those moments. The Secret Service agents who ran to cover Trump (as opposed to the people who failed to secure the roof), even the photographers rushing to Trump's side to do their job to let us know what was going on, at great risk to themselves, the people who went to the aid of the injured in the midst of the chaos.  

But let's talk about the quickness of former President Donald Trump under fire. First, dropping to the ground to protect himself. Then when the Secret Service came in to cover him, he immediately realized people would be very worried and upset about him, so he got up, pushed the Secret Service a little to the side enough to let the people see him, and raised his fist in defiance to let everyone know he was okay, even with blood dripping from his ear and face, despite the danger. When he did that a roar went up from the crowd, they were so relieved he was okay. But what bravery and presence of mind that took.

Bravery and Presence of Mind. Can we say that of anyone in our current presidential administration? Can we say that, in general, of anyone who calls themselves a leader? 

If this assassination attempt did nothing else—and there's much that still needs to be unpacked—it defined Donald Trump as a true leader. Not just any leader, but the leader we need right now. Let's address presence of mind, a matter which, in the case of President Joe Biden, is sorely in question. Despite having been shot and bleeding, Trump had the presence of mind to quickly assess that if he allowed the Secret Service to rush him away without some acknowledgment on the state of his person, the rally crowd would not only have been confused, but more frightened and discombobulated than they already were. So he stood up, raised his fist, and shouted, "Fight." That singular act is all the huge crowd needed to not only be calmed, but to dispel their own fear. 

That's leadership:

Leaders also effectively communicate. It took Biden almost two hours after the assassination attempt to address the nation. As soon as Trump was able, he communicated on his Truth Social social media platform to once again calm the American people. Offering reassurance over fear, and offering thanks to law enforcement and first responders, as well as condolences to the victims and their families. 

I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Once again, Trump presented clarity over confusion. Then just a few hours after Biden finally gave an anemic response to the assassination attempt, Trump took to social media to call for unity, encouraged us to tap into the better angels of our nature, and not allow evil to win. 

Dare I say it? That's Reaganesque:

 

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed. In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win. I truly love our Country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin.

Another hallmark of a real leader is who rallies around you when the biological waste matter hits the circular wind conductor. I have to say that I was quite surprised at the coalescing of Republican officials and prominent people on the right behind former President Trump, condemning the violent act, but also pointing out what led to this: the multitude of elected Democrats and leftists who encouraged and stoked audiences with violent rhetoric, and called Trump a dictator who will destroy democracy. Even the feckless Sen. Mitt Romney managed to restrict himself with well wishes for Trump and condemnation of the evil act, without playing the both sides and "Republicans should be better," game. Many local Republican committees have done news conferences expressing their support and their commitment to backing Trump as their nominee and to see him elected in November. 

With the Republican National Convention starting Monday, there was some question about whether Trump would be in full attendance throughout the week. In another leadership stroke, Trump posted on Sunday that he was leaving for Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 

Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a “shooter,” or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else. Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee, as scheduled, at 3:30 P.M. TODAY. Thank you!  DJT

Trump has exhibited resilience and toughness in the face of the lawfare waged against him, but his surviving this assassination attempt was a defining moment, and I believe he has met it. Compared to the past four years of Joe Biden's cognitive issues, confusion, gaslighting, and adversarial attacks on American citizens and institutions, it could not be more clear who is fit to lead, and he is not the one. Economist and author Carol Roth expressed her insights in the wake of Saturday's events in an X post:

Roth echoes much of my feelings this Sunday. My head is still swirling and trying to organize all the information, and I am building a career on processing facts quickly and communicating them. But what comes out of that maelstrom is the conviction that this nation needs a strong leader with tested mettle in the White House. On Saturday afternoon in Pennsylvania, Trump's mettle was tested under the fire of a bullet, and to the amazement of many, he emerged as the leader for our time.

Biden Campaign Plans to Ease Off Trump Attacks

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

In the wake of what would have been an assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Biden campaign plans to refrain from attacking the 45th president for the next couple of days. 

According to a Biden campaign official, the president will focus on ending political violence and “the need for every American to come together to not just condemn, but put an end to political violence in this country once and for all.”

The president will give a “forceful” address on Sunday to update the country on the “horrifying attack on Donald Trump.” 

It will be difficult to decide how the Biden campaign will move forward since they predominantly focus their entire agenda on attacking Trump. 

Advisers say that Biden's response to the shocking assassination attempt gives him an opportunity to appear presidential and try to lower the overall temperature in the country. It could reinvigorate his presidency, and quell criticism from elected Democrats that he isn't up to the job.  Prior to the shooting, Biden advisers were unanimous that he needs to take his fight directly to Trump. That's a difficult case to make against a man who came within several millimeters of losing his life. He must continue to warn that Trump is a threat to democracy, while acknowledging the recent threat to Trump's life. Via Axios. 

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said he hopes the Biden Administration will follow through on its promise to scale back political rhetoric after the attack. 

When someone is “demonized to the extent Trump was being demonized,” they become a target. 

"What was bothering me was that the thrust of the Democratic narrative for this election year had become that [Trump] was a mortal danger to our democracy, and if he wins, the country is going away,” Barr said. “When you take that position, you know, that is an apocalyptic and hysterical position that's bound to lead to violence eventually.”

Barr defended Trump against the Biden Administration, which routinely labels him a racist and a fascist. 

“It’s ridiculous. He’s not the threat to democracy that they’re portraying. He was president for four years and he carried out excellent policies, and it was all done lawfully," he added. 

Fox News’s Bret Baier shared details of his phone call with Trump, in which the former president said he was pleased that Biden had called him after the incident. He said it was a “good conversation and, in not so many words, Biden expressed condolences for the family that was lost.”

Biden announced that he launched an independent review of the security system from the Pennsylvania rally where Trump was shot at. 

“It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not America, and we cannot allow this to happen,” Biden said.

Despite facing assassination, Trump seemed to be in good spirits Sunday morning after he was seen golfing before boarding a flight to Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention is set to kick off on Monday. 

This Is What Happens When Media Pretends Everyone They Don’t Like Is Hitler

Jeff Charles reporting for RedState 

To those who have been following American politics closely over the past decade, the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is not a shock. Even the most cursory of glances at the political division in this country could tell you that this was a matter of when, not if.

When Trump first came on the scene announcing his intention to run for president, Democratic politicians and members of the activist media did their level best to portray him as the second coming of Adolf Hitler and his supporters as modern-day Nazis. The effort to paint the right as a pernicious threat to “democracy” has not abated since 2016. Indeed, it has intensified.

Earlier this year, the left had an utter meltdown when Trump railed against illegal immigration. The Hitler comparisons were not rare.

But when it comes to one of history’s darkest moments, Trump is professing ignorance.

Facing criticism for repeatedly harnessing rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump insisted he had no idea that one of the world’s most reviled and infamous figures once used similar words. The Nazi dictator spoke of impure Jewish blood “poisoning” Aryan German blood to dehumanize Jews and justify the systemic murder of millions during the Holocaust.

“I never knew that Hitler said it,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday, volunteering once again that he never read Hitler’s biographical manifesto, “Mein Kampf.”

In 2021, The Inquirer published an op-ed in which the author argued that it is perfectly fine to pretend that Trump is the same as the Führer.

Many people find it offensive to use the Holocaust as a yardstick for the political excesses of the last four years that culminated in the storming of Washington on Jan. 6. They believe that to mention Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler in the same breath, as Spike Lee did on Sunday in an awards speech, disrespects the millions of innocent victims and survivors, diminishing the enormity of the Nazis’ crimes.

As a son of Holocaust survivors and a grandson of four murdered Jews, I might be expected to agree. But I do not.

I think Trump’s ability to incite followers under the banner of white nationalism has enabled us to better understand Hitler’s sway over the Germans, connecting us to the real people in the old black-and-white photo images and newsreels that show the masses with arms outstretched toward their führer.

Salon did something similar in a piece taking issue with Trump questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

It is a question I often hear people ask during conversations about the rise of Adolf Hitler: If I had been alive in Germany when the Nazis took power, would I have had the courage to side against them?

Thanks to the 2020 presidential election, there is now a convenient way to answer that query. Hitler rose to power because he told a Big Lie. Millions of people believed that Big Lie because they held more sinister beliefs; millions more likely didn't believe it, but weren't willing to denounce it as an outright lie at the time.

The same dynamic is true regarding Donald Trump's claim that Joe Biden stole the election from him. It is a Big Lie being embraced to advance a racist, anti-democratic agenda. Anyone who doesn't stand up to that Big Lie today would have likely been complicit in Hitler's Big Lie last century. Anyone who actually believes Trump's Big Lie ... do I need to finish that sentence?

This is only a small sampling of the lengths to which folks on the left have gone to demonize Trump and his supporters. Rather than giving principled arguments against his positions, they chose to stretch the boundaries of hyperbole to trick people into believing America was facing the resurgence of the Third Reich. They helped to create a political environment in which people can become more easily radicalized and moved to violent action.

We already know how the media would be reacting if someone had taken a shot at President Joe Biden. They would immediately blame Trump and conservative media for inciting the attack just as they did with the riot at the U.S. Capitol Building. Who will they blame for the attempt on Trump’s life?

Unfortunately, we already know the answer to that question as well.

As more information emerges about the circumstances surrounding the shooting and the gunman’s motives, it is doubtful that Democrats and their close friends and allies in the activist media will engage in any kind of introspection. They won’t consider toning down their rhetoric. Instead, they are probably commiserating on how they can spin this to Biden’s benefit at this very moment.

The ultimate responsibility for the shooting lies with the man who pulled the trigger. But the fact that our once-vaunted Fourth Estate cannot be counted on to refrain from using this incident for political purposes shows that our nation is probably in more trouble than we think.

Senior House Dem: We're Resigned to a Second Trump Presidency

Matt Vespa reporting for Townhall 

Donald Trump is alive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and ready for the Republican National Convention, which kicks off on Monday. This event comes off the attempted assassination attempt on the former president in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Mr. Trump escaped death by millimeters. A gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, took a position on a rooftop with a clear vantage point toward the stage where Trump was addressing supporters. The round clipped Trump’s right ear. 

Along with the June 27 debate, where Trump demolished President Joe Biden, this event, albeit a tragic one, might have sealed the deal regarding the election. That feeling is reportedly strong among liberal Democrats on the Hill, where one senior House member said that there is resignation that Donald Trump will be back in the Oval Office come January. Yet, for now, the campaign to oust Biden has all but fizzled in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania  (via Axios): 

What we're hearing: A second senior House Democrat told Axios that the Trump shooting has taken some of the heat off because it would "be bad form to make any statements against President Biden." 

Another Biden-skeptical Democrat, asked about lingering questions around the president's candidacy, told Axios: "I don't think that's the focus right now."

Zoom in: Biden is adopting a similar posture, with his campaign pulling ads in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and the president condemning the shooting and calling Trump personally. 

Biden's visit to Austin, Texas, which was scheduled for Monday, will be postponed, the White House said.

What to watch: Most lawmakers who spoke to Axios said it is too early to say whether the cessation in tensions will last until the Democratic National Convention next month. 

But the second senior House Democrat offered one reason for why it might: "We've all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency." 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was not pleased with this report: 

There may be quiet on the Western Front in the Democratic bloodsports over Biden, but they’ll resume shortly.

The Democrat Campaign to Replace Joe Biden Has Ended, and Not for the Reason You Might Think

Bonchie reporting for RedState 

With Donald Trump having narrowly escaped death at the hands of a would-be assassin on Saturday, the state of the presidential race has never been more chaotic. In the weeks prior, all eyes were on Joe Biden and his severe mental and physical decline, with many high-level Democrats desperately trying to organize a way to force him out of the race. 

Yet, after the attempt on Trump's life, the rush to replace Biden as the Democratic Party nominee has essentially ended, and not for the reason one might think. According to NBC News, the replacement campaign has lost steam not because Democrats think the president can seize a moment of unity, but because they think the race is now over. 

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Biden-Harris Pivots, Cancels Campaign Stops After Trump Assassination Attempt

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“We’re so beyond f---ed,” one longtime Democratic insider said, noting that the image of Trump thrusting his fist in the air, with blood dramatically smeared across his face, will be indelible.

“The presidential contest ended last night,” said a veteran Democratic consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to give a candid assessment of his own party’s standing less than four months before the election.

“Now it’s time to focus on keeping the Senate and trying to pick up the House,” he said. “The only positive thing to come out of last night for Democrats is we are no longer talking about Joe Biden’s age today.”

A Biden campaign spokesperson did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment on how the attempted assassination of Trump might affect the dynamics of their rematch. A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Is the presidential campaign truly over? Being a natural cynic about politics means I'll never believe that before all the votes are tallied. Still, it's very telling that Democrats are throwing their hands up and retreating to rear fortifications. Perhaps they don't want to waste the career of anyone on their bench, but the bigger question is what this means for the money. 

Reports of fundraising drying up for Biden have been prevalent since his disastrous debate performance. If that situation gets even worse, it could starve the president's campaign regardless of whatever path to victory might exist on paper.

On the other hand, I'm not sure the idea of trying to keep the Senate and retake the House is much of a backup plan. The Senate map is brutal for Democrats, and unlike 2022, the list of candidates in various swing states is strong with few exceptions. As odd as it may sound, trying to help Biden pull off a miracle by infusing his campaign with cash may be the best of a lot of bad options. 

What's certain, though, is that Democrats are in a bad spot. If they try to push too hard going forward against Trump and Republicans with more "threat to democracy" nonsense, they could further alienate swing voters. If they lay low, then they risk losing any initiative that might be for the taking. I guess that's one of the downsides of having an ideological ally try to murder your political opponent. 

Here's the Democrats' biggest problem, though. Whether the race ended or not on Saturday evening, they were already deep in the hole before that. This isn't a case of one world-shaking event sinking their prospects. It's a case of an avalanche of events, including Biden being exposed as senile, compounding. That makes any possible comeback all the more unlikely. Of course, the normal disclaimer applies. This is politics, and anything can happen.