There was an attempt on Donald Trump's life at his rally on Saturday. And unsurprisingly, Republican officials are busy trying to blame Democrats for it. One even went so far as to say it was a hit directed by President Biden.
Of course, the GOP assertions are ridiculous. Democrats are not supportive of political violence. They have been the leading voices in opposition to it.
But the same cannot be said of the Republican Party. Trump himself has encouraged his supporters to be politically violent. And he was proud of their violent assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th of 2021. He still calls the violent attackers "victims", and the ones convicted and sent to prison as "hostages". And party leaders have followed in Trump's footsteps by trying to excuse political violence from right-wingers (who commit most of the political violence in the U.S.).
And much of the GOP base has eagerly jumped aboard. Polls have shown that a significant portion of the party now believe that violence is not only OK, but necessary. They just never expected that a shooter (a registered Republican) would turn that violence against them.
That's not the only GOP policy that fed into Trump's shooting. The 20 year-old shooter had an assault-style weapon. Democrats have been trying to pass reasonable gun laws (banning assault weapons, raising the minimum age for buying semi-automatic weapons, plugging the holes in the background check law, etc.). Republicans have opposed any new gun laws - even those supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans. Their position makes it easier for violent people to get a weapon.
Republicans may want to blame Democrats for the Trump shooting, but the truth is that their own policies have come back to bite them!
