Trump decries ‘rhetoric’ while his own lies terrorize Ohio town

Former President Donald Trump wants you to believe that “rhetoric” from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her campaign led to a possible assassination plot against him that the Secret Service foiled Sunday.
He wants you to believe that as he simultaneously hurls inflammatory rhetoric at Harris and while he sits idly by as Springfield, Ohio, suffers bomb threats and school evacuations over his outrageous and racist lies about legal Haitian immigrants.
Early Monday, Trump spoke with Fox News and decried statements from Democrats calling him “a threat to democracy.”
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country – both from the inside and out,” Trump said, referring to Harris and Democrats as “the enemy from within” and “the real threat.”
The logic in Trump’s statements is twisted beyond comprehension. It’s schoolyard-level reasoning, effectively saying: “You called me a threat to democracy, and that’s a terrible thing to do. And besides, you’re the enemy and you’re destroying the country.”
Let’s start with the apparent assassination plan the Secret Service thankfully foiled. An advance agent spotted a rifle sticking through a fence several hundred yards away from where Trump was playing golf. The agent fired at the gunman, and the man, who didn’t fire any shots, was later apprehended.
The 58-year-old suspect appears to be, as one would expect, a nut whose politics are all over the place. NPR described him as a “vocal supporter-turned-critic of Trump who was passionate about defending Ukraine in its war with Russia.”
In the July assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania, the gunman was a registered Republican, and his motive remains unclear.
There is zero evidence connecting either gunman to Democrats calling Trump “a threat to democracy.” More important, however, that label is not hyperbolic.
Trump is a threat to democracy. He has made that clear with his constant election denialism, the way he riled up the crowd before the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, his incessant lying about disproven claims of voter fraud, his vocal support for the convicted and imprisoned Jan. 6 domestic terrorists and even his comment about being a dictator for one day.
The idea that Harris or her campaign should stop talking about the threat Trump poses to our democracy is absurd. Democrats aren’t encouraging any form of violence against him or anyone else. They’re speaking a self-evident truth and asking voters to respond accordingly at the ballot box.
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A number of high-profile Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and conservative legal scholar Judge J. Michael Luttig, have said the same thing about Trump.
Cheney said in a recent statement endorsing Harris that “there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”
Beyond that issue, the idea of Trump trying to condemn any form of rhetoric borders on satire:
That comes on the heels of a campaign of vile lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio ‒ lies that have led to repeated bomb threats and widespread fear among a community of hardworking, legal immigrants.
On Monday, two elementary schools in Springfield had to be evacuated due to threats, the third consecutive school day in which children in the community have been impacted.
On Friday – days after spouting nonsense about Haitian immigrants eating pets – Trump lied, saying: “In Springfield, Ohio, 20,000 illegal Haitian migrants have descended upon a town of 58,000 people destroying their way of life.”
On Sunday, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, effectively admitted that the campaign’s vicious lies about Haitians in Springfield were made up, and that he didn’t care: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Except, according to the Republican governor of Ohio, Vance and Trump are also making up the part about the suffering. Springfield has had challenges with an influx of legal immigrants, but the city has not been “destroyed” in any way, shape or form.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said: “These people are here legally. They came to work. They are looking for good people. These are hardworking people.”
Trump has called his political opponents “vermin,” echoed Adolf Hitler in saying immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and referred to himself as “a very proud election denier.”
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So spare me the sanctimony over anyone describing him as a threat to democracy. That’s what he is.
Political violence, on any side and of any sort, is abhorrent. Whatever the suspect arrested Sunday was plotting, I’m immensely glad it was stopped.
But whatever the plot was, it can’t be blamed on directly and factually highlighting the threat posed by a man who spews anti-democratic and racist lies without the slightest concern for others.
Trump and his campaign, through their dishonest rhetoric, are wreaking havoc on a Midwestern town. That’s a fact. Through his statements and actions past and present, he poses a threat to our democracy. That’s a demonstrable fact.
The only solution to those concerns, the only action being promoted by Harris and her campaign or people like me who care about America’s basic sense of decency, is simple: Vote.
Vote, and don’t be cowed into silence by a dishonest hypocrite.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk