The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Thoughts on the Assassination Attempt Against Trump
The attack deserves condemnation. But it should not obscure the evil of Trump himself, including his role in promoting political violence.
A few thoughts on yesterday's assassination attempt against Trump:
1. It should go without saying. But I condemn the attack. Violence is not the way to solve our political problems. It's worth remembering that Trump was not the only victim. A participant in the rally was killed, and two others wounded. The slain spectator, former firefighter Corey Comperatore, died bravely trying to shield his family. The shooting of these three people is even more reprehensible than that of Trump. No one deserves to die merely for attending a political rally. As for Trump, his wrongdoing should be dealt with through the legal and political system, not random violence.
It is nowhere near the same thing as actually getting shot at. But I have my own experiences with politically motivated death threats, including one from the man who later turned out to be "pipe bomber" Cesar Sayoc, a right-wing nativist. I do not want such things to continue spreading.
Can political assassination ever be justified? Maybe so. I think Fanny Kaplan was right to try to kill Lenin, and von Stauffenberg and others right to try to assassinate Hitler. But unlike Lenin and Hitler's subjects, we don't face an evil on the same scale, and—even more importantly—we still have available peaceful means of combating it.
2. Despite gaslighting to the contrary, there is no contradiction between condemning the attack and saying that Trump is an authoritarian, an enemy of fundamental liberal values, and a menace to democracy. The man tried to use force and fraud to stay in power after losing an election (promoting an insurrection in the process), threatens to use the power of government to punish political opponents, brutalized thousands of innocent children with his illegal family separation policy, and more. Pointing this out was and is entirely justified. Nothing that happened yesterday mitigates Trump's evil. He is no Hitler. But being a run-of-the-mill wannabe dictator is bad enough. Certainly enough to justify severe condemnation and harsh rhetoric.
3. It's worth noting that nearly all prominent Democrats, from President Biden on down, condemned yesterday's attack without reservation. By contrast, Trump and many of his allies defend and praise the January 6 attackers, and make light of other political violence by their supporters (e.g.—the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband). For those keeping score, prominent Democrats—including Biden and Barack Obama also condemned the post-George Floyd riots (as did I at the time). There's plenty of awful people and politicians who abuse power in both major parties (e.g.- I have condemned Biden's repeated attempts to raid the treasury for his student loan forgiveness program). But when it comes to promoting and excusing political violence by their supporters, the two parties are not morally equivalent.
4. We now know the shooter was a registered Republican and also once donated $15 through Act Blue (a left-wing political fundraising group). This combination is less surprising than it might seem. Many people have unusual political views that don't neatly fit the left-right political spectrum. That's true of many perpetrators of political assassinations, as well. This guy may have had weird political motives that only make sense to him. Alternatively, he could have had a nonpolitical motive that was even weirder. Recall that John Hinckley (the man who almost killed Reagan), did it because he thought it would impress movie star Jodie Foster and persuade her to go out with him. We may learn more about the current shooter's motives in coming days. Until then, we should avoid unsupported claims about them.
5. I fear Trump will get a sympathy boost from this event. It may be only a couple percentage points in the upcoming election. But that could be decisive in a close contest. If so, it is even more imperative than before that the Democrats replace Biden with a stronger candidate.
6. Those who claim the Democrats and Biden were trying to get Trump killed in order to stay in power should recall that, if Trump were assassinated, the GOP could replace him with a more popular candidate, who would also get a sympathy boost from the assassination, while being free of much of Trump's negative baggage. That would actually increase the Republicans' odds of winning the election relative to a world where the attack never happened. Biden's narrow self-interest was better served by keeping Trump as his opponent. There are other problems with the conspiracy theory, as well. But this is a big one I have not seen mentioned elsewhere.
