This Climate of Violence

Yesterday's gunshots should remind us that we need responsible leadership, not inflammatory rhetoric that can provoke the most troubled among us

Blocking the street after gunshots were fired at Donald Trump’s golf course. (Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

I was invited to do a TV interview on NewsNation yesterday afternoon. My plan was to talk about the debate, the aftermath, the state of the race and the probability that a humiliated, fearful and losing Donald Trump would be increasingly unhinged and incendiary in the coming weeks until the November election.

But just before I went on air, news broke that “gunshots” were “fired in the vicinity” of Donald Trump where he was playing golf in West Palm Beach, Florida. At the time, the only source was Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director and an unreliable source for factual information. But it was clear that Trump was safe.

When the NewsNation anchor asked me to comment on what this meant to me, she was careful to emphasize that little was yet known and the story was not corroborated. Over several segments, I said something like this:

1. I am glad to hear that Trump is safe and hope the shots were not directed toward him. Political violence is not acceptable in a democracy. This cannot be how we address our problems.

2. I worry that, whatever the facts, Trump will exploit this episode to blame the Democrats and further incite his more violent followers to believe this is an act of political persecution.

3. We should not forget that Trump used his debate platform last week to spread lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio—baselessly claiming that they were eating cats and dogs—and the result of this false and dangerous talk has resulted in bomb threats and school evacuations. This incendiary rhetoric from Trump and his running mate JD Vance has accelerated a climate of violence.

4. While the possibility exists that the shots fired were targeting Trump, let’s not doubt that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are also at increasing risk.

In the coming hours after I was off air, we learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigations was looking into what they believed to be an attempted assassination of Trump at his Trump International Golf Course.

According to law enforcement, a Secret Service agent saw a man hiding in bushes around the golf course and fired at him. This was several golf holes—or about 400 yards—away from where Trump was, according to Sheriff Rick Bradshaw of Palm Beach County. The sheriff also said an AK-47-style rifle with a scope was found near the property, along with a GoPro video camera and two backpacks with ceramic tile. While the armed suspect—later identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh—fled the scene in a black Nissan, he was later apprehended driving north on Interstate 95 in Florida.

It is good news that Donald Trump is safe. We are less than two months away from what I increasingly believe will be his defeat—and possibly by a significant margin, even though the polls currently show an extremely tight race. As noted above, the idea that there are people out there who believe that our elections and our nation’s future can be best determined by a bullet rather than the ballot box is a terrible and wrong thing—yet it remains a prevalent danger.

In fact, that danger has just accelerated: What seemed unimaginable just two months ago—before the shooting in Butler, PA in July—has now become all too plausible for some sick person who yearns to be somebody and make history as an assassin. We have seen this danger time and again in our nation’s and the world’s history. Indeed, I tracked that particular reality in my book, The Gunman and His Mother, about the troubled life and downward trajectory of Lee Harvey Oswald.

But there’s a deeper danger that exists beyond targeting one candidate or another. We should be reminded on this day and every day between now and the election that political leaders at the highest levels have a fundamental responsibility to discourage a climate of violence.

Instead, we are forced to deal with a radicalized culture fueled by irresponsible Republican leaders who are abusing their powerful platforms to spread lies, sow division and create a climate where everyday people just trying to live their lives face bomb threats, school evacuations and hate crimes. In the case of Springfield, Trump and Vance justify this with ugly, dehumanizing tactics—insisting that legal Haitian immigrants are illegal, that they were never welcomed by the local community, and that they are engaged in shocking practices (like eating pets) that makes these Ohio residents unacceptable, requires deporting them and puts them in increasing danger from cultists who believe this nonsense.

In another time, such hateful demagoguery would linger at the fringes of our society. But it’s once again risen to define the leading ticket of one of the country’s two major parties, putting us all in danger as long as they possess the megaphones to spread their nasty, divisive messages. The continuing availability of assault rifles makes this all the more menacing.

Let’s take this moment and every day in the coming weeks to remind our friends, neighbors and family that we can do better than swimming in a sea of grievance—that we need not be held hostage by so-called leaders who relish violent rhetoric and are indifferent to its impact. A better America depends on responsible leaders who believe in turning down the temperature when it gets too dangerous, not seeking new and inflammatory ways to grab attention and fuel the delusions of the most troubled among us.

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