MSNBC Columnist Says Routh Was Justified in Wanting to Take a Shot at Trump

Steve Benen, a former blogger for the Washington Monthly and current producer and contributor to "The Rachel Maddow Show," thinks the Mar-a-Largo would-be assassin was justified in wanting to take a shot at former president Donald Trump.

Or, in Benen's words, "the alleged would-be shooter." Benen is complaining that Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for using violent rhetoric that motivated Routh to try to kill the former president.

But Routh is right, claims Benen. Trump is, indeed, a "threat to democracy."

Trump believes it's excessive to say he's a threat to democracy, but
- he really has endorsed an authoritarian-style vision
- it's not just Dems who made the accusation against him
- he's repeatedly accused his perceived foes of being threats to democracy https://t.co/LASsDH5RYg
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen) September 16, 2024

First of all, it takes a special kind of moral blindness to excuse a would-be presidential assassin. Beyond that, Benen employs exactly the same arguments used by the right to push back against the left when they blame conservatives for school shootings or any other violence.

First, the investigation into the alleged would-be shooter is just beginning. The idea that the former president can speak to the suspect’s motivations, in detail, is difficult to take seriously. Given the preliminary evidence, Ryan Wesley Routh’s politics were, to put it mildly, idiosyncratic, supporting Republican, Democratic and independent candidates — including, in 2016, Trump himself. To characterize him as some kind of lifelong Democratic partisan is a stretch.

This argument has been made by Republicans every time the Democrats trot out the "violent rhetoric leads to violence" narrative. The truth is that only partisans and biased media need the meme that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts to score political points with the voters. There are several reasons an assassin like Jared Loughner, who shot 19 people in a Phoenix parking lot in 2011 including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, did what he did. What went through his mind at the time is unknowable. Democrats blamed Republicans anyway.

Ryan Routh's motivations may be different, but they are probably just as irrational. He was described as a "wack job" by foreign fighters he tried to join in Ukraine, according to the New York Post.

"A crazy idiot, but no one’s really surprised," said one American in Ukraine. "There are people like that that show up and are desperate to help and be important. And he was just one of those – just on the crazier end of things."

In 2011, the left immediately blamed a map created by Sarah Palin that targeted 30 vulnerable Democrats — including Giffords. The map showed where the congressional districts were and placed crosshairs on each district. Within hours of the assassination attempt, Democrats were blaming Palin. This, despite no evidence indicating that Loughner was motivated by anything connected to Palin's map or any rhetoric from any Republican.

There are very few cold-blooded assassins. The one thread that connects all of them is not politics or ideology. What ties these assassins together from John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald is an overweening desire for attention. Oswald was the neglected little boy who thought he'd be a hero in Communist countries by killing Kennedy. James Earl Ray similarly believed white supremacists would think him a saint for killing Martin Luther King.

Ryan Routh is a sad little man who wanted to be famous. How close he came to getting his wish, we'll never know.