"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight," Samuel Johnson quipped, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." Something similar could be said about surviving an assassination attempt.
Donald Trump himself had an epiphany in the hours after an assassin's bullet grazed his ear and came within an inch of altering American history. Alas, the same cannot be said of the American Left. Trump told Salena Zito on Monday that he'd tossed out the red meat acceptance speech he'd planned for Wednesday night at the RNC. "Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now… It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance."
Democrats were given the same chance, a chance to "lower the temperature," as Joe Biden requested on Sunday. My friend and HotAir colleague Ed Morrissey pointed out Monday that Biden himself had "made it impossible for his campaign and the DNC to continue to use its current messaging on Trump, only because he clearly didn’t have any choice after Saturday's attack." I wholeheartedly agreed with Ed's assessment and said so on Instapundit.
That was Monday morning. By midday Monday it was back to "TRUMP WILL MURDER OUR PRECIOUS DEMOCRACY!" business as usual.
By lunchtime, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O'Malley Dillon released a campaign statement warning that J.D. Vance would "bend over backward to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people."
"We're just gonna continue" calling President Trump a "threat to democracy," said White House PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre. You can watch the video of her here.
And AOC harshed on congressional Dems who seem resigned to a Trump win in November by saying they "should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism."
The Dems had their chance. They rejected it.
Recommended: WHOA: Young Voters Abandoning the Dems in Droves
My initial impression of Trump's would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, is that he was more of a John Hinckley-type assassin, driven by personal inadequacies rather than ideology. That's as opposed to a John Wilkes Booth, motivated by politics or revenge.
Caveats aside, if you're a twisted loser looking to make a name for yourself, the guy Democrats painted as Literally Hitler™ for the last eight years is your likely target. While Democrat rhetoric isn't what made Crooks a killer, it almost certainly narrowed down his target selection.
Again, these are initial impressions based on very little information — and subject to change.
I should have seen the Dems' backflip coming. Today's Democrats are the political descendants of the people who twisted JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald — who established the New Orleans chapter of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee and visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico — into a tool of right-wing fascists. The same trick is being used to paint Trump's rhetoric to blame for Trump's near-murder.
Maybe they're hoping to inspire a second gunman.
Did I just take it too far?
No, they did.
Let me wrap with a reminder that your favorite PJ Media writers (including Yours Truly, naturally) will liveblog Trump's "Bring the country together" acceptance speech on Wednesday night. Please join us for that and, if you'd like to partake in our Virtually Troll-Free™ comments section with our VIP members, take advantage of our MAGA24 promotion for… 60% off? Are you kidding me? We'll go broke! I kid — but you'll have a blast.
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