Trump isn't the real threat to democracy. The would-be assassins trying to kill him are.
Former President Donald Trump has survived two assassination attempts in a little more than nine weeks. Both attempts on the Republican presidential nominee's life raise questions about his security detail and our fraught political climate.
But neither attempt has derailed Trump, who remains, according to polls, locked in a tight race with Vice President Kamala Harris, and the failed attempt on Sunday will likely galvanize a Republican base that feels disenfranchised but remains zealous.
Much of the legacy news media and the Democratic Party loathe Trump. Perhaps rightly so. Some Republicans do as well, and I'm no fan of the former president.
But tens of millions of Americans will cast their votes for him in about seven weeks. If we truly value democracy, we must want Trump to be safe for the sake of the democratic process.
Assassination attempt raises security questions
On July 13, Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The 20-year-old gunman in that incident was able to fire at least six shots, grazing Trump on his ear, killing a person in the audience and wounding two others.
On Sunday, Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested in an apparent attempt to kill Trump while the former president played golf at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
We likely will learn more as the days go on, but this second assassination attempt raises immediate questions. Did Secret Service agents follow their typical advance protocol? How did the gunman know Trump would be on the golf course Sunday afternoon? How was a person with a rifle and scope able to get within a few hundred yards of Trump? Why isn't the Secret Service doing a better job of protecting a former president now running for reelection?
It's stunning that a presidential candidate has come close to death twice in two months. We do not yet have answers to similar questions raised after the July assassination attempt. Congress must again press the Secret Service for swift, detailed answers.
Conspiracy theories aside, Americans also deserve to know whether something even more sinister is happening. We know that Iran has recently plotted against Trump. The Associated Press reported Monday that Routh wrote last year, in a self-published book, that Iran was "free to assassinate Trump."
It might be tempting to shrug off those facts as a coincidence, but they deserve investigation.
Who is the real Kamala Harris? Voters deserve answers.
Suspect in Trump assassination attempt was obsessed with war in Ukraine
The suspect's social media posts show an obsession with defending Ukraine. He indicated in 2022 that he had traveled there in hopes of defending the country in its war with Russia. He also gave several interviews to U.S. news outlets, including The New York Times, about his desire to defend Ukraine.
His X account is now suspended, but in a June 2020 post, he slammed Trump: "While you were my choice in 2016, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving. I will be glad when you gone."
In an April 2024 post on X, he wrote, "DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose. We cannot afford to fail."
The idea that democracy itself at stake in this election seems overwrought. That is, however, a main talking point of much of the media and the Democratic Party. Routh is alone responsible for his actions, but they didn't occur in a vacuum.
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News media journalists seem to blame Trump
It didn't take long for legacy news media to blame Trump for his own assassination attempt.
On Sunday, an MSNBC host wondered if the Trump campaign would be "toning down the rhetoric,โ implying Trump's political positions or the way he talks about his views is somehow responsible for someone trying to assassinate him again.
NBC News' Lester Holt made a similar insinuation: "Today's apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail."
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Both the Harris and Trump campaigns engage in intense rhetoric. But the real threat to democracy isn't the candidates but actual political violence ? the kind that has threatened Trump's life twice in two months.
Despite the fact he's a billionaire, Trump promotes himself as a leader to the disenfranchised and voiceless, and one who stands up against an establishment that looks down on him and the millions of Americans who support him.
Trying to silence him with a bullet only reinforces that popular appeal
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump assassination attempt only reinforces his appeal to voters