Ryan Bridge: Is there a lesson in Trump's shooting for NZ's political leaders?

Barring any other major, ugly affronts to democracy this U.S. election season, the image of a bloodied former president surrounded by Secret Service agents gripping his fist and pumping it into the air after narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt will be one of the most enduring and iconic.

He's reported to be saying fight, fight. fight, with a somewhat understandably angry look on his face.

Donald Trump cheated death.

Questions are no doubt being asked about how and why this could have happened, as they should. How did 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, wearing grey camouflage clothing, manage to scale the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm show grounds with his dad's AR 15 rifle?

What's interesting, of all the eye witness interviews I watched over the weekend, all felt not surprised, it was only a matter of time.

Why?

After the shooting Republican senator J.D. Vance. a potential Trump running mate, blamed the Biden campaign for inciting the violence.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,”

“That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Another Trump ally senator, Tim Scott, said on social media - “Let’s be clear: this was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical left and corporate media incessantly calling trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse,”

At this time, we don't know the shooter's motive, and it should be pointed out that Trump often uses inflammatory language too.

Is there a lesson here for our political leaders, for the Chloe's chanting river to the sea? The Māori Party calling Luxon a white supremacist, for David Seymour is doubling down on saying he fantasised about sending Guy Fawkes into the Ministry of Pacific Peoples.

The fact is, you don't know what nutbar is out there listening and waiting for a cause big enough to prompt some sort of lone-wolf attack.

Here most attacks are pretty minor, a dildo to the face, lamington on the head. John Key was attacked by two men at Waitangi in 2009.

So the question is whether the use of extreme political language can raise the temperature and cause violence. Clearly Hitler answers that question.

So politicians here on the far left like Chloe and Waititi should take note and lower the tone of some of their attacks. Same with far-right keyboard warriors.

But I'd hate to see the day where our pollies can't joke and take the piss and be forthright with their words just because some idiot might be at home with a shotgun harbouring hate.

The question for the U.S. now is - does this quell the extreme left and right, or will this bloodshed be answered with more bloodshed?

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barring any other major ugly affronts to democracy this US
election season, the image of a bloodied former president gripping
his fist, blanketed in a human shield of Secret Service agents,
gripping his fist pumping it into the air after narrowly
avoiding an assassination attempt will surely be one of the
most enduring and iconic. He's reported that is Donald Trump

(00:23):
to be mouthing the words fight, fight, fight, with a
somewhat and understandably angry look on his face. Donald Donald
Trump cheated death. What's interesting of all the eyewitness interviews
I watched over the weekend, all of them felt that
this was no surprise. It was only a matter of time.
Why is that? The Washington Post looked at in an

(00:44):
article the extreme language being used by both the both campaigns,
both sides of it, the extreme left and the extreme right.
After the shooting, the Republican Senator JD. Vance, who's a
potential Trump running mate by the way, blamed the Biden
campaign for inciting this finance. He said, the central premise
of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is

(01:04):
an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.
That rhetoric. He says, this is a potential running mate
of Trump's. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempt
at assassination. Now, at this time we don't know the
shooter's motive. We should make clear that. But is there
a lesson here for our political leaders, for the Chloe's
chanting river to the sea, for the Maldi party calling

(01:27):
lux and a white supremacist, for David Seymour who was
joking about the guy Fawkes, and the Ministry of the
Pacific People's The fact is, you don't know what nutbar
is out there listening and waiting for a cause big
enough to prompt some sort of lone wolf attack. Here,
most of the attacks are pretty minor. You know the
old dildo to the face that Lamington on the Here,

(01:48):
John Key was attacked by two men at White Tongue
in two thousand and nine. They were both charged for that.
The question is whether the use of extreme political language
can raise the temperature and cause violence. Clearly Hitler answers
that question for us. So politicians here on the far left,
like Chloe and Yit should take note and lower the

(02:09):
tone of some of their attacks. But the same goes
for the far right, those keyboard warriors too. What I
would hate to see, though, is the day where our
politicians can't joke and take the mickey out out of
one another, speak forthrightly about their issues and their beliefs,
just because some idiot might be at home with a
shotgun harboring hate. Question for the US now is whether

(02:32):
does this whether it quells the extreme left and right,
or will this bloodshed be answered with more bloodshed? There
are alone for more from News Talks B listen live
on air or online, and keep our shows with you

(02:52):
wherever you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio