\nThis story originally was published by Real Clear Wire<\/p>\n
By Philip Wegmann
\nReal Clear Wire<\/p>\n
Two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump have not clarified the Democratic position on whether that Republican represents an existential threat to democracy. The White House still calls him a threat. Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has mostly discarded that talking point.<\/p>\n
Trump wants it to stop either way. At least, when directed towards him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is time to stop the lies, stop the hoaxes, stop the smears, stop the lawfare or the fake lawsuits against me, and stop claiming your opponents will turn America into a dictatorship. Give me a break,\u201d the Republican nominee said at a Wednesday rally in New York.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBecause the fact is that I\u2019m not a threat to democracy,\u201d he continued, before turning around and using the rhetoric he just condemned against his opponents. \u201cThey are.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem for Trump: Harris has moved on from that rhetoric after the first assassination attempt. She did not use any of the democracy boilerplate during her debut rally in Milwaukee in July,<\/a> and when she accepted the nomination in Chicago last month,<\/a> she spoke in broad terms about \u201cfreedom.\u201d<\/p>\n This was a sudden change, as Harris was in the habit of denouncing Trump as \u201ca threat to our democracy.\u201d She used that exact phrase numerous times while Biden was still on the ticket, most recently on July 13, which was coincidentally the day of the first assassination attempt.<\/p>\n It took Gov. Tim Walz a little longer. While he won national headlines for branding Republicans \u201cweird,\u201d the Minnesota Democrat also called Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, \u201cfascists.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre they a threat to democracy? Yes. Are they going to take our rights away? Yes. Are they going to put people\u2019s lives in danger? Yes. Are they going to endanger the planet by not dealing with climate change? Yes,\u201d Walz said at a press conference<\/a> two weeks after the first attack on Trump.<\/p>\n All the same, the change has been complete. And since joining the ticket, Walz has followed the lead of Harris. During the ABC News debate, for instance, she pointed<\/a> to the Jan. 6 riot, and she took Trump\u2019s \u201cbloodbath\u201d comment out of context. The vice president did not, however, repeat claims that Biden first popularized by saying that democracy itself would end under a second Trump term.<\/p>\n The problem for Harris: The Democrats working the hardest to put her in the Oval Office still argue that Trump could end democracy itself.<\/p>\n Biden explained at the Democratic National Convention that he was leaving the ticket because \u201cthat threat is still very much alive.\u201d He loved the job, the outgoing president said on stage,<\/a> before adding, \u201cI love my country more, and we need to preserve our democracy.\u201d Sitting in the crowd, Harris beamed. The remarks came little more than one month after the first attempt on Trump\u2019s life.<\/p>\n The second assassination attempt, this one in Florida last week<\/a> and thwarted by the Secret Service before the shooter could open fire, did not change White House rhetoric.<\/p>\n When pressed on whether it was appropriate to still describe Trump as a threat, an exasperated Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration was \u201cnot just saying that to say it.\u201d Instead, the Biden spokeswoman replied, they were \u201cusing examples,\u201d namely the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol which she referenced more than a dozen times Tuesday.<\/p>\n Insinuating that Biden had fanned the flames with his rhetoric, an assertion held by Trump and nearly every elected Republican, she said was \u201cdangerous.\u201d<\/a> The press secretary repeatedly pointed out that \u201cthe president and the vice president have always forcefully condemned violence in all forms, including political violence.\u201d<\/p>\n And the condemnation of violence has indeed been universal. The switch from the old \u201cthreat to democracy\u201d framework, however, has not. While Harris has turned the page on calling Trump a threat, Democratic allies are following Biden\u2019s lead, not hers. During a Thursday interview on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe,\u201d former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton returned easily and quickly<\/a> to existential rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, this is a contest between freedom and oppression, between democracy and autocracy, between bringing people together and further dividing us,\u201d said Clinton, who hit similar themes at the Democratic convention.<\/p>\n That exact message \u2013 one Harris has shied away from delivering \u2013 Clinton continued, \u201chas to be communicated every single day between now and the election.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Harris Allies Continue Calling Trump \u2018Threat to Democracy\u2019<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire By Philip Wegmann Real Clear Wire Two assassination attempts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n