U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) hears the calls to “turn down the temperature” in American politics after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday.
Both President Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) used the “turn down the temperature” phrase in the aftermath of the shooting to plead for less rancor and violence after Trump was grazed by a bullet and a rallygoer was killed.
But Murphy doesn’t want to turn down the temperature unilaterally and, while condemning political violence entirely, the senator is not standing down from his argument that Trump is responsible for turning the temperature up to a boil in America — and that Trump, Murphy asserts, “has done more to glorify political violence” than any other politician.
What happened Saturday is unacceptable. It should never happen again.
Toward that end, it isn’t “politicizing” the tragedy to point out that no politician has done more to glorify political violence than Donald Trump.
That’s just the truth. We shouldn’t be afraid to say it.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 15, 2024
In a moment when every event or statement swiftly gets politicized, Murphy claims that it “isn’t politicizing the tragedy [of Trump’s being shot]” to “point out” what Murphy and others characterize as Trump’s tendency to glorify violence.
“That’s just the truth,” Murphy writes. “We shouldn’t be afraid to say it.” (Murphy is careful not to say “you reap what you sow,” but that biblical warning — Galatians 6:7 — undergirds his sentiment.)
[NOTE: Before Trump-friendly billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter and changed its name and rules, a tweet by then-President Trump received a warning label for violating the social media company’s rules about “glorifying violence.” Trump’s phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” was flagged.]
Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) and other Democratic lawmakers shared Murphy’s post about the glorification of political violence to their millions of followers.
Murphy also called out Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in the wake of the assassination attempt, saying her post was “designed to inspire more violence.”
This is designed to inspire more violence.
And Greene isn’t some fringe figure. She’s a top ally of Trump and one of the most important, influential and popular Republicans in the country.
When she came to Connecticut, 3,000 Republicans showed up. pic.twitter.com/fzDDFIRZGy
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 15, 2024
Trump supporters attacked Murphy for his post, with one response post showing a split screen of Biden in different situations — one where he is delivering a political attack on what he claims are the dangers of electing his opponent, and another calling for unity after Trump was shot.
The comments on that post included the one featured below, which asserts that Biden plainly “meant to peacefully vote MAGA Republicans out of office.”
You know damn well what he meant in the second clip.
He meant to peacefully vote MAGA Republicans out of office. We’re not like you people who would go to lengths such as attacking the Capitol to try to change the outcome of an election.
— waves (@WavesofUSA) July 15, 2024
Responses also included a less partisan response pr esenting the idea that the Biden clips, despite diverging in tone and purpose, were not examples of hypocrisy.
Both are true
— Wayne Goveia (@NDWayno) July 15, 2024