LARRY KUDLOW: Political rhetoric has never been so foul
I believe the Democrats' toxic climate of attacks on President Trump is a key reason for these assassination attempts and that's the subject of the "riff." You might not be able to prove it in a court of law, but you'll never convince me that this democratic climate of toxic attacks on Donald Trump isn't a major reason for the two attempted assassinations on his life.
Political rhetoric has never been so foul as what leading Democrats, especially Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, have repeatedly called Donald Trump again and again. "Trump is a threat to our democracy, a threat to the nation, and an existential threat, a threat to the very soul of the country, an extremist threat, a dictator, Adolf Hitler, and on and on." Now, you have to be a nut job to want to assassinate a president, any president, but this guy was clearly a Trump hater and in his social media postings and various media interviews, he echoes the extremist rhetoric of leading Democrats against Trump.
Then, another point worth making in this terrible story is the simple question of, "Who is in charge of the Secret Service?" Well, the short answer is "DHS Secretary Mayorkas," but the longer and more important answer is "President Joe Biden." Now, "open borders Mayorkas" has been a complete failure and incredibly enough, he is nowhere to be found after two assassination attempts on Mr. Trump. No accountability whatsoever, but the bigger question is, "where is Joe Biden? Why didn't he actually fire the first Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, after the incredible mistakes that were made in Butler, Pennsylvania?"
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A point made by Mr. Trump in his debate with Kamala Harris is that they never seem to fire anybody. The Afghanistan catastrophe, the open border catastrophe, the inflation catastrophe—nobody ever gets fired in the Biden-Harris administration. This is very peculiar. Now, here on this point, please take a listen to my pal Mark Levin, who was on last night on FOX. Take a listen.
MARK LEVIN: Who is in charge? We don't have any idea who's in charge. Who's in charge of protecting a presidential candidate in this country? You know, I'm a little older. I served in the Reagan administration as a chief of staff to Attorney General Mills and let me tell you what would have happened in that administration. Ronald Reagan would have picked up the phone. He would have called Attorney General Meese. He would have said, "You're in charge of getting to the bottom of this and you've got 48 hours to do it."
Now, Harry Truman's phrase, "the buck stops here" has never been part of Joe Biden's vocabulary. Not only should Biden have fired Kimberly Cheatle, but it's almost inconceivable that after the Butler, Pa. debacle, President Biden didn't immediately provide Donald Trump with all the protection received by a current president.
It is inconceivable. Now, hats off to the Secret Service agent who miraculously spotted the barrel of the gun of the would-be assassin peeking out of the bushes at the Trump golf course. OK, hats off, but as much as this was a great personal achievement, unfortunately it was still a bureaucratic failure by the Secret Service because the perimeter outside the golf course should have been covered.
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Multilayered security should be routine, but it wasn't. Nor was it at the Butler field either and according to some senators, their preliminary report regarding the Secret Service mistakes in Butler, Pennsylvania, well, that report is going to be a disaster.
For his part, Mr. Trump said yesterday, "Nothing will slow me down. I will never surrender," but it does seem providential that he has survived two assassination attempts. God has saved his life twice. As Mr. Trump's son Eric told Sean Hannity yesterday, "my father is running out of lives here," and that is the riff.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Sept. 16, 2024, edition of "Kudlow."