MILWAUKEE — Soon after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt, many of his prominent supporters placed blame not on the gunman who pulled the trigger but on President Biden, other Democrats or journalists who have described the former president as a threat to democracy.
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) claimed that “Joe Biden sent the orders” because the president said days earlier that “it’s time to put Trump in a bull’s eye.” Kari Lake, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, said the shooting followed an “eight-year smear” campaign by journalists. And Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said Biden’s words portraying Trump as a fascist “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” Two days later, Trump named Vance as his running mate.
Trump didn’t go as far in his Thursday night speech accepting the Republican nomination, but he accused Democrats of trying to “demonize political disagreement” and called on the party to stop “labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy.”
“I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country,” Trump said.
As comments like those from Collins, Lake and Vance spiraled across the internet, many election officials watched with incredulity and frustration. For years, they felt ignored as they described how Trump’s relentless verbal attacks on the nation’s election systems and those who run them resulted in threats of violence and terrorizing harassment. Now, Trump’s prominent supporters were paying attention to the potential ramifications of rhetoric but without acknowledging how their words had contributed to the nation’s toxic divisions.
“The hardest thing to swallow is how suddenly the tables have completely turned and there’s no accountability for the comments that have opened the door for so many threats in the past several years,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D), who has experienced threats and has helped train and equip election officials to respond to violence.
Two Republicans who help run elections in Arizona expressed disbelief as members of their party sought to blame everyone but themselves for the combustible political environment.
“The same people who are deflecting and projecting are the same people who have been fanning the flame of extremism,” said one Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “They project that message to their followers — without any, any, any recognition that their guy has really been the worst actor in all of this.”
An expert who works with hundreds of election officials from around the nation described the moment as Orwellian, with those who spent years attacking democratic institutions now warning of the dangers of extreme rhetoric. The expert spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sentiments often privately conveyed among election officials since the shooting at Trump’s rally Saturday.
Since the 2020 election, investigators and prosecutors have cited rhetoric from the right for allegedly motivating attacks and threats that have sent some election officials into hiding and prompted others to institute serious security measures, including arming themselves. Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen, an assertion that many of his followers believe. In December, fewer than a third of Republicans believed Biden’s win was legitimate, according to a poll by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland.
Even those who fill election jobs that once drew little attention — like truck drivers who transport ballots or workers who test election equipment — are under the magnifying glass by fraud-hunting MAGA Republicans inspired by Trump’s false claims that the last election was stolen from him. The realities of their experiences are frequently brushed aside or ignored by many of the same Republicans who were quick to blame rhetoric from the left for the attack on Trump.
Some of those vilifying Democrats for their language for years have engaged in incendiary talk. Collins — who blamed Biden’s “bull’s eye” comment for the assassination attempt — posted a video on social media in January 2022 that featured him holding a rifle and explaining why he believes Trump, not Biden, won Georgia in 2020.
At the end of the video, Collins fires the gun at what’s labeled a voting machine and says: “Send me to Washington. I’ll fix this election. I’ll get to the bottom of 2020. And I will fight for Trump’s America First agenda.” A spokesman for Collins did not respond to a request for comment.
Lake, one of nation’s most outspoken election deniers, still hasn’t accepted that she lost Arizona’s 2022 race for governor, and she continues to baselessly accuse election officials of costing her a victory. Those officials say they have received numerous violent threats. This spring, Lake told supporters to get ready for an “intense” election as she runs for the Senate.
“We are going to put on the armor of God. And maybe strap on a Glock on the side of us just in case,” she said in April, as the crowd roared in approval. Earlier in the speech, she said she expected her supporters would be “ready for action,” particularly because so many of them were veterans or had law enforcement backgrounds.
In a statement, the Lake campaign stood by her criticism of Democrats, The Post and other media outlets and said she “has never advocated for political violence and is focused on unifying Arizonans.” Lake rejected the idea that Republicans need to change their tone in an interview this week with a British journalist, saying, “I actually think the tone has always been good.”
Vance, once a Trump critic, embraced the former president when he ran for the Senate and latched on to his false claims about elections, suggesting he would not have certified the 2020 results if he had been vice president. He has contended that rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were unjustly prosecuted, and in 2021, he said conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was a “far more reputable source of information” than MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
A spokesman for Vance declined to comment. Vance, in his speech Wednesday accepting the Republican nomination for vice president, praised Trump for calling for unity after the assassination attempt even though his opponents had called him an authoritarian who had to be stopped. A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said calling out election conspiracy theories is not partisan and is not responsible for political violence. The secretary’s office said the FBI notified it in the spring that the agency is investigating at least 10 cases involving threats against Griswold.
“It’s a false equation,” she said, “to say that standing up against attacks against democracy and providing some type of accountability for lies is the same thing as a call for violence. It is not.”
The Republican comments about how elections are conducted have come as many election workers have fielded volumes of harassing and threatening phone calls, emails and social media posts, many cloaked in anonymity. Some of the messages call for public executions of election workers. Others accuse them of being unpatriotic or treasonous simply for doing their jobs. The hostile environment has prompted many election workers to leave their posts. Many who remain have come to view the treatment as routine.
“Our election officials have experienced the consequences of the violent and threatening rhetoric that Trump and his followers have been spewing for years,” said Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House of Representatives’ first impeachment of Trump. “They receive threats, they can’t do their jobs — many have left their jobs. False claims are made about them on a regular basis.
“All of this is the direct result of this climate of intimidation that Trump and those around him have created. And they are experiencing this moment as one of hypocrisy and gaslighting — although, like all of us, they condemn the shooting.”
Some Republicans have “been in denial about the reality” of the consequences of their rhetoric, said New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver (D).
“They’ve seen it as a political tool to get the base riled up … and enthusiastic,” she said. “And frankly, it’s created a monster — and so here we are.”
Election officials worry the assassination attempt could inspire other violent acts. Some are quietly reassessing their security plans while holding no expectations that the climate will improve in the near term.
“Maybe this will be a wake-up moment for everyone to realize that this isn’t the kind of society that we want to live in,” said Scott McDonell (D), the county clerk in Dane County, Wis. “My fear is that people may calm down for a little bit, but then return to where it was before.”