WASHINGTON: Republicans and Democrats fought pitched verbal battles on the political affiliation of the alleged gunman Ryan Routh in the hours after a purported assassination attempt on MAGA supremo Donald Trump.
MAGA activists pointed to his Democratic voter registration and political contributions to pro-Democrat groups to allege he is a Democrat. The liberal constituency cited his self-confessed voting for Trump in 2016, and his support for GOP principals Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Tulsi Gabbard to insist he is Republican.
Taunts, gibes, and slurs flowed over social media as partisan activists sought to make political capital from the episode, with the Trump campaign sending out fund-raising email linked to the assassination attempt and liberal activists mocking it as a “staged event.”
Liberals also raised MAGA hackles by pointing out that the potential assassin was “not an immigrant, not Haitian or Venezuelan, not black,” but a home-grown white malcontent with easy access to guns.
Republicans accused liberals of fomenting an atmosphere that was encouraging violence by posting video clips of various leftist activists calling for resistance to the MAGA movement, a charge that Democrats turned around with videos of Trump condoning violence.
Amid all this, Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man with one of the largest social media following triggered Democratic outrage by tweeting, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” in what he later suggested was a light-hearted response to a user who asked: “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Musk later deleted his post saying, “one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”
MAGA Republicans were in turn triggered by a former White House official’s wife tweeting “No ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday afternoon,” moments after the Florida event, in an apparent reference to the Pennsylvania assassination attempt that nicked Trump’s ear.
MAGA activists pointed to his Democratic voter registration and political contributions to pro-Democrat groups to allege he is a Democrat. The liberal constituency cited his self-confessed voting for Trump in 2016, and his support for GOP principals Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Tulsi Gabbard to insist he is Republican.
Taunts, gibes, and slurs flowed over social media as partisan activists sought to make political capital from the episode, with the Trump campaign sending out fund-raising email linked to the assassination attempt and liberal activists mocking it as a “staged event.”
Liberals also raised MAGA hackles by pointing out that the potential assassin was “not an immigrant, not Haitian or Venezuelan, not black,” but a home-grown white malcontent with easy access to guns.
Republicans accused liberals of fomenting an atmosphere that was encouraging violence by posting video clips of various leftist activists calling for resistance to the MAGA movement, a charge that Democrats turned around with videos of Trump condoning violence.
Amid all this, Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man with one of the largest social media following triggered Democratic outrage by tweeting, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” in what he later suggested was a light-hearted response to a user who asked: “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Musk later deleted his post saying, “one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”
MAGA Republicans were in turn triggered by a former White House official’s wife tweeting “No ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday afternoon,” moments after the Florida event, in an apparent reference to the Pennsylvania assassination attempt that nicked Trump’s ear.