This possible second assassination attempt against Donald Trump demonstrates that the‘The 2024 presidential election is marked by political violence that is far beyond comprehension. However, the one who was the 45e The American president could be partly responsible for this anxious climate, suggests a specialist in the prevention of radicalization.
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After acknowledging that the political context in the United States has been “particularly tense for several years,” Professor David Morin, attached to the UNESCO Chair in the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism, maintains that “to a certain extent, Mr. Trump is getting a taste of his own medicine.”
“He has nevertheless largely contributed to polarizing the American political debate by bringing a discourse that was on the margins to the center of the political spectrum,” the expert emphasizes during an interview on the show. The Balance SheetMonday night. “When he says that white Christian America is threatened by immigrants, wokes, communists, etc., he ultimately creates a context of anxiety-provoking fear that ultimately means that you have a certain number of people who can take violent action.”
“It leads a number of people to feel that they have to use force to get things done,” he adds.
But Professor Morin, who says he condemns political violence “wherever it comes from, whatever the side or the reasons for which it is expressed”, maintains that “there is also a rhetoric and a part of the Democrats who have fallen into the trap of Donald Trump’s bellicose rhetoric”.
Thus, some activists in the Democratic camp say, “rightly or wrongly, that (Donald Trump) represents such a threat to democracy that he must be stopped by all means,” the expert mentions.
“From that moment on, speeches that are on the margins of political debate become more and more centered and we see that we have an increase in opinion polls in the United States where we see that there are more people who are ready to justify political violence to defend their ideas and possibly save what they think is America on one side or the other,” he notes.
And it is not just Republicans who have been victims of violent acts in recent years, as billionaire Elon Musk suggested in a post on his social network, X.
Mr. Morin recalls that it was right-wing fervents who carried out the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. And, in 2022, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic leader of the United States House of Representatives, nearly died when a man broke into his home and fractured his skull with a hammer.
