It’s hard enough to believe we live in a country where there have been not one, but two, attempts to assassinate a former president and current presidential candidate. What’s even harder to accept is how apparently. . . OK this is to a significant portion of the American population.
On Sunday, September 15, a lunatic and apparent uber-progressive named Ryan Routh tried to kill President Trump in Florida by sticking an assault rifle through a fence and taking aim while Trump was at a golf course. Secret service agents spotted the man and fired at him. They did not hit Routh, and he tried to get away. Addressing the nation on the social media platform X on Monday, September 16, Trump thanked the civilian bystander who spotted Routh trying to make a get-away, and he also thanked the Secret Service for protecting him.
“The civilian did a phenomenal job,” Trump said on X. “How many people would have the brainpower to follow him to the back of his truck?”
As the news spread, you could see the mainstream media trying to decide whether to report, downplay it, or blame Trump for it. Many of them decided to blame Trump, naturally. It’s sick, but there’s a name for this: narcissistic reversal. This is when a self-centered, callous person or entity (remember, we’re talking about the media) reverses the truth. In this case, the leftist media is doing to Trump what they decry when they claim that women or minorities are not taken seriously: victim-blaming.
NBC’s anchor Lester Holt can be seen dishonoring Trump and himself here:
The prolific X account “End Wokeness” found one of the worst examples; Cincinnati.com publishing a letter to an editor titled “Trump brings these assassination attempts on himself.”
And then there’s “The Hill,” who thought the real story was Republicans being angry over their candidate nearly being murdered for the second time.
Politico wasn’t much different:
The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols chimed in to argue that people wanting to kill Trump proves he shouldn’t be president.
The Washington Post initially reported on the assassination attempt as a “golf course episode,” while the New York Times reported “shots fired at Florida course,” and NBC called it the “Trump golf course incident.”
Here’s some reaction from X users:
This contribution from Paul Rossi illustrates an important concept that narcissistic and abusive people use to blame their victims for what a bully has done. DARVO stands for:
Deny
Attack
Reverse
Victim and
Offender
