By S.A. McCarthy
The Washington Stand
A shocking new survey is revealing that nearly a fifth of Americans wish former President Donald Trump had been slain by an assassin’s bullet. According to a Napolitan News Service poll conducted by RMG Research founder and president Scott Rasmussen, 17% of surveyed voters answered “Yes” when asked if the U.S. would be “better off if Donald Trump had been killed…” Nearly 70% of voters responded “No” and 14% said that they were “not sure.”
Over a quarter (28%) of those who replied “Yes” were registered Democrats, while another 27% were identified as voters who “lean Dem.” Additionally, 12% of Independent voters, 7% of registered Republicans and 1% of voters who “lean GOP” said that the nation would be “better off” if Trump were to be assassinated.
However, a majority of every political demographic — except registered Democrats — said that the nation would not be “better off.” An unsurprising 92% and 91% of registered Republicans and voters who lean Republican, respectively, answered “No” to the survey’s question, as did 66% of Independents and 53% of voters who lean Democrat. Less than half (47%) of registered Democrats said that the country would not be “better off.” Overall, a combined total of 53% of registered Democrats either responded that the country would be better if Trump were assassinated or said that they don’t know if the country would be better off or not.
The poll’s publication follows a second assassination attempt against Trump on September 15, which itself came almost exactly two months after a would-be killer shot the 45th president in the side of the head at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “The desensitization of some Americans following the second assassination attempt of former President Trump is alarming,” Napolitan News Service noted. Rasmussen added, “It is hard to imagine a greater threat to democracy than expressing a desire to have your political opponent murdered.”
The survey also discovered that almost half (49%) of Democrats polled believed that the Trump campaign and possibly even Trump himself orchestrated or was involved in the assassination attempts as a political ploy. Meanwhile, a majority (52%) of Republicans said that they believe the Democratic Party and its operatives were involved in the assassination attempts.
Following the second assassination attempt and the revelation that Ryan Routh, who attempted to shoot Trump while the former president played golf, directly quoted Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris’s “democracy is on the ballot” sound bites, the Trump campaign argued that the rhetoric used by Democrats “inspired” the assassination attempts. The Trump team said that the two attempted assassins were “egged on by the rhetoric and lies that have flowed from Kamala Harris, Democrats, and their Fake News allies for years.” The campaign statement continued, “Democrats used increasingly incendiary rhetoric against President Trump in the days, weeks, and months leading up to the two assassination attempts…”
Examples the campaign provided of that rhetoric included Harris and her boss, President Joe Biden, repeatedly referring to Trump as a “threat,” including “a threat to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms.” Harris’s running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and countless other Democratic Party or Democrat-aligned politicians have echoed the claim that Trump is a “threat” to the nation or to democracy, with some also labeling him an “enemy” or “destructive” and some using violent terminology, such as saying that the former president needs to be “eliminated” or put in a “bullseye.”
Democrat Stacey Plaskett, a delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the U.S. Virgin Islands, explicitly said that Trump “needs to be shot,” and Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson said that somebody needs to “go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump.”
Addressing the attempts on his life at a recent campaign rally in Long Island, New York, Trump credited God with protecting him. “God has now spared my life,” Trump declared. Looking to Heaven and raising his hand, he added, “It must have been. God, thank you.” The former president continued, “These encounters with death have not broken my will, they have really given me a much bigger and stronger mission. They have only hardened my resolve to use my time on earth to make America great again for all Americans, to put America first.”
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
