Politics
Illinois GOP Chair Calls for End to ‘Dangerous Rhetoric’ After Apparent Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump
Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi speaks at a news conference Sept. 16, 2024. (Amanda Vinicky / WTTW News)
After a second failed attempt by a shooter to assassinate Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, Illinois Republicans called for an end to “escalating, dangerous rhetoric,” even as Trump in a social media post Monday continued his regular attacks on his political adversaries.
"Illinois Republicans stand united in our prayers for President Trump’s safety,” Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi said in a statement. “Political violence has no place in our nation, and the escalating, dangerous rhetoric must come to an end.”
Surrounded by Republican candidates running for office in Cook County, Salvi at a news conference Monday invited voters to give down-ballot Republicans “a chance,” even if it meant ignoring the party’s figurehead and nominee for president.
“If you don’t like Trump, turn off the TV for four years for heaven’s sake,” Salvi said. “But you’ll sleep easier at night knowing that our international standing has been secured, that we are respected again internationally, that our taxes will be lower, that our border to the south will be secured and that people can be able to use more of their hard-earned dollars to their own purpose.”
Salvi called for disenfranchised Democrats, teachers, union members and others to give Republicans “a chance.”
“We are not a divisive party, where we point fingers at each other and blame,” Salvi said. “We take responsibility, and we move forward for the betterment of all people that we serve. Don’t be afraid to press that ‘R.’ We’re asking that if you want to protest, if you want to change things, do it at the ballot box. Silently.”
Salvi said she needed to wait to see what an investigation into Sunday’s incident reveals, but that “it does raise questions” about the level of protection for Trump and other former presidents.
“We absolutely need to secure all, all threats,” Salvi said. “The dangerous rhetoric is what leads to things like this. We have to be careful and responsible.”
When asked whether Trump’s long history of inflammatory remarks and name-calling are a main contributor to that “dangerous rhetoric,” chair of the Chicago Republican Party Chuck Hernandez, a former Chicago Police Department detective, said he understands the “criminal element” and that there are people who are “unhinged.”
“What’s going on is, we’re creating too much of a heated rhetoric,” Hernandez said. “And it’s not coming from the right. It’s coming from the left. When you compare Donald Trump to Hitler over and over, that is put in people’s minds that we need to stop him. They keep saying he’s a threat to democracy. He’s not a threat to democracy. He’s been our president before.”
Christina Amestoy, a spokesperson for JB for Governor, the political campaign for Gov. J.B. Pritzker, said in a statement, “Governor Pritzker has repeatedly condemned political violence and has made clear that it has no place in our country.”
The Cook County Board’s sole Republican, commissioner Sean Morrison, also blamed the “radicalized left.”
“The fact that not one but two assassination attempts against President Trump in barely two months is an indictment of the vitriolic political language used by the Left to incite this type of violent and deadly behavior,” Morrison said in a statement. “.... May God continue to protect President Trump and those around him from the radicalized evil that is permeating our country’s political discourse.”
Those comments align with Trump’s own take.
On Monday, Trump called the Democratic nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris, “Comrade” and wrote in a post on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) that she “has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust. Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!”
Harris, for her part, condemned “political violence” at large, without naming partisan ideals or individuals.
In a statement through the her office as vice president, Harris said, “We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”
Trump is safe after a Secret Service agent on Sunday spotted a gun barrel while Trump was golfing at his Florida club.
The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, was charged Monday.
Trump suffered an injured ear nearly two months ago after a bullet grazed him in an initial assassination attempt during a July rally in Pennsylvania.
Then, Trump reacted with a call for uniting the nation.
That an armed individual could get so close to Trump has also reignited questions over law enforcement’s capabilities.
“Thank God the president is okay,” President Joe Biden told reporters in Washington, D.C., Monday. “But one thing I want to make clear: The service needs more help. … I think the Congress should respond to their needs, if they, in fact, need more service people.”
Acting head of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe, who took over after former director Kimberly Cheatle was pushed out following the Trump rally shooting that resulted in one man’s death, said the agency works under a paradox of having no option to fail, while being asked to do more protective work with fewer resources.
Rowe said support from Congress has been “tremendous” and that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is “one of our biggest champions” and his “support in making sure that we’re getting what we need has been phenomenal.”
Still, at the close of a news conference Monday, Rowe said the agency has both immediate and future needs, specifically funding to hire and train more personnel.
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
