Trump stopped short of going that far in his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination on Thursday night, but he did criticize Democrats for “trying to demonize political difference” and call on the party to stop “labeling our political opponents as enemies of democracy.”
“I am the one who will save our democracy for the people of our country,” Trump said.
As comments from Collins, Lake, Vance and others spread online, many election officials watched in disbelief and frustration. For years, they had felt ignored, saying Trump’s relentless verbal attacks on the nation’s election system and its administrators had led to threats of violence and harassment through fear. Now, prominent Trump supporters are mindful of the potential impact of their words but not acknowledging how their own words contributed to harmful divisions in the country.
“What’s most difficult to accept is the sudden reversal of the tables and no explanation for the comments that have opened the door to so many threats over the past few years,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D), who has experienced threats and has helped train and equip election officials to respond to violence.
Two Republicans supporting the campaign In the Arizona elections, he expressed disbelief at party members’ attempts to blame everyone but themselves for the unstable political situation.
“The people who are deflecting and projecting are the same ones who have been fanning the flames of extremism,” one person said. “They’re projecting that message to their supporters,” said one Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Any, any, any The realization that their guy was really the worst actor in this.”
One expert who works with hundreds of election officials across the U.S. described the moment as Orwellian: People who for years have attacked democratic institutions are now warning about the dangers of extreme rhetoric. The expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, echoed sentiments that have often been communicated privately among election officials since the shooting at Saturday’s Trump rally.
Since the 2020 election, investigators Prosecutors have said right-wing rhetoric motivated the attacks and threats, which led some election officials to go into hiding and others to take strict security measures, including being armed. Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen, an assertion many of his supporters believe. Fewer than a third of Republicans believed Biden’s victory was legitimate in December, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll.
Even people who work in election-related jobs that once drew little attention, like truck drivers who deliver ballots or election equipment inspectors, have come under scrutiny from fraud-hungry MAGA Republicans inspired by Trump’s false claims that the last election was stolen. The reality of their experiences is often ignored or dismissed by many of the same Republicans who have been quick to blame the attacks on Trump on left-wing rhetoric.
Some of those who have criticized Democrats for years have made inflammatory remarks. Collins blamed Biden’s “point-blaming” for the assassination attempt. Video posted to social media in January 2022 In the video, he holds a rifle and explains why he believes Trump, not Biden, won Georgia in 2020.
At the end of the video, Collins fires a gun at what appears to be a voting machine. “Send me to Washington. I will rig this election. I will get to the bottom of 2020. And I will fight for Trump’s America First agenda.” A spokesman for Collins did not respond to a request for comment.
Lake, one of the nation’s most outspoken election deniers, has yet to accept that he lost the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election and continues to baselessly accuse election officials of preventing him from winning. Officials say they have received multiple violent threats. This spring, Lake urged his supporters to prepare for a “violent” election as he runs for U.S. Senate.
“We’re going to put on the armor of God, and maybe strap a Glock on our waist just in case,” she said in April, as the crowd cheered in agreement. At the start of her speech, she said she expected her supporters to be “ready for action,” especially since many of them are military veterans and come from law enforcement backgrounds.
In a statement, Lake’s campaign supported his criticism of the Democratic Party, the Washington Post and other media, saying “he has never advocated political violence and is focused on uniting Arizonans.” Speaking to British journalists this week, Lake rejected the idea that the Republican Party needed to change its attitude, saying: “Actually, I think I’ve always been in good shape.”
Vance, a one-time critic of Trump, defended the former president during his run for Senate, stuck to his false claims about the election and suggested he would not have certified the 2020 election results if he had been vice president. Vance has argued that the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, were wrongly prosecuted, and said conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was a “much more credible source” in 2021 than MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
A spokesman for Vance declined to comment. In his speech accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination on Wednesday, Vance praised Trump for calling for unity after the assassination attempt, even as his opponents called him a dictator and said he must be stopped. A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.
Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold, a Democrat, said election conspiracy theories are not partisan and do not cause political violence. Her office said the FBI notified her in the spring that it was investigating at least 10 cases involving threats against her.
“It’s a misconception that speaking out against attacks on democracy and seeking some kind of accountability for the lies is the same as calling for violence. It’s not,” she said.
As Republicans comment on how the election was conducted, many election workers have been dealing with a flood of harassing and threatening phone calls, emails and social media posts, many of which are made anonymously. Some of the messages call for the public execution of election workers, while others accuse them of being unpatriotic or treasonable for simply doing their jobs. The hostile environment has led many election workers to quit their jobs; many who remain have come to view the treatment as normal.
“Our election officials have experienced the effects of the violent and threatening rhetoric spewed by Trump and his supporters for years,” said Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel during Trump’s first impeachment trial by the House of Representatives. “They have been intimidated, they have been unable to do their jobs, and many have left office as false claims are routinely made about them.”
“All of this is a direct result of the atmosphere of intimidation created by Trump and those around him, who are experiencing this moment as a moment of hypocrisy and gaslighting, even though they, like all of us, condemn the shootings.”
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said some Republicans were “denying the reality of the consequences of their words.”
“They saw it as a political tool to galvanize and excite their base,” she said, “and frankly, it created a monster, and here we are.”
Election officials worry the assassination attempt could incite other violence, and some are quietly reassessing their security plans, not expecting the situation to improve anytime soon.
“This may be the start of people realizing that this is not the society we want to live in,” said Scott McDonnell, a Democrat who is the county clerk for Dane County, Wisconsin. “I’m worried that people will calm down for a little while, but then they’ll go back to the way things were before.”
