Vance Blames the Left for Attempts on Trump’s Life

Senator JD Vance of Ohio, in his first public remarks since the apparent assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump, condemned on Monday the inflammatory rhetoric “coming from too many corners of our politics.” But he took specific aim at Democrats, accusing them of going too far in casting Mr. Trump’s potential re-election as the end of democracy.

“I’m not going to say conservatives always get things exactly right,” Mr. Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, told the crowd at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in Atlanta on Monday evening.

But, he continued, “no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I think that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric or somebody is going to get hurt.”

In a social media post after his speech, Mr. Vance again blamed Democrats for the assassination attempts and added that “censorship” also plays a role in political violence. Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump have been criticized for spreading unfounded claims that Haitian migrants are eating pets in the town of Springfield, Ohio — claims that were followed by bomb threats targeting city schools. Mr. Vance has defended elevating the debunked rumors by arguing that he is drawing attention to other issues affecting the town that, in his view, have been caused by Democrats and ignored.

“Embrace censorship, and you will inevitably embrace violence on its behalf,” Mr. Vance wrote on X.

Before President Biden dropped out of the race, he campaigned heavily on portraying Mr. Trump as a threat to democracy. Vice President Kamala Harris has touched on it, too, but made it less of a focus of her campaign.

But Mr. Trump