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Al’s Afternoon Tea: Legacy Media: ‘Look at Trump’s Haitian Rhetoric, Not the Shooter with Ties to Ukraine’

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 13: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump walks from the podium after speaking during a press conference at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles on September 13, 2024 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. On Sunday, September 15, 2024, Secret Service foiled a plot to assassinate him at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

By Al Perrotta Published on September 16, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea. Today, a chance to gather and thank God for again protecting former President Donald Trump. What’s the latest on the second assassination attempt, which took place yesterday?

“How Many More Lives Does My Father Have Left?”

For the second time in barely two months, former President Donald Trump has been targeted in an assassination attempt.

“How many more lives does my father have left?” Eric Trump tearfully told Sean Hannity afterward.

Yet astonishingly, the echoes of gunfire had barely made it down the fairways at Trump’s golf course before the man’s political enemies were shrugging off this latest effort to murder him.

Less than two hours after the attack, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries tweeted, “We must stop them.” (Meaning Trump and the MAGA movement.)

To which someone replied, “Stop them with AK-47s and a go-pro?”

Media’s Coordinated Message: He Had It Coming — Again

MSNBC’s Alex Witt reacted to the assassination attempt by suggesting the Trump campaign is the one that needs to turn down the rhetoric. He’s referring to the guy Democrats compare to Hitler, call “a threat to democracy,” claim is “responsible for the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War,” and vow shall never return to the Oval Office. He’s the problem? The guy dodging bullets?

Perhaps you’re thinking Witt just has a brain as concussed as Tua Tagovailoa’s. But no. That was the talking point across the major networks: Trump is responsible for this attack — particularly because of the way he and running mate J.D. Vance talk about Haitian immigrants.

If Hollywood had given out Emmys last night for Most Repugnant, NBC’s Lester Holt would have walked away with the award.

“Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail. Mr. Trump and his running mate JD Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio …”

No, Lester. The shooting comes amid your team constantly saying Trump is a budding dictator and a threat to democracy. In fact, failed assassin Ryan Routh actually used the “Democracy is on the ballot” line in an X post recently.

Not only did ABC News try to tie the shooting to Trump’s talk about Haitian immigrants, but blamed Trump because he wanted to play golf on his own course. Which he owns.

Yeah. Really.

CBS’s 60 Minutes decided not to pull a J6 hit piece on Trump last night that again labeled him a “threat to democracy” hours after the assassination attempt. The takeaway message from that? “He deserved it.”

David Frum of The Atlantic used the same talking point as the networks.

What do you call it when all three legacy news networks, in addition to MSNBC and leading leftist influencers, decide to immediately blame Trump for the attempt on his life, talk about the Haitians, and mimic the words of the would-be killer? We call that coordination.

Is it just because they hate Trump and know his resilience and doggedness in the face of these assassination attempts boost his chances in November? Or is it something bigger and deeper, more desperate, than that?

Why the rush to push attention away from the actual assailant?

Who would be wanting to push the discussion toward Haitian immigrants rather than the would-be assassin’s role in Ukraine?

Why, for that matter, does Ukraine always end up in the center of domestic news stories?  

What’s Wrong with the Vindmans?

Then there are the absolutely soulless reactions to the shooting — most notably from Rachel Vindman, the wife of Ukraine impeachment instigator Alexander Vindman (which makes her the sister-in-law of Eugene Vindman, a Democrat who is running for Congress right now in Virginia). Barely minutes after the assassination attempt, she posted this: “No ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday afternoon.”

After all the heat, Vindman changed her tune Monday, deleting the tweet, but did not apologize. In fact, she tried to make herself the victim.

https://twitter.com/natsechobbyist/status/1835697694037135671

Normally we wouldn’t care what someone who isn’t in office or running for it has to say, but again, we’re talking a Vindman here — which means we’re talking about Ukraine.

Alexander Vindman, whose lie about Trump’s call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ignited the frenzy to impeach Trump in 2020, himself blamed Trump for yesterday’s incident.

He continued stoking the flames of vitriol against Trump today with further posts about Trump inciting violence. 

Hear what Vindman is saying: It’s Trump’s rhetoric that would inspire someone who shares Vindman’s ideology, hatred of Trump and obsession with Ukraine to try and kill him. That is evil. The question is: Is there a connection? 

Sean Davis of The Federalist is right. How might shooter Ryan Routh be tied to the Vindmans, and how closely? Do you think the guy who says he was asked to be Ukraine’s defense minister — and who was implicated in a Ukraine war-profiteering scheme — doesn’t know a fellow American who is recruiting Afghans and others for that fight?

We have to learn the answers.

Once Again, Something About This Stinks. Starting With the Shooter

Like the Butler shooting, this attempted assassination stinks to high heaven.

Trump made a last-minute decision yesterday to play golf, according to CNN. It was not on his public schedule. So how did Routh know he’d be playing and where to set up his blind? What contacts did Routh, who lives in Hawaii, have inside the club in Florida? Or more to the point, what contacts did this man who recruits mercenaries for Ukraine and does propaganda ads for the neo-Nazi connected Azov Brigade have with the federal government?

Routh is not just some random nut with a Biden-Harris sticker on his truck — though he is that.

He’s also this:

https://twitter.com/BuzzPatterson/status/1835448908593639539

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Ryan Routh is so involved in helping Ukraine recruit fighters that he’s been interviewed by both The New York Times and Newsweek. His big plan was to recruit Afghan fighters and send them into Ukraine — illegally, if necessary. He also has spoken of his own desire to “fight and die” in Ukraine.

Charlie Kirk asks, “What are the odds that this shooter, who spent months fighting in Ukraine, has zero links to anyone in U.S. military or intelligence circles?”

About the same odds as Taylor Swift performing at a Trump rally.  

That said, Ukraine officials are denying any connection to Routh, as is the Azov Brigade, although he appeared in one of their propaganda videos in 2022. The International Legion, home to many foreign fighters in Ukraine, likewise denies any link to Routh, though the Telegraph reports that Routh was in contact with the Legion, and caused them headaches by posting the names of foreign fighters on his website and trying to meddle in internal affairs.

Routh made his first court appearance today. The good news? He’s alive and strikes me as the kind of person who’ll be happy to mouth off about his motivations when the time comes. 

If I had to place money on it, I’d predict Routh will paint himself — like Vindman — as a super patriot who acted to protect “democracy” not just here, but in Ukraine. I doubt if he’ll say anything about Haitians.

Do You Trust the FBI to Investigate? Neither Does DeSantis

Trusting the FBI to investigate Trump’s attempted assassinations is like trusting Jeffrey Epstein to investigate a break-in at a girls’ school. And with this assassination attempt, the situation becomes even more farcical. Did you see the FBI agent in charge of the Miami office who briefed the public yesterday? His name is Jeffrey Veltri. Last year, a whistleblower testified to Congress that Veltri is such a virulent Trump hater that top brass wanted his social media scrubbed of its anti-Trump vitriol before he could be promoted.

According to the whistleblower, FBI boss Christopher Wray and other top brass couldn’t care less about Veltri’s actual bias. They just wanted to make sure “information related to Veltri’s political bias can be removed from the public domain,” to create the appearance of him not having any.

Fortunately, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also has little faith in the FBI’s willingness to do its duty. He’s ordering the state to conduct its own investigation.

While we’re at it, how much trust do you have in the Secret Service? They let someone with an AK-47 get within 500 feet of Trump. Again, law enforcement yesterday downplayed this by echoing the “Trump’s only a former president” line.

Said Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, “At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”

This just two months after that same federal agency let Thomas Crooks get almost close enough to get an autograph — and that happened after the feds revealed Iran is plotting to kill Trump, so his security should have been much tighter at the time. And, as we just learned last week, the Secret Service never told local police in Butler to secure the building from which Crooks took his shot . (Remember early on the Secret Service said “local police” were supposed to cover the building? So we’re also dealing with less-than-honest players.)

“A Strong Reminder We Have to Pray for This Man”

Make no mistake: Yesterday’s shooting was another very close call, despite the media’s desperate efforts to downplay it. A trained mercenary was fully set up and within range, with the president heading his way on an open course. Thankfully, a Secret Service agent spotted the gun barrel poking through the foliage and opened fire, thwarting a kill shot.

Two months ago, it was the hand of God moving Trump’s head at just the right time and angle for a bullet to miss his skull.

Twice now, Donald Trump has been spared. Love him or hate him, people of faith must see how principalities and powers have mustered in an effort to destroy him — and that they are growing increasingly desperate.

Franklin Graham said it best in a Facebook post yesterday: “This is a strong reminder that we have to pray for this man.”

 

On the Stream Menu

Stream contributor and pro-life activist Peter Wolfgang offers “Why Trump Is Still Pro-Lifers’ Best Bet in This Election.”

Raymond Ibrahim asks, “Is Mary a ‘Bridge’ Between Islam and Christianity?”

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.

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