An Assassination Attempt That Seems Likely to Tear America Further Apart（双语 Bilingual） 一次似乎可能进一步撕裂美国的暗杀企图

NYTimes NEWS ANALYSIS 

An Assassination Attempt That Seems Likely to Tear America Further Apart
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/us/politics/trump-shooting-violence-divisions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7E0.prWc.YS_3zahDsB-s&smid=url-share

The attack on former President Donald J. Trump comes at a time when the United States is already polarized along ideological and cultural lines and is split, it often seems, into two realities.

By Peter Baker
Peter Baker has covered the past five presidents.

July 14, 2024 

Abridged

House Democrats impeached Mr. Trump for instigating the Capitol attack with his inflammatory language at a rally beforehand. The former president has a long history of encouraging violence. He urged supporters to beat up protesters at rallies, cheered a Republican congressman for body-slamming a reporter, called for looters and shoplifters to be shot, made light of the attack on Mr. Pelosi and promised pardons to Jan. 6 rioters. When some of his supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” on Jan. 6, Mr. Trump told aides that maybe the vice president deserved it because he had defied efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 

Republicans turned the tables on Democrats this weekend, arguing that if Mr. Trump was responsible for provocative rhetoric, then Mr. Biden should be as well. Speaking with donors on Monday, the president said he wanted to stop talking about his poor debate performance and instead “put Trump in a bull's-eye.” He described his strategy as “attack, attack, attack.” 

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio and a front-runner to be named Mr. Trump's running mate, wrote on social media two hours after the attack on Saturday. “That rhetoric directly led to President Trump's attempted assassination.”

Mr. Scalise, also the victim of a political attack, agreed. “For weeks, Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America,” he said. “Clearly, we've seen far-left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop.” 

Representative Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, wrote on social media that “Joe Biden sent the orders” and urged the local prosecutor to “immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.” But not all hands are clean. Mr. Collins once ran a campaign ad in which he fired a rifle at Ms. Pelosi's agenda and shot a cardboard cutout of so-called RINO Republicans. 

Some Republican leaders took a more measured approach. Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking on “Today” on NBC, said on Sunday that Mr. Trump had “been so vilified and really persecuted by media, Hollywood elites, political figures, even the legal system” and cited Mr. Biden's “bull's-eye” comment.

“I know he didn't mean what is being implied there, but that kind of language on either side should be called out,” Mr. Johnson said. But he emphasized that “both sides” have “got to turn the temperature down in this country.” 

Mr. Biden did not directly respond to criticism of his language during two televised appearances since the shooting, but he flatly condemned the attack and called Mr. Trump to express relief that he was not more seriously hurt. 

The danger is if political violence becomes normalized, just another form of the endless partisan wars. A study published in May found that 11 percent of Americans said violence was sometimes or always justified to return Mr. Trump to the presidency, and 21 percent said it was justified to advance an important political objective. 

But Garen J. Wintemute, the director of the Violence Prevention Program at the University of California, Davis, and the lead author of the study, said it was important to remember that most Americans still rejected political violence. 

“It's the job of that majority to make their views known, over and over again, and as publicly as possible,” Dr. Wintemute said. “A climate of intolerance for violence reduces the chance that violence will occur. The question before us as a nation is, ‘Will violence become part of American politics?' Each of us as an individual needs to answer that question, ‘Not if I can help it.'”

Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times.

My comment:

Only two kinds of violence are justified in politics: violence for either liberation or revolution. All other ones are wrong and out of justifications. [Mark Wain 07/14/2-24]

汉译文本 

《纽约时报》新闻分析 

一次似乎可能进一步撕裂美国的暗杀企图
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/us/politics/trump-shooting-violence-divisions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7E0.prWc.YS_3zahDsB-s&smid=url-share 

对前总统唐纳德·J·特朗普的袭击发生在当前正是美国已经在意识形态和文化方面两极分化并且经常被分裂成两个实体的时候。 

作者：彼得·贝克
彼得·贝克报道过过去五位总统。

2024 年 7 月 14 日 

节选 

众议院民主党人弹劾特朗普先生，因为他在之前的集会上用煽动性语言煽动了国会大厦袭击。这位前总统长期以来一直鼓励暴力。他敦促支持者在集会上殴打抗议者，为一名共和党议员殴打记者的行为欢呼，呼吁枪杀抢劫者和商店扒窃者，对佩洛西遭到的袭击不以为然，并承诺赦免 1 月 6 日的暴徒。1 月 6 日，当他的一些支持者高呼“绞死迈克·彭斯！”时，特朗普告诉助手，也许副总统应该受到惩罚，因为他无视推翻 2020 年大选的努力。 

本周末，共和党人反击民主党，称如果特朗普要为挑衅性言论负责，那么拜登也应该负责。周一，总统在与捐助者交谈时表示，他希望停止谈论自己糟糕的辩论表现，而是“把特朗普放在靶心上”。他将自己的策略描述为“攻击、攻击、攻击”。 

“拜登竞选的核心前提是，唐纳德·特朗普总统是一个独裁的法西斯主义者，必须不惜一切代价阻止他，”俄亥俄州共和党参议员、特朗普竞选搭档的领跑者 J.D. 万斯在周六袭击发生两小时后在社交媒体上写道。“这种言论直接导致了特朗普总统的暗杀企图。” 

同样遭受政治攻击的斯卡利斯先生对此表示同意。“数周以来，民主党领导人一直在煽动荒谬的歇斯底里，认为唐纳德·特朗普赢得连任将是美国民主的终结，”他说。“显然，我们过去曾看到极左疯子用暴力言论采取行动。这种煽动性言论必须停止。” 

佐治亚州共和党众议员迈克·柯林斯在社交媒体上写道，“乔·拜登下达了命令”，并敦促当地检察官“立即对约瑟夫·R·拜登提起煽动暗杀的指控”。但并非所有人都清白。柯林斯先生曾经在竞选广告中向佩洛西女士的议程开枪，并射杀了所谓的共和党人的纸板剪影。 

一些共和党领导人采取了更为慎重的态度。众议院议长迈克·约翰逊在 NBC 的“今日”节目中表示，特朗普先生“受到了媒体、好莱坞精英、政治人物甚至司法系统的严重诽谤和迫害”，并引用了拜登先生的“靶心”评论。 

“我知道他不是故意的，但双方的这种语言都应该被谴责，”约翰逊先生说。但他强调，“双方”都必须“降低这个国家的紧张局势”。 

自枪击事件发生以来，拜登在两次电视露面中都没有直接回应对其言语的批评，但他断然谴责了这次袭击，并致电特朗普表示对特朗普自己没有受到更严重的伤害感到宽慰。

危险在于，如果政治暴力成为常态，那只是无休止的党派战争的另一种形式。5 月份发表的一项研究发现，11% 的美国人表示，为了让特朗普重返总统宝座，暴力有时或总是合理的，21% 的人表示，为了推进一项重要的政治目标，暴力是合理的。 

但加州大学戴维斯分校暴力预防项目主任、这项研究的主要作者 Garen J. Wintemute 表示，重要的是要记住，大多数美国人仍然拒绝政治暴力。 

“大多数人的工作就是一遍又一遍地、尽可能公开地表达他们的观点，”温特穆特博士说。“对暴力不容忍的气氛减少了暴力发生的可能性。我们作为一个国家面临的问题是，‘暴力会成为美国政治的一部分吗？’我们每个人作为个体都需要回答这个问题，‘如果我能帮助它，就不会。’”

彼得·贝克是《纽约时报》首席白宫记者。

我的评论：

在政治上，只有两种暴力是正当的：为解放或革命而施行的暴力。所有其他暴力都是错误的，没有正当理由的。[马克·韦恩 07/14/2-24]