Talk of war leaves the right with only one place left to go

In the final minutes of FBI Director Kash Patel’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 16, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) acknowledged the obvious: Individuals on the left should not have celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination, but influential voices on the right were inflaming the situation.

The bottom line, Tillis observed, was that escalation of the rhetoric on the right was making the FBI’s job of law enforcement more difficult.

Trump disagrees

Sen. Tillis’s analysis would have come as a shock to President Donald Trump, who blamed the episode on the “radical left.” Speaking from the Oval Office only hours after Kirk’s death on Sept. 10 — before the identity or motives of the assassin were known — he issued a video message:

“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.”

Listing recent attacks against himself and other conservative figures, he didn’t mention violence against Democrats, including the assassination of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband; the shooting of another Minnesota legislator and his wife; the arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D-PA) residence; or the attack on Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband.

Those omissions were an important tell: Trump is going after Democrats and what he otherwise considers the left — and them only.

On Sept. 11, he confirmed the identity of his targets: “We have a radical left group of lunatics out there, just absolute lunatics, and we’re going to get that problem solved.”

And then, with an appearance the next day on Fox & Friends, Trump resumed his rant:

“I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They don’t want to see crime. Worried about the border. They’re saying, We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.”

“The radicals on the left are the problem,” Trump continued his series of non sequiturs, “and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy, although they want men and women sports, they want transgender for everyone, they want open borders.”

Meanwhile on the right

Here’s a sample of what Sen. Tillis was talking about:

Steve Bannon on his War Room broadcast: “We have to have steely resolve. Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We are at war in this country. We are.”

Fox News host Jesse Watters: “They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. What are we gonna do about it? Everybody’s accountable … the politicians, the media, and all these rats out there. This can never happen again. It ends now. This is a turning point and we know which direction we’re going.”

Podcaster Matt Walsh: “We are up against demonic forces from the pit of Hell. This is existential. A fight for our own existence and the existence of our country.”

Elon Musk: “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die.”

Conservative actor James Woods: “Dear leftists: we can have a conversation or a civil war. One more shot from your side, and you will not get this choice again.”

What’s Next?

Seeing the world through Trump’s hyper-political lens leaves no room for doubt, ambiguity, facts, or reasoned discussion. Everyone is either friend or foe, ally or enemy, angel or devil. War requires battling the opposition. And the opposition is anyone who opposes or criticizes Trump.

But a war against evil — which some voices on the right now suggest is under way — means a fight to the death. In a democracy, that’s an ominous approach to political disagreement. Trump fosters it.

The day after Kirk’s assassination, Sen. Tillis told the National Journal: “What I was really disgusted by yesterday is a couple of talking heads that see this as an opportunity to say we’re at war so that they could get some of our conservative followers lathered up over this. It seems like a cheap, disgusting, awful way to pretend like you’re a leader of a conservative movement.”

It’s remarkable how Republicans in Congress acquire wisdom after they have announced that they’re not seeking re-election.

• Steven J. Harper is an attorney, adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School, and author of several books, including Crossing Hoffa: A Teamster's Story and The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in Crisis. He has been a regular columnist for Moyers on Democracy, Dan Rather's News and Guts, and The American Lawyer. Follow him at thelawyerbubble.com.