The Wall Street Journal condemned Donald Trump’s apparent violent threat against Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.
The former president unleashed a tirade against the Kentucky Republican and his wife, former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, whom he slurred as “Coco Chow,” for approving Democratic spending bills, and Trump issued what appeared to be a call for violence when he said McConnell had a “DEATH WISH.”
“The ‘death wish’ rhetoric is ugly even by Mr. Trump’s standards and deserves to be condemned,” wrote the Journal’s editorial board. “Mr. Trump’s apologists claim he merely meant Mr. McConnell has a political death wish, but that isn’t what he wrote. It’s all too easy to imagine some fanatic taking Mr. Trump seriously and literally, and attempting to kill Mr. McConnell. Many supporters took Mr. Trump’s rhetoric about former Vice President Mike Pence all too seriously on Jan. 6.”
The editorial board agreed with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who said she “wouldn’t be surprised” if a lawmaker was shot in the current political environment, and the Journal pointed out that a “left-wing follower of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders” opened fire on Rep. Steve Scalise and other members of Congress five years ago.
“Five weeks from Election Day, Mr. Trump could be working and spending money to elect a GOP Congress, or to help his home state of Florida recover from Hurricane Ian,” the editorial board wrote. “Instead he’s attacking Mr. McConnell and his wife as part of a personal political vendetta, and putting every Republican candidate on the spot to respond to questions about the Trump rant.