Trump supporters attack media after assassination attempt

New York (CNN) — Just moments after Donald Trump was evacuated following a failed assassination attempt at a rally on Saturday night, some of his supporters turned to the press with obscene insults and accused reporters.

“This is your fault!” one participant shouted emphatically, pointing at individual journalists as he approached the fence separating them from the participants. “This is your fault!”

“It’s your fault!” shouted another.

Axios reporter Sophia Cai quoted some people in the crowd warning the press, “You’re next” and that “your time is coming.” She even reported that some of the rally participants tried to break through the press area’s cordon, but were stopped by security.

Immediately after the gruesome shooting attempt on Trump, which resulted in the tragic death of one rally participant and the serious injury of two others, some Trump supporters quickly turned to the media as an organ for assigning blame.

While the Trump campaign urged its staff to “condemn all forms of violence” and said it would “not tolerate dangerous rhetoric on social media,” some of the former president’s supporters at MAGA Media slammed the press for its hard-hitting coverage of Trump and raised alarm about what another four years of the former president’s rule could mean.

Over the course of the election campaign, news outlets have covered extensively Trump’s plans to manipulate the federal government for his own ends, including to exact revenge on his political opponents. This reporting is now being scrutinized. Some Trump supporters accuse it of creating a heated atmosphere that paved the way for the assassination, largely ignoring the inflammatory rhetoric of the former president himself.

Immediately after the attack, leading media figures condemned the shooting, stressing that violence against a political candidate was an attack on democracy itself. Leading liberal commentators also expressed their disgust in strong terms. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, the country’s best-known liberal personality, said she “lacks the right words to describe how disgusted and appalled” she was.

“There is no *no* *no* *no* violent solution to any American political conflict,” Maddow wrote on Threads. “I am grateful that the former president will be OK, and deeply saddened and angry about the other people who were hurt and killed. This is a very dark day.”

The reaction of the press and liberal media outlets was in stark contrast to the reaction of right-wing media outlets to the attacks on Democrats. Rather than raising the volume or stoking false flag conspiracy theories, as leading figures on the right did after the attacks on Paul Pelosi and Gabrielle Giffords, they called for calm.

Still, anti-press sentiment has undoubtedly increased in MAGA circles. Although media coverage of Trump is highly accurate, supporters of the former president have taken to vilifying and scapegoating journalists for the heinous attack, driving anti-media sentiment to worrying levels.

“MSNBC tells its audience daily that Trump is a threat to democracy, an authoritarian in the making, and a would-be dictator if no one stops him,” wrote conservative radio host Erick Erickson on X. “What did they think was going to happen?”

Donald Trump Jr. sharply criticized CNN, the Washington Post and the press in general for recent coverage of his father.

“The Democrats and their friends in the media knew exactly what they were doing with this ‘literally Hitler’ nonsense!” he wrote on X.

With less than 100 days to go before the November election, the heated atmosphere toward the press has raised concerns among news executives and sparked discussions in newsrooms about security precautions – especially with the upcoming start of the Republican National Convention on Monday. The four-day event, which posed a security risk even before the assassination, will bring together dozens of journalists as well as thousands of Trump supporters.

“Journalists are always among the first to respond to crises, and we are working together to protect everyone,” one news executive told me. “This is a top priority.”

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