Tipsheet

Guess How NBC Is Describing the Latest Assassination Attempt Against Trump

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  September 16, 2024 11:45 AM

Of all the media's spinning on the second assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, the most atrocious examples to emerge so far may be from NBC News.

Last night, the outlet described the latest attempt to assassinate the 2024 Republican presidential nominee as the "Trump golf club incident." As of Monday morning, the NBC News article on alleged would-be assassin Ryan Routh's arrest remains the site's top trending story.

Matt covered how NBC News host Lester Holt tried to victim-blame Trump for the attempt on his life, suggesting that the Trump campaign sharing stories of Haitians consuming cats, grabbing geese, and decapitating ducks in Springfield, Ohio, somehow prompted the assassination plot.

"Today's apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail itself. Mr. Trump [and] his running mate JD Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio," Holt said on-air. "This weekend, there were new bomb threats in that town."

Holt then tossed to a segment about Springfield being inundated with threats. The chyron read "Growing Firestorm Over Trump Comments About Immigrants." (The bomb threats "have not been substantiated" and "may be indicative of swatting," a Springfield spokesperson said, according to the Dayton-based TV station WHIO-TV.)

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Routh, the alleged Trump attacker accused of staking out in a bush at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, armed with a scoped "AK-47-style rifle," previously praised Holt on social media. On X, formerly Twitter, Routh commended Holt for "push[ing] us to behave better."

"I so enjoyed todays editorial closing that recognized our ignorance and pushed us to behave better—I would like that to happen every day…please use your platform to make us all better people…Thanks," Routh's May 2021 post, tagging Holt, read.

In March 2022, Routh wrote in a reply to "NBC Nightly News," Holt's evening program: "I was moved by Lester Holt being emotionally shaken on last nights newscast; he is the first real human to show the gravity of this war and he is the best man in the world in my books. Ill stand side by side with Lester to fight a war and have his back any day."

According to Routh's now-suspended X account, he frequently spewed talking points one might find on such airwaves about "fighting for democracy." The mainstream media has relentlessly framed Trump as a "threat to democracy."