Within hours of the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump on Sunday, NBC News’ Lester Holt tried to excuse the political violence by linking Trump to unsubstantiated bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio.
“Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail itself,” Holt said. “Mr. Trump, his running mate JD Vance, continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in [Springfield] Ohio. This weekend, there were new bomb threats in that town.”
But Republican Gov. Mike DeWine confirmed Monday that all 33 bomb threats were hoaxes.
“Thirty-three threats; 33 hoaxes,” DeWine said. “None of these had any validity at all.”
“We have people unfortunately overseas who are taking these actions,” he added, according to the New York Post. “Some of them are coming from one particular country.”
But Holt wasn’t alone in making the egregious and unsubstantiated connection to try and justify political violence.
CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell claimed Trump is the real source of violent rhetoric, bringing on a reporter to link Trump to the fake bomb threats.
“Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for inflaming political rhetoric, but the former President’s own words seem to be increasing the threat of political violence in Springfield, Ohio. That’s where a false and ugly accusation against Haitians — thousands of whom are legal and permanent residents — is impacting every day life,” O’Donnell said before bringing in a reporter to talk about the bomb threats.
USA Today’s Rex Huppke also lamented that Trump correctly pointed
