You might remember for the rest of your life where exactly you were this Saturday afternoon when the news came down that former President Donald Trump had just been shot. I was walking into the house, and my ashen-faced wife and mother-in-law both said, come in quickly. At first, like many of us, I thought the worst. There was blood, there was chaos, there was mayhem.

I thought he was dead.

But miraculously, through an act of God or fate or whatever you choose to believe—that and maybe an inch or two at most—are all that separate us from a terrible moment and a history-changing tragedy that would haunt our nation forever. Yes, this was bad, but it could have been so, so much worse.

How did we get here?

You could argue that it’s just a toxic political environment and that both sides are at fault for the ratcheting up of tensions in our nation. But it wouldn’t be true. In fact, one side has been using far more incendiary rhetoric than the other and overtly calling for violence, and it’s the left.

Remember this?

What do you call this, except for a call to violence?

"I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer roared Wednesday to a crowd of protesters angry over a Louisiana case before the court that threatens abortion rights. "You won't know what hit if you go forward with these awful decisions."

It wasn’t long after that a lone assassin showed up outside Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house with the intent to kill. Coincidence? No.

Today is not just some isolated incident.

The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.

That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination.

— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) July 14, 2024

Remember Biden’s hateful 2022 Independence Hall "threat to democracy" speech, in which he basically deemed half of the American public terrorists and enemies of the state?

Biden Delivers One of the Most Divisive, Hate-Filled Speeches in the History of Our Presidency

Here is some of the rhetoric the president used to “bring us together.”

Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic….

But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.

And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.

It was stunning stuff. He finally made a statement about the assassination attempt Saturday evening from his Rehoboth Beach vacation spot, where he seems to spend most of his time instead of at the White House:

“We cannot allow this to be happening,” Biden said. “The idea that there’s violence in America like this is just unheard of.”

The idea that “there’s violence in America like this is just unheard of?” Are you kidding me? This is an administration that has looked the other way as rabid antisemitic protests rocked campuses across the nation. They didn’t lift a finger. An administration that applauded the George Floyd-BLM protests that caused billions upon billions in damage to our cities. Instead of making any attempts to hold those who caused that deadly mayhem accountable, the Biden Department of Justice has gone after pro-life advocates, parents who want a say in what their kids are being taught, and anyone who was within a mile of the Capitol on January 6.

But the internet remembers where their real priorities were:

If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota. https://t.co/t8LXowKIbw

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020

By the way, Biden’s 2024 SOTU was no more peaceful than his red-hued diatribe in 2022:

Joe Biden's State of the Union Was the Most Unhinged and Angry in History

The foiled assassination plot against Kavanaugh has not been forgotten. Although the attempted murder of Steve Scalise and other Republicans by a crazed Bernie Sanders supporter has been memory-holed by the mainstream media, it still happened. 

The list goes on. No, you can’t ascribe blame for the actions of crazy people to a single passing comment of a politician, like the despicable way they tried to blame Sarah Palin for the horrible Gabby Giffords shooting—but you can attribute a body of rhetoric calling for and accepting of political violence for what we saw Saturday. 

These are the kinds of people the modern left has created: 

This Karen is having a mental breakdown because Trump’s sho*ter *MISSED* pic.twitter.com/CowStusy5s

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 14, 2024

It seems like it wasn’t a question of if—it was a question of when.

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Editor's Note: This article was updated post-publication for clarity.