Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson on Tuesday doubled down on his 2015 comment that the “donor class” is “going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump,” despite the Saturday assassination attempt on the former president.
Wilson made the comment in October 2015 in the context of arguing that Republican donors needed to destroy Trump’s campaign and boost a stronger candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton, according to a transcript of MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes.”
Wilson said Tuesday on “Rick Wilson’s The Enemies List” that the phrase was just a “metaphor” and told people not to back down from confronting Trump because the assassination attempt does not make him a noble person.
“A hundred other MAGA commentators and social media types and scam-fluencers are attacking me, saying, ‘Oh, well you once said the donors have to put a bullet in Trump.’ Folks, metaphor and rhetoric are different,” he said. “Folks, don’t hide from a confrontation about Trump. Don’t walk away from the fight. He is not a martyr. He is not a saint. He is not a good man. He is not a great man. I am glad he lived. I am thankful to God that he lived. I am very, very, very grateful that Providence spared his life. I am beyond grateful. I think it would have broken this country in a fundamental way.”
President Joe Biden called for America to “lower the temperature in our politics” after the failed assassination attempt, but he became defensive when NBC News host Lester Holt pressed him about his rhetoric.
Former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield corrected herself and apologized on Monday for saying Democrats must choose “to try to win this election and turn their fire on Donald Trump.”
“At some point, Democrats have to decide that they want to try to win this election and turn their fire on Donald Trump,” she said. “I think there is — I shouldn’t have said ‘turn their fire.’ I apologize. That was not the phrase that I meant. They need to turn their focus on Donald Trump.”
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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