By Rebecca Lee
Donna Brazile and Reince Priebus, former chairwoman and chairman of the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, got into a passionate debate over the weekend after Priebus’ refusal to disagree with former President Donald Trump’s claims that the assassination attempts against him were the fault of Democrats.
The exchange between Priebus — a lawyer who served as White House chief of staff during the first six months of Trump’s presidency — and the veteran political strategist and NAACP Award winner Brazile took place on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Sunday morning news show on ABC on Oct. 6.
The pair’s heated disagreement began after show host Stephanopoulos asked the 52-year-old Priebus if he felt it appropriate that Trump and his sons blame Democrats for the assassination attempts against the Republican presidential candidate.
Instead of directly answering the question, Priebus stressed that Trump would be dead if his head were “one tiny twist” in any other direction when the former president was grazed on the ear by a bullet as he spoke at a July campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump faced another assassination attempt last month while golfing in Florida.
Eric Trump appeared on Fox News in July after the first shooting, when blamed his father’s political opponents.
He told Fox News correspondent Maria Bartiromo that Democrats would stop at nothing to keep his father from winning the election this fall, a theme he’s repeated.
“They’re trying to jail their political opponents,” he stated on the “Megyn Kelly Show” during the week of the Republican National Convention. “They’re now trying to kill him.”
Sunday on “This Week,” Priebus explained that he wasn’t suggesting that Democrats are actively trying to kill Trump but deemed the opposing party’s “talking points” as the reason for the threats on Trump’s life.
He said that he agreed that violent and threatening rhetoric should calm down.
“But it’s a part of the Democrat tactic to win this election is to paint Donald Trump as a threat to the very public republic that we live in,” he added.
Brazile responded by stating that she participated in the civil rights movement, emphasizing that nonviolence was a prevalent part of the protests and work of those involved at that time.
The 64-year-old said that they worked for change in the country “to make sure that everybody was included.”
The longtime ABC News contributor insisted that there’s no place for violent rhetoric on either political side before criticizing Trump’s son for speaking with threatening rhetoric on multiple occasions.
“I don’t want to be lectured by Eric Trump,” she slammed. “Who the hell is Eric Trump?”
Brazile stated that President Joe Biden took all ads down when Trump was shot and made it clear that violence is not acceptable in politics.
A clip of the dispute was shared on X by Former White House aide Keith Boykin, generating many replies.
“Looks like Reince Priebus did not get the memo that members of MAGA and former Trump voters were the ones trying to shoot him,” an X user stated.
“No Democratic voters were involved.”
One person said that Trump uses extremist rhetoric against Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris every chance he gets.
“It’s amazing because their candidate (Trump) anytime a mic is in his face says, ‘if you vote for Kamala you won’t have a country’,” they expressed.
“Or he’ll say, ‘She’s gonna take all your rights; we won’t have a country anymore.’ This is what Trump is saying. I guess they don’t hear that, though.”
“This is what happens when you are stuck working for an organized crime boss like Trump,” someone else added.
“To say that is not rhetoric. Republicans have no choice but to bend over [backward] to come up with alternate realities every time Trump opens his mouth.”
Last month, Tesla CEO and X majority owner Elon Musk also shared a controversial statement on the social media platform questioning why there haven’t been more assassination threats made against President Biden and Vice President Harris but later deleted it, CNBC reports.
His post was prompted by someone else asking why people want to kill Trump. Musk responded: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” along with an emoji of a thinking face.
Despite the apparent lack of violent threats against the Democratic presidential U.S. candidates, safety protocols were increased for Harris following the assassination attempt Trump endured. Both she and Trump now speak at rallies with bulletproof glass around them, according to NBC News.
