Rep. Golden says assassination attempt underscores danger of ‘hyperbolic threats’ around election

Rep. Jared Golden speaks at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. (Courtesy of Rep. Jared Golden's office)

After former President Donald Trump was targeted at a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend, U.S. Rep Jared Golden took to social media to talk about what the event says about the current political climate. 

“Following the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, we must ask ourselves questions about the future of our country and what we want for ourselves and our children,” Golden wrote in an X post Sunday afternoon. 

Golden goes on to say that the political culture highlights differences between people’s beliefs and “projects a dark and almost hopeless future of diminishing freedom, increasing violence, and growing instability.”

While he said the rise in politically motivated violence is “sadly unsurprising,” given the divisiveness among parties, allowing it to continue would also be “disastrous.”

Instead, Golden’s post echoed a sentiment he expressed in a recent Bangor Daily News op-ed, in which he predicted that Trump will win the November election and argued Congress would provide a sufficient bulwark against his administration — a position that some Democratic lawmakers and community leaders said minimizes threats to human rights and freedoms. 

“We can start by dropping hyperbolic threats about the stakes of this election,” Golden’s post reads. “It should not be misleadingly portrayed as a struggle between democracy or authoritarianism, or a battle against fascists or socialists bent on destroying America. These are dangerous lies.”

Golden concludes by saying America remains a “strong, democratic and wealthy nation,” and that united the country can overcome trying times. But, he wrote, “divided, we are likely to fail.”

The post Rep. Golden says assassination attempt underscores danger of ‘hyperbolic threats’ around election appeared first on Maine Morning Star.