This weekend, former President Donald Trump came within an inch of being murdered on national television by a would-be assassin who somehow managed to climb onto a roof overlooking a rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump was lucky to escape with a wound to his ear, raising a fist in bloody defiance to the crowd in one of the most iconic moments of modern American political history. Others weren’t so fortunate, with at least one man tragically killed in the audience while protecting his family from the gunfire.

Along with shock, rage and sheer horror, questions erupted across the nation. One of these questions gained the most attention: Who is responsible?

Of course, the despicable piece of human debris who carried out the shooting is primarily responsible, and we should collectively ensure that his face, name and beliefs are relegated to the dustbin of history, and instead focus on the heroism shown by others in the face of his evil.

But it would be wrong to declare that responsibility for Saturday’s attempted assassination starts and ends with the shooter.

Among the responsible are, without a doubt, Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats, who — despite their condemnation of the attack — have spent years leveraging political violence in pursuit of power while painting Trump and everyone who dares to support him as a threat to democracy, freedom and even “the very soul of this country.”

Just hours prior to the attempted assassination, after all, Joe Biden told an audience, “Most importantly, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, Trump is a threat to this nation.”

But while such rhetoric is undeniably dangerous and demonstrably absurd (especially given Biden’s fascistic fetish for trying to jail his political opponents), there is no realistic expectation of truth when it comes to politicians.

Would it be good if they told the truth? Sure. Will they? Never.

The media, on the other hand, claim to be held to an entirely different standard. And for this reason, the media have more blood on their hands than any politician because, under the banner of truth, they have created, maintained and fueled an environment that drove someone to commit a horrific act of violence.

Let’s take a quick tour through memory lane in the “Trump is Hitler” category.

Practically every MSNBC host, including Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, Mehdi Hasan, Joe Scarborough and Jen Psaki, has compared Trump to Hitler, as have numerous CNN figures, including Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. The same is true of numerous other networks.

But if off-the-cuff pseudo-commentary is far from convincing, what about printed media that (supposedly) requires far higher levels of editorial integrity?

“Yes, it’s okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t let me stop you,” said the Washington Post.

“Trump’s Big Lie and Hitler’s: Is this how America’s slide into totalitarianism begins?” from Salon.

“Donald Trump’s history with Adolf Hitler and his Nazi writings,” ABC News declared.

“Trump’s Hitler Fascination Is An Ominous Echo of the 1930s,” from Bloomberg this April.

“The reich stuff — what does Trump really have in common with Hitler?” The Guardian asked, as recently as June.

And just days ago, The New Republic placed Donald Trump on their cover, adorned with an Adolf Hitler mustache under the headline “American Fascism.”

Subtle.

At this point, we have endured almost a decade of active propaganda from the American media (let alone international outlets) drilling home a single conclusion: that Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler.

People’s failure to prevent Adolf Hitler’s rise to power had disastrous results. If the media’s claims are accurate and Donald Trump is indeed a 21st-century Adolf Hitler, why shouldn’t people stop at nothing to prevent his return?

Except, of course, the media are shameless liars who throw around Adolf Hitler’s name like a vapid and meaningless schoolyard insult with no concern for its historic and emotive weight. They may not have pulled the trigger, but the legacy media planted the seed of hate and fueled the act of violence we saw this weekend.

Given their culpability, only one question remains: Will they learn their lesson?

With headlines like the now-edited “Nothing justifies an assassination bid — but did Trump play a part in changing the rules of engagement?” from Sky News, I doubt it.

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