By Bela “Bill” Suhayda
Back in the day, we referred to people who were sneaky, untrustworthy, manipulative, and cowardly as weasels. These were the people who took pot shots at others in defamatory ways in the effort to lift themselves up by stepping on those around them. These were people too cowardly to speak the criticisms they engaged in directly to the people they slandered and vilified. They took pleasure criticizing, from a distance, those people who took risks, and in turn, became successful. Weasels denigrate success, mostly out of jealousy. They aren’t brave enough to attempt the things successful people engage in. They understand it is easier to criticize than to get into the battles other more productive people attempt.
Wayne Johnson, Charles Coddington, and John W. Whitehead are three such people who, with no exceptions I can recall, have only hateful things to say about Donald Trump. Johnson, in an article featured in The Voice, three weeks ago, played the game of wishing bosses dead, alluding to Donald Trump, which was the second time he wished that in my recent memory. The first time he played this weasel game he spoke on Trump being be taken out as Mussolini had been, hung upside down beaten and dragged behind a motor vehicle. In typical weasel fashion, Johnson talked around the subject to appear “entertaining” in his approach. He deftly avoided saying the words “I want Trump dead” even though it was obvious to anyone who read the piece this was his intention.
Two weeks after Johnson’s second article and his musings of Trump being murdered, came the third and most recent attempt on Trump’s life.
Freedom of speech is essential to our liberties as a people, which is probably why our founders made it the first in a series of 27 amendments. However, with freedom comes responsibility. This is true for the second amendment as well as the first and the others. Inciting a riot is not protected speech, and neither is threatening the life of another person including the President of the United States. To cross the line into the criminal threat on a life an offender must knowingly and willfully make the threat. Investigators must consider the larger context of the statement. “Political hyperbole” may not rise to the level of a credible threat, but even a comedian can make a credible threat under certain circumstances. Example: A Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate, Raymond Chandler, is accused of leaving a voicemail message threatening to kill John Fetterman’s 13-year-old daughter as well as Donald Trump.
Joe Biden stated: “Time to put Trump in the bullseye.” This oration was followed by the first attempt on Trump’s life in Pennsylvania when he was grazed by a bullet to the ear.
Democratic representative Dan Goldman stated: “Trump is so dangerous to democracy… he has to be eliminated.”
There have been many other such statements that continue to create a climate of hostility which then leads to violence.
There have been three attempts on Trump’s life to date, and the rhetoric only continues to go up including the ludicrous accusations Trump is staging these attempts. Charlie Kirk was assassinated with a bullet through the neck in September 2025 for putting on debates on college campuses.
Republican Steve Scalise was shot in the abdomen and almost killed by a Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign volunteer in June 2017.
Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley. The bullet lodged an inch from his heart.
Gerald Ford had an encounter with Charles Manson follower, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme.
And the political rhetoric, from Democrats, only gets worse!