After the failed assassination attempt on President Trump, some in the media have criticized his visceral rhetoric urging his supporters to fight, which has won him millions of fans but also angered some on the political left.
In today's “Behind the News Analysis,” we explore this, bring you another instance in American history where a president was shot and the wrong people were targeted in retaliation, and bring you perspective and solutions you won't find anywhere else.
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On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot multiple times and killed in Dallas while traveling through the city with his wife and other dignitaries in a convertible. In the hours that followed, many politicians and major media outlets began to suggest that a “Bircher” – a member of the John Birch Society – was the culprit. Overwhelming evidence has since proven this false.
But left-wing extremists soon began their attack, vandalizing the JBS headquarters building in Belmont, Massachusetts. A car full of young people drove around the JBS building, eventually throwing rocks at a window not far from where JBS founder Robert Welch worked. In Phoenix, Arizona, bad guys fired several shots into a JBS office, hitting the reception desk and the back wall. The secretary had already been sent home early because of the volume of inappropriate calls the office had received after the president's murder. If she had stayed at her desk, she probably wouldn't have survived.
The switchboard at JBS headquarters in Belmont was similarly busy.But when President Kennedy was assassinated, why was suspicion cast on the “Birchites”?
Simply put, it was a communist-mandated propaganda campaign that has been sweeping the country since 1961. Here's what happened:
In late 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States, but did not receive the welcome he had hoped for. Perhaps it had something to do with a little thing Welch did. The first chapter of the JBS was formed in early 1959, and the first major project of the growing organization was to oppose Khrushchev's visit. Welch wrote a letter outlining ten reasons why it was a bad idea to invite a staunch enemy to visit the United States. It was published as an advertisement in 47 major daily newspapers and over 50 weeklies and smaller dailies. Welch then telegraphed the letter to every U.S. senator, urging them to cancel the visit. The visit went ahead, but when Khrushchev returned to Moscow, he gave a speech stating, “There are forces in the United States that are against us… They must be publicly flogged and exposed to the torments of hell!” (The Life and Words of Robert Welch, p. 282)
A year later, 81 Communist parties from around the world met in Moscow to issue a manifesto instructing their American comrades to crush the rising anti-Communist movement. A 1963 California Senate report attested to this by noting that this “implementation of orders from the highest authorities of the world Communist movement” was to “use all efforts to neutralize the Birch Society, the Anti-Communist Schools, and all other rising anti-Communist organizations” (p. 283).
So how did they do this? The strategy was formulated by Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, who wrote: “The operation[of the press campaign against our political opponents]is calculated to inspire hatred, loathing and contempt in the reader. Representations must be calculated not to persuade but to destroy; not to correct the enemy's errors but to annihilate his organizations and wipe them off the face of the earth. The operation must be such as to arouse the worst thoughts and the worst suspicions about the enemy. It must be the exact opposite of representations that persuade and correct, sowing discord and confusion in his camp.” (pp. 283-284)
Does this sound like a familiar tactic used today against all things America First?
The Communist smear campaign began with an article in the February 25, 1961, edition of People's World entitled “The John Birch Society Enters (Stage Right).”
Just two weeks later, Time magazine published a slanderous article in its March 10, 1961 issue that contained the exact same errors as the People's World article, as well as many others. The book “The Life and Words of Robert Welch” states, “Within a week, every major news channel had picked up the story. Some were from People's World, some from Time. And every educated person in America was programmed to view Robert Welch and his supporters as fanatical extremists, vile in character and a danger to freedom.” (p. 289)
By April, Welch and other members of the John Birch Society were being labeled as neo-Nazis and fascists. The April 14, 1961 issue of Time magazine quoted U.S. Senator Stephen Young as saying, “The Fascist John Birch Society and groups like it are as much a threat to our security and way of life as domestic Communism, and perhaps even more so.” (p. 294)
Presidential candidate Lyndon Johnson joined in, suggesting in a campaign speech that the Birch Society was an extremist group that was poisoning the country by preaching hatred.
By February 7, 1962, Pravda published an article falsely accusing JBS members in California of committing terrorist acts, including blowing up a pastor. Yet a few years later, the home of a JBS field worker was targeted, with “bottles of flaming liquid being hurled through the windows of a rural Baptist church and into the second-story window of the worker's home.” This is a classic example of the other side accusing its opponents of crimes that they themselves are actually committing.
The smear campaign continued for years but then seemed to stop overnight, possibly because the negative publicity led to a huge increase in the association's membership.
As The Life and Words of Robert Welch concludes, “If the widespread attack on the John Birch Society proved nothing else, it vividly demonstrated that a relatively small number of writers, journalists, professors, and politicians can convince the American people of every absurdity in the world. …[The organization]not only survived the ordeal, but … emerged from the furnace many times stronger than before” (p. 302).
Fast forward to July 13, 2024. An assassin shot President Trump, killing one of his supporters and seriously wounding two others. Hours after this heinous act, some in the mainstream media once again resorted to their usual tactics of smearing, making it appear that President Trump and his supporters were somehow wrong, that their words and actions had incited the violence.
An insensitive CNN anchor criticized an injured Trump for saying “fight, fight, fight” as he pumped his fist to let the crowd know he was OK, suggesting Trump should have toned down his rhetoric. The fist-pumping was seen around the world and cheered by crowds.
The next morning, The New York Times ran a full-page ad with the headline, “He Failed the Test of Leadership. He Betrayed America. Voters Must Reject Him in November.”
We think that if this had happened to President Biden, they wouldn't have been so ruthless.
Compare this aftermath to what JBS experienced in 1963. In the hours and days after President Trump was shot, how many news stories did you see about bullets being fired into the offices of political opponents? How many buildings were vandalized by groups of people in cars? And in recent memory, how many cities were looted and burned?
To all these questions, no one answered, demonstrating the strong restraint of the vast majority of law-abiding Americans.
Yet the mainstream media treats President Trump and the MAGA movement the same way they treated Mr. Welch and the John Birch Society years ago, equating them with Nazis and fascists. The mainstream media spews its own culture of hate against anyone who gets in their way. But to see this repeated throughout the mainstream media indicates an organized effort. Just as global communists felt threatened by American anti-communists, especially JBS, look at the organizations that are actively opposed to American sovereignty and freedom: the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Economic Forum, and the corps of NGOs that are doing the heavy lifting for the UN's agenda to set up a world government through the Great Reset that will bring about a New World Order.
Thank God President Trump survived and the majority of the people at the rally were spared. Unfortunately the communists managed to kill one of the most dear, beloved and brilliant leaders of the John Birch Society. The assassin's bullets did not find him and his car was not blown up. Rather, the communists shot down the Boeing 747 he was riding in along with 268 others. It was September 1, 1983, and he was Georgia Democrat Congressman Larry McDonald. The official report said the plane broke apart in mid-air and everyone was killed.
President Trump is not the first person to be attacked. The Chinese Communist Party murdered Captain John Birch 10 days after WWII. The Russian Communist Party murdered Congressman Larry McDonald, and Communist parties around the world have attacked Robert Welch and the entire John Birch Society. What we have documented through media propaganda has shown this organization to be behind a movement to crush those who work for the protection of freedom and God-given rights, those who expose the conspiracies of those who seek to establish a world government under a New World Order. And, as has been demonstrated, crushing also includes the removal of people. Congressman McDonald was removed because of his potential and his effectiveness in organizing and exposing the enemies of freedom.
President Trump was almost brought down by his potential. His first term took a heavy toll on the globalists and internationalists, but the ground they lost has been largely regained by the coronavirus. However, the coronavirus has opened the eyes of many Americans, and hopefully that includes President Trump. This latest attempt on his life should impress upon him how far these people can go.
While the details are unclear, video footage of the shooting raises a question that goes beyond incompetence: Why did police not do anything when they were told 30 minutes before the first shot that an armed individual was on the roof of a building in clear view? This is either gross incompetence or premeditated.
And yet this gun-free zone robbed a family of a husband and a father, and nearly cost Trump his life. The only way to defeat a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. A government monopoly on violence anywhere is a bad idea.
We at the John Birch Society are grateful and praying that he is safe. As things stand, the presidential election is doomed for the Republicans.
Organized, educated grassroots action is the only way we can defeat those who want to destroy America's experiment in self-government. That's what the John Birch Society offers. Join JBS.org today.
And learn more about the role JBS played in preparing America for a candidate like Donald Trump in TrumpWorld, a special book magazine from our media division, The New American. Links are in the video description or comments.
This is Bill Hahn from the John Birch Society. Until next time, learn more and take action!
Action items:
Read and distribute The New American's TrumpWorld
Join the John Birch Society
