In my book on our age of rage I explore how rage is addictive and contagious. What people do not want to admit in places like Minneapolis is that they like it, they need it. Politicians know that. Even after Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones was shown to have threatened to kill his political opponents and their children, other Democratic leaders continued to support him and he was elected to the highest law enforcement position in the state. Now, Ohio Democratic Attorney General candidate Elliot Forhan appears to be attempting to ride the same rage wave in a video in which he says, “…I am going to kill Donald Trump.”
A video is making rounds on X in which Forhan says, “I am going to obtain conviction, rendered by a jury of his peers, at a standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt, based on evidence, presented at trial, conducted in accordance with due process, resulting in a sentence, duly executed, of capital punishment.”
Forhan continued, “That is what I mean when I say I am going to kill Donald Trump.”
The video shows the thrill of saying (or hearing others declare) that you are going to kill your political enemies. After the thrill-kill statement, Forhan then adds the legal rationale, like a fast-talking commercial warning of product risks. He knows, as with those warnings, people will tune out the perfunctory verbiage. Indeed, like a commercial, he immediately returns to the marketing pitch in saying, “I am going to kill Donald Trump.”
This is protected speech under the First Amendment, but it is also reprehensible rhetoric at a time of increasing social unrest. Forhan is trafficking in rage in the hope that it will secure him a political office.
This pledge to hunt a single individual has worked for other Democratic Attorney General candidates like Letitia James.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member