In the wake of a harrowing assassination attempt in which former President Donald Trump came within fractions of an inch of losing his life and retired fire chief and father Corey Comperatore was killed just three weeks ago, many Americans are wondering how our political environment came to be so toxic that violence seemed acceptable for certain individuals. Many on the right have pointed to violent rhetoric and messaging from prominent Democratic figures. A recent Washington Examiner piece explored Montanan Senator Jon Tester’s history of rhetoric, especially pertaining to a controversial poster from a fundraising event in 2018 that he later praised.
In 2018, the rock band Pearl Jam held a fundraising concert for Tester in Missoula, which featured the following artwork which could be seen here done by the band’s bassist Jeff Ament:
The image depicts a burning down White House and Washington Monument, with a decaying skeleton of President Trump being picked at by a bald eagle, while Senator Tester flies above in a tractor.
In the days following the concert, Tester’s campaign said they did not support the image, but in his 2020 book, Grounded: A Rural Democrat’s Fight to Unite a Divided America, he praised it. In his book he declares, “though the poster was off message, I didn’t want to admit to [the campaign manager] that I actually loved it.”
Tester has also said in a 2018 interview with MSNBC that the only way to beat President Trump is to “punch him in the face.”
On August 21, Tester is scheduled to appear alongside Jeff Ament for another fundraiser. Neither individual has publicly commented on the image or their words in the wake of the failed assassination attempt. The Tester campaign responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment by pointing to their July statement calling the assassination attempt a tragedy, but did not address Senator Tester’s previous statements.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly called Trump a “threat” to our democracy, and just a week before the assassination attempt said it was “time to put Trump in a bullseye.” House Democrats introduced a bill in April to revoke President Trump’s Secret Service protection. Leftist messaging framing Republican led governments as impending fascist threats to democracy have caused violence before, such as with the Bernie Sanders supporting domestic terrorist that attacked several Republican lawmakers at a practice for the charity Congressional Baseball game in 2017, critically injuring then House Majority Whip and current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
Jon Tester’s campaign has not responded to Yellowstone County News’ request for comment at the time of publication.
