DNC Repeats Dubious ‘Bloodbath’ Claim About Trump

The first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago featured fiery attacks on Donald Trump’s record, including a new campaign ad targeting the former president.
Delegates at the DNC heard speeches from President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, and Hillary Clinton ahead of addresses from Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff and former President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
President Biden said that Trump had “emboldened” racists, telling the audience in Chicago that Trump had, in effect, made the likes of the Ku Klux Klan feel that they didn’t have to “bother to wear their hoods.”
The event also featured a campaign ad broadcast on CNN that began with a play on the iconic Law & Order intro, attacking Trump’s history of civil and criminal court cases, his convictions, comments about women, and the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
It also mentioned a reported threat from Trump of a “bloodbath if he doesn’t get his way.”
Newsweek reached out to a media representative for the Harris campaign via email for comment.
The “bloodbath” comment was made in March this year as Trump spoke to a crowd in Ohio. Trump had been describing plans to impose heavy tariffs on vehicle imports before making the comment, which drew a rebuke from President Biden, among others.
Trump outlined his plans to impose heavy tariffs on Chinese cars manufactured in Mexico and imported into the United States, pledging to put a “100 percent tariff on every single car” that’s imported “if I get elected.”
“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s gonna be the least of it, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the country, that’ll be the least of it,” Trump said.
“But they’re not gonna sell those cars. They’re building massive factories.”
While opponents quickly criticized his comments, others said they were taken out of context, arguing Trump was not threatening a literal spread of bloody violence.
Nonetheless, the Biden-Harris campaign issued a statement at the time that claimed that Trump had said there would be a bloodbath if he wasn’t elected, calling him a “loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience, doubles down on his threats of political violence.”
It added: “He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”
Trump denied the accusation, alleging Biden knew he was referring to what would happen to the auto industry if he wasn’t elected.
“The United Auto Workers, but not their leadership, fully understand what I mean,” he posted on Truth Social.
“With the Electric Car Mandate being pushed by Biden, there soon won’t be any cars made in the USA – UNLESS I’M ELECTED PRESIDENT, IN WHICH CASE AUTO MANUFACTURING WILL THRIVE LIKE NEVER BEFORE!!! MAGA2024.”
The meaning behind the comment remains ambiguous. On the one hand, it may have been an aside from his remarks on the auto industry, typical of the unrelated tangents that often make a part of Trump’s speeches.
His delivery, arguably, did not make it clear if he was talking about the auto industry, but the context in which he made the statement gave both Trump and his supporters fair reason to argue otherwise.
The new Harris-Walz campaign ad only suggests “a bloodbath if he doesn’t get his way,” which is a somewhat tenuous summary of his comments. It was delivered alongside other background quotes about Trump threatening retribution against his political rivals, but it did not mention the context of what he said.
Although Trump’s use of violent language has been condemned by many, the Harris campaign has presented this comment without the background for viewers to judge it by.