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Trump, McConnell, extreme insults and a climate violence
Fox News
Former President Donald Trump hardly invented the media's culture of demonization but his ability to escalate has led to some supporters taking his jokes too literally.
The media have for years helped foster this climate, where only increasingly extreme denunciations break through the static. It was hardly invented by Donald Trump. Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX News Channel's MediaBuzz (Sundays 11 a.m.-12 p.m. ET). Based in Washington, D.C., he joined the network in July 2013 and regularly appears on Special Report with Bret Baier and other programs.
But Trump seized the moment with his mastery of the news cycle, using rallies and Twitter (and now Truth Social) to bash and belittle his political foes, often counterpunching against denunciations by them or the fourth estate. Any Republicans who fought him were labeled RINOs and many were knocked off in primaries, leaving a party in which the former president remains the dominant figure.