Rhetorical Elements Of Rhetoric

On June 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida, a terrorist attack took place at the Pulse Nightclub which claimed the lives of 49 Americans and injured 53 others. The incident is considered one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States. Following the event, President Obama and GOP presidential nominee Trump gave speeches regarding the event. When presented with President Obama’s speech and candidate Trump’s speeches concerning the shooting, the audience is presented with two examples of how rhetoric can be used to persuade and achieve opposing goals. By examining the elements of rhetoric and how they are applied in these speeches, the viewer is shown how Aristotle’s teachings are still being applied over 2000 years later. Effective
This speech began as epideictic, with a brief mention of his condolences for the families and the lives lost, and included a moment of silence. However, the remainder of his speech turned to a more deliberative type of oratory, which is also known as political rhetoric. This type of rhetorical setting addresses topics such as war and peace, national defense, trade, and legislation, to assess what is harmful and beneficial (Herrick, 2016). During his speech, Trump delivered self-congratulatory comments, political attacks, and strove to instill fear of terrorism. His speech was used an opportunity to spread suspicion and to frame himself as uniquely positioned to make the country safer. There was no sincere outreach to the American public, and the facts he presented did not appear to match the rhetoric.
At the time these speeches were given, the epideictic rhetorical setting was appropriate. The situation was still fresh with no in-depth investigation. The role of the speakers should have been to reach out to the general public to console, praise, inform, and promote the investigative process and to alleviate
His demeanor was seen as aggressive and urgent with little-to-no sense of empathy and more “straight to business” than anything else. Given the fact that Trump, at the time, was a presidential candidate trying to secure supporters and voters for his campaign, his approach on how to deal with this tragedy was not only to empathize with the victims of this incident but to raise awareness of the terrorist threat that had been plaguing the United States, as well as, to place blame on those responsible for this event (i.e. radical Islamic groups and the failing U.S. infrastructure). He used this event to strike fear in the hearts of American citizens. The enthymeme that can be observed in Trump’s speech is more of a stereotype than anything else, ‘the shooter is a Radical Muslim of Afghan descent, but since we cannot tell the difference between radicals and non-radicals, then all Muslims and people from the middle east must be