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After facing a second assassination attempt in a little over two months, Trump blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, contending their rhetoric was spurring violence against him.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump told Fox News Digital this week. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
“They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in,” Trump added. “These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to. That is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one.”
A suspect was charged this week with two gun crimes after he allegedly pushed the muzzle of a rifle through the perimeter of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., prompting a Secret Service agent to fire. The former president was unharmed.
The incident, which is being investigated as an assassination attempt, comes just weeks after a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pa. There, a bullet grazed the former president’s ear and a rally attendee died.
The Hill’s Brett Samuels has the details on Trump’s reaction, and you can read more about the Florida incident from The Hill’s Ella Lee and Zach Schonfeld.
Other Trump allies and GOP leaders have echoed Trump’s accusations.
“I think that it’s time to say to Democrats, to the media, to everybody that has been attacking this man and trying to censor this man for going on 10 years, cut it out or you’re going to get somebody killed,” said Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R), at a Michigan campaign event this week.
At the same time, experts have cautioned against drawing a direct link between campaign rhetoric and the incidents, Samuels reports. The FBI said in late August that it wasn’t ready to draw conclusions about a motive in the Pennsylvania shooting, and a motive in the Florida incident also remains unclear.
Meanwhile, both Biden and Harris have condemned political violence and expressed their gratitude that the former president was unharmed. Trump said he shared a “very nice call” with the president.
Republican lawmakers say the second assassination attempt could paint the former president in a more sympathetic light and give Trump’s 2024 campaign a needed boost as Harris boasts a slight edge in the polls, according to the latest aggregation from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The Hill’s Alexander Bolton that he thinks the incident will help rally voters to Trump’s side. Read more here.
