Trump blames assassination attempts on Dems, political rhetoric, migrants
Someone is to blame for the political violence stalking former President Donald Trump’s campaign for a second term, and it isn’t necessarily the guy allegedly found with a gun outside his West Palm Beach golf club over the weekend, according to the former president.
Even while Ryan Wesley Routh — the 58-year-old man allegedly at the center of an apparent second assassination attempt against former President in as many months — was in court to face federal weapons charges on Monday, the 45th President took at Democrats and his political rivals in series of statements.
“The Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust,” the Republican nominee wrote, capitalization his.
“Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse,” he wrote.
Trump told Fox News on Monday that he felt Routh, who fled the scene of the alleged crime after secret service agents opened fire on him, had chosen to attempt violence because he “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it.”
President Joe Biden has described Trump as a “threat to the very soul of this nation” and argued against his “demagoguery.”
“Most importantly, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, Trump is a threat to democracy,” Biden said the day before the first assassination attempt, after relating Trump’s stated plan to “be a dictator on day one” if he’s reelected.
Vice President Kamala Harris said in April that “it’s on us to recognize the threat he poses—the choice is clear in November.”
“Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms,” she said in July.
However, despite Trump’s rush to blame his political opponents for the elevated state of rhetoric in the race, both he and his campaign have used identical or similar language to describe Harris and Biden.
Trump and his team have additionally spent the length of Biden’s presidency declaring that the United States is already a failed nation and that the country has been lost because of Democratic policies. He said as much again at the debate.
“FACT CHECK: The Greatest Threat To Democracy Is Joe Biden,” his campaign wrote in a late June press release.
In August, after it became clear that Harris had secured the delegate support required to replace Biden at the top of the party ticket, Trump’s campaign said that “Democrats are the real ‘threat to democracy.’”
“’Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.’ No, she is a threat to — she is a threat to democracy,” Trump said during a rally in Tucson held September 12.
“We must defeat comrade Kamala Harris, a radical left lunatic. And we must stop her country destroying liberal agenda once and for all. If they get in, we’re never going to be able to turn this country around,” he said just days later.
In handing out blame on Monday, Trump also turned his attention to the “millions of people, from places unknown” whom he claims Harris has allowed to “INVADE and take over our Country.”
“Our borders must be closed, and the terrorists, criminals, and mentally insane, immediately removed from American cities and towns, deported back to their counties of origin. We want people to come into our country, but they must love our nation, and come in legally and through a system of merit. The world is laughing at us as fools, they are stealing our jobs and our wealth. We cannot let them laugh any longer,” he wrote in all caps, presumably meaning “countries of origin.”