Associated Press
Donald Trump claimed without evidence Monday that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments that he is a threat to democracy had inspired the latest apparent attempt on his life, despite his own long history of inflammatory campaign rhetoric and advocacy for jailing or prosecuting his political enemies.
With the election now just 50 days away and early ballots already being mailed out in some places, this year’s presidential campaign was among the most turbulent in American history even before Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt. Trump was safe after the incident in Florida and praised the Secret Service for protecting him but didn’t shy away from blaming his opponents.
“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,” Trump said in comments to Fox News Digital.
The Republican former President’s statements are a sharp departure from how he reacted after an assassination attempt in July during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which a bullet grazed his ear.
Then, Trump called for national unity, saying in a social media post that “it is more important than ever that we stand United.” A few days later, though, the former President returned to sharply criticizing Democrats and relishing the political bombast.
While authorities continue to investigate the motives of both the gunman in Pennsylvania and the person arrested Sunday in Florida, Trump has made clear that he sees attempts on his life as politically motivated — and blames his rivals for them.
That’s despite Trump himself drawing repeated criticism for his rhetoric. He has talked about prosecuting his political rivals and alleged without evidence that Democrats have brought the felony cases against him for political reasons.
His comments blaming Democrats’ rhetoric were echoed Monday by his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and conservative activist Ralph Reed at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Victory Dinner, where Vance argued that Democrats cannot call Trump a “threat to democracy” and “a fascist” and expect that violence would not follow. Trump has also used those phrases to assail Democrats.
In a post on his social media site on Monday, Trump again claimed that he had been the target of politically motivated attacks, writing that the left “has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.” He said “it will only get worse” and then veered into comments about immigration, even though there is no evidence the person arrested in connection with the apparent assassination attempt was an immigrant.
That follows the former President during last week’s debate and in the days after it amplifying false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets. The community days later evacuated schools and government buildings amid bomb threats, adding to the sense of an especially unstable and tense moment in America even before Sunday’s stunning development.
Biden, by contrast, sought to steer clear of politics. He decried the apparent assassination attempt and said Monday that America must work to stop the scourge of political violence.
“America has suffered too many times the tragedy of an assassin’s bullet,” Biden said at the start of an address to the National HBCU Week Conference in Philadelphia. “It solves nothing. It just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it and never give it any oxygen.”
Biden in his speech added that Ronald Rowe, the Acting Director of the Secret Service, was in Florida “assessing what happened and determining whether any further adjustments need to be made to ensure” Trump’s safety. The President later spoke with Trump on the phone and conveyed his relief that the former President was safe, according to the White House, which described it as a cordial conversation.
Trump, in an evening appearance on X, said Biden “couldn’t have been nicer” during a Monday conversation his campaign described as being about Secret Service protection.
After Trump’s shooting in Pennsylvania, Biden initially called on the nation to lower the political temperature, though he, too, eventually pivoted back to criticizing Trump as a threat to the nation’s founding principles.
Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley said Sunday’s “deeply troublesome” event coming on top of an already dramatic year with an election looming has created “a kind of uncertainty across the land.”
Brinkley said: “2024 has just unspooled in a chaotic and frightful fashion. It’s impossible for anybody to get footing in their daily lives with a news cycle that is so constantly grim and absurd.”
Trump had already been scheduled to spend Monday at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, according to a person familiar with his schedule. He was expected return to the campaign trail on Tuesday for a town hall in Flint, Michigan, and has appearances later in the week in New York, Washington and North Carolina.
Harris, meanwhile, met with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at the 1.3 million-member group’s headquarters in Washington. She’s looking to lock up yet another labor union’s endorsement, but it wasn’t immediately forthcoming.
The Vice President was scheduled Tuesday to campaign in swing-state Pennsylvania and planned later in the week to speak in Washington, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Their returns to the campaign trail are likely to be overshadowed by questions about the armed man engaged by Secret Service agents at the former President’s Florida golf course. The FBI was leading the investigation and working to determine any motive.
Beyond the first attempt on Trump’s life when he was grazed by a bullet at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, the campaign was whipsawed over the past six months by Trump’s historic criminal trial and conviction; the crisis and eventual end of Biden’s re-election campaign after his floundering debate performance; and Harris taking his place, fundamentally shifting the race.
In August, Trump’s campaign disclosed it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. The Justice Department is preparing criminal charges in connection with the hack.
Republican strategist David Urban, a Trump ally, said it was too soon to know how Sunday’s close call might affect the days and weeks ahead in the campaign, but in his conversations with those in Trump’s orbit, he was picking up a deep sense of shock and uncertainty.
“We’ve said unprecedented so many times this year,” Urban said. “I don’t know if we can even say the word anymore.”
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
17 comments
RonBeGone
September 17, 2024 at 2:30 pm
Every accusation from the Republicans is a confession.
RonBeGone
September 17, 2024 at 2:50 pm
Also, before anyone tries to dig up that old “bullseye” comment, that was behind closed doors and everyone in that room absolutely understood the context and that it was about the campaign marketing. It was not a call to violence in any way or form.
One, less than stellar word choice behind closed doors in all these endless years of campaigning. That’s all they got. Meanwhile the orange clown spews whatever verbal diarrhea his addled mind conjures and specifically calls for retribution and violence regularly.
Here’s a news flash. We don’t want him to go out that way. We want him to lose. Lose the election, continue to lose in court and lose all his appeals. He needs to continue to be judged by juries and given appropriate and legal punishments. That’s the difference here.
Dont Say FLA
September 18, 2024 at 8:48 am
Plus bullseyes are targets and attention has a target and he talking about attention and then, THEN, bullseyes are for DARTS and ARROWS, not firearms.
GOPs sometimes send out mailers with crosshairs, as seen in rifle scope reticles, plastered over the faces of their Democrat opponents. That is something fair to complain about.
Verbal use of the word “bullseye” when speaking of making someone the target of attention, though? Well, Turnip J Truck was 100% correct when he said we would get tired of all the whining.
Leon Musk
September 17, 2024 at 2:56 pm
I’d forgotten just how thoroughly exasperating Trump was. I hope he just scurries away after losing like he did last time, maybe without the carnage this time around. Like the old saying goes, his backside is jealous of what comes out his mouth.
Dont Say FLA
September 18, 2024 at 8:54 am
Trump be acting like a stalker ex boyfriend calling up saying he still loves us and let’s get back together despite our disastrous relationship and how shockingly he responded when we ended it.
“Voters, I miss you and I swear I’m gonna change, trust me”
Remember how that lasted for a day?
I say, “I hate you,” we break up, you call me, “I love you”
We are never, ever, ever getting back together
We are never, ever, ever getting back together
You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me
But we are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together
Like, ever
I’m NOT really gonna miss you picking fights
And me falling for it, screaming that I’m right
And you would hide away and find your peace of mind
With some NewsMax news that’s much cooler than mine
I used to think that we were forever, ever
And I used to say, “Never say never”
Ugh, so he goes on Twitter and he’s like, “I still love you”
And I’m like, “I just, I mean, this is exhausting, you know?
Like, we are never getting back together, like, ever”
You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me (Talk to me)
But we are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together
PeterH
September 17, 2024 at 3:02 pm
The Trump campaign is drawing attention to the very hateful rhetoric and divisiveness that themselves have been spreading since Trump came down the escalator in 2015! Is anyone surprised they are stumbling?
Butt and beave
September 17, 2024 at 3:33 pm
The physiology stinks. Donald is or was a Democrat.. it is an all around good cop bad cop episode. But pam is flying high
Michael K
September 17, 2024 at 3:34 pm
Donald Trump has never, ever, taken personal responsibility for his actions. It’s always someone else at fault. This weak man, with no grounding in American history or his oath of office, refused to accept his electoral loss when 81 million Americans told home he was fired. He is Americas biggest loser.
Some role model for the kids. NOT.
THE SAGE ELVIS PITTS AMERICAN
September 17, 2024 at 9:10 pm
All you Dook 4 Brains Leftist Trolls (above) are hereby CHASTIZED by me, THE SAGE ELVIS PITTS AMERICAN, and yes you are also under the wanking ban UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
Thank you, Dook 4 Brains Leftist Trolls (above),
THE SAGE ELVIS PITTS AMERICAN
Tom
September 18, 2024 at 7:30 am
Speaking of wanking bans, maybe you should ease up a bit yourself. Your caps-lock seems to be getting randomly stuck and I don’t even want to think about what’s on your keyboard that’s making that happen.
rick whitaker
September 18, 2024 at 7:51 am
EARL SHITTS, is wanking and sphincters all you think about, how sad.
KathrynA
September 17, 2024 at 9:17 pm
“talk about calling the kettle black” When he is the one that threatens everyone and makes living in a small city a nightmare and calling out intimidation threats and giving “dog whistles” to his supporters to threaten anyone who doesn’t agree with him.
Michael K
September 18, 2024 at 8:23 am
Turns out the women who posted the dogs and cats meme now regrets it and admits it was a “friend of a friend of an acquaintance “telephone” thing.
Do you think knowing it was and is a lie will stop Trump and Vance from spreading the lie?
Only when pigs fly.
Dont Say FLA
September 18, 2024 at 9:11 am
Well Vance said if he has to make some stuff up in order to shine a spotlight on a societal problem, he’ll do that. Never mind the problem in Springfield was just that their population growth is just too rapid. The people comprising the population weren’t the problem, but why would Toadie Pants care about that technicality when he thinks he got a campaign platform out of claims people are eating THE DOGS and the cats and the geese from the park but not pet geese
But now Springfield Ohio does have real serious problems. Problems brought upon them by a VP candidate making stuff up allegedly to “help” them, but are bomb threats a big help?
Michael K
September 18, 2024 at 1:01 pm
You have to wonder why any person seeking the presidency would knowingly and willingly cause harm to a community he is hoping to serve.
But then again, neither Trump or Vance are ordinary, decent people. There’s more than a whiff of racism and division and a plethora of lies underlying their campaign. And truth is a foreign concept to each of them.
Dont Say FLA
September 18, 2024 at 9:06 am
The people who keep trying to off him, they are the turnip seeds he sowed.
Donald J Truck gets older, but just never wiser, and some of his turnip seeds grew out of his control and now the Turnip J Truck reaps what he sowed.
He, predictably enough, points his tiny fingers everywhere except at himself for why folks are trying to off him in unprecedented numbers like nobody’s ever seen before.
He’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror. To be clear, He’ll never look in the metaphorical mirror. Obviously a narsissy like Turnip J Truck is constantly checking the mirror, yet he never sees his own self in there
Nobody and I mean NO BODY despises a cult leader more than people who escaped the cult. It’s his bitter exes who are coming for him, and it’s because of him.
Hi. It’s him. He’s the problem it’s him.
So exhausting
Jojo
September 19, 2024 at 7:11 am
“ their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at”.
As with everything Donald Trump, what he accuses others of he is guilty of in spades
Comments are closed.