Authorities in Arizona arrested a convicted sex offender Thursday afternoon on suspicion of threatening to kill Donald Trump during the former president’s campaign stop at the southern border.
The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it arrested Ronald Lee Syvrud around 2:30 p.m. local time over threats he made ahead of the former president’s appearance.
The ex-con also had active arrest warrants for driving under the influence in Wisconsin and for a hit-and-run incident in Graham County, Arizona, according to the sheriff’s office. Syvrud is also wanted for arrest in Graham and Cochise counties for failing to register as a sex offender.
Police took the 220-pound, 6-foot-tall, green-eyed, bespectacled White man into custody without incident. His last known address is in Benson, about 35 miles north of Sierra Vista.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Trump was asked whether the threats and the hunt for Syvrud had changed his campaign approach.
“I’ve heard about that. But I have to do my job. It’s a job. It’s a dangerous job, but I have to do my job,” he said.
Mr. Trump survived an assassination attempt last month after a lone gunman opened fire on the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
One crowd member was shot and killed by the would-be assassin and two other attendees were wounded.
Mr. Trump said he was visiting Sierra Vista to bash “lazy border czar” Kamala Harris, and blamed the current vice president for allowing illegal immigrants into the country who go on to victimize Americans.
Ms. Harris, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee this fall, was tapped by President Biden to oversee the border in 2021.
“She loved the title but she didn’t want to do the work because she’s lazy and, probably more important than being lazy, wants to have an open border,” Mr. Trump said during his appearance in Cochise County.
The event also featured families whose relatives were killed by illegal immigrants.
Mr. Trump leaned into his signature issue — illegal immigration — in the hot Arizona sun hours before Ms. Harris was to formally accept the Democratic nomination on stage at the party convention in Chicago.
The former president said he didn’t expect Ms. Harris to offer many solutions and argued that any tough talk on the border would amount to a flip-flop.
“If she changes her mind, it’s only because she wants to get elected,” he said.
The Biden administration took steps in June to stiffen asylum screening and otherwise stiffen enforcement at the border.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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