Former President Donald Trump said the rhetoric pushed by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris is causing the assassination attempts on his life.
Mr. Trump said the would-be assassin who set up an ambush Sunday at a gold course “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it.”
“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,” he told Fox News Digital on Monday.
“They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in,” he said. “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.”
The alleged assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
He was detained after fleeing the outskirts of the Trump International Golf Course. He was spotted by Secret Service agents pointing an AK-47-style rifle through the fence. Two backpacks, the gun and a GoPro camera were found in the spot he fled.
Mr. Trump specifically referenced comments from Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, calling him a “threat to democracy” while referring to themselves as “unity” leaders.
“They are the opposite,” Mr. Trump said. “These are people that want to destroy our country.”
He said it is “called the enemy from within” and that they’re “the real threat.”
Both Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris denounced the political violence.
“I have been briefed on reports of gunshots fired near former President Trump and his property in Florida, and I am glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America,” Ms. Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, wrote Sunday on X.
Mr. Biden on Monday called on Congress to give more support to the Secret Service after the apparent assassination attempt, specifically more personnel.
This was the second incident against Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, in roughly two months.
Democrats have long warned that Mr. Trump is a threat to democracy. However, Republicans have also used the phrase to describe the Democratic Party.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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