The Republican candidate believes that incendiary rhetoric by his opponents may have contributed to the second attack on his life
Former US President Donald Trump has suggested that the rhetoric coming from the Democratic party depicting him as a threat to electoral democracy has probably contributed to the recent attempt on his life.
On Sunday, the Secret Service spooked a gunman who was hiding in bushes at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect fled in a car and was detained nearby shortly afterward, thanks to an eyewitness who described the vehicle to the police.
In a lengthy interview on X Spaces on Monday, Trump offered his account of the dramatic events and commented on the fact that it evidently was a second attempt to kill him in the span of roughly two months. The first incident occurred at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania in mid-July, when a bullet fragment grazed Trump’s ear.
”Well, there’s a lot of rhetoric going on right now. A lot of people think that the Democrats, when they talk about ‘threat to democracy’ and all of this… And it seems that both of these people were radical lefts,” Trump said, referring to the suspects in each instance.
In previous remarks about the incident in Pennsylvania, he had likewise suggested that political attacks on him could have influenced the perpetrator. The leadership of the Democratic Party has been branding the Republican candidate as a would-be tyrant bent on destroying the US political system, urging voters to side with their candidate to safeguard the nation’s future.
Senior Democratic figures, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who the party has put forward for November’s election, have condemned both instances of violence targeting their opponent.
The shooter in Butler, a 20-year-old local man, was killed on the spot by counter-snipers. During Monday’s interview, Trump claimed that federal investigators had problems with accessing the suspect’s personal devices.
The second person accused of trying to kill Trump is 58-year-old outspoken supporter of Ukraine, who supposedly voted for the Republican in the 2016 election and appears to have since changed allegiance, now favoring the Democrats.
Trump showered praise on the Secret Service and West Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office for their handling of Sunday’s incident in Florida. Unlike in Pennsylvania, there were no deaths or injuries and the suspect is now in custody, which was a great result, he said.
The politician reminded the audience that in July he survived only by happenstance and pondered possible divine intervention.
”There’s something going on. Perhaps, it’s God wanting me to be president to save this country. Nobody knows,” he mused.
