Former President Donald Trump blamed Democrats on Monday for the latest attempt on his life, saying their rhetoric about him being a “threat to democracy” motivated a gunman at his property in Florida.
In the same breath, he used the same rhetoric against Democrats, describing them as an existential threat to the U.S.
“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 told Fox News Digital on Monday.
Trump expanded on the sentiment in a post on his website .
“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,” Trump wrote.
“Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse! Allowing millions of people, from places unknown, to INVADE and take over our Country, is an unpardonable sin.”
Secret Service agents fired on a man seen wielding an assault rifle on Trump’s golf course in what authorities have described as an apparent assassination attempt against Trump . Trump was on the course at the time.
It was the second near-assassination of Trump this year. In July, a man shot the former president in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
After the first shooting, Republicans immediately claimed the shooter had been motivated by Democrats calling Trump a threat to democracy.
“When the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and that the republic would end, it heats up the environment,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at the time.
Notably, Johnson didn’t criticize Democratic rhetoric during a live interview with Fox News on Monday morning, talking instead about the many threats Trump faces and the need for adequate Secret Service protection.
Democrats call Trump a threat to Democracy largely because he has refused to accept his defeat in the 2020 election and incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol as part of a broader scheme to undo the election result.
A Secret Service counter-sniper quickly killed Trump’s first would-be assassin, and investigators have not discerned a political motive for the 20-year-old shooter’s actions beyond an apparent desire to kill a high-profile political figure.
The second gunman, identified as Ryan Routh, a 58-year-old with an extensive criminal history, is now in police custody. Authorities haven’t described his motive, but social media accounts apparently connected to Routh suggest he once posted favorably of Trump in 2020 but in more recent years posted favorably about President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris , according to The Associated Press .
Democrats still describe Trump as a threat to Democracy but have emphasized that message less since Harris became the party’s presidential nominee. Instead, they have described Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), as “weird.”
Trump is not hesitating to blame Democrats for Routh’s armed foray onto his golf course.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said.
Democratic leaders, Trump said, “are people that want to destroy our country.”
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