Donald Trump on Monday sought to blame his political rivals for what the FBI described as the second attempt on his life in just over two months, seeking to cast himself as the victim of supercharged political rhetoric that had encouraged violent attacks.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday morning, the former president railed against what he said was the “highly inflammatory language” used by Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, who have both cast Trump as a threat to democracy and warned of the dangers a potential second Trump administration could pose to the country.
Trump said that “dangerous fools” — like the gunman involved in Sunday’s incident — had bought into Biden and Harris’ rhetoric.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said. “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 has cast himself as defiant and unfazed in the wake of the latest attempt on his life. In a series of fundraising appeals blasted out in the hours after the incident, Trump reassured supporters that he was unharmed and warned that “there are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us.”
In another fundraising email sent to supporters on Monday, Trump said that, “after yet ANOTHER attempt on my life, I will be fighting even stronger!”
Trump was on his golf course in West Palm Beach on Sunday when Secret Service agents spotted a man with an AK-style rifle in the tree line and opened first. The gunman fled the scene and was eventually intercepted on I-95 in Martin County by police. He was identified as 58-year-old Ryan Routh. Routh was charged on Monday with illegally possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing a firearm with a scratched-out serial number.
Officials have not released a motive for the possible assassination attempt.
There’s no indication that the apparent assassination attempt — which came just over nine weeks after Trump was struck in the ear by a would-be assassin’s bullet at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania — has weighed on Trump’s public schedule. He is expected to meet on Monday with the acting director of the Secret Service for a briefing before appearing on a livestream to introduce a new cryptocurrency venture in the evening.
Trump is set to travel to Michigan on Tuesday for a town hall event before heading to New York on Wednesday for a campaign rally.
Sunday’s incident has sparked outrage and unease among Trump’s allies and campaign aides, who seethed over the fact that the former president had, once again, faced a dire security threat. An email sent to campaign staffers on Sunday urged workers to be “vigilant” and described the gunman apprehended on Sunday as an “evil monster.”
“As we enter the last 50 days of President Trump’s campaign, we must remember that we will only be able save America from those who seek to destroy it by working together as one team,” the email from Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita read.
LaCivita was also quick to pin responsibility for the possible assassination attempt on Trump’s political opponents. Hours after the incident, he shared a video of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders calling Trump “extraordinarily dangerous” and “a threat to our democracy.” In a separate post , LaCivita predicted that Democrats wouldn’t tone down their rhetoric after the latest assassination attempt.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a staunch Trump ally who’s seeking reelection this year, blamed the media and “radical left” for deploying what he called “dangerous and senseless rhetoric” against Trump. Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, who worked for Trump’s 2020 presidential bid, said that the latest attempt on Trump’s life was a symptom of an overheated political climate.
“I think that clearly both sides need to tone down their rhetoric,” Cabrera told the Miami Herald. “And all this talk about him being a threat to democracy isn’t helpful.”
Trump himself has lobbed fierce attacks against his political opponents for years. Even as he accused Harris and Biden on Monday for deploying inflammatory rhetoric against him, Trump claimed that they “want to destroy our country.”
“It is called the enemy from within,” Trump said. “They are the real threat.”
Both Biden and Harris have denounced Sunday’s possible assassination attempt and vowed to ensure that the Secret Service has the resources it needs to protect Trump.
“I am deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump today,” Harris said in a statement. “As we gather the facts, I will be clear: I condemn political violence. We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”
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