Former President Donald Trump went on offense Monday, blaming Vice President Kamala Harris for instigating both assassination attempts against him as he posited that she is the bigger threat to democracy on the November ballot.
Speaking with Fox News, the former president built on comments he made late Sunday that he is safe and “will never surrender.” Based on compelling evidence of past statements by the gunman, Trump said he believes 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh “acted” on “highly inflammatory language” from Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Less than 24 hours after the assassination attempt, media outlets have uncovered a litany of political views by Routh, including a statement that Trump represented a “threat to democracy.”
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said of the gunman. “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.” The Republican singled out the line “threat to democracy,” which has been repeated extensively by Harris and Walz, contrasting themselves as “unity” leaders. “They are the opposite,” Trump said. “These are people that want to destroy our country.” He added: “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”
In addition to posting negative messages about President Trump, Routh has a lengthy history of making small donations to exclusively Democratic politicians. He wrote recently that Democrats “cannot lose” this election, a sentiment that Trump said is being stoked to the point of violence through lawfare and rhetoric that walks the line on inciting violence. “They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in,” Trump 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.”
Since leaving the White House, President Trump has borne the brunt of the blame for the January 6th, 2021 riots at the Capitol, including allegations from congressional Democrats that he helped incite the violence that occurred that day. The tables have turned fully, as he has now been spared in the second assassination attempt against him in as many months. In July, he was nicked by a round from a rifle fired by 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks who was killed by counter-snipers.
Crooks’s attack didn’t stop the assertions from Harris and President Joe Biden that Trump is stoking the seeds of hatred and violence. Biden, speaking about Trump’s recent comments on Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, said “any president should reject hate in America” and “not incite it.” Trump in turn told Fox that Biden and Harris are making America “weak… by allowing millions of very dangerous migrants to pour into it and destroying our country and cities.”
“The media is made up of fools that will spew [Democrats’] garbage and spew their sick philosophies and will protect them at all costs, and they can’t believe they get away with it,” Trump said. “Democrats are totally protected by the media.” He blamed ABC moderators for last week’s debate results which most viewers took to be a victory by Harris, though it did not help her in post-debate poll results.