Former president Donald Trump on Monday blamed the “rhetoric” of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the apparent assassination attempt he faced Sunday.
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The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, had criticized Trump at times on social media and echoed a campaign slogan from Biden and Harris. Authorities, however, have not determined a motive and have not said whether there is evidence he was inspired by their rhetoric.
While Trump claimed he was “shot at,” the acting director of the Secret Service, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., said later Monday that Routh did not fire any shots and did not have Trump in his “line of sight.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
Trump — who previously warned of “potential death & destruction” if he were indicted in his New York criminal case related to a hush money payment — echoed the claims again Monday afternoon on his Truth Social platform.
“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. Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” Trump wrote.
Harris and Biden have routinely portrayed Trump as a threat to democracy because of his refusal to accept the 2020 election results and his role in stoking rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn the election.
Trump’s claims came the same day he hosted a virtual address on Spaces, X’s live audio platform, from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on the launch of “World Liberty Financial,” a cryptocurrency platform.
The former president spent much of the event — his first since the possible assassination attempt at his golf course — discussing the incident and praising the agents who protected him. He later described a call he had with President Joe Biden earlier Monday.
“He was very nice that he called up to make sure I was okay, to make sure that, you know, do I have any suggestions or, we do need more people on my detail,” Trump said. He added that Biden “couldn’t have been nicer.”
Police arrested Routh, 58, on Sunday after he pointed a rifle through a fence around a golf course where Trump was playing, authorities said. The FBI is investigating the episode as an apparent assassination attempt. Trump, who survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in July, was not harmed in the Florida incident.
Authorities have not said Routh shot at Trump on the golf course. They have said a Secret Service agent opened fire on Routh after seeing his rifle poking through the fence.
Routh’s social media activity quickly came under scrutiny. He reportedly wrote on X that “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot” in the November election, a refrain Biden and Harris have used on the campaign trail. Routh also had expressed past support for Trump, suggesting he backed him in 2016 but became disillusioned with him.
Biden and Harris said Sunday that they were relieved Trump was safe and condemned any kind of political violence. Biden, talking to reporters Monday morning outside the White House, said “thank God” Trump was okay and urged “more help” for the Secret Service.
On X, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. described having conversations with his young children about the second attempt on Trump’s life.
“No person should ever have to do this in America or anywhere else and yet I had to have that conversation five times again yesterday,” he said.
After Trump criticized Biden and Harris online and on Fox News, some of his critics noted that he has long spread hateful rhetoric against his political opponents. In a post shared on X, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who was part of a now-defunct House select committee tasked with investigating the deadly Jan. 6 riot, pointed to Trump’s political rhetoric as a source of tension.
“Look violent rhetoric is wrong, and has no place,” Kinzinger wrote. “But MAGA pretending they didn’t light this fire is gaslighting to the 100th power. Since Trump showed up our politics has gone to crap.”
“Literally just accused a group of people of eating our pets,” Kinzinger added, a reference to Trump’s baseless claims that Haitian migrants are eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio.
Former congressman Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who is also now a Trump critic, said in an X post that two things can be true at the same time: “1. This potential assassination attempt on Donald Trump is horrible and should be strongly condemned by ALL of us.” And “2. There is no politician in America today who spews as much hate or incites as much violence with reckless/dangerous rhetoric as Donald Trump does.”
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) on X also shared a response to Donald Trump Jr.’s post, asking whether the former president’s son has apologized to the grandchildren of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the former House speaker, after he posted a tweet mocking a hammer attack that seriously injured Pelosi’s husband.
In a statement to The Washington Post, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), also a member of the House select committee, weighed in on Trump’s accusation.
“Vice-President Harris and Governor Walz obviously have had nothing to do with that kind of incitement. They do not talk about bloodbaths, American carnage, overturning the rule of law or the Constitution, or imprisoning and exacting revenge against their opponents” Raskin said. “Only one candidate in this race has been impeached in a bipartisan vote for inciting a violent insurrection against our government.”
Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.
