Donald Trump today, without providing evidence, blamed US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for inspiring another alleged assassination attempt against him, saying their criticisms are a threat to democracy even though he himself has long used inflammatory rhetoric on the campaign trail and called for arrest or trial. prosecuting his political rivals.
The US presidential election is only 50 days away and early ballots have already started to be mailed out in some places, and this year's presidential campaign has proven to be among the most turbulent in American history even before yesterday's apparent assassination attempt on Trump.
The Republican presidential candidate remained safe after the incident in Florida and praised the Secret Service for protecting him but was quick to blame his political opponents. Trump blamed the US president today.
"Their rhetoric causes me to be shot at, even though I am the one who will save the country and they are the ones who are destroying it, inside and out," Trump said in statements to Fox News Digital.
His statements are very different from the reactions after the assassination attempt on him in July during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a bullet grazed his ear.
Trump then called for national unity, saying in a social media post that "it is more important than ever that we be united." A few days later, however, the former US president returned to his usual speech when he harshly criticizes the Democrats.
As authorities continue to investigate the motives of the attackers in Pennsylvania and the person arrested yesterday in Florida, Trump has made it clear that he considers the assassination attempts on him politically motivated and blames them on his rivals.
He holds this view even though he has drawn criticism repeatedly for his rhetoric. He talked about suing his political rivals and alleged without evidence that Democrats filed criminal charges against him for political reasons.
During last week's debate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and in the days after, he spread rumors that Haitian immigrants in the state of Ohio were kidnapping and eating pets. That community evacuated schools and government buildings days later due to bomb threats, adding to the sense of particularly volatile and tense times in America even before yesterday's incident, when another assassination attempt on Trump appears to have been attempted.
Unlike him, President Biden stayed away from politics today. He said before boarding a helicopter for the trip to Philadelphia, "Thank God the president is OK," and also said the Secret Service needed more help and called on Congress to provide additional funding to help the agency, which is charged with protecting current and former president.
Trump had previously planned to spend today at his home in Florida, a source familiar with his schedule said. He will meet personally with Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe today, the source said.
Trump is expected to speak live about cryptocurrency on social network X this evening to mark the launch of his son's crypto platform, and is expected to return to a campaign trip in Flint, Michigan tomorrow.
Later in the week, he is scheduled to appear in New York, Washington and North Carolina.
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