Former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has blamed ‘rhetoric’ from the Biden-Harris administration for the most recent assassination attempt on his life.
Officials at the White House continue to call former President Trump a “threat” to democracy despite two assassination attempts on the life of the former president.
During a Tuesday press briefing, Peter Doocy, Fox News senior White House correspondent, asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about Trump continuously being referred to as a “threat.”
“How many more assassination attempts on Donald Trump until the president and vice president and you pick a different word to describe Trump, other than ‘threat?'” asked Doocy.
Jean-Pierre told Doocy she disagreed completely with the premise of his question and called the way he asked it “incredibly dangerous” because Americans were watching.
The press secretary also went into a defense mood, saying the Biden-Harris administration has continually condemned political violence.
After now-deceased attempted assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally and grazed Trump’s right ear with a bullet, President Joe Biden called Trump to tell him he was grateful the former president was OK, explained Jean-Pierre.
Additionally, she defended the Biden-Harris administration because it has called out Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, incident at the U.S. Capitol, asked that the temperature of political rhetoric be lowered after the assassination attempt in Butler on Trump, and called out the attack on Democrat Representative from California, Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul.
“What I have said about the president, the former president, about Jan. 6 is [a] fact that you all have reported. It is [a] fact. When you have a former president who basically says that the election wasn’t the results of the election … when dozens, dozens of more than 60 Republican judges said that it was a free and fair election,” said Jean-Pierre. “You had more than 2,000 people who were told to go the Capitol. It was one of the darkest days of our democracy, one of the darkest days.”
Jean-Pierre continued, saying it was critical to have disagreements on policies affecting foreign policy, the economy, and health care.
However, she said the political rhetoric was not OK.
“To your point, there are people watching at home who might miss the part where you say, ‘Let’s lower the temperature,’ and … there are mentally unstable people who are attempting to kill political candidates … attempting to kill Donald Trump,” said Doocy to Jean-Pierre. “And they are still hearing this White House refer to him as a threat. Is there no concern that people are taking that literally?”
Jean-Pierre says she and others are only using examples to back up their claims
Jean-Pierre responded to Doocy’s questions by saying she and others use examples to back up their claims, like January 6.
She noted the events covered on January 6 happened and that the White House has condemned political violence “over and over again.”
The press secretary explained people are watching what the media is saying about the WH’s increasing political violence rhetoric.
“This is an administration that has denounced and condemned any type of political rhetoric and violence. It is the reason why this president decided to run in 2020. That is why the president decided to come back,” said Jean-Pierre.
Monday, Trump said Vice President and Joe Biden’s “rhetoric” is what is causing him to be “shot at” after the second attempt against him since July. Trump additionally told Fox News Digital that the alleged gunman “acted” on the “highly inflammatory language” of Democrats.
Trump spoke Monday with Fox News Digital, a day after he was rushed off West Palm Beach, Florida’s Trump International Golf Club after agents with the Secret Service discovered a gunman in the bushes alongside the course.
Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspected gunman, had an AK-47-style rifle aimed through a chain-link fence toward the green, two backpacks, and a GoPro camera. Routh ran away from the scene but was pulled over and then arrested on I-95 in Martin County.
Authorities are treating the episode as an attempted assassination against the former president.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” said Trump. “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 pointed to Harris and Biden’s past comments casting Trump as a “threat to democracy” while claiming they are “unity” leaders.
“They are the opposite,” said Trump. “These are people that want to destroy our country.”
“It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat,” continued Trump.
