NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump On Monday, it was claimed without evidence that the president Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' His comments that she was a threat to democracy had prompted the latest Apparent attempt on his lifeDespite this, he himself has a long history of using inflammatory election rhetoric and advocating the imprisonment or prosecution of his political enemies.
With the election just 50 days away and ballots already mailed in some places, this year's presidential campaign was one of the most turbulent in U.S. history even before Sunday's assassination attempt. Trump was safe after the Florida incident and praised the Secret Service for protecting him, but has not shied away from blaming his opponents.
“I'm being fired because of their rhetoric, when I'm the one saving the country, and they're the ones destroying it — inside and out,” Trump said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The Republican former president's comments are a stark contrast to his response to an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, in which a bullet grazed his ear.
Then, Trump called for national unity, saying in a social media post that “it is more important than ever that we remain united.” However, a few days later, the former president returned to his usual commentary, where he sharply criticized Democrats and enjoyed political bombast.
While authorities continue to investigate the motives of the gunman in Pennsylvania and the man arrested Sunday in Florida, Trump has made clear that he views the attempts on his life as politically motivated — and blames his rivals.
This is at a time when Trump himself has been repeatedly criticised for his rhetoric. He has called for prosecution of his political rivals and has alleged without evidence that Democrats have filed criminal cases against him for political reasons.
In a post on his social media site on Monday, Trump again claimed he has been the target of politically motivated attacks, writing that leftists have “taken politics in our country to a whole new level of hate, abuse and mistrust.” He added that “it will get worse” and then commented about immigration, even though there is no evidence that the man arrested in connection with the assassination attempt was an immigrant.
This follows comments made by the former president during last week's debate and in the days that followed. promoting false rumours Haitian immigrants in Ohio are kidnapping pets and eating them. The community said this a few days later Schools and government buildings were evacuated A situation of instability and tension has already arisen in America amid bomb threats before Sunday's incident.
In contrast, Biden has tried to steer clear of politics. He condemned the assassination attempt and said on Monday that the US must work to stop the scourge of political violence.
“America has suffered the tragedy of a killer's bullet too many times,” Biden said at the start of his address to the National HBCU Week conference in Philadelphia. “It doesn't solve anything. It just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it and never give it oxygen.”
Biden said in his speech that acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was in Florida and “assessing what happened and determining if any further adjustments need to be made to ensure Trump's safety.” The president spoke with Trump by phone later Monday and expressed his relief that the former president was safe, according to the White House, which described it as a cordial conversation.
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Trump said in a statement released by his campaign: “We had a very good conversation. It was about Secret Service protection.” His campaign did not provide further details.
Following Trump's firing in Pennsylvania, Biden initially called on the nation to lower the political temperature, however, he eventually criticized Trump as a threat to the nation's founding principles.
Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley said Sunday's “deeply troubling” events, combined with an already dramatic year and the looming election, have created “a kind of uncertainty throughout the country.”
“2024 has just unfolded in a chaotic and frightening way. It's impossible for anyone to go about their daily lives with a news cycle that's constantly grim and absurd,” Brinkley said.
Trump was already scheduled to be at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Monday, according to a person familiar with his schedule. In the evening, the former president was scheduled to talk about cryptocurrencies on the social media site X for the launch of his sons' crypto platform, then was expected to return to the campaign trail on Tuesday for a town hall in Flint, Michigan. He is scheduled to make appearances in New York, Washington and North Carolina later in the week.
HarrisMeanwhile, she met with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at the 1.3 million-member group's headquarters in Washington. She is seeking the support of another labor union, but it was not immediately forthcoming.
The vice president was scheduled to campaign in swing-state Pennsylvania on Tuesday and planned to deliver speeches in Washington, Michigan and Wisconsin over the weekend. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, was planning to attend campaign receptions in Washington and New York on Tuesday and Wednesday.
His return to the campaign trail is likely to be overshadowed by questions about the shooting of an armed man by Secret Service agents at the former president's Florida golf course. The FBI was leading the investigation and working to determine any motive.
Besides the first assassination attempt on Trump by shooting him during a rally in Pennsylvania, the past six months have seen the landmark criminal trial and conviction against Trump, the crisis and eventual demise of Biden's re-election campaign following his poor performance in the debates; and the fundamental shift in the race with Harris replacing him.
In August, Trump's campaign disclosed it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. The Justice Department is preparing criminal charges in connection with the hack.
Trump's accusations that Democrats are a threat to American democracy are a theme his allies have also taken up, and have attempted to link those arguments to the detention of a suspect on Sunday. Investigators have not commented on the suspect's possible motives.
Republican strategist David Urban, a Trump ally, said it was too early to know what effect this would have on the coming days and weeks of the campaign, but in conversations with Trump supporters he sensed a deep sense of shock and uncertainty.
“We've said unprecedented so many times this year. I don't know if we can even say that word anymore,” Urban said.
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Weisert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Ayana Alexander in Philadelphia, Darlene Superville and Amir Madhani in Washington, Steve Peoples in New York and Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.