Donald Trump has blamed Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s “rhetoric” for the latest apparent assassination attempt on him, claiming their remarks were “causing me to be shot at”.
The Republican 2024 candidate said the “highly inflammatory language” of his Democratic opponents had motivated would-be assassins after two suspected attempts on his life in as many months.
Trump was rushed off his golf course on Sunday following the discovery of a gunman lurking in the shrubbery nearby.
The suspected gunman, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, appeared in court and was charged with federal gun crimes on Monday.
Mr Routh’s social media accounts suggest a wide variety of political affiliations. He said he voted for Trump in 2016 but appeared to support Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, who challenged Trump in the Republican primary, in 2024.
He also appeared to have donated to a range of Democratic candidates in the past.
Trump told Fox News in an interview on Monday that the gunman “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it”. He cited the president and vice president’s frequent refrain that he poses a “threat to democracy”.
“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,” he said.
He added: “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”
The comments are in stark contrast to Trump’s response to the first assassination attempt on him in July, when a gunman opened fire at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump called for the country to “stand united, and show our true character as Americans” following that incident.
He responded to Sunday’s incident with a fundraising appeal, calling on supporters to “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!!”
JD Vance also blamed Democrats and Trump critics for “ridiculous and inflammatory political rhetoric” on Monday, vowing to “do (his) part” to tone it down.
He said Democrats cannot call Trump a “threat to democracy” and “a fascist” and expect that violence would not follow, because “some crazy person” decides “to take matters into their own hands”.
Speaking at the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition dinner on Monday, Mr Vance said that conservatives do not “always get things exactly right” in their rhetoric.
But he argued that two apparent assassination attempts against Trump prove that Democrats are worse.
“No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months,” Mr Vance said.
With fewer than 50 days until voters go to the polls on Nov 5, political tensions are higher than ever in the neck-and-neck race between Trump and Ms Harris.
Both the vice president and Mr Biden have repeatedly cast Trump as a danger to democracy over his refusal to concede defeat in the 2020 election and his actions over the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
After criticising his opponents for using “highly inflammatory language”, Trump added: “I can use it too – far better than they can – but I don’t”.
Mr Biden and Ms Harris have both condemned the apparent assassination bid, saying there is “no place for political violence” in America.
At the White House earlier on Monday, Mr Biden said: “thank God the president is OK.”