Former President Donald Trump did not mince words when discussing the assassination attempt on his life, saying that much of the blame for that day can be placed at the feet of his political opponents.
Speaking to Dr. Phil McGraw on Tuesday, Trump spoke in depth about the moment that nearly took his life in Butler, Pennsylvania. On July 13, Thomas Crooks, 20, fired eight shots at Trump during a campaign rally.
Corey Comperatore, 50, was shot and killed as he attempted to shield his wife and daughters from the gunfire. James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, a 57-year-old Marine veteran, were critically injured.
While the incident has been under investigation for several weeks, many have questioned how Crooks could slip through multiple layers of security to get a clean shot at Trump. The former president suggested some of the blame should be directed not at the agents on the ground but toward the rhetoric of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
"People would ask, Whose fault is it? I think to a certain extent it's Biden's fault and Harris' fault," Trump said, noting that the Democrats consistently label him a "threat to democracy."
"And I'm the opponent," Trump added. "Look, they were weaponizing government against me. They brought in the whole DOJ to try and get me. They weren't too interested in my health and safety."
On Monday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers for the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of former President Donald Trump met with local officials in Butler and found "multiple security shortcoming" by the Secret Service.
"Our people were always fighting to get more security, more Secret Service, and he knew that we didn't have enough," Trump said of Biden.
A common refrain over the past several years from Biden and Harris is that Trump is a "threat to democracy." Trump told Dr. Phil during the hourlong interview that their attacks are misplaced. "They're saying I'm a threat to democracy. No, they're a threat."
"They would say that. That was a standard line, just keep saying it. And, you know, that can get assassins or potential assassins going. Maybe that bullet is because of their rhetoric," Trump said.
In the latest in a series of briefings on the investigation, a senior FBI official said Wednesday that Crooks searched online for events of both Trump and President Joe Biden, looked up information about explosives over the past five years, and eyed the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a "target of opportunity."
Investigators who have conducted nearly 1,000 interviews do not yet have a motive for why Crooks shot at Trump but they believe that he conducted "extensive attack planning, including looking up campaign events involving both the current president and former president, particularly in western Pennsylvania.
The FBI analysis of his online search history reveals a "sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets," Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters Wednesday.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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