President Donald Trump said on Thursday that "radical left rhetoric" is responsible for a recent attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Texas.
A lone shooter, identified by police as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, allegedly opened fire on the ICE field office in Dallas on Wednesday morning, hitting three detainees as they were being taken to processing. He reportedly wrote "anti-ICE" on shell casings left at the scene, according to the FBI.
"The radical left is causing the problem," Trump said when asked about the attack during a press conference in the Oval Office on Thursday. "They're out of control, they're saying things, and they're really dumb people ... but the radical left are causing this problem. Not the right, the radical left."
Trump continued, "And it's going to get worse, and ultimately it's gonna go back on them. I mean, bad things happen when they play these games. And I'll give you a little clue, the right is a lot tougher than the left."
He said, "But the right's not doing this. They're not doing it. And they better not get them energized, because it won't be good for the left, and I don't want to see that happen either. I'm the president of all the people, but the radical left is causing this and the radical left Democrats are causing this problem, and it gets worse. It gets worse, and it'll be a point where other people won't take it anymore, and that will not be good for the radical left. And we don't want that."
Trump's comments echo his social media post reacting to the incident on Wednesday: "The Brave Men and Women of ICE are just trying to do their jobs, and remove the 'WORST of the WORST' Criminals out of our Country, but they are facing an unprecedented increase in threats, violence, and attacks by Deranged Radical Leftists."
He continued: "I AM CALLING ON ALL DEMOCRATS TO STOP THIS RHETORIC AGAINST ICE AND AMERICA'S LAW ENFORCEMENT, RIGHT NOW! The Trump Administration is fully committed to backing Law Enforcement, Strong Borders, securing our Homeland, deporting Violent Illegal Criminals, and fully rooting out the Left Wing Domestic Terrorism that is terrorizing our Country."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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