Former President Donald Trump didn’t mince words when discussing the attempted assassination attempt toward him, saying much of the blame for the day can be placed squarely at the feet of his political opponents.
Speaking Tuesday to Dr. Phil McGraw, Trump spoke at length about the moment that almost took his life in Butler, Pennsylvania. Thomas Crooks, on July 13, fired eight shots at the former president during a campaign rally.
Corey Comperatore was shot and killed as he attempted to shield his daughters and wife from the gunfire raining down. David Dutch and James Copenhaver were critically injured.
While the incident has been investigated for several weeks, many have questioned how Crooks could have slipped through several layers of security to get a straight shot at Trump. The former president suggested some blame should be directed not at the agents at the rally but toward the rhetoric of Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.
“People would ask, whose fault is it? I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’ fault,” said Trump, noting that the Democrats consistently label him a “threat to democracy.”
“And I’m the opponent,” added Trump. “Look, they were weaponizing the government against me. They brought in the whole DOJ to try and get me. They weren’t too interested in my health and safety.”
Task force found “multiple security shortcomings” by the Secret Service
Monday, a bipartisan group of legislators for the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of former President Donald Trump met with local Butler officials and discovered “multiple security shortcomings” 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,” said Trump of Biden.
A frequent refrain over the past several years from Harris and Biden is that Donald Trump is a “threat to democracy.” Trump told Dr. Phil during the one-hour 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 the rhetoric,” said Trump.
In the latest in a string of briefings on the investigation, a senior official with the FBI said Wednesday that Crooks searched online for events of both President Joe Biden and Trump, looked up information about explosives over the last five years, and eyed the campaign rally in Pennsylvania where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity.”
Investigators who have conducted almost 1,000 interviews don’t yet have a motive for why Crooks shot at Trump. Still, they believe he conducted “extensive attack planning, including looking up campaign events involving both the current president and former president, particularly in western Pennsylvania.”
The FBI’s 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,” said special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, Kevin Rojek, to reporters Wednesday.
