Donald Trump said Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are at fault “to a certain extent” for the attempt on his life last month in Pennsylvania, blaming them for security deficiencies even though the president and vice president have no involvement in Secret Service assignments.
“He always made it very tough for us to have the proper number of Secret Service people,” Trump said about Biden in an interview with TV personality Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil.
“When this happened, people would ask, whose fault is it? I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’ fault,” Trump added in the interview, which aired Tuesday. “And I’m the opponent. 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.”
Trump’s claim is entirely unfounded. The president and vice president are not involved in Secret Service assignments. The agency, which is funded by Congress, has faced a staffing shortage for years, as NBC News recently reported. A Secret Service official told NBC News that the shortfall has resulted in denials of requests for extra personnel for Trump over the past two years, but added that no such requests had been turned down for the rally where he was shot.
On Wednesday, FBI officials told reporters that Trump’s would-be assassin had searched online for information about both of the major parties’ national conventions and that the former president’s July 13 rally in Pennsylvania appears to have been a “target of opportunity.”
Trump’s comments escalate the tension in an already heated election year. Republicans have blamed the shooting on Democrats for calling Trump a threat to democracy after he has repeatedly vowed to tear through political norms and governmental systems of checks and balances. Analysts and experts have said that the surge of violent threats against election officials is in part motivated by Trump’s own vengeful rhetoric toward those he perceives as enemies.
In the interview, Trump spoke at length about the rally shooting. McGraw also appeared to egg him on, asking: “I’m not saying that they [Biden and Harris] wanted you to get shot, but do you think it was OK with them if you did?” At one point, the former president suggested that he may have survived the shooting because God wants him to save the world. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know,” Trump responded. “There’s a lot of hatred. I don’t know why. I had a great presidency.” At one point, the former president suggested that he may have survived the shooting because God wants him to save the world. “If I win that [the election], that would really serve to say that there’s some incredible power up there that wanted me to be involved — and maybe it’s more than saving the nation, maybe it’s saving the world,” Trump said.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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