Former President and Republican Party Presidential nominee Donald Trump has held US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris responsible for the failed assassination attempt on him and has blamed them for making it difficult for the Secret Service to protect him.
Donald Trump made this claim on the television show Dr Phil, hosted by Phil McGraw, on Tuesday, August 27. He also claimed that several Secret Service agents from the Pittsburgh field office were on administrative leave after his assassination attempt against him on July 13.
There has been no evidence that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were directly involved in the Secret Service’s arrangements. Both Biden and Harris condemned the incident.
“They’re saying I’m a threat to democracy,” Trump said. “They would say that, that was the standard line, just keep saying it, and you know that can get assassins or potential assassins going. That’s a terrible thing … Maybe that bullet is because of their rhetoric,” Trump said.
During an election campaigning event in Butler, Pennsylvania, a 20-year-old gunman who is identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks fired Donald Trump with an AR-style assault rifle.
The episode happened a few minutes after Trump had started speaking. Crooks was positioned on the roof of a nearby building where he had a clear view of the stage. He fired eight shots before being neutralised by a Secret Service sniper within 26 seconds of the first gunshot.
“When this happened, people would ask, whose fault is it?” Trump told McGraw. “I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’s fault. And I’m the opponent. They were weaponising government against me, they brought in the whole DoJ to try and get me, they weren’t too interested in my health and safety,” he said.
“They were making it very difficult to have proper staffing in terms of Secret Service.”
The Secret Service accepted that Trump’s security had complained about lack of security and personnel for two years and a few of the requests were denied.
The Secret Service has amped up the protection of Trump after the incident. Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, resigned after a Capitol Hill hearing in which Republican members of Congress blamed her for not being able to answer questions adequately over a security breach leading to the assassination attempt.
