Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized the press for not having “a consistent narrative about how dangerous [former President Donald] Trump is” on Monday night.
The former presidential candidate’s comments came just two days after a second assassination attempt on Trump that he and his allies have contended was sparked by harsh political rhetoric.
Clinton also said journalists should cover the object, Trump, and “his demagoguery, his danger to our country and the world,” rather than bouncing from one outrage to the next.
Ryan Wesley Routh is accused of pointing an “AK-47-style weapon” toward the golf course that Trump was playing at on Sunday. The accused gunman did not fire at the former president or have him in his sights before Secret Service agents spotted his weapon and opened fire. Routh was later arrested in a vehicle resembling one that was spotted fleeing the golf club.
Clinton said the assassination attempts were a “terrible thing” in an interview with Katie Couric earlier Monday.
“This is such a terrible thing to happen twice in our country in a relatively short period of time, and it’s frightening to see violence being threatened and used in a political campaign,” Clinton said.
Clinton has been a prominent surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris, who has the opportunity to become the first female president.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), renewed calls for calmer political rhetoric in the aftermath of another attempt on Trump’s life.
“The rhetoric is out of control,” Vance wrote in a post on X. “It nearly got Steve Scalise and many others killed a few years ago. It nearly got Donald Trump killed twice.”
Vance cited Harris’s use of the phrase, “Democracy is on the line,” as a primary motive for the shooter.
“The gunman agreed, and used the exact same phrase,” he said. “He had a Kamala Harris bumper sticker on his truck.”
Trump agreed with Vance that political rhetoric has endangered his life in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out,” he said.
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Unlike the first attempt on his life over the summer, Trump wasn’t injured on Sunday. During a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, a gunman climbed onto a roof on the outskirts of an outdoor rally and shot Trump in the ear. The gunman also killed a man attending the rally and injured several others before Secret Service agents killed him. The Secret Service was heavily criticized in the aftermath of the incident, and Director Kimberly Cheatle later resigned.
President Joe Biden recently called on Congress to approve more funding for the Secret Service in an effort to keep all those protected by the agency safer.