Former FBI agent Tim Clemente said the incident was possibly prompted by Trump’s fiery rhetoric equating former President Trump with a dictator. Latest assassination attempt On Sunday.
“I think we’ll find this individual is extremely politically motivated,” Clemente said of suspect Ryan Routh during an appearance on CNN.
Clemente said Routh “was probably inspired by the political rhetoric that’s going on these days, including things like this about Trump, likening him to Hitler and things like that.”
“So I don’t think this is the last time we’ll see crazy people doing this,” he warned.
NBC’s Lester Holt: Trump assassination attempt followed campaign’s ‘increasingly fiery rhetoric’
After surviving an assassination attempt in July, President Trump addressed a crowd, raising his fist and shouting, “Fight.” (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Trump was playing golf at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday when Secret Service agents foiled an assassination attempt by shooting the suspect. According to authorities, the suspect was firing a rifle from a hole in the fence about 300 yards ahead of the former president.
CNN host Erin Burnett asked Clemente to comment on the “unprecedented” moment when there have been two assassination attempts on a former president in the past nine weeks.
Clemente responded, “This is unprecedented in civilized society. And I think we’re becoming more uncivilized, sadly, because of the ongoing political insinuations and the political indictments of both candidates.”
He blamed media pundits who called Trump “Hitler” for Trump’s “blood-curdling” comments about the auto industry and said it was an example of rhetoric that led to “kill attempts” on Trump.
Members of the FBI are seen at the crime scene outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, after a shooting incident at former US President Donald Trump’s golf course, on September 15, 2024. Trump’s campaign said on Sunday that there was “gunfire around him” but also said the Republican presidential candidate was safe. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
“And sadly, by pointing the finger at Trump — the bloodshed talk, talking about the auto industry, being used in a way as if he’s going to stage a bloody coup if he loses, — that type of rhetoric “This is something you use when you talk about a dictator in a third world country. Sadly, this is why, I think, there have been attempts to assassinate Trump and I don’t think it’s going to stop,” he said.
He added, “I think we have to understand that we are political rivals, you and I may not agree on 50% of the things we care about politically. It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, neighbors, relatives and communicate regularly every day, we have to get back to that.”
These comments were shared on X by Newsbusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck.
Former FBI agent Tim Clemente blamed political rhetoric about Trump for the second assassination attempt. (CNN/Screenshot)
In an interview Fox News Digital, The former president pointed to President Biden and Vice President Harris’ rhetoric, saying he had called them a “threat to democracy” for motivating the attacker.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris and acted on it,” Trump said of the gunman. “Because of their rhetoric, I’m getting shot at, when I’m supposed to be saving the country, and they’re the ones destroying it — from the inside and the outside.”
Routh has previously reiterated Biden and Harris’ anti-Trump comments, that “democracy is on the ballot” and that Democrats “can’t lose,” on his social media pages this year.
Both Biden and Harris condemned “political violence” in statements following the assassination attempt and praised the Secret Service for protecting Trump.
Ahead of Tuesday’s ABC News presidential debate, a new poll shows that Vice President Kamala Harris is leading former President Trump by eight percentage points among likely voters in Virginia. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Biden said he was “relieved” that the former president was unharmed.
He said, “As I have said many times, there is no place in our country for political violence or violence of any kind, and I have directed my team to ensure that the Secret Service has all the resources, capabilities and protective measures necessary to ensure the continued safety of the former President.”
Harris also said He is “grateful” that Trump is safe, while he reiterated Biden’s promise to direct resources to the Secret Service.
Fox News’s Stephen Soares and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
