Trump says Biden-Harris ‘rhetoric’ to blame for Florida assassination attempt
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(WEST PALM BEACH , Fla.) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday blamed a polarized political environment and “rhetoric” from Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for the second assassination attempt on his life over the weekend.
He said that things Harris and Biden said caused the suspected gunman Ryan Wesley Routh to act on Sunday.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said of the gunman in an interview with Fox News Digital. “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.”
The suspect’s motive remains unknown as the FBI continues to conduct an extensive investigation into Routh’s background, looking at whether Routh was frustrated with Trump’s position on Ukraine, sources tell ABC News.
Routh appeared in a federal courtroom in West Palm Beach Monday morning and faces two firearm-related charges.
While blaming Democrats for using “highly inflammatory language,” the former president himself also attacked his opponents, calling them enemies and threats.
“These are people that want to destroy our country,” Trump said. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”
The political nature of his comments is a departure from Trump’s immediate response following his assassination attempt earlier this summer in Butler, Pennsylvania.
After the shooting, Trump called for political unity, initially urging his allies not to point blame across the aisle.
“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” Trump had written.
His tone later shifted, falsely suggesting during the ABC News presidential debate that he “probably took a bullet to the head” because of Harris. The FBI has not established a motive that explains why Thomas Matthew Crooks fired on Trump.
On Sunday, Secret Service agents fired at Routh, who was armed with an AK-47-style rifle near the Trump International golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Biden called for more Secret Service assistance.
“One thing I want to make clear, the [Secret] Service needs more help and I think the Congress should respond to their needs, if in fact they need more servicemen,” Biden said while departing the White House.
(MILWAUKEE) — Vice President Kamala Harris is holding a rally Tuesday night in Milwaukee — in the middle of the Democratic National Convention — at the same arena where former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination just a month ago.
A Harris campaign official said they aren’t just doing a “victory lap” because of the momentum around the vice president — instead they’re choosing to hold a rally during the DNC because they still believe they are the “underdogs” and need to work hard to win over voters in battleground states such as Wisconsin, according to the official.
These critical voters won’t be in Chicago, and Harris needs to “meet them where they are,” the official said.
Milwaukee is “a place where we need to increase turnout and it’s a good high-momentum, high-energy moment to dig in and talk to folks,” the official added. “We want to make this bigger than Chicago.”
Harris’ Tuesday rally will take place in the Fiserv Forum — the location of the Republican National Convention’s prime-time events and where Trump recently accepted his party’s nomination to a packed house.
“If she can fill up that arena that can hold some 18,000 people — that could get under Trump’s skin,” the campaign official said — a reference to Trump’s focus on crowd size.
In recent weeks, Trump has continued to make baseless claims that the Harris campaign pays for her crowd as his Democratic rival gains momentum with large-scale rallies.
Earlier this month, Trump falsely accused Harris’ campaign of using artificial intelligence to fabricate crowds at a campaign rally in Michigan. A Harris campaign official told ABC News that the photo Trump called into question was taken by a Harris campaign staffer and that it was “not modified by AI in any way.”
Harris’ visit to Wisconsin comes after she spoke at the DNC briefly on Monday night. She is set to speak again at the convention on Thursday night where she will accept the party’s nomination. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff is set to speak at the convention Tuesday night ahead of keynote speakers former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.
Democratic voters in the area said Harris needs to frequently visit Wisconsin to win the crucial battleground state. In 2020, President Joe Biden beat Trump by a narrow margin; in 2016, Trump won the state by an extremely narrow margin of about 22,700 votes over Hillary Clinton — less than 1%.
Democratic voters noted that Harris is already doing more than Clinton in 2016, when the former secretary of state did not visit Wisconsin during the general election.
“The last time I felt this much excitement was when Obama ran,” said Wisconsin resident Shannon Mattner, who is planning to attend Harris’ rally. “We just feel like there’s more hope now.”
Daniel Barfouth, a union member from Wisconsin set to attend the rally, says he supports Harris because of her position on unions.
“I like what she has to say about unions. I like how the unions endorsed her,” Barfouth said.
Barfourth drew a sharp contrast between Harris and Trump: “He talks about chaos. He doesn’t talk about hope, connection or anything about love. He talks about tearing everything down.”
Asked what Harris needs to do to win Wisconsin, Barfourth said that Harris needs to continue “putting herself out there as a normal person like everyone else: ‘I’m one of you’. Trump isn’t one of us. He was born with a silver spoon with his mouth. He hasn’t had to suffer for anything.”
(WASHINGTON) — A panel of three former President Donald Trump-appointed U.S. Court of Appeals judges heard oral arguments on Tuesday over a lower court ruling on a Mississippi election law that allows the state to continue counting mail-in absentee ballots if they’re received within five days of Election Day.
It’s a significant case for its potentially wide-ranging implications in other states — some pivotal battlegrounds — that currently allow elections officials to accept late-arriving ballots. If the Republicans who brought the case prevail in peeling back these mail-in voting provisions, the general election could become even closer across the country. This case is also considered by experts to be one of the likeliest election-related suits to reach the U.S. Supreme Court before Election Day.
Around 20 states, including Mississippi, count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day but are postmarked on or before. They include Nevada, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, California and New York. Disqualifying late-arriving ballots would be a major change in those states.
National and statewide Republicans had sued Mississippi’s secretary of state and other election officials in January over the mail-in ballot policies of the Republican-leaning state, which adopted legislation in 2020 that permits mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and that arrive up until five days after to be accepted.
The Republican National Committee, Mississippi Republican Party and two individuals are seeking to overturn that COVID-era law. A similar challenge was brought by the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, which also testified on Tuesday.
In July, a district court rejected the lawsuit, concluding that Mississippi’s absentee ballot receipt deadline does not conflict with federal statutes.
On Tuesday, a panel of three Trump-appointed conservative judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit — judges James Ho, Kyle Duncan and Andrew Oldham — heard the Republicans’ arguments to reverse that decision.
The arguments centered on a familiar Trump argument regarding elections: that Election Day is simply a “day” and not a prolonged voting period. The court considered precedents like RNC v. DNC, and federal laws like the Uniformed And Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
GOP lawyer Conor Woodfin said on Tuesday that the “consummation date” for ballot receipt should not be up for “subjective” interpretation in each individual state — that Election Day should be the final day for acceptance.
“The original public meaning of Election Day is the day that ballots are received by election officials,” Woodfin said. “In Mississippi, it means the day for postmarking a ballot, in other states like Nevada and New Jersey, you don’t even need a postmark, but that’s not how courts interpret statutes.”
“The meaning of Election day is not up to the subjective views of each state. Instead, text and history tell us what those words mean and historical practice is especially important when applying words like ‘election’ that are rich with historical meaning,” he continued. “For decades after Congress established the uniform national election day, those words meant the day that ballots are received by election officials.”
Scott Stewart on behalf of the Mississippi Secretary of State said on Tuesday that the district court was correct to uphold Mississippi’s ballot receipt law that the 5th Circuit court should affirm the decision.
He said that the petitioners — when grappling with concepts like early voting — have been unable to “locate a single definition” on ballot receipt.
“My friends [on the other side] say that ballot receipt is the definitive Election Day act. That is quite a statement for a party that has been unable to locate a single definition that mentions ballot receipt. I’ve just never seen a plain text case prevail with that kind of an absence,” he said.
The Democratic National Committee as an intervener in the case also countered the Republican petitioners. Its counsel, Donald Verrilli, said the definition of “election” suggests that votes cast by Election Day would be qualifying.
“The meaning of the word ‘election,’ as the Supreme Court said… has been the same since the founding to today — and it is the final collective choice of an officer by qualified electors,” Verrilli said.
“So the day of the election is the day on which that final collective choice must be consummated. That is what it means. That is what our position rests on…their position departs dramatically from that meaning,” he added.
Verrilli was asked to expand upon the term “collective” in the definition.
“What final collective choice means is that the process requires that all votes that are going to go into the determination of who holds the office are cast by Election Day. It doesn’t say anything about the manner in which they are cast,” he said. “That is something that the Constitution delegates expressly to state officials with. Of course, federal backstop and states have made different policy choices about that very thing.”
The hearing on Tuesday comes as in-person and mail-in absentee ballots became available on Monday across Mississippi for the upcoming general election.
Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump at a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, Aug. 26, 2024, in Arlington, Va. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Law enforcement officials at a Virginia military base are still actively investigating an August incident at Arlington National Cemetery involving what has been described as a confrontation between former President Donald Trump’s campaign and a cemetery worker, even as the Army says it considers the matter closed, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
As part of the probe led by the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Police Department, an investigator with the base’s police department has sought in recent days to contact Trump campaign officials about the incident, the sources said.
Investigators are seeking to interview the officials involved in the incident, according to the sources.
Stanley Woodward, a lawyer representing the Trump campaign officials, declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
Although the Army oversees Arlington National Cemetery, law enforcement is handled by Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia, as a neighboring base. The base’s police department falls under the Army in an administrative capacity, but operates as a law enforcement agency and is staffed by federal law enforcement officers, not military police.
“The investigation is ongoing at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall by base authorities,” a defense official told ABC News in a statement that indicates the Army is not directing the probe.
Last month, the Trump campaign was accused of engaging in a physical and verbal altercation with a staffer at Arlington National Cemetery while the former president was there to mark the third anniversary of the deaths of 13 service members in Afghanistan. Trump’s aides filmed a campaign video in a section of the cemetery where recently fallen service members are buried.
Federal law prohibits campaigns from using the military cemetery for political campaigning or election-related activities.
Trump’s campaign insisted its aides acted appropriately and promised to release video they said would exonerate its staff. That video has not been released.
In the days following the incident, the Army defended the cemetery staffer, saying the person had been “unfairly attacked” — but also said that it considered the matter closed.
“The incident was reported to the JBM-HH police department, but the employee subsequently decided not to press charges. Therefore, the Army considers this matter closed,” an Army spokesperson said on Aug. 29, three days after the incident. “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the [Arlington National Cemetery] employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”
When asked for comment on Monday, an Army spokesperson referred ABC News to its Aug. 29 statement. Base authorities at the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Separately, however, the Army on Monday acknowledged the case is still being investigated when it explained why it is blocking the release of documents related to the incident.
In a letter responding to a request filed by ABC News under the Freedom of Information Act, the Army said documents couldn’t be released yet because “those documents are part of an open investigation.”
