Trump: Here's What Could Be Behind Assassination Attempt

He suggests his being called a 'threat to democracy' could have spurred it
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 24, 2024 7:20 PM CDT
Updated Jul 25, 2024 1:30 AM CDT
With a New Opponent, Trump Unleashes Attacks
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
UPDATE Jul 25, 2024 1:30 AM CDT

At Donald Trump's North Carolina rally Wednesday, the former president floated a possible motive for the apparent assassination attempt at his July 13 rally, Politico reports. "Such a distressed sick world, but you know what could be caused when they call you a threat to democracy. You never know what causes it. I'm a threat to them," he said, presumably referring to Democrats, who have referred to Trump as a threat to democracy since the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. "They're a threat to democracy. They're a threat. They're a threat to our country, period." The FBI has not revealed a motive for the July 13 shooting, which killed one rallygoer.

Jul 24, 2024 7:20 PM CDT

Donald Trump held his first campaign rally since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Biden as his likely opponent in the November election on Wednesday. Early in his speech in North Carolina, Trump set the tone, answering the theory that the assassination attempt would turn him into a gentler campaigner. "I was supposed to be nice," Trump told the crowd, the Washington Post reports. "They say something happened to me when I got shot. If you don't mind, I'm not going to be nice." The comment drew cheers, and the Republican nominee turned his attention to Harris.

"So now we have a new victim to defeat: lyin' Kamala Harris," the former president said, per the AP. He called Harris "the most incompetent and far left vice president in American history," a "radical left lunatic," and "crazy" over her positions on abortion and immigration. He repeatedly mispronounced her first name. The state's governor, Roy Cooper, is among the Democrats under consideration as Harris' running mate. (More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)

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