JD Vance knows exactly who to blame for the string of attempted assassinations on Donald Trump.
It's not Trump's own superheated and divisive rhetoric, the Secret Service or the assassins themselves: it's the Democrats.
Speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of a Trump assassination attempt earlier this year, Vance blamed the Democratic Party for the pair of people who have tried to take potshots at the former president in recent months.
"First, they tried to silence him. When that didn't work, they tried to bankrupt him. When that didn't work, they tried to jail him," Vance said of Democrats. "With all the hatred they have spewed at President Trump, it was only a matter of time before somebody tried to kill him."
Vance said the Democrats "continued to use dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric" after the assassination like calling Trump "an existential threat to our democracy."
Vance: "First, they tried to silence him. When that didn't work, they tried to bankrupt him. When that didn't work, they tried to jail him. And with all the hatred they have spewed at President Trump, it was only a matter of time before somebody tried to kill him." pic.twitter.com/zqTfBWUkaZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 5, 2024
Both would-be assassins were GOP supporters at some point in their lives. 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot Trump and others before being gunned down by the Secret Service, was a registered Republican. Ryan Routh, who was captured by law enforcement in Florida after he was spotted lying in wait along the former president's golf course, was a one-time Trump supporter.
"I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we were all greatly disappointment [sic] and it seems you are getting worse and devolving," Routh shared on social media in 2020.
Elsewhere, he showed his support for Republican Nikki Haley and conservative Democrat Tulsi Gabbard.
The massive rally in Butler is meant to be a show of strength for Trump, who will speak on the spot where he was very nearly killed, a little over a month before Election Day.
