Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that Donald Trump is a “danger to our country and the world” — just one day after a gunman was foiled in his bid shoot the former president.
The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee made the remark during an interview with MSNBC primetime host Rachel Maddow.
“The late great journalist Harry Evans one time said that journalists should try to achieve objectivity,” Clinton said.
“The object in this case is Donald Trump. His demagoguery. His danger to our country and the world,” she added, claiming that the press was “merciless” in going after President Biden, but treated Trump with kid gloves.
Trump, 78, was playing a round of golf at the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach in Florida on Sunday when a Secret Service agent on advance patrol spotted a gun barrel protruding from the tree line.
The agent fired at the gunman, identified by law enforcement as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, before he had the chance to take a shot at the 45th president.
Routh fled in his car, but was apprehended by law enforcement in neighboring Martin County after a traffic stop on Interstate 95.
No one was injured in the incident.
Ryan Routh on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, at the intersection of I-95 N and FL-714. Martin County Sheriff’s Office
The assassination attempt was the second time in 64 days that a gunman has tried to take out the Republican nominee — a pattern that Republicans say shows that those on the left have to tone down their rhetoric.
Trump blamed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the second attempt on his life, arguing Monday that Routh “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it.”
“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,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
Trump’s allies blasted Clinton’s comments, accusing her of upping the chance of political violence.
“Hillary Clinton knows exactly what she’s doing here. Just a day after a Democrat donor and Kamala Harris supporter tried murdering my dad, she is purposely fanning the violent leftwing flames to put his life further in danger,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X.
“This is evil,” Trump campaign adviser Tim Murtaugh wrote. “The day after Trump survived a second assassination attempt, Hillary Clinton is out trying to stir up a third one.”