The former president accused the president and vice president of denying him sufficient Secret Service protection, echoing remarks he made on social media in July.
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Former President Donald J. Trump in Las Vegas last week. Mr. Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally on July 13.
Former President Donald J. Trump claimed without evidence in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had denied him sufficient Secret Service protection and that they were therefore partly responsible for the assassination attempt against him last month.
“Our people were always fighting to get more security, more Secret Service, and he knew that we didn’t have enough,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Biden during an interview with the television host Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil. “I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’s fault. And I’m the opponent. Look, they were weaponizing government against me. They brought in the whole D.O.J. to try and get me. They weren’t too interested in my health and safety.”
The Secret Service has been under a cloud since July 13, when the gunman was able to fire, unimpeded, on Mr. Trump at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pa. The attack grazed Mr. Trump’s ear, killed a spectator and seriously wounded two others. The F.B.I. is investigating, and congressional leaders have also opened inquiries. But there is no evidence that Mr. Biden or Ms. Harris knew about any deficiencies in Mr. Trump’s protection.
The Secret Service has taken responsibility for the security lapses that made the shooting possible. Kimberly A. Cheatle resigned as the agency’s director and has been replaced.
The former president’s remarks to Dr. Phil were similar to what Mr. Trump had written in a social media post in July, when he blamed Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris for the shooting and said they had failed to protect him.
Mr. Trump on Tuesday also echoed an accusation that some of his allies — including Senator JD Vance of Ohio, now his running mate — made right after the assassination attempt: that Democrats’ criticism of him, and descriptions of him as a threat to democracy, might have incited the gunman. Investigators have not confirmed the gunman’s motive.
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Source: nytimes.com
