President Joe Biden is under fire for calling former President Donald Trump a “genuine threat to this nation” two weeks before an assassination attempt was made on him at a campaign rally.
“Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for,” Biden wrote in a June 28 X post:
Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation.
He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 28, 2024
Since a gunman, later identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed one bystander and critically wounded two others while trying to take out Trump, Biden’s harsh characterization of the former president has been criticized as inflammatory.
Jim DeMint, chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute, highlighted the post on Sunday morning with the simple caption, “Two weeks ago”:
Two weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/9p0Xt0QipQ
— Jim DeMint (@JimDeMint) July 14, 2024
Just minutes before Trump’s ear was grazed by one of Crooks’ bullets on Saturday evening, Biden likened him to “a dictator” on his Facebook page:
Americans want a president, not a dictator.
Posted by Joe Biden on Saturday, July 13, 2024
That post was published at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, just moments before Crooks tried to assassinate Trump during his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at around 6:10 p.m.
Crooks, of Bethel, also had explosive devices in his car parked near the event, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) attributed the attempt on Trump’s life to him being characterized as a an “authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs”:
Today is not just some isolated incident.
The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped…