Many people on the left and in the media have blamed Trump for yet another attempt on his life.
However, at least one expert in counterterrorism has said that Democrats and the media’s dislike of Trump probably drove the would-be shooter and may even lead to future attacks.
A former FBI terrorist agent named Tim Clemente joined CNN’s Erin Burnett soon after the shooting near Trump International Golf Club in Florida, on Sunday to talk about what happened.
“I think we’re going to find that this guy [Routh] is very political and that a lot of the rhetoric going around in politics these days probably stoked his fire.”
Burnett talked about how unusual it was that two people tried to kill Trump in just a few weeks. Clemente then made it clear that lies and distortions about Trump, like taking his reference to a “bloodbath” out of context and “equating” him to Hitler, probably made the suspect even more angry.
As a result of people pointing the finger at Trump, Clemente said, “You know, the line about the bloodbath, talking about the car industry as if he’s going to cause a bloody coup if he loses. Using that language about a tyrant is common in third-world countries, and I think that’s what has led to these sad attempts on Trump’s life.”
Clemente also made guesses about the suspect, who was later named as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, after Burnett said that, unlike the first would-be killer, Thomas Crooks, Routh seemed to have run away and was caught alive. Clemente said that these kinds of details show that Routh was probably “extremely politically driven.”
“It looks like he’s not crazy,” Clemente told Burnett. “That makes me think that he’s probably much more interested in politics. I don’t want to say the name of the last shooter in Pennsylvania because I don’t want to support him, but it was clear that he wanted to be famous for doing that.”
“I think we’ll find that this guy [Routh] is very political and that a lot of the political rants going on these days probably stoked his fire.”
