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Former President Donald Trump claimed in an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw that President Biden is at “fault” for the lack of a sufficient security detail when the Republican nominee was nearly assassinated at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
“People would ask, whose fault is it? I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and [Vice President Kamala] Harris’s fault,” Trump, 78, claimed during the Tuesday sit-down, pointing to the Democrats’ repeated rhetoric about the 45th president being a “threat to democracy.”
“And I’m the opponent,” Trump emphasized. “Look, they were weaponizing government against me. They brought in the whole DOJ to try and get me. They weren’t too interested in my health and safety.”
“Our people were always fighting to get more security, more Secret Service, and he knew that we didn’t have enough,” he claimed.
McGraw, the longtime daytime TV host, had asked Trump of Biden, 81, and Harris, 59: “I’m not saying that they wanted you to get shot, but do you think it was OK with them if you did?”
“They’re saying I’m a threat to democracy. No, they’re a threat,” Trump said at another point during the hour-long interview on Dr. Phil’s Merit Street. “They would say that. That was a standard line, just keep saying it, and you know that can get assassins or potential assassins going. … Maybe that bullet is because of their rhetoric.”
The public outcry following the near-tragedy prompted the Secret Service to up Trump’s detail to the same level as Biden, The Post previously reported.
The protective agency took full responsibility for oversights that led to Trump being struck in the ear in the shooting perpetrated by Thomas Matthew Crooks, who also killed rallygoer Corey Comperatore and wounded spectators David Dutch and James Copenhaver.
The FBI revealed Wednesday that Crooks had conducted “extensive attack planning,” making dozens of internet queries about Biden and Trump — as well as both major party’s nominating conventions.
The gunman, however, “became hyper-focused” on the Trump rally in Butler “and looked at it as a target of opportunity,” Pittsburgh Field Office Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek told reporters.
Secret Service officials denied requests from Trump to beef up his security in the two years before the assassination attempt, citing a lack of sufficient resources that had to be filled in by local law enforcement in many cases.
The GOP campaign had reportedly asked for more agents and magnetometers for large public events as well as more snipers for outdoor venues.
The “little resources” available to cover the July 13 rally were also in part due to the Secret Service being tapped to cover that week’s NATO summit in Washington, whistleblowers told the House Judiciary Committee.
First lady Jill Biden, another Secret Service protectee, had a separate event on behalf of her husband’s re-election campaign in Pittsburgh the same day of the Trump rally, 35 miles away.
Everything we know about the Trump assassination attempt
- 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified as the shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
- Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
- The gunman grazed Trump’s ear, killed a 50-year-old retired fire chief, and injured two other rally-goers.
- Investigators detailed Crooks’ search history to lawmakers, revealing that he looked for the dates of Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention.
- Crooks’ search history also revealed a broad interest in high-profile people and celebrities, regardless of their political affiliation, FBI officials reportedly said.
- Trump exclusively recounted surviving the “surreal” assassination attempt with The Post at the rally, remarking, “I’m supposed to be dead.”
- High-profile politicians, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the nation about the shooting, calling it “a heinous, horrible and cowardly act.”
In coordinating for the Pennsylvania rally, local law enforcement had offered drone technology to provide additional help — but were turned down by the Secret Service, a whistleblower told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in late July.
Days later, Hawley produced further whistleblower testimony alleging “that the Secret Service Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), the division that performs threat assessment of event sites before the event occurs, did not perform its typical evaluation of the Butler site and was not present on the day” of the shooting.
“The whistleblower claims that if personnel from CSD had been present at the rally, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder,” the senator wrote in a letter accusing now-Acting Director Ronald Rowe of having “personally directed significant cuts.”
The former president had earlier lashed out at the “Biden/Harris Administration” for some of the security lapses — just as Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was resigning following her disastrous congressional testimony on the incident.
“The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!” Trump posted on Truth Social July 23.
Cheatle, 53, rose through the ranks of the Secret Service thanks in large part to her close relationship with Jill Biden, The Post previously reported, and was appointed director of the agency in August 2022.
Neither the White House nor reps for the Secret Service immediately responded to a request for comment.
