Days after surviving an assassination attempt, former US President Donald Trump has claimed that the Secret Service did not warn him about gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks before the assassination attempt. He claimed agents had eyed the attacker hours before the attack but they did not mention it. “Nobody mentioned it,” Trump told Jesse Watters in an upcoming episode of the Fox News anchor’s primetime show.
Trump was shot in the ear less than 10 minutes into his speech, prompting him to be escorted off stage. One attendee and the shooter died during the attack while two others were injured. “[They] could’ve said, ‘Let’s wait for 15, 20 minutes, 5 minutes.’ Nobody said…I think that was a mistake,” he added.
Trump has also dismissed concerns raised by critics that he is a threat to democracy, telling a large crowd in Michigan that he “took a bullet for democracy.” In the rally in Michigan on Saturday, Trump, who is the Republican presidential nominee for the November 5 elections, was joined by his running mate J D Vance.
READ | US: Newly-wed Indian-origin man shot dead in front of wife in suspected road rage incident
Trump also alleged that the rival Democratic Party is trying to overthrow the results of their primaries to dump incumbent President Joe Biden from the ballot. “Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. As you're seeing, the Democrat Party is not the party of democracy. They're really the enemies of democracy,” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)