Republicans: Biden’s “bull’s eye” comment partly to blame for Trump attack

A group of Republican lawmakers blame US President Joe Biden: His campaign rhetoric led to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

As of Sunday, nearly a dozen lawmakers had pointed the finger at Mr Biden and the Democrats responsible for Saturday night’s shooting at the former president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Many point to a comment made by Mr Biden during a private phone call with donors last week.

According to Politico, Biden said in the call: “I have one job, and that is to beat Donald Trump. I am absolutely certain that I am the best person to do it. That concludes the debate. It is time to target Trump.”

On Saturday, Biden condemned the attack and called on Americans to condemn such acts of violence. On Sunday, he ordered a review of security measures at the rally.

Following the assassination and the specific reference to “Trump in the middle” less than a week earlier, this has led some Republicans to place some of the responsibility for the shooting on Mr Biden.

“Joe Biden sent the orders,” Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia posted on X (formerly Twitter) in response to a post about Biden’s comments to donors.

In another post, Mr Collins wrote: “You tried to neutralize the threat,” responding to a separate graphic showing the president’s comments.

“Note that after an assassination attempt on President Trump, the same people who wanted to prosecute him for telling his supporters to march peacefully to the Capitol on January 6th are not calling for the prosecution of President Biden after he said it was time to target President Trump after their debate,” Collins wrote.

FBI officials identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, a kitchen worker from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who is a registered Republican.

A Secret Service sniper fatally shot Crooks after he fired at the president.

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee also referred to Biden’s accurate comment in her social media posts.

“Just a few days ago, Biden said, ‘It’s time to target Trump.’ Today, there was an assassination attempt on President Trump,” she wrote on X on Saturday night.

Ms Blackburn also criticized Mr Biden for failing to make a statement in the first hour after the shooting, calling his delay “unacceptable.”

“Go to the Oval Office and speak to the American people. We do not resolve our differences with violence,” she said.

Speaking on Saturday evening from his home in Delaware, where he was spending the weekend, Mr Biden condemned the assassination attempt and called on all Americans to condemn this “sick” violence.

“We must come together as a nation to condemn it. It’s sick, it’s sick,” he said.

Biden then left Delaware and returned to the White House, where he spoke again about the shooting on Sunday afternoon. An address to the nation from the Oval Office is planned for Sunday evening.

The incumbent president also spoke to Trump by phone on Saturday evening; a White House official described the conversation as “good, brief and respectful.”

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee also responded to Biden’s pointed statement on social media, asking reporters in a post whether they planned to look more deeply into the president’s comments to donors.

“It just happened,” they wrote in a post after the attack.

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado told 9News on Saturday night that she believes “a lot of the rhetoric from the left has escalated to this moment.”

“President Trump was literally shot into a target after the President of the United States, the sitting President of the United States, called for him to be shot into a target,” she said.

When asked if she believed Biden was responsible for the assassination attempt, she replied: “I believe Joe Biden is responsible for the shooting today.”

Other Republicans pointed to recent efforts by Democrats to end Trump’s Secret Service protection after he became the first president to be convicted of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to a porn actress.

Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi and ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced the bill in April, which was co-sponsored by several Democrats in the House.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who blamed the media and several Democrats for the shooting in posts on X, posted a list of Democrats who co-sponsored the bill on the social media platform.

“Pray for America. The left wants a civil war. They have been trying to start one for years. These people are sick and evil,” she wrote.

Senator JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio who is on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, made similar comments, blaming the rhetoric of the left.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. This rhetoric led directly to the assassination of President Trump,” he wrote on X.

Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said Democrats and the media had “recklessly stoked fears” and called Trump and conservatives a “threat to democracy.”

“Your inflammatory rhetoric puts lives at risk,” he also wrote on X.

Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House majority leader who was shot while practicing for a congressional baseball game in 2017, said Democrats had stoked “ridiculous hysteria” about Trump’s re-election.

“We have obviously seen in the past that left-wing lunatics acted on the basis of violent rhetoric. This inflammatory rhetoric must stop,” he said.