The “atmosphere” created by President Joe Biden’s administration led to Saturday’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump, a Kremlin spokesperson has suggested, as investigations into the shooting that injured the presumptive Republican presidential nominee continue.
“We do not think and do not believe that the attempt to eliminate presidential candidate Trump was organized by the current government,” Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday, in comments reported by Russian state news agency, Tass.
“But the atmosphere that was created by this administration during the political struggle, the atmosphere around candidate Trump, it is precisely this that provoked what America is facing today,” Peskov said.
Trump was attending a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when he was shot in his right ear at around 6:15 p.m. local time. Security agents quickly surrounded him, who was seen with his face covered in blood and repeatedly calling on the crowd to “fight” as he was escorted off the stage. He was rushed from the scene and released from hospital late on Saturday night.
Trump’s campaign team said the former president still intends to travel to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, which gets underway on Monday.
In an apparent reference to the Biden administration’s staunch backing for Kyiv in its war effort against Moscow, Peskov said the current U.S. government prefers to “resolve all issues from a position of strength, including and primarily in world affairs.”
The Biden administration has provided more than $53 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since early 2022. Kyiv is heavily reliant on U.S. military aid to keep its small arms, artillery pieces and air-defense systems in operation. Moscow has consistently criticized Washington’s backing for Kyiv, accusing the U.S. of being directly involved in the conflict.
“Now the violence has essentially been transferred inside the country,” Peskov said. “After numerous attempts to remove candidate Trump from the political arena, first using legal instruments, courts, the prosecutor’s office, attempts to politically discredit and compromise the candidate, it was obvious to all outside observers that his life was in danger.”
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, separately sought to link the Butler shooting to the U.S. government’s backing for Ukraine. Funds directed toward Kyiv should be used to “finance the American police and other services that are supposed to ensure law and order inside the U.S.,” she said in a statement.
One attendee of the rally died and two others were injured, authorities said. The FBI identified the “subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump” as 20 year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was killed at the scene, the Secret Service said.
“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Trump said in a statement posted to his Truth Social platform. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
By Ellie Cook, Security & Defense Reporter / Newsweek
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