Donald Trump was allegedly the target of a third assassination attempt, California police have said, after arresting an armed man outside of a Trump rally in Coachella Valley on Saturday evening.
A Las Vegas man named Vem Miller, 49, was apprehended, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, but has since denied wrongdoing and claimed he is “an artist” and a non-violent Trump supporter.
The California rally came hours after Kamala Harris released her medical information in a challenge to Trump, whose health and age are coming under increased scrutiny, particularly in light of recent long, rambling and, at times, incoherent speeches, which the Vice President invited people to watch to make up their own minds about the mental state of the former president.
Elsewhere, Trump has claimed a major threat to America comes from what he termed “the enemy from within”, whom he characterized as “sick people, radical left lunatics”, a term he often applies to Democratic opponents.
The Republican told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures that they – US citizens – “should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military”.
‘Absolute chaos’ as Trump supporters ‘left stranded’ after Coachella rally hit by assassination scare
Here’s James Liddell on what happened to the Republican’s audience in the aftermath of the latest scare over his safety in California on Saturday.
Multiple assassination attempts on Trump’s life signal a new darker trend and the secret service are worried
As details emerge over a possible third assassination attempt against the former president, Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War, talks to secret service insiders about living in a country where political violence has crossed such a threshold it is unclear whether it can cross back and if they can stop it.
Trump says ‘we’ll see what happens’ on national abortion ban
This was not much more reassuring from the candidate in the same interview.
Josh Marcus takes this one.
Trump floats sending military after US citizens on election day
Also this weekend, Trump claimed a major threat to America comes from what he termed “the enemy from within”, whom he characterized as “sick people, radical left lunatics”, a term he often applies to Democratic opponents.
The Republican told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures that they – US citizens – “should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military”.
John Bowden has this on the vengeance-minded Republican’s latest public flirtation with authoritarianism.
Harris medical report finds ‘mental resiliency’ to be president
In case you missed this one over the weekend, a medical report on the health of Vice President Kamala Harris was released with less than a month to go before the presidential election finding her to be in “excellent health” and possession of “the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president.
Dr Joshua Simmons, a US Army colonel and physician to the VP, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical last April was “unremarkable.”
She “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” he wrote in the two-page letter.
The Harris-Walz campaign hopes the release of the letter will draw a contrast with Trump, 78, who has released only limited information about his health over the years.
Oliver O’Connell reports.
Trump pledges 10,000 more border agents, accuses Harris of sparking scandals and claims Democrats want to ban cows
As for the Republican, his remarks in Arizona yesterday included a pledge to hire a further 10,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and an astonishing piece of projection, even by his standards.
He also falsely claimed the western state’s towns are being “invaded and conquered” by migrants (desperate stuff) and took time to proclaim the wonders of Tivo.
A night earlier, in Coachella, he threatened to withhold federal aid from deep blue California and flubbed badly on inflation.
But perhaps his flat-out weirdest moment of the weekend was when he made the bizarre claim that Democrats want to ban cows.
Donald Trump bizarrely claims Democrats want to ban cows
Donald Trump has bizarrely claimed the Democrats want to ban cows and windows in buildings. The former US president launched into the strange rant when he appeared at a roundtable discussion with supporters in Las Vegas on Saturday (12 October). Trump told the crowds: “They just come up, they want to do things like no more cows and no windows in buildings. “They have some wonderful plans for this country. Honestly, they’re crazy.” The Democrats responded to Trump’s comments, labeling him “senile and incoherent”.
Kamala Harris quotes ex-military chief to damn ‘dangerous’ Trump as she accuses him of hiding
Speaking in Greenville, North Carolina, yesterday, the Democrat invoked Mark Milley, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to attack her opponent, also noting his resistence to transparency, suggesting his handlers know he is “weak and unstable” and are trying to keep him from self-inflicted disasters.
Truth Social: Trump lashes out at ‘human scum’ behind new film biopic
The Republican has also lashed out at the filmmakers behind the new biopic The Apprentice, which he calls “a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country”.
Truth Social: Trump challenges Harris to cognitive test and accuses her of ‘importing criminal gangs to occupy America’
Over in the Republican’s social media swamp, he has been trashing the Vice President with false claims about her recent media appearances, claiming she was “slow and lethargic” answering questions and challenging her to a cognitive test.
“Her actions have led many to believe that there could be something very wrong with her,” he declares – citing no evidence, as usual.
That comes after she released her latest medical report indicating she was in robust health (more on which shortly) and after he admitted to “ranting and raving” himself during his Sunday rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona.
Trump has also accused Harris of inflicting “violence and terror” on the public and “import[ing] criminal gangs to OCCUPY America” – an appalling and dangerous lie.
He also found time overnight to scaremonger about the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice to interfere in the election, an avenue it is widely feared he might be interested in traversing himself if he regains the White House.
Would-be assassin or Trump-supporting ‘sovereign citizen’? What we know about suspect Vem Miller
Here’s more from Josh Marcus on what we know about the suspect, who has denied having any intention of targeting the former president despite the highly-suspicious items he was found to have in his possession.
Source: independent.co.uk