Twenty-eight percent of Democrats believe “America [would] be better off if Donald Trump had been killed last weekend,” and another 25 percent are “not sure.” Fewer than half of Democrat respondents to Scott Rasmussen’s RMG Research survey actively disagree with the sentiment.
“It is hard to imagine a greater threat to democracy than expressing a desire to have your political opponent murdered,” Rasmussen said.
Forty-nine percent of Democrats also buy into conspiracy theories that it is at least somewhat likely that Trump or the Trump campaign was involved in the assassination attempt.
RADICALIZATION.
On Sunday, President Trump was targeted at his West Palm Beach, Florida golf course. Suspect Ryan Routh, a Democrat donor with strong links to Ukraine, allegedly lurked in the bushes of the Trump International Golf Club with a scoped SKS rifle—common in Ukraine and other former Soviet Socialist Republics—before being spotted by the Secret Service agents.
Trump appears to have been within the effective range of the would-be assassin when agents noticed him. They opened fire on Routh but did not strike him, and he was able to escape in a nearby car, although local law enforcement eventually tracked him down.
President Trump believes the “highly inflammatory rhetoric” against him from Kamala Harris and Joe Biden radicalized the Florida gunman and another would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania, who managed to shoot the America First leader in the ear and kill or injure several of his supporters in July.
During the debate between Trump and Harris, the Vice President claimed there would be “no guardrails” to restrain a second Trump administration and that “It’s up to the American people to stop him.”
“These are the things that dangerous fools like the shooter listen to. That is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one,” Trump said following Routh’s arrest.
