Roger Stone, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, told Newsmax on Monday that angry political rhetoric concerning Trump is at the root of the attempted attack on him Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“These people are truly, truly sick. And this is a direct result of the overheated rhetoric of people like [top congressional Democrats] Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.] and the other haters,” Stone said on “Ed Henry The Big Take.”
The president was safely moved off the stage after shots were fired near a security checkpoint outside the banquet room at the Washington Hilton. Stone wondered if that happened fast enough.
“I’m not sure what’s more disturbing here: the lack of security around the president of the United States or those deranged leftists who are somehow, many of them, claiming that this was somehow a staged incident, a false flag to distract,” he said.
Stone said leftist rhetoric is fueling the emotions of people willing to pick up a weapon.
“You see, the thing about the left is they’re always doing exactly the opposite of what they say they are doing. The threat to democracy is not Donald Trump,” Stone said.
“The threat to democracy are senators like [Connecticut Democrat] Chris Murphy, who were all behind the idea of people like me and people like you … we should be banned. We should be canceled. We shouldn’t be allowed to speak anyplace, including social media,” he added.
The former Trump adviser said it appears that violence is all the Democrats have left to pursue.
“They also have no platform for America. Their entire political appeal is hatred of Donald Trump. Think about this for a second. The people who sponsored the No Kings rally, they nominated a queen that no Democrat primary voter, no Democrat caucus voter, no Democrat delegate ever, ever voted for,” Stone said.
“Who has a monarchy in their party? I would say that they do,” he said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday told reporters that Trump and his administration expressed their gratitude to law enforcement following the latest attempt to harm Trump.
“This is the third major assassination attempt against President Trump in two years. No other president in history has faced such repeated, serious attempts on his life,” Leavitt said.
She emphasized that the president, first lady, and White House staff are “extraordinarily grateful” to law enforcement officers who acted quickly to stop the suspect and ensure safety.
