Former President Trump blamed his brush with death "to a certain extent" on rhetoric and the denial of security from the Biden-Harris administration.
Much of America is still trying to make sense of the assassination attempt on Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally this past July, particularly Trump himself. While key details about the would-be assassin are still being discerned, Trump argued to Dr. Phil in an interview released Wednesday that other partisan factors led to the attack as well.
"I've always been sort of angry. You know, we talk about Secret Service. He always made it very tough for us to have the proper number of Secret Service people," Trump said of President Biden.
"And I don't know whose fault it is, but I will tell you, I'd have these massive rallies with 50, 60,000 people more and our people were always fighting to get more security, more Secret Service, and he knew that we didn't have enough," he alleged.
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"So, you know, when this happened, people would ask, whose fault is it? I think to a certain extent, it's Biden's fault and Harris' fault," Trump said of the assassination attempt.
"And I'm the opponent. Look, they were weaponizing government against me. They brought in the whole DOJ to try and get me. They weren't too interested in my health and safety," he argued. "I would be if I were in their position, but they weren't very interested. But they-they were always making it, from what I understood, and I could feel it, they were making it very difficult to have proper staffing in terms of Secret Service."
The Secret Service acknowledged after the assassination attempt it had denied some requests by Trump’s team for additional security.
Dr. Phil asked, "I'm not saying that they wanted you to get shot, but do you think it was okay with them if you did?"
"I don't know," Trump answered. "I mean, I don't know, there's a lot of hatred."
Trump listed his achievements as president and argued, "But, you know, when you do things like that, the other side that disagrees with that or for whatever reason doesn't want to do it, a lot of hatred is generated."
He cited being called a "threat to democracy" as an example of the hatred, "But they would say that, that was standard line. Just keep saying it. And you know, that can get assassins or potential assassins going. That's a terrible thing."
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He added, "But maybe that bullet is because of their rhetoric. You know, it's really nasty rhetoric."
The former president argued that not only has this been a pattern of rhetoric, but he has been attacked instead of discussing actual policy.
"In the Democrat convention, my name was mentioned hundreds of times," he said, while claiming that other critical threats facing the country were ignored. "And yet my name is mentioned like 300 times. She mentioned my name, I guess, 19 times in her speech alone. 19 times."
The Biden administration and Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital in time for publication.
