By Kenneth Tiven
Two events involving former US President Donald Trump demonstrate the intensity of political behaviour with America’s presidential election just seven weeks away.
On Sunday, a man with a rifle was spotted hiding in woods adjacent to where Trump was playing golf in Florida. The man fled as a Secret Service officer fired in his direction. He was caught minutes later. This took place at a location one hole ahead of where Trump was playing. Trump was not physically involved in what the FBI is calling an attempted assassination.
The foiled shooter is a North Carolina man, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh is said to be a passionate supporter of Ukraine in its defence of a Russian invasion. The reporter who interviewed him a year ago for the New York Times said that when he finished their brief conversation, “it was clear he was in way over his head.” Ukrainian sources say they know who he is from his previous offers to help in Ukraine, describing him as delusional.
Seven weeks ago, Trump was slightly injured when a gunman at an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania shot at him before being killed by sharpshooters on an adjacent rooftop. The Secret Service director was fired due to shortcomings in that protective plan.
This comes just a few days after a contentious televised debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who dominated the event to Trump’s discomfort. In that event, Trump claimed Haitian refugees in Springfield, Ohio, were killing local dogs and cats and eating them. The story was fake. It turns out to have been created by his running mate Sen. JD Vance. Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, rejected Vance’s claims, calling the storyline “a piece of garbage that was simply not true.”
In a combative interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday morning, Vance said that if he has to “create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Donald Trump’s running mate has repeatedly claimed that the media was not paying attention to problems in Springfield until he spread the false rumour and his allies started making racist memes about Haitians eating pets in the small town.
Those Haitians fled violence in Haiti, gaining temporary legal residence in Springfield, a small city whose population had drastically dropped as thousands of residents sought work elsewhere. The Haitians found jobs in both agriculture and manufacturing. Even as the latest allegations about Springfield have been debunked, Trump repeated them and did so again the next day.
In Springfield, this led to bomb threats that temporarily closed City Hall and schools. Despite fact-checks from local officials, Vance stuck to his claims and said he was passing along the concerns of his constituents.