Donald Trump Jr.: The media radicalized my father's would-be assassins
Donald Trump Jr. and CNN's Kaitlan Collins clashed over the media's rhetoric leading up to the two assassination attempts of his father.
In a tense interview with CNN, Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday the media is partly responsible for the recent assassination attempts against his father, former President Trump, by pushing false narratives that radicalize his critics.
In the spin room following the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate, Trump Jr. agreed with CNN's Kaitlan Collins that the event was "civil" and noted Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz even acknowledged when they agreed. The CNN host then asked, "Should we see more of that on the debate stage when your dad’s up there?"
"You know what? I’d love to see that across the board," Trump Jr. said. "We’ve all heard about Trump Derangement Syndrome, we’ve seen what they’ve lied about … ‘I was an agent of Russia, but Hunter Biden’s laptop was totally Russian disinformation.’ It turns out, the opposite was true."
Donald Trump Jr. and CNN's Kaitlan Collins following the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate.
"The media did that, they created so much of that environment. The media has radicalized the people that are trying to kill my father. I’ve had to deal with that twice now in the last two months," he continued. "I’ve had to have that conversation with my five young children twice in the last two months about someone trying to shoot their grandfather."
Trump Jr. then said "that didn’t just magically happen," and accused the media of creating a "fake Russia scenario" to tarnish his father.
"They ran with it for years, even when it was disproven, they still ran with it. You know, that environment wasn’t just created by Donald Trump," Trump Jr. said.
Collins shot back, "Everyone wants your dad to be safe. Nobody wants the threats against his life to happen, but you can’t blame the media for those threats. There’s been no evidence."
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Former President Trump was injured during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The former president’s son disagreed.
"When someone allows someone to have a platform to call someone ‘literally Hitler,’ every day for nine years, it creates it. Whether you want to believe it or not, that’s a fact," Trump Jr. said.
When Trump narrowly survived the assassination attempt against him in July, a bullet grazed the former president's ear and the shooter killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore — a husband, father and former fire chief at the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department. The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, also critically wounded two other rally-goers.
Just two months later, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested on Sept. 15 after allegedly pushing the muzzle of an AK-47 through the chainlink fence outside where Trump was golfing in Florida. No shots were fired at Trump after the Secret Service spotted the potential gunman and opened fire; the suspect fled and was arrested shortly afterward.
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Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
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