Armed man arrested near Trump rally denies assassination claim
A Trump supporter accused by local police of attempting to assassinate the former US president has lashed out.
A man accused by local police of being the third person to attempt to assassinate Donald Trump is a major supporter of the former president and says the allegations are “complete bull***.
Vem Miller was arrested and charged with taking two guns to Mr Trump’s weekend rally in California’s Coachella Valley, with Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco later saying: “We probably stopped another assassination attempt.”
But Mr Miller told the Southern California News Group he was “shocked” to be accused of trying to harm Mr Trump, having volunteered for his campaign to support his bid to return to the White House in November’s presidential election.
“These accusations are complete bull*** … I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody,” he reportedly said.
In a statement, the Secret Service, the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office said: “Former President Trump was not in any danger.”
“While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing,” the agencies said.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday (local time), Mr Bianco said he did not remember telling a local media outlet that he believed his officers had stopped an assassination attempt.
He said there was “no way that any of us are going to truly know what was in (Mr Miller’s) head”.
But he declared: “We know that we prevented something bad from happening and it’s irrelevant what that bad was going to be.”
“If you’re asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” Mr Bianco said.
“If we are that politically lost that we have lost sight of common sense and reality and reason, that we can’t say, ‘holy crap, what did he show up with all of that stuff for and loaded guns’, and I’m going to be accused of being dramatic – we have a serious, serious problem in this country because this is common sense and reason.”
“I don’t know how else to explain it.”
The local police chief said that when Mr Miller was stopped by his officers, they found multiple passports and drivers’ licences with different names, and that his vehicle also had an “obviously fake licence plate”. He said they assessed that he was a “sovereign citizen”.
But Mr Miller claimed he told an officer as a courtesy that he had guns in the boot of his car, that he had purchased them for his own safety, and that he had never fired them.
Mr Bianco, asked about his comments, said: “Quite frankly, I’m not really concerned with the statement he gave the media … It’s irrelevant to me.”
When questioned about the suspect’s pro-Republican political affiliation, Mr Bianco said that was “the stupidest thing in the world”, adding that he was “a lunatic”.
The local police chief attended the rally as a supporter of Mr Trump, having declared earlier this year that he was “all in” supporting him in the race against Vice President Kamala Harris.
TRUMP WINS BACKING OF HISPANIC VOTERS
It comes after Mr Trump gained ground with Hispanic voters — and it could be decisive for the outcome of the election in November, according to a new poll.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s approval with the key voter bloc is slipping, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.
Hispanic voters — even those who weren’t born in the US — aren’t nervous about Mr Trump’s tough-on-illegal immigration message.
Despite Democrats’ efforts to scare Hispanic voters away from Mr Trump over his immigration rhetoric, a firm 51 per cent of Hispanic respondents born in another country feel that he is not talking about them when he talks about deporting illegal immigrants, according to the poll.
Among Hispanic respondents born in the US, that figure jumps to 67 per cent who feel he isn’t talking about them.
Around 40 per cent of Hispanic respondents born outside of the US believed Mr Trump’s tough immigration rhetoric was aimed at them, while 30 per cent of Hispanic voters writ large felt the same way, per the poll.
Ms Harris, 59, had a 19-percentage point lead over Mr Trump with the critical group of voters (56 per cent to 37 per cent among likely Hispanic voters), marking a significant decline from where Democrats have stood in recent election cycles.
The poll gauged a significant discrepancy between male and female Hispanic voters, with Harris up 62 per cent to Trump’s 31 per cent among Hispanic women. Her edge then sunk among Hispanic men, 48 per cent to Trump’s 45 per cent.
Gender divisions have been a key theme of the 2024 presidential election, including among other minority groups. Former president Barack Obama raised eyebrows last week for complaining about black men for not being enthusiastic about MS Harris.
“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighbourhoods and communities as we saw when I was running. Now, I also want to say that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers,” Mr Obama said last week.
Democrats haven’t fallen below the 60 per cent threshold with Hispanic voters since John Kerry’s disastrous loss to former President George W. Bush in 2004.
Mr Trump has ripped Ms Harris’ policies on immigration, calling it amnesty, and has instead vowed to deport illegal immigrants that have taken up residency in the US.
“If Kamala is re-elected, your town, and every town just like it, all across Wisconsin and all across our country — the heartland, the coast, it doesn’t matter — will be transformed into a third-world hellhole,” Mr Trump said at a rally late last month.
Simultaneously, Mr Trump has stressed that he wants immigrants, provided that they come into the US legally.
Hispanic voters were largely split on deportation, with 45 per cent either strongly or somewhat supporting it, compared to 48 per cent somewhat or strongly opposing it.
HARRIS MET WITH HEZBOLLAH ALLY
Vice President Kamala Harris mingled with a controversial Iranian imam who allegedly has close ties to groups fuelling anti-Semitic hate on American college campuses, it has emerged.
The revelation came from an alarming new report on extremism by George Washington University researchers, which lifts the lid on Iran’s hateful influence in the US.
In one of the report’s concerning images, Ms Harris was seen chatting to Imam Muhammad Ali Elahi, who has deep ties to Iran and has praised Hezbollah, saying he would die for the cause.
Ms Harris met the imam in July 2021 at a Covid-19 vaccination centre in Detroit, Michigan.
“Democrats hold a dangerously mistaken notion that Iran is part of the solution — not the main problem in the Middle East,” Jim Hanson, chief editor of the Middle East Forum, a DC-based think tank, told The New York Post.
“This leads them to outreach here in the US with Muslims tied to that tyrannical theocracy like Muhammad Ali Elahi.
“Obama, Biden and Harris have all enabled and even funded their efforts.”
It came as Ms Harris’ doctor said she was in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president.
In a letter summarising her medical history and status, Dr Joshua Simmons, a US Army colonel and physician to the vice president, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical last April was “unremarkable”.
Ms Harris’ campaign hopes to use the moment to draw a contrast with Donald Trump, who has released only limited information about his health over the years
WHY TRUMP WON’T GOLF
Donald Trump plans to stop playing golf until after the US election, after federal agents allegedly informed the former US president they cannot guarantee his safety while he is on the course.
Mr Trump has not putted since last month’s assassination attempt near one of his courses in Florida.
A source close to the Trump campaign said he has no plans to play until after the November 5 election.
Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi referred questions about it to the Trump campaign but said: “Since the attempted assassination of former President Trump on July 13, the US Secret Service has made comprehensive changes and enhancements to our communications capabilities, resourcing, and protective operations.
“Today, the former President is receiving heightened protection and we take the responsibility to ensure his safety and security very seriously.”
It comes as Mr Trump used a divisive campaign speech to make the election about a migrant crime wave.
“America is known, all throughout the world, as ‘Occupied America.’ They call it ‘occupied.’ We’re being occupied by a criminal force,” Mr Trump thundered, in an 80-minute appearance Aurora, Colorado focused almost entirely on immigration.
“But to everyone here in Colorado and all across our nation, I make this pledge and vow to you: November 5, 2024 will be Liberation Day in America,” he added, flanked by posters of foreign suspected criminals.
While the US government has struggled for years to manage its southern border with Mexico, Mr Trump has supercharged concerns by claiming an “invasion” is underway by migrants he says will rape and murder Americans.
The former president — who is known for going off script — told the crowd he could be on “all the beautiful beaches all over the world” but is instead in Colorado.
“I could be in Monte Carlo,” he said. “And where am I? I’m right now in Aurora.”
He then complained that CBS News should have its “license” removed for airing an interview with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on 60 Minutes.
CBS News invited Mr Trump to participate in an interview, but he declined.
He also complained that he’s “been investigated more than Al Capone.”
“I think of Al Capone because there’s a toughness and meanness — Scarface,” he said.
“He had the whole deal.”
Harris, campaigning in Scottsdale, Arizona, provided a marked contrast to Trump as she pushed a message of unity, pledging to institute a “bipartisan council of advisers” in addition to having a Republican in her cabinet.
“In the last several years in our country there are some powerful forces that are trying to divide us as Americans, would cheer us on if we point fingers at each other,” she said, adding: “We have more in common than what separates us.”
With less than four weeks to the November 5 election, polls show a race too close to call. The latest Wall Street Journal poll gave Harris slim leads in four of the seven swing states, but all the key contests are within the margin of error.
- with AFP
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Originally published as Armed man arrested near Trump rally denies assassination claim