The Kremlin said it didn't think the shooting "was organized by the present power," but blamed Democrats for creating an "atmosphere" of struggle.
Contributor via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images; Andrew Harnik via Getty Images
The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was indirectly caused by President Joe Biden and his administration, a Kremlin spokesperson said on Sunday.
"We don't think at all and don't believe that the attempt to eliminate the presidential candidate Trump was organized by the present power," Dmitry Peskov told reporters, per Russian state media outlet TASS.
"But it is the atmosphere that has been created by this administration during the political struggle, the atmosphere around the candidate Trump, prompted what America is facing today," he continued.
On Saturday, Trump was left wounded after a gunman tried to shoot him during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
"I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday. "I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin."
The Secret Service said the attack killed one bystander and left two others critically injured. The rally shooter, a 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
But Trump's life, Peskov said, had long been in danger.
"After numerous attempts to remove candidate Trump from the political arena using legal instruments at first, courts, the prosecutor's office, attempts to politically discredit and compromise the candidate, it was obvious to all outside observers that his life was in jeopardy," Peskov said on Sunday, referencing Trump's conviction in his Manhattan hush money criminal trial on May 30.
The Kremlin's remarks on Sunday echo that of Trump acolytes like Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia.
The trio were quick to point fingers at Biden following Saturday's failed assassination.
"The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination," Vance, a potential Trump vice presidential pick, said in an X post on Saturday.
Today is not just some isolated incident.
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) July 14, 2024
The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.
That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination.
"We can't protect our soldiers in Afghanistan. We can't protect our kids from illegals. We can't protect our streets from the criminals. We can't protect a former President giving a speech. This is Biden's America," Hawley said in an X post on Sunday.
Collins, on the other hand, went a step further and claimed, without evidence, that Biden had ordered Trump's assassination.
Joe Biden sent the orders. https://t.co/pOc0XLxCwg
— Mike Collins (@MikeCollinsGA) July 13, 2024
"The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination," Collins said in an X post on Saturday.
Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also ripped the Democratic Party and accused them of inciting tensions before Saturday's assassination attempt.
"Don't tell me they didn't know exactly what they were doing with this crap. Calling my dad a 'dictator and a 'threat to Democracy' wasn't some one off comment. It has been the MAIN MESSAGE of the Biden-Kamala campaign and Democrats across the country!!!" Trump Jr. wrote on X on Sunday.
Dems and their friends in the media knew exactly what they were doing with the "literally Hitler" bullshit! https://t.co/zHNX8HuD1A
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 14, 2024
This isn't the first time Russia has sought to paint a picture of a dysfunctional America while weighing in on the country's political developments.
Last month, Putin said that Trump's Manhattan felony conviction was politically motivated and that the former president's rivals were "simply using the judicial system in an internal power struggle."
"They are burning themselves from the inside, their state, their political system," Putin told reporters at the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, per Reuters.
Representatives for Russia's foreign ministry and the Biden administration didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
