Some Republican lawmakers reacted to the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump earlier this month by claiming that President Joe Biden, in branding Trump a threat to democracy, effectively incited the attack.
But one pro-Trump congressman is taking it a step further, suggesting the Biden administration might have actively "plotted" to put Trump in the line of fire.
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who previously served as the Trump administration's Secretary of the Interior and was forced out amid a series of ethics scandals and federal investigations into a real estate deal he struck in his home state, made the comments on Fox Business on Monday morning.
"Here's what it boils down to," said Zinke. "We know there was negligence, we know there was incompetence, we know there were breaks of protocol, communications, etcetera, but was this incompetence willful and knowing? That's what I want to know. Did you willingly and knowingly put the president in a position, by atrophying the security and allowing this to happen?
"Look, if it was knowing, and you knew for a fact that your lack of security and bringing it down would put the president at risk, that brings it from an assassination attempt into the area of a plot. Big difference between an attempt and a plot, and we're going to find the answer."
Some commenters on social media were swift to react.
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"The Government can barely keep Sharepoint functioning within DoD on a regular basis," wrote national security attorney Bradley Moss on X.
"Ryan Zinke's quote is inflammatory and dishonest. There is absolutely no evidence the government was involved in any way in Donald Trump's assassination [attempt]. Talk about reckless disregard for the truth," wrote The New York Independent.
His comments came nearly a week after Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, resigned amid bipartisan outrage over security failures at the ill-fated Trump rally, including the failure to secure the building whose roof the shooter used, and the Secret Service apparently allowing the former president onstage even after receiving reports of a "suspicious person" in the area.
Watch the video below or at the link here.
