Donald Trump Jr. blasted the media for creating narratives that ‘radicalize’ voters who are ‘trying to kill my father’ during a tense exchange with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins.
Trump Jr. was speaking in the spin room after the vice presidential debate between Senator JD Vance and Governor Tim Walz took place in New York City on Tuesday.
As noted by Collins, the debate had a civil tone where both potential vice presidents at times agreed with each other.
The conversation turned sour once the CNN anchor asked the former president’s son ‘should we see more of that on the debate stage when you dad’s up there?’
Trump Jr responded: ‘You know I’d love to see that across the board. Sometimes the political climate isn’t that much, we’ve all heard about Trump derangements, we’ve seen what they’ve lied about my family, you know, I was an agent of Russia.
‘But Hunter Biden’s laptop was totally Russian disinformation, turns out the opposite was true. You know the media did that, they created so much of that environment.
That was the point where the interview grew tense. Trump Jr. proceeded to levy the blame of his father’s assassination attempt on the political environment the media created.
‘The media has radicalized the people that are trying to kill my father. We’ve had to deal with that twice now for the last two months. 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.’
‘You know that didn’t just magically happen. That’s not him, that’s a media created thing, fake Russia scenario. They ran with it for years, even when it was disproven they ran with it. You know that environment wasn’t just created by Donald Trump.’
Collins quickly interjected here to throw some criticism back at Trump Jr.
Collins said: ‘Okay but can I just say you can’t blame, and everyone wants your dad to be safe, no one wants the threats against his life to happen, but you can’t blame the media.
‘There’s been no evidence that’s what drove those [assassination attempts].’
But Trump Jr. interrupted and said: ‘When someone allows people to have a platform to call someone literally Hitler everyday for nine years, it creates it.
‘Whether you want to believe it or not , that’s a fact.’
Collins clapped back with: ‘But as you know JD Vance once likened your dad to Hitler as well. He questioned if he was America’s Hitler.’
The first assassination attempt happened on July 13 when 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks shot and wounded Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in one of the most horrifying acts of violence in political history.
Crooks opened fire from a rooftop 130 yards from where the former president was on stage, speaking to thousands of fans in Butler at 6.15pm.
Trump suddenly grabbed his ear and had blood covering his face after at least eight shots were fired and the crowd started screaming as Secret Service agents swarmed around him.
The former president then got up, raised his fist and shouted ‘fight, fight, fight’ as he was rushed away from the scene and to hospital. Just a few hours later he released a statement saying he was fine and describing the moment he felt the bullet rip through his skin.
Crooks killed a member of the crowd and sent two others to the hospital in critical condition before he was shot and killed in the terrifying incident.
The second assassination attempt happened while Donald Trump was golfing alongside real estate investor and New York City landlord Steve Witkoff on September 15.
The former president was rushed to safety on Sunday after multiple shots were fired in his vicinity while he was playing golf at his club in West Palm Beach.
The alleged gunman was identified as registered Democrat Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who was found unarmed, while a backpack, GoPro camera and AK-47 style rifle that he left behind was located at the scene.
Routh pleaded not guilty in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday