Trump assassination attempt a 'confluence' of GOP rhetoric and 'availability of assault rifles': Dem lawmaker

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., said on Monday how the second assassination attempt against former President Trump was a "confluence" of Republican "misinformation" and "fear-mongering" alongside the "complete availability of assault rifles."

Sherrill spoke to CNN’s Jim Acosta one day after Secret Service agents successfully thwarted the assassination attempt at Trump International Golf Club, opening fire on the suspect who was later taken into custody.

Although Sherrill acknowledged the Secret Service needed to do more to protect Trump, she linked the attempted assassination to the GOP.

"I think we also have to address some underlying issues that are going on here as well. This really seems to be the confluence of two very bad things going on in the Republican Party," Sherrill said.

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She added, "On one side, the attempts to divide, to enrage the population, to put out false rumors and misinformation. We know the mayor in Springfield is begging the Republican Party to stop with the false information on immigrants. They have portions of the town on lockdown at this point, and an increase in all of the partisanship and the fear-mongering that’s going on."

"And then on the other side, we have this complete availability of assault rifles, too. It seems almost anyone who wants to have access. So how did this man, who already had some convictions for barricading himself with a weapon, have access to weapons of war that I was trained on when I was in the military?" Merrill asked.

Acosta later referenced a since-deleted post from X CEO Elon Musk asking, "Why they want to kill Donald Trump?" and remarking, "And no one is even trying