Voters say most of the blame for the two attempts to assassinate former President Donald Trump during his campaign lies with the alleged shooters themselves, but they assign blame to other factors as well.
Likely voters say the alleged shooters (46%) are responsible for the attempted assassinations. Voters also blame general divisions in America (40%), overheated rhetoric from Democrats (33%) and lax U.S. Secret Service protection (29%), according to the results of The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights.
Thomas Matthew Crooks struck Trump in the ear, killed one person and injured two others when he opened fire at the former president’s July 13 rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. On Sept. 15, police arrested Ryan Wesley Routh for building a sniper’s nest near the sixth hole of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach.
U.S. Secret Service officers shot and killed Crooks, who was 20. Routh, 58, faces charges of attempted assassination of a major presidential party candidate, among others, in Florida.