Jimmy Kimmel Hits Back at Donald Trump After 'Nuts' Reaction to Second Assassination Attempt

Jimmy Kimmel wasted no time slamming the Republican presidential candidate for shifting the blame to his opponents for the second alleged assassination attempt. The comedian started by referring to Donald Trump as a 'troubled individual,' before making the joke that people 'know he's nuts' due to his past tweet expressing his desire for a Republican ticket consisting of Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. However, Kimmel immediately shifted the focus to Trump's first remarks on the botched attempt. 

Trump claimed that the language of Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden was 'causing me to be shot at.' As reported by The New York Times, Kimmel reiterated, "[Trump] he said, ‘Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country. They use highly inflammatory language. I can use it too, far better than they can, but I don’t.’ Right, you are nothing if not a calming influence."

Among the examples given by Kimmel were Trump's statements about Haitian immigrants eating pets and, more importantly, his jokes about Nancy Pelosi's husband—who was also the victim of a violent attack by one of his unstable supporters—for political reasons. Kimmel continued, "This is a man who, literally hours before this happened, posted on Truth Social the words ‘I hate Taylor Swift.’"

Following the arrest of Ryan Wesley Routh—who brandished a firearm over a fence close to the Florida golf club where Trump was present on Sunday—the GOP frontrunner talked to Fox News Digital. He told the outlet, "Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out. They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in. These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to. That is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one."

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said during a press conference that the Republican presidential candidate was playing golf at his West Palm Beach club on Sunday afternoon when a Secret Service member saw the barrel of a pistol sticking out of some nearby bushes, a few hundred yards away. As reported by NBC News, he escaped in a black Nissan when the Secret Service opened fire on him.

Rafael Barros, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Miami field office, said during the press conference that it was unclear if the assailant 'was able to take a shot at our agents' as bullets rang out. The arrest was aided, according to Bradshaw, by a witness who snapped a photo of the vehicle and reported it to the police. Three high-ranking law enforcement authorities confirmed that the detained guy was identified as 58-year-old Routh. 

The second shooting incident took place on Sunday, around two months after a different shooter shot and killed one man at a Trump event in Pennsylvania, injuring the former president in the ear and wounding another audience member.