Threats and assassination attempts come with the office Donald Trump once held and is seeking again
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans are blaming comments made by Democrats that he is a threat to democracy for the unprecedented attacks on him, the latest coming over the weekend
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump, following an apparent assassination attempt on him on Sunday, claimed that overheated rhetoric from Democrats was responsible for him being under threat.
It turns out, records show, that threats come with the office that he once held and is trying to win again, and occur far more frequently than is widely known.
An examination of Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, known as TRAC, shows that since 1986 when Ronald Reagan was in the White House, the federal government has prosecuted 1,444 cases of threats against presidents or others in line of presidential succession.
The highest number of prosecutions in a single year came in 1987 during the Reagan years when there were 73. TRAC data shows there were 72 cases brought in 2002 during the George W. Bush administration. The Bush administration also had the highest number of cases over its eight-year span with 383, a time of heightened tension during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prosecutors brought 343 cases when Bill Clinton was president and 213 during former President Barack Obama's two terms. There were 68 cases brought in Trump's first term. Reagan had 200 in the last three years of his presidency and 213 cases were brought during George H.W. Bush's one term.
