In the weeks preceding the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump Saturday evening, President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders heightened their rhetoric against the former president, warning that Trump could become a dictator if allowed to retake the White House.
"Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation," Biden remarked during a campaign rally in North Carolina in late June. "He is a threat to our freedom. He is a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat for everything America stands for."
Days later, during a Wisconsin rally, the president stated, "I mean what I said: We cannot let Trump win. No, I mean, that’s not hyperbole. We can’t. This is the most dangerous election in American history."
Biden added that Trump "really could become a dictator," noting a recent Supreme Court ruling that presidents have some immunity from criminal prosecution.
And, in response to calls for him to withdraw from the presidential race following his disastrous debate performance, Biden told donors during a fundraising event this week that "it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye," Politico reported.
The Biden-Harris campaign also deployed several campaign ads likening Trump to a dictator and warning that the former president would quash women's rights and put women's lives in danger.
"America itself is at stake," warned a Biden ad released on July 5.
Other Democrats have broadly and consistently characterized Trump as a "threat to democracy."
Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, has echoed claims as recently as Thursday that Trump would be a "dictator" if elected and said he would also weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies.
"Donald Trump wants to turn our democracy into a dictatorship," Harris said at a separate event on Tuesday in Nevada.
Biden, Harris, and Democratic lawmakers have also raised the alarm on the so-called Project 2025, an effort by the right-leaning Heritage Foundation to assemble a slate of policies a future Republican administration can pursue. Trump has stated he doesn't have an affiliation with Project 2025.
In June, House Democrats established a task force "examining, highlighting, preempting, and counteracting" Project 2025, which they said is a "far-right roadmap for Donald Trump to seize 'supreme' powers."
"Donald Trump and those behind Project 2025 are ready to turn America into a theocratic regime if they get the chance—and we are going to be ready to stop them," Rep. Jared Huffman (D., Calif.), a task force member, said in a statement.
"Project 2025 is Donald Trump’s blueprint for destroying our democracy," added Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.), another task force member. "It attacks the very foundations that this country was built on and seeks to limit Americans’ rights to further embolden MAGA extremists."
The White House, Huffman, and Jayapal didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to the U.S. Secret Service, at approximately 6:15 p.m. on Saturday evening, a gunman fired multiple shots toward Trump while the former president was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump appeared bloodied by the attack and later said a bullet grazed his ear.
Biden then delivered brief remarks from his residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, condemning political violence.
"It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country," Biden said. "We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this."