トランプ氏「狙われるのは影響力のある大統領だけ」 遊説再開

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】米共和党大統領候補のドナルド・トランプ前大統領は１７日、武装した男に待ち伏せされた事件後に遊説を再開し、「狙われるのは影響力のある大統領だけだ」と豪語した。（写真は米ミシガン州フリントで市民との対話集会に出席したドナルド・トランプ前大統領）
　トランプ氏が１５日にフロリダ州でゴルフをしていた際、付近で自動小銃を所持して隠れている男が発見され、身柄を確保された。連邦捜査局（ＦＢＩ）は暗殺未遂との見方を示している。
　トランプ氏は事件後初めて、激戦州のミシガン州フリントで遊説。かつては自動車産業の街として栄えていた同市は、外国企業との競争で工場の閉鎖が相次ぎ、産業が衰退している。
　トランプ氏は熱狂する支持者を前に、週末の事件と、メキシコや中国からの輸入車への関税を大幅に引き上げるとする自身の公約を関連付け、「なぜ私が狙われるのかと思うかもしれないが、狙われるのは、影響力のある大統領だけだ」と主張した。
　一方で、民主党候補カマラ・ハリス副大統領から電話で連絡を受けたことについて触れ、「非常に感じが良かった」と同氏を称賛した。
　ハリス氏は１７日、全米黒人ジャーナリスト協会（ＮＡＢＪ）のインタビューでトランプ氏に連絡したことを明らかにし、「無事かどうかを確認し、この国で政治的暴力は許されないと伝えた」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/09/18-18:13）

Donald Trump resumed campaigning Tuesday for the first time since a second apparent attempt on his life, boasting only consequential presidents get shot at while praising Kamala Harris for making a phone call to check on him.
Trump spoke at a town hall meeting before fervent supporters in Flint, a beleaguered industrial city that was once a jewel of the US automotive industry in swing state Michigan, before factories closed due to foreign competition.
Trump drew a link between what the FBI called a foiled assassination bid against him Sunday at his golf course in Florida and his pledge to slap heavy tariffs on imports of cars from Mexico and China.
And then you wonder why I get shot at, right? You know, only consequential presidents get shot at, Trump said.
Trump's election rival Harris, campaigning in another swing state, Pennsylvania, said Tuesday she had reached out to the former president after the thwarted attack.
I checked on him to see if he was OK. And I told him what I have said publicly -- there's no place for political violence in our country, Harris said in an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).
The White House described it as a cordial and brief conversation. Trump said Harris could not have been nicer.
Trump has said the would-be shooter was a follower of what he called President Joe Biden's and Harris's rhetoric insisting that he is a threat to US democracy.
At the town hall meeting, Trump supporters said the foiled attack made them support him even more.
I believe that they want to kill Trump so that Trump cannot try to make his second term in office, said retired autoworker Donald Owen, 71.
- 'Zero jobs' -
Trump depicted himself at the event as the savior of the US auto industry as it competes with foreign companies.
He insisted: If a tragedy happens, and we don't win, there will be zero car jobs, manufacturing jobs, it will all be out of here.
Trump also defended his convoluted, rambling way of speaking, and then in a tangent on fossil fuel drilling he said, We have Bagram in Alaska. They say it might be as big, might be bigger than all of Saudi Arabia.
But Bagram is an air base in Afghanistan. Trump may have confused it with a place in Alaska called the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR.
Meanwhile, Harris used her interview in Pennsylvania to give her first reaction to a row over false stories spread by Trump that Haitian immigrants were eating residents' cats and dogs in a town in Ohio.
Dozens of bomb threats were made against the community in the town of Springfield after Trump and his running mate JD Vance publicly boosted the fake story, forcing the closure of some schools.
It's a crying shame, literally, what's happening to those families, those children in that community, Harris said.
- 'Hateful' -
It's got to stop. We've got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States engaging in that hateful rhetoric, she added.
On Sunday, Trump was whisked away by the US Secret Service after gunman Ryan Routh was discovered in a hedgerow at his Florida golf course.
It was the second such close call for the Republican nominee in as many months, after a bullet grazed his ear in a shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania that left one man dead in June.
The dueling visits of Trump in Michigan and Harris in Pennsylvania come as both focus on the half-dozen swing states critical to winning in the election.
A new poll from Suffolk University and USA Today shows Harris with a slight 49-46 percent edge over Trump in Pennsylvania, thanks in large part to major support from women voters.
It confirms a large gender gap in the race, at least in Pennsylvania, with Harris leading with women by 56 percent to 39 percent, and Trump earning male votes by a slimmer 53-41 percent.