As Townhall has been covering, there was a second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump on Sunday. Not long after news of shots fired near the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida came out, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) put out a post from his official account declaring "We must stop them" when it comes to "Extreme MAGA Republicans" on the abortion issue.
"Extreme MAGA Republicans are the party of a national abortion ban and Trump’s Project 2025," Jeffries posted. "We must stop them."
The post was put out at 3:30pm. A statement from the Trump-Vance campaign about "gunshots in [Trump's] vicinity" was sent out at 2:25pm, with such a statement being shared extensively over social media.
Extreme MAGA Republicans are the party of a national abortion ban and Trump’s Project 2025.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) September 15, 2024
We must stop them.
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) September 15, 2024
There have been approximately 8,000 replies taking issue with Jeffries' comments in the approximately two hours that his post has been up.
In addition to the very unfortunate timing of such a post, it is also false. Trump has repeatedly made clear that he is not affiliated with Project 2025, which is an initiative from the Heritage Foundation. The Republican nominee has also mentioned he finds some ideas from the initiative to be "bad" ones, as he did during last Tuesday's debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC News. On the abortion platform, he said the initiative goes "way too far."
Democrats, including but not limited to the Harris campaign, have been fact-checked for trying to falsely connect Trump to Project 2025, with the Harris campaign even indicating they ought to know better.
Trump has also made just as clear that he does not believe in a "national abortion ban," but rather believes in states deciding their own abortion laws.
Shortly before publication, Jeffries finally made a post denouncing "Political violence," though it does not mention Trump by name and the post in question indicating "We must stop them" is still up.
Trump is safe, and there is a suspect in custody, though the man has not yet been identified.
Political violence has no place in a democratic society.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) September 15, 2024