Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Says Trump Should Be ‘Extinguished’ After Second Assassination Attempt

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday that Americans should “extinguish” Republican nominee Donald Trump from politics just two weeks after a second assassination attempt threatened the former president’s life.

Raimondo said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump’s promise to be a “protector” of women during a Monday rally in Pennsylvania is “enraging” and belittling, blaming him for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022. She called on American voters to “turn the page” on the former president’s alleged “vindictiveness” and “hatred of women.”

“When I saw that, when I saw the ‘protector,’ it was enraging, it was bloodcurdling, and it’s BS. Not only is it wrong and a lie, it belittles us,” Raimondo said. “We’re not that stupid. We know he’s lying and we don’t need baloney telling us he’ll protect us, we know the facts of how he feels about women, he’s disrespectful to women, putting it mildly and he’s the one that overturned Roe … What he says is the opposite. It’s just another lie. Like, how did we get here? Let’s extinguish [Trump] for good. We have an answer, we have a remarkably talented candidate who is sincere, who is pragmatic, who is open. Let’s just get it done.”

Co-host Mika Brzezinski asked the commerce secretary to clarify that she meant Trump should be voted out and banished from American politics.

“Vote him out. Banish him from American politics, yes. Just vote him out so that he goes away,” Raimondo continued. “[Vice President Kamala Harris’] new way forward, her vision, let’s turn the page on his chaos and craziness, vindictiveness, wrongheaded economic strategy, hatred towards women, and move forward.”

WATCH:

A second assassination attempt threatened Trump’s life on Sept. 15 in West Palm Beach, Florida, after 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh pointed his AK-47-style rifle at the former president while he was playing golf. Federal prosecutors formally charged Routh on Tuesday with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The liberal media and President Joe Biden’s administration have repeatedly called Trump a “threat to democracy,” while MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough even compared him to fascist leader Adolf Hitler following the assassination attempt. Routh wrote in a series of  X posts in April 2022 that “democracy is on the ballot” and urged Biden to campaign on keeping “America democratic and free.”

Trump and many conservatives blamed the Biden administration’s rhetoric for the second attempt as Routh echoed their framing of the former president.