That’s what Riverside County, California, Sheriff Chad Bianco (photo, left; bio here) and a slew of rightwing media and propaganda outlets called it.
But Vem Miller, the Las Vegas man arrested near a Trump rally on Saturday, October 12, 2024, for having a fake license plate and a pile of guns in his car, was released on a measly $5,000 bond.
He denies plotting to assassinate Trump, and says he’s a Trump supporter who was invited to the rally (read story here).
Now watch the TikTok video here. The clear takeaway is (1) Sheriff Chad (photo below) is a Trumper and a rightwing freak (see story here), and (2) Vem Miller is one of them, too. Miller’s not just a run-of-mill Trump supporter; this video shows him in a car with coup plotters discussing about Trump’s scheme to overthrow the 2020 election by getting Pence to not certify it.
Then in the video, you see one of those plotters on Alex Jones’s Infowars show talking about an assassination of Trump or RFK Jr. triggering a “cleansing” of buildings in Washington D.C.; the clear implication being that a bunch of Democratic politicians would be killed in retaliation.
Now, you can interpret video this in a couple ways. One is that Vem Miller was recruited to kill Trump at the Coachella rally, so J. D. Vance could become president and implement Project 2025, and rightwing militias would go wild and murder Democratic politicians.
The other is that Sheriff Chad (read a story about him here) is a blowhard who’s throwing gas on the fire with phony talk of a “third assassination attempt” in order to stir up Trump supporters and just generally stir the pot.
Meanwhile retired Army general Michael Flynn, a Trump crony convicted of lying to the FBI and pardoned by Trump, who has called for a military coup in the United States (see story here), now says if Trump wins the 2024 election “the gates of hell will be unleashed” (read that story here).
What does he mean? While speaking to a Moonie group that “worships the AR-15 as a holy instrument ordained by God,” someone in the crowd “asked him about the possibility of military tribunals and executions of Trump’s enemies.” Flynn basically said that’s a good idea which he supports.
Murdering Trump doesn’t appear to be part of Flynn’s agenda, although overthrowing our government and murdering Democrats plainly is. And I haven’t seen anything linking Vem Miller to Trump. The idea of a rightwing plot to kill Trump seems far-fetched to me, and I’m inclined to write it off as bloviating by a crazy sheriff and a slew of rightwing media.
But suppose I’m wrong? One thing does seem clear: Both of the attempts to assassinate Trump, or all three if you choose to count Miller, were by Trump supporters. What could that possibly mean?
Update (10/17/24): Sheriff Chad is catching flak from … (drum roll) … MAGA figures like pardoned felon Roger Stone. For picking on an innocent MAGA follower. Read story here.