New poll shows voters blame alleged shooters, rhetoric for attempts on Trump's life

Voters say most of the blame for the two attempts to assassinate former President Donald Trump during his campaign lies with the alleged shooters themselves, but they assign blame to other factors as well.

Likely voters say the alleged shooters (46%) are responsible for the attempted assassinations. Voters also blame general divisions in America (40%), overheated rhetoric from Democrats (33%) and lax U.S. Secret Service protection (29%), according to the results of The Center Square's Voters' Voice Poll, conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights.

Thomas Matthew Crooks struck Trump in the ear, killed one person and injured two others when he opened fire at the former president's July 13 rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. On Sept. 15, police arrested Ryan Wesley Routh for building a sniper's nest near the sixth hole of Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach.

U.S. Secret Service officers shot and killed Crooks, who was 20. Routh, 58, faces charges of attempted assassination of a major presidential party candidate, among others, in Florida.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after the first attempt on Trump's life. Multiple reports have blamed the U.S. Secret Service for a cascade of failures on July 13, including drone problems that could have spotted Crooks hours before the shooting in Pennsylvania.

Routh has pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted assassination of a presidential candidate. Prosecutors accused Routh of stalking Trump for a month before the incident in which he built a sniper's nest near the Trump International golf course in West Palm Beach.  

An FBI agent detailed in court documents the inside of the alleged gunman's sniper nest where prosecutors said he waited for hours with a scope-fitted rifle. A photo of the nest showed two bags hanging from a fence off the sixth hole. An FBI agent said the bags contained plates that could stop small arms fire. In between the two bags was an SKS rifle with a scope. Agents matched a fingerprint on the rifle to Routh.

Prosecutors said Routh had been planning to kill the former president for months. Agents found in Routh's Nissan Xterra a handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October 2024 and venues where Trump had appeared or was expected to be present.

Routh also left a note. Routh, a resident of Hawaii and North Carolina and participant in the latter's March 5 primary, left the note with a person federal prosecutors described as a civilian witness several months before the Sept. 15 incident. According to court records filed Monday, the person reached out to law enforcement on Wednesday. The letter offered money to anyone who would finish the job.

The letter reads in part, "This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job."

Noble Predictive Insights conducted the poll from Oct 2-4, 2024. The sample included 2,560 respondents comprised of 1,135 Republicans, 1,162 Democrats, and 263 True Independents (Independents who, when asked if they leaned toward one of the major parties, chose neither). Of the full sample of registered voters, 2,290 were qualified as "likely voters."

The poll weighted each party – Republicans, Democrats, and True Independents – independently. Additional weighting variables include age, region, gender, education, and race/ethnicity.

The margin of error was +/- 1.9% for registered voters and +/-2.1% for likely voters.