Following the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, leading left-wing figures in Europe have exploited the incident to advance their anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment agendas.
Despite condemning the violence, Richard Corbett, the former head of the European Parliamentary Labour Party, seized the opportunity to lash out at Republicans for defending gun rights. “Will this make the Republicans want to change the US gun laws that have led to widespread gun ownership and nearly 50,000 deaths a year from guns?” he asked. “Fat chance! They reap what they sow,” Corbett added.
Richard Tice, Deputy Leader of the Reform UK party, slammed Corbett’s comments, calling them “disgraceful.” The Reform UK leader urged political leaders to focus on addressing the root causes of violence rather than exploiting the incident for political gain.
Guy Verhofstadt, a leading Eurocrat and former Belgian Prime Minister, also used the occasion to push his anti-Second Amendment and globalist agenda. While condemning the assassination attempt, Verhofstadt labeled Trump a “traitor of liberal democracy” just a day prior, following Trump’s meeting with Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán to discuss peace plans for the war in Ukraine.
Verhofstadt called for European leaders to “fight back” and “make sure democracy wins,” while also emphasizing the need for the EU to centralize its power in response to the perceived threat of Trump’s possible return to power.
Verhofstadt also used the Trump assassination attempt to further his chief political goal; increasing the power of Brussels through EU centralisation.