'I'm a Trump supporter': Rally-goer denies assassination bid and reveals why he had guns in his car
14 October 2024, 07:17
A rally-goer has denied attempting to assassinate Donald Trump and revealed why he had guns in his car.
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An armed man was arrested at a Donald Trump rally on Saturday - with police saying the suspect was possibly about to make an attempt on the former president's life.
Local police made the arrest outside the rally in Coachella Valley, California.
The man was reported to have been armed with guns and fake press passes. He gave his name to police as 'Vem Miller'.
Speaking for the first time following his arrest, Miller denied planning to assassinate Mr Trump, saying he kept firearms in his car to protect against death threats.
"I've literally never even shot a gun in my life," he told Southern California News Group. "I don't know anything about guns."
He went on to say: "I'm an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody."
He said the accusations were "complete bulls***".
Miller later told Fox that he was "100% a Trump supporter".
Despite supporting Barack Obama in the past, he said he was "certainly more Republican now".
Miller explained that he saw Mr Trump as "a visual example of freedom of speech", adding: "This is a man that I deeply admire, because I was a closet individual in terms of my beliefs, because I worked in Hollywood.
"As my politics started to change, I realised that Hollywood is a homogenous community."
He also said that he had not been carrying falsified IDs, after police said they discovered "he had multiple identity documents".
Miller said there had been confusion as he is Armenian and some use his full birth name and others do not to avoid potential anti-Armenian sentiment.
Court documents list his name as 'Vem Vim Yenovkian', also known as 'Vem Miller Yenovkian', according to the Mail.
It comes after Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told a press conference on Sunday: "We prevented something bad from happening, and it's irrelevant what that bad was going to be."
"The arrested man, gave his name to police as 'Vem Miller' - but he had multiple identity documents inside the car, and claimed to be journalist for VIP event. He is believed to be a member of the far-right group Sovereign Citizens' Group - followers believe that rules do not apply to them. ..." I am not going to say as a whole that group is a violent group."
"If they are ever able to prove it was an assassination attempt ,that will be a federal matter."
He was intercepted by a police checkpoint about half a mile from the rally stage.
“They were different enough to cause the deputies alarm,” Bianco said, according to local press reports.
The New York Post reported that Miller was plotting to kill Trump because of his right-wing anti-government views, according to Bianco.
Trump has been the target of two other assassination attempts in 2024.
He was hit in the ear by a sniper at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in April.
Secret Service agents then foiled a second attempt in August at Mr Trump's golf course in Florida.
Mr Trump returned to the site of his near-miss last week - accompanied with Tesla founder Elon Musk.
The former president and Republican nominee urged the crowd to deliver an Election Day victory - which he tied to his survival of the shooting.
He began his speech with, "As I was saying," and gestured toward an immigration chart he was looking at when the gunfire began.
"Twelve weeks ago, we all took a bullet for America," Mr Trump said.
"All we are all asking is that everyone goes out and votes. We got to win. We can't let this happen to our country."
The Trump campaign worked to maximise the event's headline-grabbing potential with just 30 days to go and voting already underway in some states in his race against his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
