Fox 11 News 10

Speaker 1 0:00
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department says it thwarted a potential assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. On Saturday, over the weekend, a man armed with several firearms and ammunition was arrested outside a Trump rally in Coachella, 49 year old. Vem Miller of Las Vegas says he's shocked by the allegations because he says he's a Trump supporter, and he had the guns for his protection. And now Miller says he's considering a lawsuit against Riverside County, Riverside County Sheriff, Chad bianco, he joins me now live with his reaction. Good to have you, sheriff. Let me add to what I just said, Miller. He tells the LA Times this, this is a quote. Everything they said about me is untrue, probably so unfortunately, he appears to have committed career suicide, and when he says he he's referring to you, Sheriff, what's your reaction?

Speaker 2 0:53
He can say anything he wants to try and minimize his involvement in this, or threaten to sue. Everyone threatens to sue. I'm not quite sure what he's going to sue about. He showed up to a Trump rally in a secondary check point with an unregistered vehicle with fake license plates, multiple IDs and guns. We arrested for him. For those he can sue whatever he wants, and then he's made a lot of allegations against our deputy, thankfully for us, and we have very I'm very proud of our deputies, but this one in particular is probably one of the nicest men you'll ever meet in your life. He's a fine young man, and he's going to have a hard time proving how rude he was when if he if he wants to get in court and see how he was treated by probably the nicest deputy we have on our department. He was extremely nice, polite and kind to Mr. Miller, and Mr. Miller isn't being very forthcoming and honest in his little video about this interaction that he had with us and his arrest.

Speaker 1 2:01
Let me just jump in and ask you about the deputy. What have you learned from him on

Unknown Speaker 2:04
how this all went down? Because

Unknown Speaker 2:06
this was one of the checkpoints to get in. He

Speaker 1 2:08
obviously didn't get in. He was arrested. The biggest concern, of course, are the firearms. Now, according to Miller, he says that he actually flagged the deputy down to say, hey, I have some weapons in my trunk. If that was, in fact, the case that doesn't seem like something that an assassin would do is to highlight weapons that they brought. It's

Speaker 2 2:28
not the truth. I mean, it's his nice little version of events that that try that makes him look good or paints him in a lighter picture. But the reality is, I will, I will give him credit. He was not. He was he was forthcoming with the deputy when he asked him questions. He was not combative in any way. He was cooperative, and he answered truthfully when the deputy asked him questions, he portrayed himself as being a VIP and and a journalist, and as the deputy asked him questions and asked if there were any weapons or explosives in the in the vehicle. He said that there were guns. And the deputy eventually ended up searching the car, retrieving the guns they were there unlawful in California, and then also finding the multiple different IDs. So he was arrested for possession of the firearms, and he was booked into jail. It really, truly is as simple as that. Okay, wants to be mad at someone he could possibly look at all of his influencer friends that just keep repeating and sensationalizing this whole thing that really paint him in a worse light than what our press release or my press conference did. Okay, let

Speaker 1 3:38
me ask you this, because obviously, and he says the body worn cameras will prove that he is correct, and so we'll see what happens there. Of course, he is a free man. Tonight, he posted bond $5,000 and he's been out since Saturday. He's not facing federal assassination attempt charges, just some gun charges. In hindsight, Sheriff, do you have any regrets about calling this a likely assassination attempt.

Speaker 2 4:04
No, you know in the end, we will never know from the point he was arrested, we will absolutely never know what was going to happen if those guns got in there and it was our job to keep them out. The deputies did a fine job. They did it. And no one is going to jump up and down and say, Oh, you caught me. This is what I was going to do. He's going to defend himself. He's going to deny and quite frankly, it's fine. I mean, that's his right. He can do whatever he wants, but the in all of the red flags, the assassination attempts that have already been made on the president, and then he truly thinks he's going to show up at a at a rally inside perimeter with loaded weapons that he shouldn't have with all of the other things that went along with it. I'm, I don't regret anything, and it's, it's unfortunate that it's taken this turn. And. We're not looking at it for what it is and what he did, and leaving it at that. Well,

Speaker 1 5:06
okay, I switch gears, because we run it out of time. But you know, you've, you've not made it a secret that you will likely run for governor here in the state you said. You told us here on the air that you will not announce your run for governor until after November the fifth. So does that mean that November the sixth? You want to schedule an interview with us so that you can make your announcement for that?

Speaker 2 5:26
Marla, you're very persistent. I don't know if it will be November 5 by I will give you now. I will say by the end of the year that are the first of January at the latest, it's there's certainly too many things that are happening and coming up that are not going to allow me to continue in just trying to decide so it shouldn't. I will. I will make the announcement one way or the other soon.

Unknown Speaker 5:49
Okay, all right. Well, as always, we

Speaker 1 5:51
do appreciate your time. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianca, thank you so much. You're welcome. You.

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