US presidential candidate Kamala Harris has called her rival Donald Trump after he faced another apparent assassination attempt, though she separately condemned him for "hateful" peddling of false stories about Haitian migrants eating pets.
As Mr Trump prepared to return to the election campaign for the first time since a gunman was found near his golf course in Florida at the weekend, Ms Harris said she had reached out to the former president.
"I checked on him to see if he was OK. And I told him what I have said publicly - there's no place for political violence in our country," the Democratic Party candidate said in an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.
The White House described it as a "cordial and brief conversation".
A spokesperson added that President Joe Biden had also called Mr Trump to express similar sentiment.
The calls came a day after a man suspected of hiding for nearly 12 hours - in an apparent attempt to assassinate Mr Trump at his Florida golf course - was charged with two gun-related crimes.
Authorities say the suspect was spotted on Sunday in the bushes with a rifle as the former president played nearby.
But the incident raised questions about how an armed man was able to get so close to Mr Trump, just two months after another gunman grazed his ear with a bullet during a 13 July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The former president's visit to his golf course in West Palm Beach was not on his public schedule, acting US Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told reporters, and it was not clear whether the suspect knew Mr Trump would be there.
The Secret Service opened fire after an agent sweeping the course saw a rifle barrel poking out of the bushes a few hundred yards away from the former president, who was on the fairway of the fifth hole.
"All of a sudden we heard shots being fired in the air. I guess probably four or five," Mr Trump said during an event on X Spaces.
"Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets, and they grabbed me. ... We got into the carts and we moved along pretty, pretty good. I was with an agent, and the agent did a fantastic job," he said.
While praising the Secret Service agents, he added: "We do need more people on my detail."
The gunman fled in a sports utility vehicle, according to court papers.
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Officers found a loaded assault-style rifle with a scope, a digital camera and a plastic bag of food left behind.
A suspect, identified yesterday as Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested about 40 minutes later driving north on Interstate 95.
The licence plate on his vehicle had been reported stolen from another car.
Records show a phone associated with Mr Routh was located at the golf course starting at 1.59am (06.59am local time) on Sunday morning, 11-and-a-half hours before the incident.
The suspect was on the "public side" of a fence along the golf course's boundary, Mr Rowe said.
Mr Routh was the subject of a 2019 tip to the FBI alleging that he was a convicted felon who illegally possessed a firearm, Jeffrey Veltri, the agent in charge of the FBI's Miami field office, told reporters.
The complainant was unable to verify the information when the FBI investigated the tip, Mr Veltri said.
Mr Routh made a brief appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach yesterday, where he was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. More charges could follow.
The defendant invoked his right to an attorney when investigators sought to question him, Mr Rowe said.
In 2002, Mr Routh pleaded guilty in North Carolina to possession of an unregistered fully automatic gun, defined in state law as a weapon of mass destruction, according to the county district attorney's office, and was sentenced to probation.
He was also convicted of possessing stolen goods in 2010.
Mr Trump blamed President Biden and Ms Harris for the apparent assassination attempt.
He claimed the suspected gunman was acting on Democrats' "highly inflammatory language," though authorities have not yet offered evidence of any motive.
"Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country - both from the inside and out," he said, according to Fox.
Democrats, including Mr Biden, have repeatedly called Mr Trump a danger to democracy, citing among other things his refusal to acknowledge his 2020 election defeat, which inspired the 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol.
Read more:
US Secret Service, the agency with a 'no fail' mission
The Secret Service, which protects US presidents, presidential candidates and other high-level dignitaries, has been under intense scrutiny since the earlier attempt on Mr Trump's life.
That led to the resignation of Director Kimberly Cheatle.
The service bolstered Mr Trump's security detail following the 13 July attack, in which the gunman was shot dead by responding agents.
The agency "needs more help," including possibly more personnel, Mr Biden told reporters yesterday, adding: "Thank God the president's OK."
Mr Rowe, who took over after Ms Cheatle's resignation in July, told Congress on 30 July he was "ashamed" of security lapses in the earlier attack.
