Vem Miller was “lunatic” to think he could attend a Donald Trump rally with a loaded gun and several other “major red flags,” said the local sheriff who insists he helped crush a third assassination attempt.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco doubled down in an interview with DailyMail.com about what led him to think Miller may have been plotting something nefarious for Trump’s Saturday rally.
Miller, 49, was arrested by Bianco’s department outside Trump’s Coachella event when a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine were discovered in his vehicle during a checkpoint stop.
After posting $10,000 bail, the Las Vegas resident was released.
Other concerning items found on Miller included a “false license plate,” multiple IDs with variations of his name and two firearms, the sheriff said.
Bianco immediately said his officers “probably” helped prevent a third assassination attempt on the former president by capturing Miller.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told DailyMail.com there were several “red flags” that led to the search and arrest of Vem Miller’s car outside a Trump rally on Saturday.
But the sheriff received a flurry of backlash online for his comment, with many claiming it was too serious a claim to divulge.
“I don’t know how, maybe I’m not explaining it right or something,” Sheriff Bianco told DailyMail.com. “But those are very, very, very important red flags.”
“That’s not normal,” he insisted. ‘A normal person doesn’t show up to a Trump event knowing the security, the heightened security that will be there with all these different problems and loaded guns. It doesn’t make sense.’
After reports surfaced that Bianco called Miller a lunatic, he doubled down.
“Anyone who thinks that’s okay has to be crazy,” he said. ‘There is no one with common sense or reason who can believe that it is okay to show up with a false license plate in an unregistered vehicle, with multiple forms of identification and loaded weapons. This seems strange to me, that it can be like this, that anyone in their right mind can say: Oh, okay.
Miller defended himself in a video posted on Rumble and when speaking to right-wing personalities and media outlets.
Vem Miller, 49, was arrested Saturday near Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, California, after firearms and high-capacity magazines were discovered in his car during a search at a checkpoint.
At his outdoor rallies, Trump has spoken from behind a bulletproof glass perimeter since the assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Pictured: Trump at his rally in Coachella, California, on October 12, 2024.
“My position is that a normal person who doesn’t do anything wrong doesn’t come up with all the red flags that he did and try to participate in that event,” Bianco said. ‘So we probably could have saved a third assassination attempt?’ I think so, because we have absolutely no way of understanding what’s in his head, what his intentions were.’
“And now he is free of custody and, of course, he is going to say everything he thinks necessary to say, especially to deny it,” he added. —I mean I don’t blame him. I mean that would be normal for me too.’
“So I’m certainly going to stand by what I said,” the Sheriff insisted.
Miller was charged with two counts of illegal possession of firearms and posted $5,000 bail on each charge.
He has a hearing date set for early January.
