Republican presidential candidate and former United States President Donald Trump receives assistance through the United States Secret Service Workers’ Corps after gunshots were heard at a crossover rally on Saturday at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
The shots were fired at around 6:10 p. m. Former President Donald Trump put his hands to his right ear as blood gushed out, then ducked to protect himself as his supporters screamed and Secret Service agents rushed around him.
The shots were fired around 6:10 p. m. Former President Donald Trump clutched his right ear as blood gushed, then ducked into hiding as his supporters screamed and Secret Service agents rushed to surround him.
Within moments, they yelled “shooter down” and the officers, agitated but under control, began to remove Trump from the level to safety. “Wait, wait, wait, wait,” he shouted, then struggled to shake his fist at the crowd and seemed to shout defiantly, “Fight!” Fight!”The crowd roared and responded by chanting “United States! UU!”
For the first time in more than four decades, a man elected president of the United States was injured in an assassination attempt when a gunman who appeared to have crawled to a nearby roof opened fire on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. . Saturday night. The outbreak of political violence came at a particularly volatile time in American history and further inflamed an already heated campaign for the White House.
After Secret Service snipers killed the gunman, the former president and presumptive Republican presidential candidate was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and declared “doing well” during his campaign. But one male spectator at the demonstration was killed and two others were seriously injured, the government said. The motives for the attack were still under investigation.
“I immediately knew something was happening when I heard a whistle, gunshots, and immediately felt the bullet tearing at my skin,” Trump later wrote on his website. social media. ” There was a lot of bleeding, so I found out what was going on. “Trump said he “was hit by a bullet that went through the top of my right ear. “
President Joe Biden, who at the time of the shooting at the church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he has a vacation home, appeared before television cameras to condemn the shooting. “Look, there’s no position in the United States for this kind of violence,” Biden said. “It’s crazy. It’s crazy. This is one of the reasons we have to unite this country. We cannot allow this to happen. We cannot be like that. We cannot tolerate that.
He then contacted Trump by phone and left Delaware to return to the White House. At the end of the night, Trump left the hospital and was taken to the Pittsburgh airport to return home to New Jersey.
The attack came just two days before the opening in Milwaukee of the Republican National Convention, where Trump will be nominated for president for the third time, and his campaign showed he still plans to be there. Even as Biden’s campaign announced it would. By suspending television advertising, Trump supporters were quick to accuse liberals, the media and Biden of stoking animosity against the former president and said that was what led to the attack.
Although there were assassination attempts, incidents or failed plots against George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama after their terms in office, Trump was the first president or former president injured in an act of violence since Ronald Reagan was assassinated. shot in 1981 by a would-be assassin looking to impress the Hollywood actress. Authorities have reported a wave of threats against elected and appointed officials of both parties in recent years, as anger now dominates political discourse.
Trump has been accused of fomenting violence, he added on January 6, 2021, when he encouraged a crowd of supporters to march on the Capitol, where they looted the building in an attempt to save Congress from ratifying Biden’s electoral victory. There have also been spasms of violence from the left, including the arrest of a gunman outside Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s home in 2022 and the shooting of a Republican congressional leader at a baseball practice in 2017.
The Justice Department’s Homeland Security Division planned to open an investigation into Trump’s assassination attempt, indicating that the division viewed the shooting as an isolated act of violence but also as an assassination attempt with national security implications.
Anthony Guglielmi, a Secret Service spokesman, said the alleged shooter was in “an elevated position” outside the security perimeter, meaning he did not control through magnetometers like those who witnessed the event. Video and audio analysis indicated that the shooter was about 400 feet north of the scene and that 8 shots were fired.
Law enforcement recovered an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle from a deceased white man who was the shooter at the scene, according to two law enforcement officials. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as part of its popular procedure in cases of mass or high-profile shootings, was conducting emergency tracking of the weapon, using the national gun purchase database, which can be key to definitively determining by identifying the weapon. marksman.
At an overnight news conference, law enforcement officials said they believe they knew the slain shooter, who did not carry any identity, but have withheld their call until it is fully confirmed, as they are looking for a DNA match. They declined to talk about an imaginable motivation pending further investigation.
“At this time, we have no explanation as to why any other threat exists,” said Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens, adding that it was “too early” to say whether it was a remote threat of attack. Wolf.
The rally was a typical Saturday night campaign occasion for Trump. It’s hot in Butler, and the former president started about an hour late. Wearing a red Make America Great Again baseball cap and his suit but no tie, Trump shows his supporters a graph showing the number of border crossings just minutes after his speech when gunshots were heard in two bursts.
“If you need to see something sad, look at what happened…” He said before stopping abruptly, as a hail of gunshots erupted.
Corey Check, a local conservative activist and Butler Republican committeeman, and his friend Nathan Rybner were sitting in a segment of seats to the right of Trump’s estate when they heard a series of loud noises. The sounds seemed to come from above their heads, in the segment where they were sitting, they said.
“I heard what I thought were firecrackers,” said Rybner, a Republican committee member from Erie County, Pennsylvania. “It didn’t look like a typical shot. “
Eduardo Vargas, 31, said he was sitting about 15 feet from Trump and heard the first shot. Vargas said he doesn’t know if Trump was shot, but minutes later, he said, he saw that Trump had blood on his forehead.
The secret service told everyone, “Get down! Get down!” Vargas said. I saw some of the people around me start to cry,” he said. “And I cried. I couldn’t help but cry.
Vargas said he feared the worst. I thought in my eyes I had noticed how they killed the president,” he said.
Theresa Koshut, a Pittsburgh instructor sitting in the fifth row, said she immediately ducked when she heard what she thought were gunshots. Koshut is very familiar with the school’s active shooter drills. “I fell and rolled under the stands,” he said. I didn’t even think about it. “
On stage, agents protected Trump to stand between him and any threat. Someone shouted, “Lord, Lord, Lord!”
Secret Service snipers, stationed far from the president on a rooftop or elsewhere, appeared out of nowhere and rushed to the level with automatic rifles.
Trump, first of all, gave the impression of being surprised and confused. When officials tried to scare him away, he said, “Let me get my shoes. “
“They handed it over to me, sir,” said one of the officials. “They handed it over to me, sir. “
“Let me take my shoes,” he repeated.
“Keep that in your head,” an officer said. It’s bloody. “
“Sir, we want to get to the car, sir,” said another. “Go to the car, sir. “
After Trump woke up the crowd with his fist raised and walked off the level under his own power, his arm on an officer’s shoulder, some in the crowd temporarily grasped the political implications. “Trump just got elected today, folks,” one man shouted. “He is a martyr. “
The shooting occurred when Trump was ahead of Biden in most polls, both nationally and in key states like Pennsylvania. Biden is seeking to quell an internal revolt among many Democrats who want him to withdraw from his candidacy after his volatile and confusing debate performance. with Trump last month.
Just hours before the attack in Pennsylvania, Biden attacked Trump for his opposition to gun control. “I need to ban assault weapons and call for universal background checks,” the president wrote on social media. “Trump promised the NRA that he wouldn’t do anything about guns. And he means it.
The conference that begins Monday in Milwaukee will all but be electrified by Saturday’s shooting, both politically and securely. Officials already consider a nominating conference a major security challenge, and officials will most likely revise their plans for the Republican conclave. which runs through Thursday.
Donald Trump Jr. , the president’s eldest son, said he spoke with his father by phone after the attack and found him in “good spirits,” according to a statement. “He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter how radical he is. ” the left throws at him,” the younger Trump said.
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican House majority leader who was shot and killed in the 2017 baseball practice incident, was more specific in blaming the opposition for the attack. “For weeks, Democratic leaders have been fueling ridiculous hysteria that Donald Trump’s re-election would mean the end of democracy in the United States,” he said in a statement. “Obviously, we have noticed that far-left lunatics adopted violent rhetoric in the past. This inflammatory rhetoric will have to end.
Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, considered the favorite to be named Trump’s running mate in the coming days, echoed the charge. “Today is not just an isolated incident,” he wrote on social media. “The central guiding principle of Biden’s crusade is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. This rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump.
Chris LaCivita, a crusading adviser to the former president, temporarily cited the attack to defend Trump. “For years, and even today, left-wing activists, Democratic donors, and now even @JoeBiden have made disgusting comments and descriptions of the shooting of Donald Trump. It’s time they are held accountable. The most productive way is to go to the polls” . he wrote on social media. It’s unclear what Biden comments he cites.
Two conservative billionaires, Elon Musk and Bill Ackman, chose this moment for Trump. Musk attacked the Secret Service and warned that the former president’s agents deliberately exposed him to danger. “Extreme incompetence or was it deliberate,” he wrote on his social network. “In any case, the leadership of the SS will have to resign. “
Some far-right members of the House blamed Biden, citing his recent comment that it’s time to stop talking about the debate and “hit the nail on the head. “Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, said in a television interview that “Joe Biden is guilty of the shooting. “Mike Collins, R-Georgia, wrote on social media that “Joe Biden sent the orders. “
For their part, top Democrats did not mention partisan politics in their statements, limiting themselves to expressing outrage over the attack, relief that Trump survived and general fear about political violence in the United States.
In addition to Biden, among the Democrats who denounced the attack on Trump were some of his top critics, including Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, and Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Nancy Pelosi of California. Formation