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Former President Donald Trump was injured in what appeared to be an assassination attempt as he spoke during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, two law enforcement officials said. Trump, his ear covered in blood from what he said was a gunshot, was quickly pulled away by Secret Service agents and his campaign said he was “fine.”
A local prosecutor said the suspected gunman and at least one attendee are dead. The Secret Service said two spectators were critically injured.
Posting on his Truth Social media site about two and a half hours after the shooting, Trump said a bullet “pierced the upper part of my right ear.”
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he said in the post. “Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”
The attack, by a shooter who law enforcement officials say was then killed by the Secret Service, was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It comes amid a deeply polarized political atmosphere, just four months from the presidential elections and days before Trump is to be officially named the Republican nominee at his party’s convention.
Trump’s aides said late Saturday that the convention would proceed and Trump “looks forward to joining you all in Milwaukee.”
“President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act,” spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility. More details will follow.”
The Secret Service said the suspected shooter fired from “an elevated position outside of the rally venue.” Trump is “safe and being evaluated,” the agency said.
“There’s no place in America for this type of violence,” President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump as the presumptive Democratic nominee, said in remarks. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”
Two officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. They said the shooter was not an attendee at the rally and was killed by U.S. Secret Service agents.
The officials said the shooter was engaged by members of the U.S. Secret Service counterassault team. The heavily armed tactical team travels everywhere with the president and major party nominees and is meant to confront any active threats while other agents focus on safeguarding and evacuating the person at the center of protection.
Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to a third person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said officials were engaged with the Biden and Trump campaigns and “taking every possible measure to ensure their safety and security.”
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers during his last rally before the Republican National Convention opens Monday when the apparent shots began just after 6:10 p.m.
It took two minutes from the moment of the first shot for Trump to be placed in a waiting SUV.
As Trump was talking, a popping sound was heard, and the former president put his right hand up to his right ear, as people in the stands behind him appeared to be shocked.
As the first pop rang out, Trump said, “Oh,” and grabbed his ear as two more pops could be heard and he crouched down. More shots are heard then.
Someone could be heard saying near the microphone at Trump’s lectern, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as agents tackled the former president. They piled atop him to shield him with their bodies, as is their training protocol, as other agents took up positions on stage to search for the threat.
Screams were heard in the crowd of several thousand people. A woman is heard screaming louder than the rest. Afterward, voices were heard saying “shooter’s down” several times, before someone asks “are we good to move?” and “are we clear?” Then, someone ordered, “Let’s move.”
Trump could be heard on the video saying at least twice, “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes,” with another voice heard saying, “I’ve got you sir.”
Trump got to his feet moments later and could be seen reaching with his right hand toward his face. There appeared to be blood on his face. He then pumped his fist in the air and appeared to mouth the word “Fight” twice his crowd of supporters, prompting loud cheers and then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”
The crowd cheered as he got back up and pumped his fist.
His motorcade left the venue moments later. Video showed Trump turning back to the crowd and raising a fist right before he was put into a vehicle.
Reporters covering the rally heard five or six shots ring out and many ducked for cover, hiding under tables.
“Everybody went to their knees or their prone position, because we all knew, everyone becoming aware of the fact this was gunfire,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, who was sitting to Trump’s right on stage.
As he saw Trump raise his fist, McCormick said, he looked over his shoulder and noticed someone had been hit while sitting in the bleachers behind the stage.
Eventually, first responders were able to carry the injured person out of a large crowd so he could get medical care, McCormick said.
After the first two or three bangs, people in the crowd looked startled, but not panicked. An AP reporter at the scene reported the noise sounded like firecrackers at first or perhaps a car backfiring.
But then there were more shots. Panic set in as people realized what was happening. Shouts of “Get down!” rang through the crowd.
When it was clear the situation had been contained and that Trump would not be returning to speak, attendees started filing out of the venue. One man in an electric wheelchair got stuck on the field when his chair’s battery died. Others tried to help him move.
Police soon told the people remaining to leave the venue and U.S. Secret Service agents told reporters to get “out now. This is a live crime scene.”
Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the rally told the AP that they helped people who appeared injured and heard bullets hitting broadcast speakers.
“The bullets rattled around the grandstand, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos broke. We hit the ground and then the police converged into the grandstands, said Chris Takach.
“The first thing I heard is a couple of cracks,” Dave Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he saw one of the speakers get hit and bullets rattling and, “we hit the deck.”
He said once Secret Service and other authorities converged on Trump, he and Takach assisted two people who may have been shot in the grandstand and cleared a path to get them out of the way.
“Just a sad day for America,” Sullivan said.
“After we heard the shots got fired, then the hydraulic line was spraying all around, you could see the hydraulic fluid coming out of it. And then the speaker tower started to fall down,” Sullivan said. “Then we heard another shot that, you could hear, you knew something was, it was bullets. It wasn’t firecrackers.”
“They weren’t super loud shots,” he said.
“You could hear it landing, ammunition landing, on metal,” Takach added.
Then they took cover behind a farm tractor.
Sullivan said they were concerned for Trump and saw him stand up.
“He got up and he gave a motion he was OK,” Sullivan said, raising a fist as Trump had.
The perils of campaigning took on a new urgency after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968, and again in 1972 when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously hurt George Wallace, who was running as an independent on a campaign platform that has sometimes been compared to Trump’s. That led to increased protection of candidates, even as the threats persisted, notably against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Presidents, particularly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, have even greater layers of security. Trump is a rarity as both a former president and a current candidate.
Biden was briefed on the incident, the White House said. He received an updated briefing from Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the United States Secretary Service, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.
He told reporters after 8 p.m. that he hadn’t been able to reach Trump yet but was briefed that the former president was “doing well.”
“I hope I get to speak to him tonight,” he said.
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., posted a photo on X of Trump, his fist raised and his face bloody in front of an American flag, with the words: “He’ll never stop fighting to Save America.”
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the three men on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, all quickly sent out statements expressing concern for the former president, with Rubio sharing an image taken as Trump was escorted off stage with his fist in the air and a streak of blood on his face along with the words “God protected President Trump.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a statement on X that he had been briefed on the situation and Pennsylvania state police were on hand at the rally site.
“Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable. It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States,” he said.
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What the actual heck is wrong with our country?! If you don’t like a candidate, don’t vote for them! This so disturbing. .
Biden voters have nothing else to turn to except violence. Their candidate is a mental cripple, they have overseen the largest invasion of foreign nationals in history, and they have had the worst inflationary economy since the 1980s.
DH – you’re what’s wrong with America.
Embarrassing
JJ, the violence being stoked by the Democrat party (including Biden and Schumer) is horrific.
DH obviously is obviously addicted to the Fox News Channel and/or Newmax, both sanitizers of Trump facts. Thus, he is unaware of the ex-president”s calls for and support of violence against his political foes.
DH – it was announced that the shooter was a registered Republican. The call is coming from inside the house dude
Shane, he donated to the Democrats and obviously he was targeting the leader of the Republican party. Nice try on a deflection!
More amazing even this publication mis represents the story. An “apparent” assignation attempt? Even after non reporting on Joe’s mental state, they still get it wrong.
DH – he donated to a political organization at 15 years old – well before he registered at a Republican. I’m not pretending to know the motivation of this catastrophe and you shouldn’t either.
In other news, the price of Bitcoin is shooting up at the same time. No pun intended.
DH is correct! The rhetoric against Trump from the Biden campaign, the DNC, and much of the Leftist media has been hyperbolic to an unprecedented extent in modern times. They claim he is an “existential threat to Democracy” and some say he’s another Hitler! If one truly believes these gaslighting lies from the Democrats, then this is what can be expected to happen!
Donald Trump’s rhetoric is hateful, and he’s an obvious threat to democracy. He brags about it. Doesn’t mean he deserves to be shot. Glad he’s okay. Your claims about gaslighting are ridiculous.
Wesley, the Democrats are the greatest threat to democracy by literally inciting violence against their political opponents. By suppressing news that hurt their candidate (Hunter laptop). By fabricating fake Russian hoaxes. By lawfare persecutions. By silencing their opponents through gag orders. By hiding the truth that their candidate is a mental cripple for years.
DH, you need a hobby.
Lol DH bought into every grift the Republicans have been selling for the past 10 years. Do you believe in Pizzagate, too?
Why hasn’t the IBJ updated the title of this article to ‘attempted assassination’ yet? This oversight is yet another glaring example of the one-sided, distasteful, and biased reporting that this media company produces on a daily basis. It is frustrating to see how often critical details and accurate terminologies are overlooked or intentionally omitted in favor of narratives that align with their ideological leanings. It’s high time for the IBJ to hold itself to higher standards of journalistic integrity and provide the unbiased information that its readers expect and deserve. Call a spade a spade.
+1
+1
IBJ is not an information source. They are a PR agency for the Democrat party pushing their agenda and hoping for some clicks they can sell to advertisers.
G.G., this an Associated Press article (not produced by IBJ) that was updated at least eight times Saturday night as news unfolded. Those updates included multiple headline versions. Almost all of those updates referred to an assassination attempt in either the main headline or the subhead.
Wesley H: How is Trump’s rhetoric hateful? Only in a world in which the woke consider any criticism or claim they disagree with to be “hate speech.” And how is Trump a threat to democracy? Because he questioned the outcome of an election in which his opponent’s organization abused drop boxes and mail-in voting, in widespread use only due the pandemic, to illegally ballot-harvest every major city in every swing state? Trump conceded to Biden immediately after the debacle at the Capitol in Jan 6. Clearly, that was a protest gone awry and not a serious attempt to subvert democracy. Meanwhile, HRC continues to ignore the Muller investigation and publicly claim Russia helped Trump steal the 2016 election! Yet now Biden refers to Trump almost daily as an “existential threat to democracy,” while his allies in the Progressive-Left media label Trump a racist, fascist, and regularly compare him to Hitler. Clearly this language sends a message to the impressionable that Trump must be stopped, by any means.
Quit watching the Fox News Channel and Newsmax. The truth will set you free.
I watch neither, but I assuming you think the truth would be found on MSNBC or CNN. That’s why I stopped watching all cable tv channels. Let’s be honest, they all have their own view to drum into you over and over including the left ones. They are definitely a major reason for the divisiveness that exits today.
Lol am I supposed to spend my Sunday reading this novel?
WOW. The regular liberal trolls have gone completely squad. I think you will have plenty to complain about in the next 4 years.
He’s going to be the second president to serve non consecutive terms.
Why did the article fail to report this crucial detail:
““It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye,” Biden said in a July 8 call with donors to this campaign. The quote was sent around by the Biden campaign to journalists after the call, a sign that the Biden team viewed the comment as part of their message rather than a gaffe.”
Of course it was the message, it’s the same message the Democrats have used since 2016.
Greg, Joe Biden openly called for Trump to be in the “bullseye”, this after openly calling him a tyrant and a fascist for 8 years.
THAT is what is wrong in this country.
What happened was wrong but the fact that you think the word “bullseye” draws ire from you (obviously meaning political bullseye for the campaign but sure, you’ll twist that easily), but things like “some folks just need killing” (Republican), “Don’t be weak and gay,” (Republican), conservatives killing people in Charlottesville, conservatives killing people at the Capitol, and openly bragging about sexual assault keeps you silent. The way you all cry and while with your victim complex is just sad.
dims are pathetic. There’s just no other word. This generation of dims has trashed what their parents and grandparents afforded them.
Just pathetic.
Lol says the person who supports the party of “sexual assault is cool and good.”
In all seriousness, most of the commenters here — on either “side” — are the problem. You all cling to your parties as if they mean something when, in fact, the goals of each have changed dramatically. The GOP stands almost in opposition to what the GOP was in 1980 and, certainly, what it was before that. The Democratic Party has also strayed from its goals of the 70s and 80s.
One side dismisses the attack and vandalizing of the Capitol Building as nothing to be concerned about and, somehow, disconnected from democracy while talking about voter fraud without any proof that judges from their own party have dismissed.
The other side invokes the same rhetoric in the other direction. While spot on in its depiction of the other side’s leader’s observable character, it paints all of his followers as stupid and near-followers of Hitler. Not exactly the way to persuade people to your side.
For the 40% in the non-partisan center, center-left, and center-right, we are amazed that shame is not felt. If you can’t have some empathy or attempt some sort of understanding with people in another group, then you not only get what you deserve, but you bring down the rest of us as well.
The most logic comment on this post.
The reality is that there is only one party that has been openly calling for violence against LGBTQ+ communities, non-white communities, and openly bragging about sexually assaulting women. The rhetoric is not the same.
The assassination attempt is wrong, it’s disgusting, and political violence is never appropriate, but let’s not sit here and pretend that the rhetoric is equally distasteful on both sides. It isn’t.
A ‘ shooting’ ? This publication is slowly going down the the mass media toilet. Sad. The bold headline is ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT. Small print, Biden and the Democrats have been stirring the division and hatred for years.
Interesting. But broadly applying the phase, “Groomers,” to a whole subset of the population, demonizing non-white people, Republican governor candidates openly stating, “some folks need killing,” and calling for the execution of cabinet members is totally cool, right? That’s not violent rhetoric, that’s just conservatives “expressing their opinions” that they will then cry about getting “cancelled” for. What a crock. This act of violence was wrong, but you all aren’t victims.