In a post on the website Truth Social, Donald Trump said he was hit by a bullet “that pierced the top of my right ear” when the gunman opened fire, The Guardian reported. “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the top of my right ear. I immediately realized something was wrong, I heard a whistling sound, gunshots, and immediately felt the bullet tear the skin. There was profuse bleeding, and then I realized what was happening,” Trump explained.
He also thanked the US Secret Service and all law enforcement agencies for their swift response to the shooting. “Most importantly, I want to express my deepest condolences to the family of the person who was killed at the demonstration, as well as the family of another person who was seriously injured. It is unbelievable that such an act could occur in our Country,” Trump wrote.
Sources told The New York Post that the suspected shooter behind the attempted assassination of Trump was shot and killed by the Secret Service. The sources said the shooter was in a sniper position hundreds of feet from the podium where Trump spoke to a crowd of his supporters. The Secret Service confirmed that its agents killed the man who opened fire on the politician and that in addition to one rally participant killed, two were “seriously injured.”
Halfway through his speech, gunshots rang out and Trump put his hand to his right ear before Secret Service agents wrestled him to the ground. Seconds later, Trump stood up and ordered his security to “stand by” before raising his fist and shouting “fight” at the shocked crowd. “He almost got shot in the face,” a senior law enforcement source told the paper. One witness told BBC News (the resource is blocked in the Russian Federation) that he informed the Secret Service about a gunman who was “crawling on the roof” of a nearby building. “Next thing you know, there are five shots,” he said.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s Republican allies began sharing a photo of him shaking his fist in the air after the incident at his rally. Some Republicans have accused Joe Biden of inciting the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally, citing the rhetoric he used against the former president during the campaign. Ohio Senator JD Vance, considered a potential Trump running mate, wrote that what happened in Butler was “more than just an incident.” “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. This rhetoric directly led to the attempted assassination of President Trump,” Vance said.
The shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Butler is being investigated as an attempted assassination of the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.
Meanwhile
The attack, carried out by a gunman who law enforcement officials said was later killed by the Secret Service, was the first attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was wounded in 1981.
The dangers of campaigning took on new urgency after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968, and again in 1972, when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously wounded George Wallace because he was running as an independent on a campaign platform that was sometimes compared to Trump’s platform. This led to increased protection of candidates even as threats persisted, notably against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008. Presidents, especially since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, have even higher levels of security.
Meanwhile, Trump’s security sources said they had been asking the Secret Service for weeks to beef up security for the candidate, but the Biden administration reportedly refused.
