Former US President Donald Trump was shot in the ear in an apparent assassination attempt during a campaign rally on Saturday, upending an already tense presidential campaign.
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One spectator was killed and two others were seriously injured, the Secret Service, which protects presidents and former presidents, said.
The FBI identified the gunman killed in the shooting as “Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania,” according to a statement cited by NBC and CBS television stations.
“I was shot through the top of my right ear,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “It is unbelievable that such an act could happen in our country,” he added.
Donald Trump “is safe,” the Secret Service said.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who faces Donald Trump in November’s election, said he was relieved that the Republican was apparently in good health and spoke to him Saturday night. “Everyone must condemn” such violence, he said in a televised address. President Biden, who was in Delaware, is heading back to Washington.
The rally in Butler, Pennsylvania (northeast), was the last before the Republican convention that begins Monday, and at the end of which Donald Trump must be officially invested as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. His campaign team confirmed Saturday evening the former president’s intention to go there.
Getty Images via AFP
“Let me take my shoes”
The Republican candidate, who had just begun his speech with one of his usual tirades on migrants, accusing Joe Biden of having allowed them to enter the country en masse, was immediately tackled to the ground by Secret Service agents.
Shouts of terror rang out from the audience. After a few moments, Donald Trump stood up, his hair disheveled and without his red cap, surrounded by the agents. “Let me get my shoes,” he was heard telling them.
Getty Images via AFP
He was then escorted from the stage to his car, raising his fist in the air several times in defiance, to cheers from his supporters.
“We saw a lot of people throwing themselves on the ground, looking confused. I heard the gunshots,” a sympathiser, John Yeykal, told AFP at the scene.
Getty Images via AFP
Erin Autenreith, 66, who was “sitting in the middle of the front row” facing Donald Trump, told AFP that she initially thought it was firecrackers. “But when they all jumped on the stage, surrounded him and knocked him down, that’s when we realized it was really gunfire,” she explained.
The suspected shooter was outside the rally, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told CNN.
“Political violence”
“There is no place for political violence in our democracy,” said former Democratic President Barack Obama.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was “horrified.”
“This horrific act of political violence at a peaceful campaign rally has no place in this country,” added Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Senator JD Vance, one of Donald Trump’s putative running mates, blamed the Democrats’ warnings against the risk of authoritarianism in the event of a victory by the Republican candidate.
AFP
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. This rhetoric directly led to the attempted assassination of President Trump,” he said.
Elon Musk responded to the attack by expressing his support for Donald Trump and wishing him a “speedy recovery.”
The consequences of this event on the campaign are still incalculable.
In recent days, attention has focused on doubts about the physical and mental state of Joe Biden, 81, and his ability to face Donald Trump, 78, since their June 27 debate, marked by the Democratic candidate’s dismal performance. Some 20 lawmakers are now calling on him to step down.
The interested party himself repeated on Friday in Michigan (north) that he was remaining in the race.
AFP
He also received a strong endorsement on Saturday from the figure of the American left, Bernie Sanders, who, in a column in the New York Times, called on Democrats “to stop the bickering and nitpicking.”