(Butler) Donald Trump returned to Butler on Saturday, where he had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on July 13, assuring, in a provocative tone, that he would “never” give up even if the shooter sought to “silence” him.
“12 weeks ago, right here, an assassin tried to silence me and our movement. This vicious monster […] was close to achieving it, but the hand of Providence prevented him,” declared Mr. Trump, in front of a supportive crowd.
But the ex-president assures him, “I will never give up, never bend, never break.”
PHOTO BRIAN SNYDER, REUTERS
Donald Trump at Saturday’s partisan rally
The Republican candidate and former president of the United States addressed several thousand people gathered in the town of Butler, in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, one month to the day before the presidential election on November 5 in which he will face Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the process, the Republican candidate marked a minute of silence, at the precise time when the shots rang out on July 13, with a strong tribute to the only victim, Corey Comperatore, before resuming his speech at the place exactly where it was then interrupted.
He also denounced those he called “the enemies from within, much more dangerous than those from without.”
PHOTO JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ, REUTERS
A sniper surveys the crowd at the Donald Trump supporter rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“For the past eight years, those who want to stop us have slandered me, tried to impeach me, sued me, tried to take away my ballots and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill me. But I have never stopped fighting for you and I will never stop,” the former president assured his supporters.
The gathering took place under very high security, with snipers installed on the roofs of several surrounding buildings and a drone flying over the crowd, an AFP journalist noted.
“Trump must win”
There were many more people who came to listen to Mr. Trump than at the previous rally in Butler, several wearing a sweater bearing the image of the former president just after the assassination attempt, others with the ear covered, reminiscent of the bandage he had worn the following days.
Before entering the stage, Donald Trump was preceded by his running mate JD Vance, under the eyes of the richest man in the world Elon Musk, relatives of victims of the shootings and the police who protected him.
PHOTO EVAN VUCCI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Elon Musk alongside Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance at partisan rally
Invited to come and speak by Mr. Trump, the billionaire presented the American election as “a fight that must not be lost”, fearing that it would, otherwise, be “the last election, that’s my prediction.”
“President Trump must win, to preserve the Constitution and democracy,” insisted Elon Musk.
The assassination attempt was seen as a pivotal moment in the electoral campaign, as Donald Trump was trailing in opinion polls against Joe Biden after his disastrous televised debate and two days later he went to “political martyr” at the Republican convention.
Those close to the candidate have since accused the Democrats of inciting violence with their speech presenting Mr. Trump as an existential risk for democracy.
On July 13, in the middle of a rally, a young man shot the former president, injuring him in the ear, killing a sympathizer present in the stands and injuring two others.
PHOTO JABIN BOTSFORD, THE WASHINGTON POST
Secret Service agents rushed at Donald Trump during the assassination attempt on July 13.
“Fight, fight, fight”
For his team, Donald Trump “took a bullet for democracy”.
The populist tribune immediately grasped the scope of this shock: his ear bleeding, grazed by a bullet, protected and evacuated by agents of the Secret Service, the septuagenarian remained standing with his fist raised in defiance in front of the cameras, urging his supporters to “fight, fight, fight”.
The scene, immortalized under a large American flag, went around the world.
The Secret Service had shot young gunman Thomas Crooks, 20, perched on the roof of a building a few hundred meters away. The head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, was forced to resign.
This assassination attempt, followed by a second in September on the former president’s golf course in Florida, caused shock in the country and abroad. The United States is marked by a violent political history: the last president killed was John Kennedy in 1963.
At the same time, Kamala Harris was in North Carolina, another key state in these elections, hit by a powerful hurricane which left at least 220 dead in the southeast of the United States, where she met teams of rescuers and victims.