Republican presidential candidate and former President Trump was injured in an attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night. At approximately 6:15 p.m. local time, while the former president was speaking, “a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the Secret Service said in a press statement. Trump grabbed his right ear and dropped to the ground before being whisked away by Secret Service agents. The shooter was killed by Secret Service personnel. One spectator was killed and two others critically injured, Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi said.
The former president was taken to a local health care facility, from where he messaged on the TruthSocial social media platform:
An eyewitness speaking to BBC World News said he saw, from outside the event, “a guy bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us.” The witness said “you could clearly see him with a rifle.” The man claimed he attempted to alert police and Secret Service without succeeding to get their attention.
President Biden briefly spoke to the media saying “there’s no place in American for this kind of violence. It’s sick. Sick.”
Other U.S. politicians across the political spectrum expressed similar sentiments. Former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama posted on X being grateful that Trump was not badly hurt and denouncing political violence. Obama called for America to “recommit ourselves to civility and respect” and Clinton said, “Violence has no place in America, especially in our political process.”
Republican Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley said ““This should horrify every freedom loving American. …Violence against presidential candidates must never be normalized.” Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “As someone whose family has been the victim of political violence, I know firsthand that political violence of any kind has no place in our society.”
Reactions to the assassination attempt were streaming in from across the globe during Saturday night. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said his thoughts and prayers were with Trump “in these dark hours.” Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said he was “sickened” by the shooting and echoed the general sentiment from American politicians that “political violence is never acceptable.” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage pointed a finger at the mainstream media’s massive attempts at demonizing Trump:
This is a developing story.
