Donald Trump survives assassination attempt in an up-ending of a charged US election
An assassination attempt on Donald Trump has up-ended the US presidential election and sent shockwaves amid fears that it will further divide the country and lead to more violence in the campaign.
An assassination attempt on Donald Trump has up-ended the US presidential election and sent shockwaves through the US amid fears that it will further divide the country and lead to more violence in the campaign.
The alleged assassin, named by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was shot dead by Secret Service agents almost immediately after he began firing on the former president from the top of a shed about 40m from where Mr Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in the town of Butler.
The would-be assassin was reported to be a registered Republican voter and his father, Matthew Crooks, said the family was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on”.
As witnesses claimed police were told several times that there was a suspicious man on the roof, Republicans were demanding an extensive probe into the Secret Service’s near- catastrophic failure to protect the Republican presidential nominee.
The attack came days before Mr Trump is due to be confirmed as the Republican Party’s nominee at its convention in Milwaukee, and just before he is expected to name his vice-presidential running mate.
In a stunning turn of events, Mr Trump, 78, dived for cover after a series of shots rang out at the rally before standing up with a bloody ear and raising his fist in defiance as Secret Service agents rushed to his aid, eliciting an image that will define his campaign.
The first assassination attempt on a current or former president since a gunman shot Ronald Reagan in 1981 left one spectator and the shooter dead, and two others critically injured.
“This evening we had what we’re calling an assassination attempt against our former President Donald Trump,” FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said.
After being treated at a nearby hospital, the former president returned to one of his homes in New Jersey about midnight, after releasing a statement thanking the Secret Service and extending his condolences to “to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured”.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” he said.
“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”
The attempted murder will further undermine President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, which was already beset by weeks of accusations he is too old and unfit to run. In response, the Democrats said they would pull all campaign advertising that revolved around Mr Trump’s alleged threat to US democracy.
The Biden re-election campaign said it would pull “all outbounds communications” and was working “to pull down our television ads as quickly as possible”.
In their first interaction since last month’s debate, the President phoned Mr Trump and returned to the White House after delivering a short set of remarks from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he had been spending the weekend.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Mr Biden said, adding he was “grateful to hear” that Mr Trump was “safe and doing well”.
Republicans unleashed a barrage of attacks on Democrats, including the President, for allegedly fuelling the assassination attempt by repeatedly casting Mr Trump as a dangerous threat that needed to be stopped at any cost.
Republican congressman Steve Scalise, who was severely injured by a gunman in 2017, slammed Democrats for “fuelling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America”.
“Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” he said.
Former attorney-general Bill Barr slammed Democrat rhetoric for leading to the assassination attempt. “The Democrats have to stop their grossly irresponsible talk about Trump being an existential threat to democracy, HE’S NOT.”
Mr Trump had been speaking for about 10 minutes before he was shot about 6.10pm (8.10am Sunday AEST) at a rally held 30 minutes’ drive north of Pittsburgh, and was showing the crowd charts of the surge in unauthorised immigration into the US when about four or five shots rang out.
Republicans, Democrats and world leaders were quick to condemn the violence.
“I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former president Trump is safe,” said Democrat senator and majority leader Chuck Schumer.
The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee will go ahead as planned from Monday, where Mr Trump is expected to announce his running mate, expected to be a choice among between Ohio senator J.D Vance, senator Marco Rubio from Florida, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
“President Trump looks forward to joining you all in Milwaukee as we proceed with our convention to nominate him to serve as the 47th President of the United States,” a Trump official said.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, whom the White House has repeatedly denied Secret Service protection, urged the country to “step back from the division, renounce all violence, and unite in prayer for President Trump and his family”.
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