Donald Trump returns to assassination attempt site
‘Exactly 12 weeks ago this evening, on this very ground, a cold-blooded assassin aimed to silence me,’ the Republican told thousands of cheering supporters after taking the stage behind bulletproof glass.
Donald Trump has made a defiant return to the site of the first attempt on his life, in Butler, Pennsylvania, to hold a campaign rally and vigil one month out from the presidential election, speaking alongside Elon Musk and his vice-presidential running mate JD Vance before one of his largest rally crowds ever.
Standing behind large bullet proof shields before thousands of supporters, the former president paid tribute to Corey Comperatore, a former volunteer firefighter, who was killed when the lone gunman tried to shoot Mr Trump, grazing his ear but killing Comperatore and seriously injuring two others.
At 6.11pm local time, the exact time on July 13 then 19-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired rounds of bullets from the roof of a near by shed, Mr Trump asked the crowd for a moment’s silence, after which an opera singer performed Ave Maria live.
“By the hand of providence and the grace of God, that villain did not succeed … He did not stop our movement,” Mr Trump said in remarks that lasted around 90 minutes, and included many of his familiar criticisms of Democrats related to immigration, crime, inflation and the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.
“Exactly 12 weeks ago this evening, on this very ground, a cold-blooded assassin aimed to silence me,” the Republican told thousands of cheering supporters.
Calling the gunman a “vicious monster,” Mr Trump vowed he would “never quit … never bend … never break”. Mr Trump’s much-hyped return to Butler, Pennsylvania, came exactly one month before the November 5 presidential election, the outcome of which President Joe Biden suggested on Friday might not be peaceful.
Trump lashed out at his political opponents, calling them the “enemy within” who had pushed to indict him and “who knows, maybe even tried to kill me.” Security was noticeably tighter than Trump’s July rally, with sniper squads positioned on several surrounding buildings, and a surveillance drone deployed overhead.
“This field is now a monument to the valour of our first responders, to the resilience of our fellow citizens,” Mr Trump said, thanking the Secret Service, who killed Crooks soon after he opened fire, for saving his life on a day that upended US politics paving the way for Mr Biden to abandon his campaign for president.
“We have an evil world, very sick world, I have gratitude beyond measure, a tremendous debt, to the Secret Service,” he said, pointing out they had saved his life a second time last month on his golf course in West Palm Beach when a second would be assassin was caught waiting for the former president as he played.
Mr Trump began his remarks alongside the giant chart of immigration flows into the US over time, which he credits with saving his life in July, when he turned his head just in time to point to it, narrowing missing Crooks’ bullets.
Thousands queued for hours to attend the rally, which local NBC journalist Jake Traylor, said it might be the “largest he had ever seen”.
ðŸ“BUTLER, PA — Not sure total crowd size but it might be largest I’ve ever seen. Most folks I spoke with in the crowd said Trump is here to finish what he started. pic.twitter.com/OEr3dIpAOF
— Jake Traylor (@jake__traylor) October 5, 2024
Mr Trump’s return to Butler, a deeply conservative community in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, was also marked by noticeably tighter security.
Secret Service sniper squads were stationed on several buildings around the Butler Farm Show grounds, while drones could be seen buzzing overhead and bulletproof glass was erected around the podium.
The complex of buildings from where the would-be assassin fired, that in July was left outside the security perimeter despite its proximity to Mr Trump’s podium, was ringed by state police on Saturday.
After remarks by his son Eric and daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who has become co-chair of the Republican National Committee, the 78-year-old former president introduced Tesla founder and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who has become a vocal champion of the Republican leader.
A noticeably animated Mr Musk, sporting an Occupy Mars T-shirt and a “dark MAGA cap”, yelled “fight, fight, fight” and jumped around on the stage, before repeatedly urging the crowd and viewers at home to register to vote, casting the November 5 poll as the most important in the country’s history.
“This is no ordinary election, the other side wants to take away your freedom of speech, your right to bear arms, they want to take away your right to vote effectively; 14 states don’t require voter ID,” he said.
“The true test of someone’s character is how they behave under fire, we had one president who couldn’t climb a flights of stairs and another who is fist pumping after getting shot.”
Republican senator JD Vance, fresh from his widely-acclaimed debate performance against Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz, also spoke, mocking Ms Harris’s reluctance to give interviews in contrast to “someone who faces down two assassins and returns triumphantly to the very place he got shot”.
In the aftermath of the first assassination attempt polls predicted a landslide win for Mr Trump in November, amid anticipated outpouring of public sympathy for a former president who was facing off against the aging Mr Biden.
The former president dwelt on a new Rasmussen poll that put him ahead of Ms Harris 62 per cent to 34 per cent, but Ms Harris’s ascendancy to the top of the ticket has produced a knife-edge race 30 days from polling day; most national polls give the Vice-President a slight edge.
“If we win Pennsylvania, we will win the whole thing,” Mr Trump told his supporters, highlighting the critical importance of the populous swing state on which the election out come could turn.
‘They incite’
“There’s a lot going on that’s unnerving,” said Heather Hughes, 43, who had travelled from New Castle in Pennsylvania.
“Do I think he’s safe? No, I think there’s going to be another attempt. But I think he’s going to make it through.”
The gunman in July was quickly shot dead by a counter-sniper, but not before he had killed rally-goer Corey Comperatore, a firefighter, and wounded two others.
An artist created a memorial artwork of Mr Comperatore, complete with his firefighter’s helmet, while a singer performed a song about the shooting.
“They took that shot thank God they missed / It’s time to put a stop to this,” went the lyrics.
The July attempt, and a September incident at Mr Trump’s golf course in Florida that the FBI said was another attempted assassination, raised fears the campaign and the November vote could be marred by violence.
Mr Biden, who was replaced by Ms Harris as the Democratic nominee shortly after the July shooting, warned Friday that while he was “confident (voting) will be free and fair, I don’t know whether it will be peaceful”. “The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,” Mr Biden said, referring to Mr Trump’s refusal to accept his loss in 2020.
“The Republicans aren’t violent,” said retiree Glen Scheirer, who attended Saturday with five relatives wearing identical “By the grace of God” T-shirts showing Trump after the shooting.
“(But) I think they (the Democrats) incite. They keep talking about Hitler and the end of democracy.” Scheirer described the 20-year-old shooter who tried to claim Mr Trump’s life as “mentally ill,” but suggested he could have been influenced by rhetoric calling Mr Trump a threat to democracy.
‘Defined by tragedy’
The crowd shouted firefighter Comperatore’s name when the mayor of nearby Slippery Rock, Jondavid Longo, paid tribute to the victims of July 13.
“We’re glad to welcome president Trump back to Butler,” he said. “His return is not just political — it signifies our refusal to be defined by tragedy.”
Doctor James Sweetland who ran to Mr Comperatore in the wake of the shooting told the crowd he “heard a voice saying ‘Go, go help him’.” “I’m telling you now it was the voice of God — an assassin’s bullet should not decide our election.”
Sally Sherry, a first responder at Butler memorial hospital who treated Mr Trump, told the Butler crowd how he sought to reassure his children and grandchildren in the wake of the shooting.
He was not the hard character “like you see on TV,” she said.
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