Trump is campaigning in Pennsylvania. Suddenly shots are fired – and the ex-president has blood on his ear. Events are unfolding rapidly.
Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump was injured in a gun attack during a campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania. The suspected shooter was killed, the Secret Service said. One spectator was killed, two others were injured and in critical condition.
Trump himself spoke out after the attack and said that a shot had injured his ear. The attack is being investigated by law enforcement authorities as an “attempted assassination,” several US media outlets reported.
The Secret Service said the suspected shooter opened fire from an “elevated position” outside the venue. An eyewitness told a TV station that viewers had seen an armed man lying on the roof of a house shortly before. According to US media, investigators found an assault rifle.
Video footage of the event in the town of Butler captured loud bangs. Trump then grabbed his ear and ducked to the ground. Security personnel ran onto the stage and shielded him. He then left the stage standing upright and supported by Secret Service agents, raising his fist in the air. It looked as if Trump had blood on his ear. The Republican had only just begun his speech in Butler when the incident occurred.
Panic in the audience
After the incident, panic broke out in the audience. People screamed. The Trump supporters were evacuated after the incident. The area around the stage was cordoned off with yellow tape and secured by heavily armed police.
Trump was first given a medical examination. “I was hit by a bullet that went through the top of my right ear,” the Republican wrote on the Truth Social platform he co-founded. “I knew immediately that something was wrong because I heard a hissing sound, gunshots and immediately felt the bullet go through the skin.” Trump continued: “It was bleeding profusely and that’s when I realized what was going on.”
Attack in the middle of the election campaign
Trump is running for the Republicans in the presidential election in November and wants to challenge the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, who is running for a second term. The Republican convention begins in Milwaukee on Monday, where Trump is to be officially chosen as his party’s candidate for the election. The party wants to hold the nominating convention as planned despite the attack. The party and Trump’s campaign team announced this in a joint statement.
Biden strongly condemned the attack on Trump. “I am grateful to hear that he is safe and doing well,” he said in a written statement. “I am praying for him and his family and for everyone who was at the rally as we await further information.” This type of violence has no place in America.
That evening, Biden appeared in front of the cameras in Rehoboth Beach in the state of Delaware, where the Democrat was staying over the weekend, and said: “This is sick, this is sick.” The president later spoke to his challenger on the phone. Nothing was initially disclosed about the content of the conversation. The White House announced that Biden wanted to return to Washington that evening, contrary to his plan.
Politicians condemn violence
US Vice President Kamala Harris warned of an escalation of violence after the attack. “We must all condemn this heinous act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to further violence,” the Democrat said on X.
Several high-ranking representatives of both parties condemned the attack, including former President Barack Obama and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, wrote on the X platform that he was praying for Trump. The Democratic minority leader of the House, Hakeem Jeffries, made a similar statement on X. “America is a democracy,” he wrote there. “Political violence in any form is never acceptable.”
The Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, also told X that he was shocked by the incident and relieved that Trump was OK. “Political violence has no place in our country.”
The political mood in the USA has been heated for years. At the beginning of the year, the US Department of Justice complained of a “deeply disturbing increase in threats” against public officials and democratic institutions in the country. The presidential election on November 5th is the first since the dramatic upheavals surrounding the 2020 election, which ended in an unprecedented outbreak of violence. At the time, Trump did not accept his election defeat to Biden and incited his supporters for months with claims of election fraud. Trump supporters finally violently stormed the US Capitol, the American parliament and the heart of US democracy, on January 6th, 2021. Several people were killed in the unprecedented attack.
Violence against high-ranking politicians has occurred time and again in the USA, including against presidents. In 1865, US President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the box of a theater in the US capital Washington while watching a comedy. James Garfield was killed in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901. US President John F. Kennedy was shot in an assassination attempt on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. When President Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington in 1981, a bodyguard threw himself over him to protect him.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
