After attempt on his life, Trump sees moment for unity
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[July 15, 2024]
By Tim Reid, Gram Slattery, Helen Coster
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) -Donald Trump was in Milwaukee on Monday to make
final preparations for the Republican presidential nomination later this
week after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt that he said
presented an opportunity to bring the country together.
Trump, 78, was holding a campaign rally on Saturday in Butler,
Pennsylvania - a key state in the Nov. 5 election - when a 20-year-old
man with an AR-15-style rifle got close enough to shoot at the former
Republican president from a rooftop.
One shot hit Trump's upper right ear, leaving his face streaked with
blood, but he was not severely wounded.
"That reality is just setting in," Trump told the Washington Examiner on
Sunday. "I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that
moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?"
One person in the crowd was killed and two others wounded before Secret
Service agents fatally shot the suspect.
On Sunday, both Trump and President Joe Biden counseled calm and unity
in a country whose a deep political divide has grown more pronounced
during the presidential race.
"There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any
violence ever. Period. No exceptions," he said. "We can't allow this
violence to be normalized."
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"The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's
time to cool it down," Biden said in a televised address from the Oval
Office.
World leaders condemned the attack, with British Prime Minister Keir
Starmer saying he was "appalled by the shocking scenes" and French
President Emanuel Macron calling the assassination attempt "a tragedy
for our democracies".
Trump pumped his fist in the air several times on Sunday appearing to
mouth the words "Fight! Fight! Fight!", as he descended the stairs from
his plane after arriving in Milwaukee, where he will accept his party's
formal nomination at the Republican National Convention on Thursday.
"This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world,
together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it
would've been two days ago," Trump told the Washington Examiner.
"I want to try to unite our country," the New York Post reported Trump
saying during the same interview, conducted during the flight to
Milwaukee. "But I don’t know if that’s possible. People are very
divided."
Biden, a Democrat, ordered an independent review of how the gunman, who
was shot dead by agents moments after opening fire, could have taken up
an elevated position so close to Trump, who as a former president has
lifetime protection by the U.S. Secret Service.
Biden and Trump spoke to each other on Saturday night after the
shooting.
The two are locked in a close election rematch, according to most
opinion polls including by Reuters/Ipsos. The shooting on Saturday
whipsawed discussion around the presidential campaign, which had been
focused on whether Biden, 81, should drop out following a halting June
27 debate performance.
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![](../images/071524PIX/news_h19.jpg)
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald
Trump gestures with a bloodied face while he is assisted by U.S.
Secret Service personnel after he was shot in the right ear during a
campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania,
U.S., July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
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SUSPECT A NURSING HOME AIDE
The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park,
Pennsylvania, as the suspect and said the shooting was being
investigated as an attempted assassination.
FBI officials said on Sunday that the shooter acted alone.
The agency said it had yet to identify an ideology linked to the
suspect or any indications of mental health issues or found any
threatening language on the suspect's social media accounts.
Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter
records, and donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee
when he was 17. At the time of the shooting, he was employed as a
dietary aide at the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center, which said Crooks' background check was clean.
The gun - an AR-style-5.56 caliber rifle - had been legally bought,
said FBI officials, who believed it had been purchased by the
suspect's father.
The officials said "a suspicious device" was found in the suspect's
vehicle, which was inspected by bomb technicians and rendered safe.
The Secret Service denied accusations by some Trump supporters that
it had rejected a campaign request for more security.
The shots on Saturday appeared to come from outside the area secured
by the Secret Service, the agency said.
SPECTATOR KILLED PROTECTING FAMILY
The rally attendee killed on Saturday was identified by authorities
as Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. He died trying to
protect his family from the hail of bullets, said Pennsylvania
Governor Josh Shapiro.
Two people wounded in the shooting were in a stable condition on
Sunday. Pennsylvania State identified them as David Dutch, 57, of
New Kensington, Pennsylvania and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon
Township, Pennsylvania.
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The attack was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party
presidential candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of
Republican President Ronald Reagan.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne, Gabriella Borter and Soren Larson in
Bethel Park, Pennsylvania; Additional reporting by Katharine
Jackson, Sarah N. Lynch, Richard Cowan, Caitlin Webber, Nandita
Bose, Ismail Shakil, Joseph Ax, Andrew Hay and Kanishka Singh;
Writing by Frank McGurty, Scott Malone and Michelle Nichols; Editing
by Lincoln Feast.)
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