Former President Donald Trump was rushed offstage with blood on his ear and face after a shooting during his Saturday evening rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump fell to the ground after the first pop of shots rang out. Secret Service agents rushed the stage to surround Trump as screams were heard from onlookers. After several moments, Trump was brought to his feet by the agents, and he appeared to be calling out to the crowd and could be seen pumping his fist as he was whisked away into a vehicle offstage.
The Secret Service said in a statement that Trump is “safe.”
Trump posted on Truth Social later Saturday evening, thanking the Secret Service and law enforcement for their response to the shooting.
“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. 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 realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” Trump wrote.
The shooting is being investigated as a possible assassination attempt, according to law enforcement officials.
The shooter was killed by the Secret Service, the agency said in a statement. A rally attendee was also killed, and two others were critically injured.
“During Former President Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the evening of July 13 at approximately 6:15 p.m., a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue. U.S. Secret Service personnel neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased. U.S. Secret Service quickly responded with protective measures and Former President Trump is safe,” Secret Service chief spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Three law enforcement sources said that the shooter was outside the venue at the Trump rally. Two of those sources said that the shooter was on a roof outside of the venue. Multiple law enforcement sources have referred to this individual as a sniper, although additional details are not yet clear.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said he was told by his chief detective that the shooter was on a building adjacent to the property and had no additional details on the person.
“It would have required a rifle,” he said. “It was several hundred yards.”
President Joe Biden was briefed in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on the shooting. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall were part of the team briefing the president.
Biden spoke from Rehoboth Beach Saturday evening, saying he had been “thoroughly briefed” on the incident and was trying to reach out to Trump to speak with him.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence – it’s sick, it’s sick,” Biden said. “It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”
Rico Elmore, a former Pennsylvania legislative candidate who was a speaker at Saturday’s rally, had blood all over his white shirt and was walking away from the rally stage as he spoke to CNN and described jumping over the barrier and putting his hand on the head of an attendee who was shot and bleeding.
“All we know is shots were fired and then I jumped over the barrier and put my hand on the guy’s head that was profusely bleeding,” Elmore said. He said he didn’t know the attendee and he was “just a stranger.”
Elmore was visibly shaken up but said he was not harmed. He said he only saw one attendee hit and did not see what happened to Trump.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle quickly weighed after the shooting Saturday expressing their horror, condemning the political violence. Leaders around the world sent their well wishes to the former president.
“I have been briefed by law enforcement and am continuing to monitor the developments. This horrific act of political violence at a peaceful campaign rally has no place in this country and should be unanimously and forcefully condemned,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement.
“I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe. Political violence has no place in our country,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Former Trump campaign adviser David Urban told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he had spoken with Dave McCormick, the Republican nominee for Senate from Pennsylvania, who was sitting in the front row of the rally. Trump told McCormick to “come up here onstage,” Urban said, at which point he heard a few “pops” that sounded like “firecrackers.”
McCormick dropped to the ground at that point, and when he got up, he said that Secret Service agents were “around everybody and they were scattering,” according to Urban.
McCormick wrote on X that he and his wife, former Trump administration official Dina Powell, “are praying for President Trump and all who were injured today in Butler PA.”
(CNN)
