Trump ‘safe’ after shooting at rally in Pennsylvania; suspect killed

Butler, Pa. • Former President Donald Trump was injured in a shooting just minutes into his rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, in what officials said they were investigating as an assassination attempt.

A rallygoer was killed in the shooting and the suspected gunman was killed by the Secret Service, according to a federal official and two people also briefed on the matter.

Trump was “fine” and being treated at a hospital, according to a spokesperson for his campaign. He was escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents, with his face and ear bloodied. As he was taken to his motorcade, he pumped his fist in a defiant gesture to the crowd.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Secret Service said that in addition to the rallygoer who was killed, two others were critically injured. The suspected gunman “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally venue,” said the spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi.

In a post on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump recounted the shooting. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote. “Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”

[READ: Mike Lee calls for ‘government control, not gun control’ after Donald Trump rushed from rally]

President Joe Biden, in brief televised remarks Saturday night, expressed gratitude that Trump had been swiftly evacuated and said “there’s no place in America for this kind of violence.” He also said he had tried to reach the former president.

Biden’s campaign said in a statement Saturday night that it would pause “all outbound communications” and was working to “pull down our television ads as quickly as possible.” The move reflects a desire to put politics aside while the crisis of a likely assassination attempt on a presidential candidate plays out.

Trump had been showing supporters a chart of numbers about border crossings, which his audiovisual staff placed on screens above the stage, when the shots rang out.

The former president ducked quickly, with the sound coming from the bleachers to the left of where he was standing at a lectern. The noises came in two groups, and smoke rose from that section of the bleachers.

As members of the crowd began screaming, Trump was tackled by Secret Service agents. Officials shouted for the crowd to duck and cover, whisking members of the news media off the press riser where they had been watching Trump’s speech.

Theresa Koshut, a teacher from Pittsburgh who was in the fifth row, said she immediately ducked when she heard the shots. Koshut was all too familiar with active-shooting drills from school.

“I dropped and rolled under the bleachers,” she said. “I didn’t even think.”

Those who attend Trump’s campaign rallies are subject to security screenings. They are required to enter through metal detectors, and their bags and possessions are searched for weapons and a large number of banned items.

After a brief pause, Trump rose, surrounded by a group of uniformed Secret Service members. He pumped his fist to the crowd and then was rushed off the stage and ushered into his motorcade, which quickly left the venue, the Butler Farm Show, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

After he departed, police officials began cordoning off the area with crime scene tape as attendees began clearing out. Blood was visible on the bleachers.

Those who attend Trump’s campaign rallies are subject to security screenings. They are required to enter through metal detectors, and their bags and possessions are searched for weapons and a large number of banned items. But the shooter fired from outside the venue, the Secret Service spokesperson said.

Republicans and Democrats alike were quick to condemn the shooting. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, who was shot in 2017, said that “there is never any place for political violence.”

Nancy Pelosi, a former House speaker, referred to her own experience with political violence against her husband to condemn the attack.

“I thank God that former President Trump is safe,” she said.

But some surrogates of Trump, including one of the men being considered as his running mate, began blaming Biden and his campaign for the suspected assassination attempt on the former president.

Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, widely seen as one of three men under consideration to be Trump’s vice presidential pick, wrote on social platform X: “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. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Many spectators, who had spent hours in the searing heat waiting to hear Trump speak, left the venue deeply shaken.

Eduardo Vargas said in an interview that he was sitting about 15 feet behind Trump. After he heard the shots, he did not immediately know if the former president had been hit. But minutes later, he said, he saw that Trump had blood on his forehead.

“I saw half the people around me start crying,” he said. “And I started crying. I couldn’t stop crying.”

Vargas said he feared the worst.

“I thought I just saw the president get killed in front of my face,” he said.

In the chaos that followed, Vargas said he saw one man on Trump’s team who seemed to be covered in blood, though he was not sure whose blood it was. He also said he saw a woman be carried away who appeared to be limp.

Vargas said a pregnant woman reached down to him and asked him if he was OK.

“I love Trump, I care for Trump, I fear for his life,” he said in the interview. “More than anything, I was scared that they got him.”