Assailant dead, bystander killed, two others critically injured.
BUTLER, Pa.—An assailant fired several shots at former President Donald Trump during a rally on July 13, piercing the former president’s right ear, killing a man in the stands, and critically injuring two others.
The former president was airlifted to a nearby hospital and was in good health. His jet departed Pennsylvania minutes before midnight, according to a flight tracking website. A video later posted by one of his press aides shows the former president walking down the stairs to the tarmac in New Jersey.
Secret Service personnel killed the attacker seconds after he fired a rifle from a nearby rooftop. The FBI has since identified the suspect as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania—about one hour’s drive from the rally grounds in Butler to the north.
The assassination attempt, the first such attack against a president or a presidential candidate since 1981, occurred days prior to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the GOP plans to formally nominate former President Trump to challenge President Joe Biden in this year’s presidential election.
It was also the latest in an unprecedented, polarized campaign season that featured four indictments and a conviction for former President Trump, the conviction of the sitting president’s son, Hunter Biden, and most recently, a campaign by some in the Democrat party to push President Biden out as leader of the Democrats in the 2024 race.
Not long after the chaos erupted in Butler, warm wishes poured forth from friends and opponents at home and abroad.
Former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama said they were relieved that former President Trump was safe, and condemned the attack. President Biden issued a written statement and briefly addressed the nation from Delaware. The president later spoke to his predecessor, according to the White House.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick, it’s sick,” President Biden said at the emergency briefing room in Rehoboth, Delaware.
“It’s one of the reasons we have to unite this country,” he said. “We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”
By Ivan Pentchoukov, Janice Hisle, Sam Dorman, Eva Fu and Mark Tapscott
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