Former President and presidential candidate Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Wounded in the ear, he was rushed to the hospital.
Trump, 78, was evacuated with a bloodied face after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. Before officers escorted him to a large black vehicle, he raised a fist in a defiant gesture toward the crowd. The gunman and a bystander were killed, and two spectators, all adult men, were seriously wounded, according to police. The FBI identified the gunman as "Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania," according to a statement cited by NBC and CBS.
"I was shot through the top of my right ear," Trump stated on his Truth Social platform. Democratic President Joe Biden, who faces Donald Trump in the November election, said he was relieved to learn that the Republican was apparently in good health while condemning "such violence." Unverified images show the body of the alleged assailant lying on the sloping roof of a low building from which he fired, sparking terror and panic among onlookers.
Candidate Trump had just begun his campaign speech.
At a press conference Saturday evening, the FBI confirmed that the shooting was indeed an "assassination attempt." Numerous witnesses reported seeing the shooter before the shooting and alerting the Butler police, who stated they had "responded to a number of reports of suspicious activity," without providing further details. This rally in Butler, Pennsylvania (northeast), was the last before the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at the end of which Donald Trump is to be officially nominated as the Republican Party's presidential candidate.
His campaign team confirmed that the former president intends to attend the convention after undergoing a medical examination at the hospital as a precaution. He was seen disembarking unassisted from his plane a few hours after escaping the assassination attempt, according to a video posted on social media by his deputy communications director. The Republican candidate, who had just begun his speech with one of his usual tirades about migrants, was immediately tackled to the ground by Secret Service agents.
