Alabama's Morning News with JT
Joe O'Malley gives us his thoughts on the recent Trump rally
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Who went with your group? - Yeah, it was just my wife and I. - So as a Trump supporter, I would imagine the buzz and the energy they are leading up to this was pretty amazing. - Oh, it was really big. Yeah, we had, you know, I heard Trump was coming to Butler a couple of weeks ago and, you know, I went to my wife and said, "Hey, Jan, we should have had up there and check it out and see what it's like." You know, these rallies are pretty crazy. So she agreed, she said, "Yeah, let's go check it out and, you know, be part of history." And, wow, we're part of history now, you know, being there in an attempted assassination. But, so Trump, you know, he was supposed to come on at five o'clock. He didn't get on till about six. So we got up there probably about three o'clock, took us like an hour to get in. You know, they had, you know, the Secret Service was patting you down. You couldn't bring anything in. You couldn't bring any chairs, you know, anything like that. They did have plenty of water in there, you know, for everybody to drink. So we got in about, oh, it was hot. It was probably, like 93, you know, but by the time Trump came on it was like, I think 80, 87 or something. But, so, you know, my wife and I got up there and we got in and, you know, there's maga hats, make America great again, T-shirts and hats and flags. And, you know, we're kind of just people watching just, you know, thinking, "This is crazy." You know, we've never been to one of these before. This is pretty neat. And it was very peaceful, Jeff. - Yeah. - You know, people very peaceful, just excited to be there, you know, couldn't wait to see the president come on. And so, you know, my wife and I were just walking around, part of the crowd, checking things out. - How close to the stage were you guys once he started speaking? - We weren't that close. We were in the back, probably about 100 yards. I mean, we could see them on stage. You know, we could see them up there and, you know, giving them, you know, giving them the speeches and stuff. And then as, and then they put this graph up on them, you know, they had these two big screens that you could see them on. And, you know, they had this graph that they were putting up there and he was talking about, you know, illegal immigration and that type of stuff. And then he turned his head, you know, to look at the graph and point some numbers out. - Yeah. And that's when it happened and from all the reports I've been getting, they said, if he hadn't turned his head to look at that graph, you know, he probably would have been dead by now. - Yeah, here's how it unfolded, listen. - Oh, that's a little bit old at that chart. That charts a couple of months old. And if you want to really see something that said, take a look at what happened. (audience laughing) - Joe, I think you're right. As you're talking about how he turned his head, had he not turned his head? I think that bullet goes right into the center of his skull there. And as he turned, God, I think, was all over this and protected Donald Trump and it clipped his ear. And thank God he survived this thing. When this happened, what was your first reaction? When did you realize, oh my God, this is, you know, happening? - Well, this, you know, I heard this pop pop pop pop and then it was quiet. And then like I heard like three more, you know, gunshots. And then I looked at my wife and people all around us were like, let's get out of here, let's get out of here. And everybody kind of just turned and started running towards a gate, you know, that we were closest to. And then once we got out of the gate, there was a bunch of police officers, secret servers, they were directing us which way to go. You know, to get away from the fairgrounds where it was being held. - Once this all broke loose like that and the chaos ensued, did everybody disperse pretty quickly and wanted to get out of there? What was it like trying to leave? And, you know, how dangerous did everybody feel that there could still possibly be more shooting going on? - Yeah, that's what we were thinking about. I thought I was leaving and running out of there. I'm thinking, what, you know, was this guy, is he still around, is he gonna, is he reloading? What's he doing? But it was pretty calm. Everybody was really calm and, you know, there wasn't anybody getting stampeded on or anything like that, it was very calm. - Boy, just a horrific situation. Well, I really appreciate you spending time with me today, Joe. Thank you so much and God bless, buddy. 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