Several shots rang out during a Trump rally in Pennsylvania yesterday, with one of the bullets grazing the former President’s ear. The incident is being investigated as an assassination attempt. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.
Morning Wire
Trump Survives Assassination Attempt | 7.14.24
(upbeat music) Former President Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally yesterday in Butler, Pennsylvania. Shortly after the event had gotten started, shots rang out. The President grabbed his ear and dropped to the ground as he was swarmed by the Secret Service and as screams erupted from the audience. It was a chaotic and frightening scene. Here's audio from the moment. Take a look at what happened. (screaming) (screaming) (screaming) I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Sunday, July 14th. And this is a special edition of Morning Wire. Joining us to discuss the terrifying incident in Pennsylvania yesterday is Daily Wire Senior Editor, Cabot Phillips. Hey, Cabot, so a dark day for the country to say the least. What do we know so far about this assassination attempt? Well, former President Trump was about five minutes into his speech at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday when gunshots rang out. Almost immediately, Trump could be seen grabbing his ear and neck before ducking to the ground for cover. It was a truly chaotic scene. Here's what it sounded like. Take a look at what happened over there. (screaming) (screaming) (screaming) (screaming) (screaming) Who is there? Hold on. Ready, on you. Ready. Move, move, move. Go. Oh, good. Shooters down. Are we good to move? (screaming) We're clear. We're clear. We're clear. (screaming) Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes. Hold on. Your head is on the bottom. So we got to come with some fun. Within seconds, Trump was swarmed by a number of Secret Service agents who formed a human shield around him as more gunshots rang out. Less than 60 seconds later, after shouts of shooter down could be heard, Trump was helped up with blood running down the right side of his face and ear. As he was being ushered off stage, he paused again, less than one minute after the shots had first rung out and shook a defiant fist at the crowd, reassuring his supporters and appearing to yell one word repeatedly. Fight. Wait, wait, wait. (screaming) (screaming) Yeah, truly extraordinary video. Yeah, footage that will be replayed for decades to come. Yeah. Trump was then rushed to a waiting SUV where he again pushed aside the Secret Service agents forming a shield around him and waved to the crowd one more time before being rushed to a local medical facility. Doctors there said he is fine, but tragically we do have confirmation that one attendee was struck fatally and died at the scene while at least one and possibly another was also hit in this currently in serious condition. Trump's son Donald Jr. told the press his father was in quote, "great spirits" and would never stop fighting to save America. And around 845 Eastern Trump issued a statement of his own, thanking Secret Service in law enforcement and offering condolences to the other victims for adding quote, "I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong and 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. A remarkable statement there. And what about the shooter? What do we know so far? Well, we're still waiting for details to emerge on the shooter's identity, but according to law enforcement, they were killed almost immediately after opening fire. A number of eyewitnesses, including one I spoke with moments after the shooting, said he saw what appeared to be Secret Service snipers returning fire within seconds. At the moment, it appears the shooter had crawled onto a rooftop overlooking the rally. One bystander told BBC he saw the man and attempted to alert law enforcement. We noticed the guy crawling, bear crawling, up the roof of the building beside us. 50 feet away from us. He had a rifle. We could clearly see him with a rifle, absolutely. We're pointing at him. The police are down there running around on the ground. We're like, hey, man, there's a guy on the roof with a rifle. And the police were like, huh, what? Like, they didn't know what was going on. We're like, hey, right here on the roof, we can see him from right here. We see him. He's crawling. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage? I'm standing there pointing at him for two, three minutes. Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. I'm pointing at that roof, just standing there like this. And next thing you know, five shots ring out. Really raises a lot of questions. So what sort of response have we seen from President Biden? Well, it did take President Biden over an hour to respond, which did have a lot of people online upset. When he finally did address the assassination attempt, he said in a statement, he was, quote, praying for Trump and his family and for all those who were at the rally and that he was, quote, grateful to hear that he's safe in doing well. He added that, quote, there's no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it. A few moments later, he offered brief remarks to the press. I have tried to get ahold of Donald with his doctors. Apparently, he's doing well. I plan on talking to him, surely. I hope when I get back to the telephone. Look, there's no place in America for this kind of violence. It's sick, it's sick. It's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. But the bottom line is, the Trump rally is a rally that he should have been able to conduct it peacefully without any problem. But the idea, the idea that there's political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of, is just not appropriate. Everybody, everybody must condemn it. Everybody. - Following that statement, the White House confirmed the president had spoken with Trump by around 10.30 p.m. Eastern. Campaign also announced they were working to remove all campaign advertisements from the airwaves as soon as possible. Gives you an idea just of the gravity of the situation and the impact it's going to have on the race. Now, for their part, the Trump campaign issued another statement confirming that the RNC would continue a schedule this week. As you can imagine, this will have an immense impact on the convention, though. - Right. Now, there's been some reports and a lot of questions about the secret service and how this shooting happened. What are we hearing on that front? - Yeah, for many shock over the assassination attempt, soon turned to questions over how it could have happened in the first place. Based on videos from the scene, the shooter crawled onto a rooftop overlooking the stage, which appeared to be just outside of the security perimeter, only a few hundred feet from the stage itself. Number of House lawmakers, including oversight committee chairman James Comer, have already vowed to launch a congressional investigation into the secret services preparation and response to the assassination attempt. And one more thing worth noting, the federalist is reporting that the Trump campaign has been requesting beef dub secret service protection and resources for the last few weeks, but has been rebuffed by the Department of Homeland Security. So, lots still unknown here, but what is certain is that this was a day none of us will ever forget. - We certainly will not. Kevin, thank you so much for reporting. - Anytime. (upbeat music) - For the first time since Robert Kennedy was killed in 1968, a major presidential candidate has suffered an assassination attempt and it's sure to affect both campaigns. Here to discuss is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Hey Dave, so of course, our first thoughts and prayers are with the family of the rally goer who was killed and the other two who were injured. But just a day from the Republican National Convention, the politics of this is inevitable. First off, is there any indication that this will impact the RNC in Milwaukee this week? - Hi John. No, we don't know a lot about the nature of former President Trump's injuries, but there's no reason to believe that this will change any of the scheduling or programming. Perhaps we could see an uptick in security, but party conventions are already about as secure as can be. Though in fairness, Trump rallies are meant to be as well. - Right. - As far as the two campaigns, what does the most likely affect this could have? - It's difficult to know, but assassination attempts in the past have led to bumps. We saw this with Ronald Reagan's approval in 1981. This also comes at a time when Joe Biden has perceived this very physically weak. I was at Tony Paco's in Toledo interviewing two voters when this news broke. Several patrons asked for it to go up on the TV. As we watched the coverage, we saw the already iconic image of a bleeding and defiant Trump pumping his fist for the crowd. And we all agreed that that image next to a shot of Biden at the debate, that might be the only ad the Trump campaign needs. It's a powerful dip tick. The only way this could have looked better for Trump would have been if he pulled a Teddy Roosevelt and finished the speech, but of course, nobody knew if the danger was over. - Right. How are the Democrats and the Biden campaign specifically handling this event? And could it change how they approach attacking Trump? - Biden released a statement saying that he and Jill Biden were praying for Trump, grateful he was doing well, and for the work of the Secret Service, going on to say that there's no place for this kind of violence in America. But listen, just Friday, Biden was directly comparing Trump to Hitler and Republicans to Nazis. Most people think killing Hitler would have been a moral act. So they may need to start toning it down, at the very least in the short term. - Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about the polarization in our politics and violent rhetoric. Might this make all Americans a little more careful about this kind of discourse? - John, I really, really hope so. And look, it does come from both sides, but since Trump entered politics, the level of anger and vitriol is something unimaginable even 20 years ago. Politicians have encouraged citizens to harass members of the opposition in public, representative Maxine Waters during Trump's first term, told supporters not to let members of the administration get gas in peace. And look, this kind of rhetoric, it has consequences. As we see here, all of us probably need to take a breath and take down the temperature as we pray for the family of the victim. - Amen, and well said, Dave, thank you so much for coming on. - Thanks for having me. - That was David Marcus, and this has been a special edition of Morning Wire. (upbeat music) (beep)