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Former president Donald Trump has arrived in Milwaukee for this week’s Republican National Convention following his wounding in a shooting incident at his latest campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night.
President Joe Biden has meanwhile used a rare Oval Office address to implore Americans to “cool it down” in the final stretch of this year’s election race and “resolve our differences at the ballot box”.
A full day after Trump was hit in the ear by a sniper’s bullet, gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’ motive remains a mystery, with investigators saying they believe he acted alone before he was fatally shot by Secret Service agents.
President Biden has ordered an independent security review of the attack, which also killed a bystander, critically wounded two others and prompted questions about how a gunman was able to open fire from a rooftop near the rally.
The FBI was investigating the shooting as a potential act of domestic terrorism.
Trump said the upper part of his right ear was pierced by the bullet but that it would not stop him from attending the convention and accepting his party’s invitation to be its 2024 presidential nominee.
Trump reveals he tore up his convention speech after Saturday’s shooting
The Republican has also been speaking to The Washington Examiner and revealed that he’s had to come up with a whole new speech for the RNC this week in light of Saturday’s events.
“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” Trump lamented.
“Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches. Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”
Asked by the Examiner how he was coping with the shock of it all, he said: “That reality is just setting in. I rarely look away from the crowd.
“Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?”
Trump on assassination attempt: ‘I’m supposed to be dead’
Good morning!
Donald Trump has given an exclusive interview to The New York Post reflecting on the attempt on his life at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when an assassin’s bullet grazed his right ear.
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” said Trump, who, the Post reports was wearing a loose, large white bandage that covered his ear.
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said.
“I’m supposed to be dead.”
Asked about why he was caught on a mic talking about his shoes when Secret Service agents dragged him to the ground behind his lectern after the shots rang out, Trump explained: “The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight.”
On the death of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, the former president said: “They took him out with one shot right between the eyes.
“They did a fantastic job,” he added. “It’s surreal for all of us.”
On him pumping the air with his fist as he was led away bloodied by the agents, Trump said: “A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen.
“They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
Former fire chief identified as spectator killed during Trump rally shooting
The rally-goer who was killed at Donald Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania campaign event-turned-shooting was identified as 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, according to his sister.
Kelly Rissman reports.
Adviser to Democratic donor apologises for saying Trump shooting may be staged
An adviser to a Democratic mega-donor apologised yesterday for suggesting the possibility of Republican former president Donald Trump’s shooting being staged.
Democratic strategist Dmitri Mehlhorn is an adviser to billionaire Reid Hoffman who is a co-founder of social media platform LinkedIn and a major donor to mostly Democratic candidates.
News website Semafor reported that Mehlhorn, in an email to some sympathetic journalists and supporters, said there was a possibility “that this ‘shooting’ was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash”.
Mehlhorn apologised on Sunday.
“Last night, I sent an email I now regret. I drafted and sent it without consulting my team. I have apologised to them directly. I also want to apologise publicly, without reservation, for allowing my words to distract from last night’s central fact: political violence took yet another innocent American life,” Mr Mehlhorn said.
“We must unite in condemnation of such violence in every instance, without reservation. Any other topic is a distraction.”
‘I don’t know what to say’: Family of Thomas Crooks struggles to make sense
The FBI identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who lived with his parents in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park.
Read the details in this exclusive from my colleague, Justin Rohrlich:
What do we know about the other victims?
Governor Josh Shapiro on Sunday said the man killed at the Trump rally, Corey Comperatore, “dove on his family to protect them”.
“Corey died a hero,” the governor said. Comperatore, 50, was a former fire chief.
Pennsylvania State Police identified two other men who were shot as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township. Both men remained hospitalised and were listed in stable condition, state police said.
What is known about the Trump rally shooter?
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old nursing-home employee from suburban Pittsburgh who tried to shoot Trump, was a registered Republican who packed explosives in the vehicle he drove to the campaign rally an hour from his home.
Authorities said it was an attempted assassination but haven’t determined what motivated Crooks to try to kill Trump.
Law enforcement officials were working on Sunday to learn more about the young man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to determine what motivated him.
The FBI has not yet identified any underlying ideology or threatening writing or social media posts from Crooks, who had no past criminal cases against him, according to public court records. The FBI believes Crooks acted alone and the shooting was being investigated as a potential act of domestic terrorism.
How did the gunman get so close to Trump?
The US Secret Service is investigating how the gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get on a nearby roof and shoot and injure the former president at a rally Saturday in Pennsylvania.
The gunman, who officials said was killed by Secret Service personnel, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said. Trump was bloodied and says he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” A spectator was killed.
An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking.
The roof was fewer than 150m from where Trump was speaking. President Joe Biden has directed an independent review of the security at the rally.
GOP convention protests are on despite shooting at Trump rally
Activists gathering in Milwaukee for the start of the Republican National Convention say the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump won’t affect their long-standing plans to demonstrate outside the convention site this week.
A diverse range of organisations and activists is expected outside the downtown Fiserv Forum. The largest expected demonstration was slated to start this morning. The Coalition to March on the RNC, comprised largely of local groups, planned to protest for access to abortion rights, for immigrant rights, and against the war in Gaza among other issues.
“The shooting has nothing to do with us,” said Omar Flores, a coalition spokesperson, speaking about the Saturday evening shots fired at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “We’re going to continue with the march as we planned.”
The progressive coalition protesting the RNC has touted their demonstrations as “family friendly.” Organisers expect an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 attendees. Separately, the Philadelphia-based Poor People’s Army, which organises for economic justice, plans an afternoon march.
Smaller organisations also plan to demonstrate inside parks closer to the convention site where Trump is set to officially accept the party’s presidential nomination later this week.
When does a presumptive Republican presidential nominee become a nominee?
Nearly 2,500 delegates are gathering in Milwaukee this week for a roll call vote to select the Republican presidential nominee, formally ending the presidential primary.
It will be a moment lacking in suspense: former president Donald Trump has already been the presumptive nominee for months, having clinched a majority of convention delegates on 12 March but he doesn’t officially become the party’s standard-bearer until after the roll call, when delegates vote on the nominee.
A vast majority of those delegates are already bound to support Trump, who only needs a majority to win the Republican nomination. However, due to state party rules, at least a handful are still slated to go to former candidate Nikki Haley, even after she released her delegates.
While Democratic delegates are technically allowed to stray from their pledged candidate to vote their conscience, Republican delegates remain bound to their assigned candidate no matter their personal views. That means that the party rules almost guarantee that Trump will officially become the nominee this week.
Source: independent.co.uk
