Former first lady Melania Trump released a statement on Sunday defending her husband, former President Donald Trump, after he was wounded in a shooting at a campaign rally the previous evening.
In a letter posted on social media, Melania said she realized her life and the life of their son, Barron, “were on the brink of devastating change” after a “violent bullet” hit her husband.
“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion ― his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration. The core facets of my husband’s life ― his human side ― were buried below the political machine,” she wrote.
Melania described her husband, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, as “the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”
On Saturday, Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when shots rang out, after which the former president was seen with a bloodied ear. Trump was ushered off stage and taken to a hospital. A spokesperson has since said Trump is “fine.” Authorities killed the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, at the scene.
At least one person attending the rally was killed in the shooting, and two others were critically injured.
In addition to denouncing the “heinous” shooting and expressing condolences to the families of the other victims, Melania Trump stressed the need for Americans to come together and “look beyond the left and the right, beyond the red and the blue.” A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers and other public figures, including President Joe Biden, have condemned political violence in the wake of the shooting.
“We are all humans, and fundamentally, instinctively, we want to help one another,” Melania Trump wrote. “American politics are only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love, compassion, kindness and empathy are necessities.”
“This morning, ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence. We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends,” she wrote. “We can realize this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships, again.”
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