Donald Trump survived a weekend assassination attempt days before he is due to accept the formal Republican presidential nomination, in an attack that will further inflame the US political divide and has raised questions about the security lapses.
On Saturday, Trump, 78, had just begun a campaign speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 50 km north of Pittsburgh, when shots rang out, hitting the former president’s right ear and streaking his face with blood.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Trump mouthed to supporters, pumping his fist, as Secret Service agents rushed him away.
His campaign said he was doing well and appeared to have suffered no major injury besides a wound on his upper right ear.
The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect in what it called an attempted assassination.
He was a registered Republican, according to state voter records and had made a $15 donation to a Democratic political action committee at the age of 17.
Law enforcement officials told reporters they had not yet identified a motive for the attack.
Both Republicans and Democrats will be looking for evidence of Crooks’ political affiliation as they seek to cast the rival party as representing extremism.
The shooting occurred less than four months before the November 5 election, when Trump faces an election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
Most opinion polls including those by Reuters/Ipsos show the two locked in a close contest.
The shooting whipsawed the discussion around the presidential campaign, which had recently focused on whether Biden, 81, should drop out following a disastrous June debate performance.
The Biden campaign had been seeking to reset its message, depicting Trump as a danger to democracy for his continued false claims about election fraud but said on Saturday it was suspending its political advertising for now.
Secret Service agents fatally shot the suspect, the agency said, after he opened fire from the roof of a building about 140m from the stage where Trump was speaking.
An AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle used in the shooting was recovered near his body, according to sources.
The firearm was legally purchased by the suspect’s father, ABC and the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources.
Bomb-making materials were found in the suspect’s car and home, the Associated Press reported, citing sources.
One person who attended the rally was killed and two other spectators were critically wounded, the Secret Service said.
“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” Trump said on his Truth Social service on Sunday.
The Secret Service in a statement denied accusations by some Trump supporters that it had rejected campaign requests for additional security.
“The assertion that a member of the former President’s security team requested additional security resources that the US Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false,” said Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi in a statement. “In fact, recently the US Secret Service added protective resources and capabilities to the former President’s security detail.”
Residents of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, where the alleged shooter lived, expressed shock at the news on Sunday.
“It’s a little crazy to think that somebody that did an assassination attempt is that close, but it just kind of shows the political dynamic that we’re in right now with the craziness on each side,” said Wes Morgan, 42, who added that he rides bikes with his children on the street where the alleged shooter lived.
“Bethel Park is a pretty blue-collar type of area. And to think that somebody was that close is a little insane.”
While mass shootings at schools, nightclubs and other public places are a regular feature of American life, the attack was the first shooting of a US president or major party candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Americans fear rising political violence, recent Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with two out of three respondents to a May survey saying they worried violence could follow the election.
Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn his election defeat, fuelled by his false claims that his loss was the result of widespread fraud.
Trump is due to receive his party’s formal nomination at the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Milwaukee on Monday.
Hours after the attack, the Oversight Committee in the Republican-led US House of Representatives summoned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22.
Leading Republicans and Democrats quickly condemned the violence, as did foreign leaders.
“There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it,” Biden said in a statement.
Source Agencies
