What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Trump will come back, his persona elevated to promote his largely than life narrative against the feebleness of Joe.
After being shot the Dark Lord literally raised his hand in triumph for surviving and pledging to head on to the Republican Convention without missing a beat, while Biden attempts to teeter across the public stage.
What a WSJ Reporter Saw at the Trump Shooting
Instant confusion and fear as gunfire rang out in the middle of the former president’s speech
By Ken Thomas, WSJ
Updated July 14, 2024 3:31 am ET
A suspected shooter fired multiple times toward the stage at former President Donald Trump’s campaign event. WSJ’s Ken Thomas reports from the Butler, Pa., rally.
BUTLER, Pa.—At first, it was a Trump rally like so many I had seen before: Thousands of people waiting in the summer heat for hours, vendors selling red Trump hats and T-shirts and loud cheers when former President Donald Trump took the stage to the Lee Greenwood anthem, “God Bless the U.S.A.”
I covered Trump during his presidency and had been to his rallies in states such as Louisiana and Michigan and Montana. Saturday’s event seemed routine to me.
Nearly 10 minutes into his remarks, Trump was talking about immigration. “Take a look at what happened,” he said. That is when we heard the sound of gunfire.
There was instant confusion. People in the crowd crouched down and took cover. I was in the press area just below the risers where news crews were filming the rally. The reporters on the scene instantly knew something was wrong. Some dropped to the ground to protect themselves.
In the first moments, there was a murmur of uncertainty about Trump’s condition. “Did he get shot?” I heard one person ask. And then after a few moments, applause rang out when the crowd saw the former president pop back up, flanked by Secret Service agents, and pump his fists. “He was hit, he was bleeding!” another man shouted.
The crowd then began exiting the site, some in a daze, others yelling at members of the media. “Your fault!” I heard one man scream. I quickly messaged my colleagues who were watching the scene unfold.
As they were getting the first reports out, I grabbed my notebook, pen and my iPhone and raced to the edge of the media pen and started interviewing bystanders. Witnesses said they saw blood on the former president’s ear. Several said they saw Trump pump his fist—a sign to many of them that he was OK.
“I saw Trump go down but then I saw him get up,” said Mark McEvoy, of Weirton, W.Va., who noted the fist pump to me.
The Secret Service moved quickly. “This is an active crime scene,” I heard one agent shout, and they told us to grab our gear and leave the rally site.
As we left, I looked back at the stage and was struck by Trump’s placard hanging from the lectern.
Outside the venue, Trump supporters consoled each other and traded information—true to the community that these rallies often create. Many gathered along a pathway of booths selling Trump gear.
We have since learned that the FBI is investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt. The suspected shooter killed at the scene has been named by authorities as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20.
People were checking their phones, searching for updates. Colleen Phillips, who was using a walker, told me she had just held an impromptu prayer circle. I kept interviewing witnesses. When I learned from the campaign that Trump was safe, I shared it with Blake Marnell of San Diego, who was wearing a suit and tie in the pattern of a brick wall, a reference to the very subject Trump was speaking about when the shots rang out.
“I’m tremendously relieved,” Marnell said.
Marnell told me that he had been to roughly 40 Trump rallies and was headed to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. He consoled Richard Hein, who lives 2 miles away in Butler and had never been to a Trump rally before. It was the first time they had met.
Hein was stunned by what he had just witnessed. “I wanted to be part of history,” he told me. “Not this kind of history.”
Write to Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com
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