The Trump Assassination Attempt

This episode of "Start Here" from ABC News explores the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

1. The assailant had no known motive and acted alone, complicating the understanding of the attack.
2. The security measures in place failed to prevent the shooter from accessing a strategic firing position.
3. The incident has intensified discussions about political rhetoric and its potential to incite violence.
4. There are concerns about how this event will affect the security strategies for future political events.
5. The episode underscores the broader national conversation about the escalation of political violence.

1. The Incident

Detailing the moments of the attack, including the initial gunfire and Trump’s injury. Full Name: Brad Milke: "Trump went down to the ground after being hit on the top of his right ear."

2. Gunman Profile

Exploring the background of Thomas Crooks, who was described as a loner with no clear motive for the assassination attempt. Full Name: Aaron Ketersky: "He was carried out by a 20-year-old named Thomas Crooks."

3. National Response

Discussing the national response, including President Biden's call for unity and the implications for public safety and political discourse. Full Name: John Cohen: "We are in the midst of a threat environment that is the most volatile, dynamic, and complex I’ve seen."

• Reflect on the impact of political rhetoric and consider promoting more constructive, less divisive discourse.
• Support efforts to enhance security measures at public events to prevent similar incidents.
• Stay informed about the backgrounds and motivations behind major news events to foster a more educated public response.
• Encourage community discussions about the role of security and law enforcement in public safety.
• Advocate for responsible gun ownership and the secure handling of firearms.

In a special edition of Start Here, ABC’s Chief Investigative Reporter Josh Margolin describes the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, and where the investigation stands.

People

Donald Trump, Thomas Crooks, John Cohen, Brad Milke, Aaron Ketersky

Companies

ABC News

Books

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Guest Name(s):

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Content Warnings:

None

Brad Mielke
Hey, we are coming to you with.

Brad Mielke
A special edition of start here early, early on a Sunday morning, because at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, former.

Brad Mielke
President Donald Trump appears to have been shot.

Brad Mielke
Now he's okay.

Brad Mielke
He said he was grazed by a.

Brad Mielke
Bullet, but this is a wound.

Brad Mielke
All the same part of what is being investigated as an assassination attempt on the former president of the US and one of our two leading candidates for the White House this year. A lot more to come as all this develops.

Brad Mielke
Of course, I want to get you caught up right now with everything we know. As we tape this.

Brad Mielke
On Saturday, just after 06:00 p.m. local time, former President Trump takes the stage at this big campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh.

Donald Trump
This is a big crowd. This is a big, big, beautiful crowd.

Brad Mielke
It's an outdoor event.

Brad Mielke
The sun is beating down on everyone, and Trump is in his red hat when all of a sudden you hear gunshots.

Donald Trump
If you want to really see something that said, take a look at what happened.

Brad Mielke
And right as those shots ring out, former President Trump reaches for his right ear and then ducks down behind the podium. Secret Service swarm the stage surrounding Trump. Law enforcement and tactical gear stand around the edges, rifles pointed toward the crowd. In this confusion, you can hear people screaming.

You can even hear Trump saying he.

Brad Mielke
Wants to get his shoes back on.

Brad Mielke
Which seem to have been knocked off. I got you, sir. I got you, sir.

Donald Trump
Let me get my shoes, sir. Hold on. Your head, it's bloody.

Brad Mielke
And then a Secret Service agents hustle him away to a car. He gives a fist pump to the crowd.

He's defiantly signaling he's okay. But at that moment, for the first time, we can also see blood streaming down from that ear he had grabbed moments prior.

Rachel Scott
A lot of people, I think, were a little, like, too shocked to understand what was going on. Originally.

Brad Mielke
Rally goers describe having very little direction and all the confusion, but they soon start streaming out of the event where they spoke with our own Rachel Scott, who was there at that rally. You said that you heard the popping sounds and you got down.

Unidentified Witness
So first you think, like maybe firecrackers, but it continued. It continued, and then somebody else get down.

Brad Mielke
It quickly becomes clear Trump was not the only person affected here. One eyewitness told ABC he saw a victim die after a wound to the.

Unidentified Witness
Head, a lot of blood, and I knew there was no way he was going to survive that.

Brad Mielke
We later learned one bystander had been killed, two others were in critical condition, and the gunman himself had been killed by law enforcement. But what about former President Trump? Had he been hit by a bullet? Was this a piece of glass that had been shattered by that gunfire? Was the wound a result of being tackled by Secret Service? Well, after being rushed to the hospital, Trump put out a written statement on his truth social account offering his condolences to the victims and their families, his thanks to law enforcement, and a description of what he felt. Here's what he said.

I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in 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.

And if that is indeed what happened, if that was a bullet, that means he was inches, perhaps millimeters from being killed. So what do we know about this investigation? What comes next? And how did this happen?

Brad Mielke
Let's go to ABC's chief investigative reporter Josh Margol. And Josh, we don't have the identity of the shooter just yet. Apparently it is a man. The FBI say they have a suspect id in mind, but they don't want to share it until they're absolutely sure he acted alone. They don't want to be inadvertently giving heads up to people. But what do we know about who did this and how they did it? I guess.

Josh Margolin
Right. So what we know as of now, Brad, is that the shooter had an assault style rifle. Washington at an elevated position of rooftop. So he could have been a full football field away from the security perimeter. And then there's obviously distance inside the perimeter to where you get to former President Trump, where he's speaking inside the perimeter. Everybody that gets through has to go through security measures, including, you know, metal detectors outside the perimeter. There are additional security measures in place, obviously dogs. And there's going to be patrol officers. And the Secret Service always does sweepst in advance of events beginning. But obviously it's a much lower level of security outside that perimeter.

Brad Mielke
The shooter's dead now, right? Was that self inflicted? Like, do we know how that happened?

Josh Margolin
We don't really have a good sense of the specific details. We understand that a countersniper team or a counter sniper agent was the one who killed the shooter. And that is a normal type of thing. The Secret Service routinely will deploy counter sniper teams with their full teams when there are rallies for a president, a former president, people like that. It may or may not have been a secret service team. It might have been something, you know, some entity from the state police or some sort of, you know, local SWAT team. That will all be determined. That will all, that will all come out as the investigation proceeds and more information is released.

Brad Mielke
But how does.

Brad Mielke
So, Josh, you're telling me, like, there's a guy on a roof with an assault style weapon that gets off. We were told, like eight rounds or something like that. That seems like the sort of person that one of these counter sniper teams would be looking for, right? How does this happen?

Josh Margolin
Well, that's exactly the question. The question is, how does this happen? We know that the investigation is going to focus on how did this happen? How did the person get there? How did the person get up on the roof? How did the person not get seen by countersniper teams? And these are very important questions, Brad, and frankly, these are obvious questions. The secret Service knows, like we do, the danger of elevated positions. We've seen it recently with some of the mass shootings like Las Vegas and Highland Park, Illinois. And honestly, you don't have to go too far into the history books to go back to 1963 and the assassination of President Kennedy. He was killed by a gunman from an elevated position in Dallas over the motorcade route that the president's limo was going to be taking. And he fired down from the elevated position, killing President Kennedy, by the way.

Brad Mielke
Does the weapon and the range.

Brad Mielke
And, like, we don't know if he had a scope, but he might have had equipment that you think would make him more accurate. Does that tell us anything about, like.

Brad Mielke
Who we're dealing with here?

Brad Mielke
Like, it doesn't sound like some yahoo when you're talking about somebody who's evading law enforcement to get to a rooftop near the president to then come within perhaps inches of taking his life. I mean, if that's how this went down, what do we know about what type of person this might be?

Josh Margolin
Well, that's critical question number one. And frankly, as we speak here right now, we don't know that answer. Obviously, there have been calls by, especially the iranian government to retaliate against Trump for actions he took while he was president. Is this the result of some sort of political thing? Is this some sort of a emotionally disturbed person who is acting out? We have to imagine that law enforcement has a fairly good handle at this point on the answers to those questions. Is this somebody who's just some sort of a gun enthusiast? Is this somebody who just picked up a gun for the first time, or is this somebody with real training? And from the answer to that question, all sorts of other things will take place because once you start getting it to somebody who might have actual skill and training. Then you start getting into the question of why and did somebody send them?

Brad Mielke
Tell me more about sort of the political messaging here, because we know that President Biden immediately came out and denounced this. Eventually, we were told that President Biden and former President Trump actually connected on the phone, which is very rare for these guys. So obviously, you know, we've heard from the White House how terrible, you know, any sort of political violence would be. What is the tone coming from, you know, other people on the left and the right?

Josh Margolin
Well, the tone largely is what you would expect. Well wishes for President Trump, people that are genuinely pleased that he's okay and will be okay. Obviously, there are calls of sympathy and condolences to the families of those others who were injured and killed. But almost immediately, there were really vicious comments coming from people on the right, political leaders, including Senator Vance, who is a frontrunner to possibly be Trump's vice presidential nominee, blaming this on Biden and saying that Biden should be arrested, all because of his rhetoric. Now, first of all, there's literally no connection to Biden. It's almost impossible to get there when you look at the logic. Right? So that's trafficking and conspiracy theories. But additionally, that just exacerbates the already overheated rhetoric that's already out there. And frankly, speaker one, you see this.

Brad Mielke
Getting uglier as we speak almost.

Josh Margolin
And law enforcement is worried that this is the beginning of a vicious cycle, or at least coming as part of a vicious cycle, certainly not the beginning of. But we already have the overheated climate. We already have the conspiracy theories, the rage, the anger. Then you take this.

So in the days ahead, Brad, law enforcement and the media were going to be watching very, very carefully to see what the political tone sounds like, what the climate sounds like. We're going to see the republican convention in Milwaukee and what's coming out at the podium.

But given recent history, I don't think that anybody thinks this whole thing is going to end right now.

Brad Mielke
Wow. And the RNC apparently still on, organizers just said overnight President Trump still is excited to be with everyone that seems to signal that he will indeed be in Milwaukee. But obviously anything in politics is very much in flux as we speak. Josh Morgolin, let you get back to it. Thank you so much.

Josh Margolin
Thanks, Ben.

Brad Mielke
Ok, that is it for this morning. This is all continuing to develop, right? Wanted you guys to have a very clear look at what we do know at the moment. We will, of course, be back first thing Monday morning with an in depth look at what appears to be this assassination attempt. I'm Brad Milke. See you tomorrow.