Donald Trump Safe After Shooting During Pennsylvania Rally

This episode covers the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania and its immediate aftermath.

1. A direct attack targeted former President Donald Trump during a public rally, wounding him slightly.
2. The immediate response from security and law enforcement was swift, leading to the assailant's death.
3. The incident has significant political ramifications, especially with the Republican National Convention approaching.
4. Both supporters and detractors of Trump quickly politicized the event, using it to rally their respective bases.
5. The attack may influence the upcoming presidential race, potentially galvanizing undecided voters.

1. The Incident

The episode begins with a recount of the attack at Trump's rally, detailing the immediate chaos and response. Susan Davis: "A bullet grazed Trump's right ear and he ducked down where Secret Service surrounded him and escorted him off the stage."

2. Eye Witness Account

Danielle Kurtzleben, present at the rally, describes the scene and the crowd's reaction, emphasizing the confusion and fear. Danielle Kurtzleben: "Everybody around me really hit the deck, got down on our stomachs or behind anything we could find."

3. Political Repercussions

The hosts discuss the potential impact of the attack on upcoming political events and the narrative surrounding Trump. Domenico Montanaro: "This definitely changes everything about Milwaukee at this point."

4. Public and Political Reaction

The episode covers the reactions from political figures and the public, including Biden's statement and the pause in his campaign's activities. Susan Davis: "The Biden campaign also paused all of its advertising and outbound communication in the short term."

• Stay informed about security measures at public events.
• Educate yourself on the political implications of significant events.
• Understand the importance of immediate and accurate communication during crises.
• Recognize the potential for political events to be used as rallying points.
• Engage in discussions about political violence and its impact on society.

The former president was rushed off the stage by the Secret Service. Trump said in a statement on his platform Truth Social a bullet grazed his right ear. The Secret Service said the shooter was killed and two spectators were critically wounded. President Biden made remarks decrying political violence, and then spoke to former President Trump.

This episode: political correspondent Susan Davis, senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro, and campaign correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben.

The podcast is produced by Jeongyoon Han, Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Our intern is Bria Suggs. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

People

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Ben Carson, Chris Lacivita

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

Discussions of political violence

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Susan Davis
Hey there. It's the NPR Politics podcast. It is 09:55 p.m. on Saturday, July 13. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics.

Domenico Montanaro
I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

Danielle Kurtzleben
And I'm Danielle Kurtzleben. I cover the presidential campaign.

Susan Davis
And at about 615 Eastern this evening, shots were fired at former president Donald Trump as he addressed a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. We're going to hear that now, and it lasts about 15 seconds. If you'd like to skip forward, if.

Domenico Montanaro
You want to really see something that said, take a look at what happened.

Susan Davis
A bullet grazed Trump's right ear and he ducked down where Secret Service surrounded him and escorted him off the stage. As blood dripped down his face, the Secret Service agents killed the suspected shooter, who has not been identified as we taped this podcast tonight. Danielle, you were there. We should also note you are safe.

Can you explain what was happening at the moment the shots rang out?

Danielle Kurtzleben
Yeah, it was a pretty run of the mill Trump rally up until that point, he was talking a lot about undocumented immigrants using pretty inflammatory language. And then the shots happened and everybody around me in the press pen really hit the deck, got down, got down on our stomachs or behind anything we could find and waited for the shots to end. Now, once they did, we all stood up and kind of looked around. And first of all, there was a lot of discussion of what was that? Was that gunshots? Was that firecrackers?

We couldn't tell in the immediate aftermath from that distance away from the stage.

Susan Davis
Danielle, as he was being escorted off the stage. And we should note, Donald Trump is fine. There was this dramatic moment where they seemed to want to get him off the stage, but he turned back to the rallye.

Danielle Kurtzleben
Yes. Yeah. And that was one of the first things I saw when I stood up because I turned to the stage and I saw a small swarm of Secret Service agents pulling him off. And I saw him raise his fist to the crowd. And as he did, the crowd, at least as much as they could at that point, went wild. Those who saw him, you know, cheered pretty loudly and then they really rushed him off.

Susan Davis
Domenico, we don't have a lot of facts right now, and I think it's important to remind our listeners that in these moments we are extremely cautious with what we report and what we can confirm. But what do we know right now about what happened tonight?

Domenico Montanaro
Well, we know that Trump was shot at.

We know that he says that he was grazed on the right ear. We saw him go offstage on video with blood coming down the side of his face. He pumped his fist to the crowd and you heard him audibly say fight, fight, twice, and then went offstage. Secret Service trying to get him offstage. And there's a lot of bad information that flies in these kinds of breaking news moments.

That's the core of what we know. We know that the Secret Service tonight said that the suspected shooter was killed, that someone in the crowd was also killed from the shooter's bullet, and that two others are critically wounded.

Susan Davis
The Secret Service also made clear that the shots were fired from an elevated position that was outside the rally venue. So it was not someone who got into the campaign rally with a weapon.

Danielle, in the aftermath of this, when they take Trump away, I mean, you were still at this rally for a long time talking to Trump voters and supporters.

What were those conversations like?

Danielle Kurtzleben
Well, first and foremost, people were quite shaken. I saw people holding each other and more than one person with tears in their eyes. But the people that I talked to, I mean, their reactions were, you know, first of all, they were quite relieved that from what we saw at the time and what we now know, it sure seemed like Trump was at least relatively okay. They were very, very, there was a lot of relief in the people that I talked to, and there was also, there was quite a bit of anger.

The sense that you get is that this kind of plays into a narrative already of Trump being targeted by his political enemies.

Susan Davis
Domenico, the timing of this matters. It's 48 hours before the kickoff of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. And you have to think that this event sort of changes all the messaging we're going to be hearing from the Republican Party next week.

Domenico Montanaro
Yeah, this definitely changes everything about Milwaukee at this point. You know, the convention is certainly going to have a lot about this, and it's certainly part of Trump's messaging going into this. As Danielle is noting, you know, that he has been somebody who's been, quote unquote, targeted by political enemies, whether it was in court or being prosecuted or any other kind of way you can think of, Trump has said that the they is out to get him.

Susan Davis
All right, let's take a quick break, and we'll talk more about the response to the shooting when we get back.

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Susan Davis
And we're back. And when horrific acts of political violence happen, there is, at least initially, a call for unity and a condemnation of violence. And that did happen. Here is President Biden addressing the nation this evening.

Joe Biden
Look, there's no place in America for this kind of violence. It's sick. It's sick. It's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.

Susan Davis
The Biden campaign also paused all of its advertising and outbound communication in the short term. But, Domenico, it was striking to me that within maybe 2 hours of the shooting and after it was clear that former President Trump was fine, his health was not in danger, pretty quickly, Trump allies in Congress and elsewhere began to point the finger at the democratic party. And Joe Biden for this.

Domenico Montanaro
Yep, right away went right to politics and I have to say I'm maybe a little surprised at the speed by which that happened, but I guess I was too, you know, but I guess not really, right. I mean, I kind of immediately in my head sort of thought, this is where this is going to go, than it did.

Susan Davis
I just thought it would go there tomorrow morning.

I think we knew it was going to get political quick, but it turned really fast.

Domenico Montanaro
It seemed like you had people setting a stopwatch on how long it took President Biden to actually make a public statement before cameras as opposed to a written statement, which the White House put out fairly quickly. Of course, the president has to wait for information to be briefed from various agencies so that he can speak with the facts. And we saw him being cautious and also saying that this should be condemned.

We saw people who are allies of Trump's come out and say things like Ben Carson, for example, somebody who's been thought to be a potential vice presidential pick for his ticket, served as a housing secretary under Trump. He said they tried to bankrupt him, they tried to slander him, they tried to imprison him. Now they've tried to kill him. And I think we're going to see a lot of that kind of thing. At the convention, we saw Chris Lacivita, who is running Trump's campaign, saying for years, and even today, leftists, activists, Democrat donors, now, even Joe Biden have made disgusting remarks and descriptions of shooting Donald Trump. It's high time that they be held accountable for it. The best way is through the ballot box. I mean, there are arguments from Democrats where they would completely push back against that. But it's not really about winning over anybody or, you know, in a lot of ways, meaning that entirely, it is about rallying the base to come completely together so that they are on fully, fully on board for November.

Danielle Kurtzleben
Going along with what Domenico said after the incident and after things had calmed down a little bit, I saw some of the photos out of the event with Trump with his fists in the air and blood spattered on his face. And after this horrific event, looking at that, one of the first things I thought was, that's the next Trump rally t shirt.

You go to these rallies and people already often have t shirts of Trump's mugshot, the mug shot being a sort of defiant symbol of, again, Trump's enemies coming after him, at least to his supporters, they are. Well, if you have a photo of him with his fists in the air, blood spattered on his face, once again, that is another powerful potential symbol. I think, that plays into that existing idea.

Susan Davis
It does sort of validate part of Trumpology and his message to his supporters. That has always been like, I'm your retribution.

I'm your warrior. They're coming after me because they can't come after you. He has always positioned himself as somebody that greater forces want to take down. And I think it validates for a lot of Trump supporters what he was.

Danielle Kurtzleben
Saying all along, 1000%. Yes. And I think that, you know, I'm not going to make any predictions, but I mean, that definitely something I think we'll all be watching for in Milwaukee.

Susan Davis
Domenico, before we started taping this podcast, when the news was first breaking, I had this thought where I was like, we have to be really careful to talk about this on the Politics podcast because we don't want to be the ones talking about politics in this really serious time. But because the republican party has so clearly already kicked open those floodgates, I think it begs the question, what do you make of how this event could potentially impact the presidential race?

Domenico Montanaro
Well, we haven't seen a lot move the needle in this presidential race, whether it was Trump's conviction, Biden's poor debate performance.

But if this doesn't, then probably nothing will.

I would expect that there's going to be a strong outpouring of support for the former president.

And, you know, if there was, there are people on the fence who are thinking about which candidate to support. This is going to be the kind of thing that certainly Trump this next week is going to be, you know, hoping that he can drive this message home to win them over to his side.

Susan Davis
All right, we're going to leave it there for tonight, but we will continue to bring you updates as we have them on your local NPR member station. And@npr.org dot. And a reminder, we'll be in Milwaukee all next week covering the Republican National Convention. And a reminder that we're going to be in your feeds late every night of the convention to bring you the recap and the analysis. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics.

Domenico Montanaro
I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

Danielle Kurtzleben
I'm Danielle Krislaben. I cover the presidential campaign.

Susan Davis
And thanks for listening to the NPR Politics podcast.

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