politics
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — To the sounds of “God Bless the USA,” former President Donald Trump took the stage on the fairgrounds in Butler, Pa., at 6:02 p.m. Saturday, waved to the cheering crowd and delivered his usual campaign speech under the scorching midsummer sun.
A couple of minutes later, Trump pointed to a projection of a graph showing a rise in illegal border crossings under his opponent, President Joe Biden. “This graph is a few months old,” Trump told the gang. “And if you want to see something really sad –“
That's when the shots rang out, at the least five. Trump clutched his ear as dark-clad Secret Service agents rushed toward him. He dropped to the bottom because the agents screamed, “Get down!” The hundreds of protesters who had crowded into the sector in front of him moved as one man and dropped to the bottom as silence spread across the grass, punctuated only by occasional screams.
Moments later, Trump stood up as Secret Service agents crowded around him, covering his body with their very own. They attempted to push the previous president off stage left as blood dripped from his ear. “Wait, wait, wait,” Trump said. He clenched his fist as the gang cheered and appeared to mouth the word “fight” before agents hustled him down the steps and toward a waiting black SUV. Trump clenched his fist yet another time before climbing in.
The local district attorney said the shooter and a protester were dead. In an announcement released shortly after the attack, which officials said gave the impression to be an attempted murder, Trump's campaign team said he was “fine.”
When protesters gathered outside the Secret Service compound within the early afternoon, the horror that lay ahead was not yet foreseeable. Butler is a town of 13,000 residents 33 miles north of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania, right in Trump's region. It's the type of rural Rust Belt area that made Trump president in 2016 and nearly kept him in office in 2020 – Trump won Butler County by 32 percentage points.
The green grass of the sector was slowly covered by a sea of red “Make America Great Again” hats because the temperature climbed to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. As rallygoers waited patiently for hours, local politicians occasionally spoke up, and sometimes they broke into chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” At one point, an enormous American flag hanging above the stage became tangled, prompting chants of “Fix the flag!” until it was properly unfurled.
Outside the grounds, there have been booths selling food, drinks and Trump paraphernalia, as is common at rallies. Behind the stage, separated from the sector by waist-high metal barriers, stretched one other field with buildings in the space. The crowd perked up as Trump's favorite playlist began, kicking off with “YMCA” by the Village People. Then Trump walked toward the stage wearing his trademark red hat, a black suit, a white shirt unbuttoned on the collar and no tie.
He smiled and pointed to the cheering crowd, and waited until Lee Greenwood's song ended before starting his remarks. “This is a great crowd,” Trump said. “This is a great, great, beautiful crowd.”
After mentioning the name of David McCormick, the Republican running against Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and promising to bring him on stage later within the rally, Trump got right down to certainly one of his favorite topics. “We have millions and millions of people in our country who shouldn't be here,” he said. “Dangerous people.”
He then referred the audience to the projected map of the border crossings.
After the shots rang out and Trump was pushed off the stage, agents in black uniforms with rifles, the agency's counter-assault team, stormed the stage. The crowd remained seated, apart from a gaggle of individuals standing on the left fringe of the realm, near the shooting.
Rico Elmore, vice chairman of the Beaver County Republican Party, was sitting in a special guests' area across from Trump when he heard what seemed like fireworks. “So everyone hesitated – and it was like it was actually gunshots,” he said in an interview. “So I yelled, 'Lie down!'”
Elmore heard someone calling for a medic from his left. Although Elmore will not be a medic, he knows first aid and CPR from his time within the military. He jumped over a barricade, but when he reached the person, Elmore saw that he had been shot in the top. Elmore said he held the victim's head, however it was too late.
“I mean, it was horrific,” Elmore said.
The victim was not identified.
Even as Trump was wheeled away, protesters remained subdued. Some had heard the bullets ricochet off the stands and severed a hydraulic line to the speakers, which then began to tip over. Others quickly called their families or checked their cell phones to seek out out what had happened to the previous president.
“Is he okay?” people began asking. “Is he OK?”
Eventually, people slowly began to return out. A small group of about half a dozen stopped in front of the fenced area where the media was housed. “It's all your fault!” they shouted.
First the police after which the Secret Service escorted everyone out. An hour after the shooting, the large field was declared against the law scene, plagued by empty plastic water bottles and soggy cardboard containers that had once held cheese fries.
image credit : www.boston.com