Secret Service agents immediately surrounded the former president, who raised his fist as the Secret Service rushed him off the stage.
Former President Donald Trump was rushed off the stage after an apparent assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night.
Gunshots rang out and Secret Service agents immediately surrounded the former president, who was bleeding from his ear and face. He raised his fist as the Secret Service rushed him off the stage.
The alleged attacker was killed, according to the Secret Service. One bystander died and two others were seriously injured. The suspected shooter fired “from an elevated position outside of the game area,” the Secret Service said.
James Alan Foxprofessor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University, said the incident “will make gun violence a major issue in [Trump’s] campaign.”
Trump confirmed on social media that he had been shot.
The attacker died at the rallyalong with a bystander, according to the Butler County District Attorney.
“Nothing is known at this time about the attacker, who is now deceased. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the top of my right ear,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social account.
“I immediately knew something was wrong in that I heard a hissing sound, gunshots and immediately felt the bullet tear through the skin. There was a lot of bleeding so I realized then what was going on. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
Kostas Panagopouloshead of Northeastern's political science department, said the incident is a reminder that “there is no place for political violence in our country, and also how divided the country is along party and ideological lines.”
Stephen Chung, a spokesman for Trump, said in a statement that the former president was “doing well and being checked out at a local medical facility.”
Fox, who chairs the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings Database, the longest-running and most extensive source of data on the issue, said he believes the incident should make gun control a major campaign issue .
“We've had similar incidents with the attempt on Reagan's life and the shooting of the Giffords, and each time it brought up the issue of gun violence, and I hope it does here,” Fox said.
President Ronald Reagan was the last US president to be shot.
U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and 18 others were shot during a vote held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona, on January 8, 2011.
Trump has bound to the National Rifle Association that if elected he would reverse gun restrictions put in place by the Biden administration.
“The Republican party has been rather reluctant to support sensible gun control measures,” Fox said. “Their party leader was shot. Fortunately, he wasn't fatally injured, but it should certainly help them rethink some of their positions on reasonable gun safety measures.”
Politically, the shooting could potentially be damaging for Trump “because many believe he has fanned the flames of political violence and division for political advantage, exacerbating polarization in America with inflammatory rhetoric,” Panagopoulos said.
The incident could also “generate sympathy for Trump, who is clearly as vulnerable to political violence and extremism as anyone,” he continued.
Reagan was shot about two months after his inauguration. While leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, on March 30, 1981, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr.
Reagan was hit under the left armpit when one of the bullets bounced off the limousine. Press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a police officer were also injured. Reagan began coughing up blood and was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where he spent 12 days recovering.
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan on June 5, 1968, while campaigning in Los Angeles. Kennedy had addressed supporters in the Embassy Ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel and while exiting the hotel through the kitchen hallway, he was fatally shot by Sirhan several times. Kennedy died the next day.
President John F. Kennedy, Robert's older brother, had been assassinated five years earlier in Dallas, Texas. On November 22, 1963, JFK was shot and killed while leading a motorcade in downtown Dallas.
“In America, we don't solve our political problems by using violence,” Panagopoulos said. “We do it at the polling booth.”
President Joe Biden addressed the nation afterward, strongly condemning “political violence.”
“Everybody should condemn it — everybody,” Biden said.
