On July 13, Republican Presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a 20-year old identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at him during a rally. Crooks missed by a few centimeters as the bullet grazed Trump’s right ear. Seconds after he opened fire, Secret Service personnel shot him down. Authorities are now investigating his motives.
While Trump suffered minor injuries to his ear, Crooks’ bullets killed one rally attendee and critically injured two others.
President Joe Biden strongly condemned the attempt on the life of his rival in the Presidential election and called for unity. “In America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box. You know, that’s how we do it at the battle box, not with bullets,” he said. “The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin.”
Biden’s running mate and Vice-President Kamala Harris echoed on X: “We must work toward unity as Americans. Assassination attempts have no place in our nation, or anywhere.”
Ramaswamy, Haley rally for Trump
Republican politicians Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley – who both vied for the Republican Presidential nomination earlier this year – also condemned the attack on social media.
“This should horrify every freedom loving American. Violence against presidential candidates must never be normalized,” wrote Haley. “We are lifting up Donald Trump, the entire Trump family, and all in attendance in prayer.”
Ramaswamy, who may be in the running for an important position in Trump’s Cabinet if the former President is victorious in the the Presidential election, took a stronger stand on X, He called Biden’s “ritual condemnation of political violence” insufficient and irrelevant.
“First they sued him. Then they prosecuted him. Then they tried to take him off the ballot. The only thing more tragic than what just happened is that, if we’re being honest, it wasn’t totally a shock,” he wrote. He went on to say, “If any good comes of today, let it be this: Americans just had the chance to see our next President’s true character, unvarnished. He took the fire, he took the hit, he felt the blood, and then he stood right back up for the people he was put here to lead.”
Meanwhile, former President Trump is already back on the trail, and has reached Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention, where he will be officially nominated as the Republican candidate for the Presidential race.
“I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and the Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter’, or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” he said.
