Donald Trump was wounded in the ear by a bullet in an attempt on his life during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, an attack that heightened tensions in the already tense US presidential campaign.
The attacker is dead, according to the Secret Service, which added in a statement that one bystander was killed and two others were wounded.
“The incident is being investigated as an attempted murder,” the FBI initially announced during a press briefing, later naming 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the perpetrator.
Photos of him were already circulating on the Internet before the FBI’s announcement and after CNN reported, citing sources, that the perpetrator is a 20-year-old man from Pennsylvania.
Immediately the Republican candidate grabbed his right ear, while blood filled his face. He then looked at his hand and fell to his knees before members of the Secret Service rushed around him to protect him.
Trump re-emerged about a minute later, his “Make America Great Again” baseball cap down, and was heard telling agents to “wait, wait” before raising his fist as he was led into a black SUV.
“I took a bullet that went through the top of my right ear,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly afterward. “I was bleeding profusely.”
Biden spoke with Trump
Republican and Democratic officials immediately condemned the attack on Trump.
The Republican’s campaign team said he is “doing well” and has already been released from the hospital and left Butler, as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro explained to X.
Republican Rep. Daniel Moiser told CNN that Trump is headed to Bedminster, New Jersey, where he owns a golf club.
The attack came less than four months before the Nov. 5 presidential election, in which Trump will again face off against President Joe Biden. Most polls show the two men going head-to-head.
The US president commented in a statement: “There is no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as a nation and condemn her.”
Biden also spoke with Trump after the attack, a White House official said.
Republicans and Democrats condemn
Trump is expected to formally receive the Republican nomination at the convention that begins Monday in Milwaukee.
“This horrific act of political violence at a peaceful campaign rally has no place in this country and should be unanimously and strongly condemned,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he was shocked by the incident, while expressing relief that Trump is safe. “Political violence has no place in our country,” he stressed.
Biden’s campaign team has announced it is suspending its television ads and all other campaign activity, a campaign official said Saturday.
Americans are worried about rising political violence, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed in May, with two in three respondents saying they are worried about the possibility of violence breaking out after the presidential election.
Some of Trump’s Republican allies assessed that the attack on him was politically motivated.
“For weeks senior Democratic officials have been fueling the ridiculous hysteria that if Donald Trump is re-elected, democracy in America will come to an end,” said Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, who was the target of a 2017 shooting attack. politically motivated. “We’ve seen far-left lunatics act on this violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop,” he stressed.
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green pointed out for her part that “Democrats wanted this to happen. They’ve been wanting Trump gone for years, and they’re ready to do anything to make it happen.”
