The Ben Shapiro Show - July 14, 2024


TRUMP SHOT, SURVIVES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT


Episode Stats

Length

52 minutes

Words per Minute

184.98894

Word Count

9,752

Sentence Count

775

Misogynist Sentences

8

Hate Speech Sentences

15


Summary

Donald Trump was the victim of an assassination attempt, and only thanks to the absolute grace of God is Donald Trump still alive. I found out about this on Shavuot, Shabbat, over where I am in Los Angeles, doing a special broadcast of the show. This is not normally a broadcast day, but yesterday marked one of the darkest moments in modern American history, when President Donald Trump was shot and killed in a Pennsylvania suburb of Pittsburgh. I was here to do Bill Maher's show, and my security called and told me what was happening. Obviously, I was just as shocked and appalled as everyone else. This is the end result of a temperature in the United States that is absolutely appalling, and this is the result of an increase in rhetorical temperature pushed by the radical left, and unfortunately, by the media, that has raised the temperature radically. Only the shooter is responsible for the shooting, but if you increase the temperature over and over again by saying that the former President is in fact Hitler, it is not particularly surprising, but it is shocking when someone goes and takes that seriously. We ll have more to say about who the shooter was in just one moment, in a moment, and more about the details of who the gunman was in a second moment. This whole incident is an astonishing incident, and the response by the Secret Service, and how they handled the situation, and what they did to protect the President of the USA, is truly remarkable. It's an amazing thing, and I can't thank them enough for their quick response, and their dedication to protecting the President, and for their professionalism and professionalism, and all the President Trump's life and their professionalism in the aftermath of this terrible day. It is truly a miracle, and it's a miracle that he is still alive, and they did it in spite of all the chaos and blood, and that the President is still standing, and is not in serious danger, and he's not in any way the other people in the hospital, not only alive, but in any kind of way at all of their hands, but that they are in any sort of way, at all, no matter what the injuries they are going to make it through this at all? Thank you, God bless, God Blessings, Blessings and Blessings! - Eternally grateful, - Yours Truly, Ma'al - Elyssa and Rachael - - and Raffy,


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Well, folks, obviously this is a special broadcast of the show.
00:00:03.000 We are doing this on Sunday.
00:00:04.000 This is not normally a broadcast day, but yesterday marked one of the darkest incidents in modern American history, one of the darkest moments of my lifetime, when President Donald Trump was the victim of an assassination attempt.
00:00:17.000 And only thanks to the absolute grace of God is Donald Trump still alive.
00:00:22.000 I found out about this On Shabbat, Shabbat over where I am in Los Angeles.
00:00:26.000 I was here to do Bill Maher's show and my security came and told me what was happening.
00:00:30.000 Obviously, I was just as shocked and appalled as everyone else.
00:00:33.000 And this is indeed the end result of a temperature in the United States that is absolutely appalling.
00:00:40.000 This is an increase in rhetorical temperature pushed by the radical left, unfortunately, by the media, by the President of the United States that has raised the temperature radically.
00:00:50.000 Only the shooter is responsible for the shooting.
00:00:52.000 But if you increase the temperature over and over and over again by saying that the former President of the United States, current frontrunner in the presidential race, major party nominee, is in fact Hitler, It is not particularly surprising.
00:01:05.000 It is shocking, but it is not particularly surprising when someone goes and takes that seriously.
00:01:10.000 We'll have more to say about who the shooter was in just one moment.
00:01:12.000 First, for those who have not had all the details revealed to them, as you've got here was the timeline yesterday.
00:01:18.000 So, the shooting broke out, according to USA Today, just minutes before 6.15 p.m.
00:01:23.000 in the city of Butler, which is about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh.
00:01:26.000 President Trump who has been doing rallies around the country over the past couple of weeks.
00:01:32.000 He was doing one in Pennsylvania, which of course is a battleground state.
00:01:35.000 He took the stage at 6.03 p.m.
00:01:38.000 Eastern Time.
00:01:39.000 At about 6.11 p.m., he was speaking, and all of a sudden, audible pops could be heard.
00:01:45.000 Here is the footage of President Trump speaking.
00:01:49.000 The footage is shocking, so if you haven't seen it, just be warned.
00:01:53.000 It is footage of an assassination attempt.
00:01:55.000 It's gonna be some of the most iconic footage in American history.
00:01:57.000 This whole incident is an astonishing incident.
00:02:01.000 The hand of God, there's no way, honestly, I don't have another way to put this.
00:02:04.000 The hand of God is protecting President Trump here because there is no way that he should survive what just happened here.
00:02:09.000 The shooter was extremely close to President Trump.
00:02:12.000 We'll talk about the Secret Service failures in just one moment, but the shooter was extremely close.
00:02:18.000 He was on a very nearby building to President Trump.
00:02:22.000 He was using, apparently, an AR-15.
00:02:25.000 Which is, in fact, a rifle.
00:02:27.000 So he had a rifle that is certainly well within range of killing the president.
00:02:33.000 And he hits President Trump in the ear in this video.
00:02:37.000 President Trump, if you play this video in slow motion, you will see, he shifts the positioning of his head literally milliseconds before the bullet whizzes past his head and hits his ear.
00:02:49.000 And it is that shift in head motion that saves his life.
00:02:52.000 And in fact, we don't know that there were three shots at least fired.
00:02:55.000 We know that because one person in the crowd was killed on the spot.
00:03:00.000 Apparently had his head blown away.
00:03:02.000 I don't mean to be graphic, but it's an assassination attempt.
00:03:03.000 That's what this is.
00:03:05.000 Two other people in the crowd were severely wounded.
00:03:08.000 Here is the footage from yesterday afternoon, Butler, Pennsylvania.
00:03:14.000 Take a look at what happened.
00:03:17.000 We can hear the pops there.
00:03:19.000 He reaches for his ear.
00:03:19.000 He goes down.
00:03:21.000 Secret Service jumps on top of him.
00:03:21.000 He realizes what's happening.
00:03:24.000 We can hear people screaming, obviously.
00:03:26.000 They can hear one final shot there.
00:03:36.000 The crowd obviously crouching, trying to see what's happening.
00:03:40.000 President Trump is on the ground.
00:03:42.000 The Secret Service are on top of him.
00:03:48.000 The crowd is obviously agitated.
00:04:04.000 They're holding President Trump down to make sure that he's safe.
00:04:06.000 Now they're going to start moving him.
00:04:08.000 President Trump gets up, as he does.
00:04:18.000 Let me get my shoes.
00:04:19.000 Hold that in your head.
00:04:20.000 It's bloody.
00:04:21.000 Sir, we gotta move to the front.
00:04:22.000 You hear him say, let me get my shoes?
00:04:23.000 Let me get my shoes.
00:04:24.000 OK, let's do it again.
00:04:25.000 Go ahead, get the shoes.
00:04:26.000 Watch out.
00:04:27.000 The crowd starts cheering because they see that President Trump's live here.
00:04:30.000 He has blood all over his face.
00:04:34.000 He raises his fist.
00:04:36.000 And he says, fight, fight, fight.
00:04:40.000 The crowd starts cheering.
00:04:43.000 And then they start chanting USA.
00:04:47.000 He holds up his fist again to show everyone that he's okay.
00:04:51.000 It's an amazing response by him, honestly.
00:04:54.000 Most people would just be rushed off by Secret Service as fast as humanly possible.
00:04:58.000 President Trump taking those extra few moments to assure the crowd that not only is he fine, but that he's not going to be cowed by this, is in fact an amazing personal response.
00:05:05.000 And that, that can't be taught.
00:05:07.000 I mean, that's an innate fight or flight response.
00:05:09.000 And President Trump is an innate fighter.
00:05:11.000 He is not an innate flight response guy.
00:05:14.000 He is then ushered into the Secret Service vehicle and by 6 14 p.m.
00:05:16.000 he is out of there.
00:05:20.000 Now it took the Secret Service a few minutes to figure out exactly what they're going to release to the public.
00:05:26.000 The shooter is in fact dead.
00:05:27.000 What you hear in that video is a few shots.
00:05:30.000 You hear at least three shots from the shooter.
00:05:32.000 Then you hear a couple of shots that are probably in response from the Secret Service snipers killing the shooter.
00:05:37.000 And then a final shot, which very likely is Secret Service seeing movement of the shooter and shooting him once more.
00:05:44.000 That's what that sort of sequence of shots probably is.
00:05:48.000 The images are astonishing.
00:05:50.000 I mean, just incredible images.
00:05:53.000 This is a picture from the New York Times.
00:05:56.000 You can actually see the pathway in the air of the bullet whizzing past President Trump as he speaks.
00:06:01.000 This is before he realizes he's been hit because obviously the bullet is traveling extremely fast.
00:06:07.000 And so, he would have heard the whiz pass his ear, which, as we'll see, is what he said in his statement.
00:06:11.000 The most iconic photo, though, is going to be this one.
00:06:14.000 And this is going to be an all-time historic American photo.
00:06:16.000 This is a shot of President Trump raising his fist as he's shouting, fight, as you see in that video.
00:06:22.000 And above him, the American flag is flying as Secret Service is crouched around him.
00:06:27.000 It's an amazing photo.
00:06:28.000 It truly is.
00:06:29.000 People are talking about how this photographer should win a Pulitzer.
00:06:32.000 There's video of the photographer getting this shot.
00:06:34.000 It's unbelievable.
00:06:35.000 Everybody else is crouching.
00:06:36.000 The photographer immediately jumps into the fray, finds the perfect shot and framing, and takes that shot.
00:06:41.000 And it is iconic because, again, it speaks to who President Trump is, which is a person who is not going to be cowed.
00:06:46.000 Say what you will about President Trump.
00:06:48.000 President Trump is indefatigable.
00:06:51.000 There's just no question about it.
00:06:52.000 This is a person who has been hit with every lie that's possible to hit him with.
00:06:56.000 From Russia collusion to impeachment twice.
00:07:00.000 He was then prosecuted politically in four separate jurisdictions.
00:07:04.000 He's been hit with nonsense legal suits that have cost him tens of not hundreds of millions of dollars.
00:07:11.000 They are literally trying to put him in jail for a nonsense crime.
00:07:14.000 And then someone tries to shoot him.
00:07:16.000 And his response is that photo.
00:07:18.000 It's an amazing thing.
00:07:20.000 Later in the evening, President Trump got off the plane in New Jersey.
00:07:23.000 Thank God.
00:07:24.000 He's totally physically fine.
00:07:26.000 Here's footage of the president of the United States disembarking in New Jersey late last night.
00:07:29.000 There he is coming down the stairs of his Trump airplane.
00:07:45.000 Now, I'm going to go ahead and put the phone down.
00:07:48.000 Now.
00:07:49.000 There will be and there should be a rally around Trump effect.
00:07:53.000 Elon Musk came out yesterday and endorsed President Trump for the presidency.
00:07:57.000 A lot of people who are shy Trumpers are now not going to be very shy about their support for President Trump.
00:08:01.000 Why?
00:08:01.000 The reason is because, again, Donald Trump has withstood everything that his opposition can throw at him, from legal opposition to actual assassination attempts.
00:08:10.000 And Donald Trump keeps moving forward.
00:08:12.000 He keeps moving forward.
00:08:14.000 Politico has an entire piece acknowledging this.
00:08:16.000 Trump's raised fist will make history and define his candidacy.
00:08:16.000 This is Jonathan Martin.
00:08:21.000 And there's one other thing here.
00:08:23.000 I mentioned it right at the top.
00:08:24.000 The attempted assassination is one of the most predictable things to happen in American public life in my lifetime.
00:08:29.000 It is simultaneously one of the most shocking and one of the most predictable.
00:08:33.000 Shocking, but not surprising.
00:08:35.000 Why?
00:08:36.000 Because the temperature has been turned up so high for so long, his political opponents have defined him as literally Hitler.
00:08:44.000 And when you keep saying your political opposition is literally Hitler, who is going to take America into a new dark age, when you say that over and over and over again, you are turning up the temperature.
00:08:56.000 You're turning it up.
00:08:58.000 It's how you get congressional baseball shootings.
00:09:00.000 It's how you get attempted assassination attempts on Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
00:09:02.000 And it's how you get what happened yesterday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
00:09:05.000 Again, the only person who is responsible for the actual attempted shooting is the shooter.
00:09:10.000 With that said, when you keep turning up the temperature, when you keep saying that America is going to be literally destroyed, this will be the last election, Donald Trump is the worst person who has ever lived and he must be stopped, someone is going to take that seriously and think to themselves, shouldn't I do something to stop Hitler?
00:09:28.000 Shouldn't I?
00:09:30.000 So, is there a measure of responsibility born by people who say things like that over and over and over repeatedly, never stopping, consistently, every day, for years on end?
00:09:39.000 Absolutely.
00:09:41.000 Absolutely.
00:09:42.000 So, what do we know about the shooter at this time?
00:09:45.000 So apparently, I don't mention the names of shooters, but this is a presidential assassin, so I'm going to make an exception here.
00:09:49.000 The FBI has identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect in the attempted assassination.
00:09:56.000 To have any ID on him, they had to use biometric markers in order to figure out who he was.
00:10:00.000 They went to his home last night and they checked it out, they raided it, they brought stuff out.
00:10:05.000 According to state voter records, he was a registered Republican, but this would have been the first election in which he could have voted because he was only 20 years old.
00:10:14.000 However, when he was 17, he made a $15 donation to ActBlue, which is a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing.
00:10:25.000 That donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project, a national group that rallies Democrats to vote.
00:10:31.000 Crooks' father, who's 53, told CNN he was still trying to figure out what happened and would wait until he spoke to law enforcement before speaking about his son.
00:10:38.000 The only thing we know about him is that he graduated high school in 2022 and received a $500 Star Award from the National Math and Science Initiative.
00:10:48.000 Video from the ceremony posted online shows Crooks with glasses and a black graduation gown posing with a school official, apparently.
00:10:55.000 Again, law enforcement vehicles have been stationed outside the residence listed at the address on Crooks' voter registration record.
00:11:01.000 They were on the scene.
00:11:02.000 A bomb squad was at the residence as well.
00:11:06.000 Unclear at this point what more we know.
00:11:08.000 We'll bring it to you as it emerges, obviously.
00:11:12.000 In terms of what actually happened, there are obviously many, many witnesses.
00:11:15.000 So we're going to break this into two parts.
00:11:17.000 There are the witnesses to the actual shooting and the aftermath.
00:11:19.000 And then there are the witnesses who saw the shooter up on the roof.
00:11:24.000 And Secret Service obviously reacted late on this.
00:11:28.000 So, here is Pennsylvania State House candidate Rico Elmore, who is present and explains what he saw as this went down.
00:11:33.000 I yelled everyone to get down.
00:11:36.000 Everybody was getting down.
00:11:37.000 Everybody was yelling, get down.
00:11:38.000 I told people to get down.
00:11:40.000 And then, at this point, people were telling people, like, you know, get down.
00:11:45.000 This is face measures.
00:11:47.000 And people were listening.
00:11:49.000 And then I seen, they had yelled for the medic.
00:11:54.000 And there was an individual who was hitting the head.
00:11:58.000 I jumped over the barrier that was there.
00:11:59.000 I ran up into the bleachers and there was a towel that the people had had and I took the towel and I pushed it against the deceased head and just to try to, all I could think about doing was try to, you know, help him.
00:12:23.000 It is the most serious assassination attempt on a presidential candidate or sitting president since the assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan that nearly ended with Ronald Reagan's death and ended with the severe wounding of his press aide, Jim Brady.
00:12:39.000 It is an insane, insane incident.
00:12:41.000 It's totally, I mean, again, it's disturbing at every possible level.
00:12:46.000 It is possible to be disturbed.
00:12:47.000 Selena Zito is a columnist who's written extensively about President Trump.
00:12:50.000 She was a few feet from the president when this happened.
00:12:53.000 She describes the situation.
00:12:55.000 She says, I was four feet from the stage in a causeway with about five other journalists.
00:12:58.000 My daughter, a photographer, was next to me.
00:12:59.000 Her husband was next to her.
00:13:00.000 Trump started speaking.
00:13:01.000 Six minutes later, we heard the noise.
00:13:03.000 Pop, pop, pop.
00:13:05.000 Some people in the crowd might have thought they heard fireworks.
00:13:07.000 I knew exactly what it was.
00:13:08.000 I own a gun.
00:13:09.000 I looked up at the president.
00:13:09.000 He touched his ear.
00:13:10.000 I was shocked to see blood on his face.
00:13:12.000 A smear of red across his cheek.
00:13:13.000 Suddenly, he was surrounded.
00:13:14.000 Everyone went down.
00:13:15.000 My daughter hit the ground.
00:13:16.000 My son-in-law lay on top of her.
00:13:17.000 I threw my body next to theirs.
00:13:18.000 Immediately, a security officer on top of me.
00:13:20.000 Are you okay?
00:13:21.000 He asked.
00:13:21.000 Are you okay?
00:13:22.000 Three more shots.
00:13:22.000 Pop, pop, pop.
00:13:23.000 I've since seen videos of what happened.
00:13:25.000 People were screaming, but all I remember hearing was an eerie silence.
00:13:28.000 With that kind of crowd, you'd expect pandemonium, a stampede.
00:13:30.000 I never had that sense of chaos.
00:13:32.000 Trump was back on his feet within seconds.
00:13:33.000 Although his red hat was knocked off his head, he was calm.
00:13:36.000 I heard him shout to one of the staffers, get my shoes.
00:13:38.000 He lifted his arm in the air.
00:13:38.000 I think he shouted fight.
00:13:40.000 And he definitely shouted USA.
00:13:41.000 The crowd chanted it back in unison.
00:13:44.000 I'm still in shock.
00:13:45.000 I can't make any sense of it right now.
00:13:46.000 As a journalist, you're always looking 360 degrees around you at all times, not for danger, but for details.
00:13:52.000 The whole thing was deeply disorienting.
00:13:54.000 What's clear to me after today is that if someone is determined to commit an act of political violence, they will find a way.
00:13:59.000 And that last point is the big point here.
00:14:03.000 We have seen an increase in political violence in this country over the course of the last five years, truly touching off With the riots of 2020.
00:14:11.000 There were obviously riots in 2014 that were winked and nodded at by federal law enforcement.
00:14:17.000 2020 was the culmination of that.
00:14:20.000 We saw political violence at the congressional baseball shooting.
00:14:23.000 We've seen political violence in the attempted assassination of Brett Kavanaugh.
00:14:27.000 This is a dark era.
00:14:28.000 We are re-entering an era in which political assassination is considered part of the normal life of the nation.
00:14:34.000 If what happened yesterday does not stop.
00:14:37.000 Here is CBS speaking to ER physician Dr. Jim Sweetland who tried to save the man who was murdered.
00:14:42.000 You can see that his shirt is still stained with blood.
00:14:45.000 I heard the shots.
00:14:47.000 I thought it was firecrackers to begin with.
00:14:51.000 Somebody over there was screaming, he's been shot, he's been shot.
00:14:54.000 So I made my way over.
00:14:57.000 I said, I'm an emergency department physician.
00:14:59.000 Let me help you.
00:15:01.000 The guy had spun around and was jammed between the benches.
00:15:04.000 He had a headshot here.
00:15:05.000 There was lots of blood and he had brain matter there.
00:15:09.000 And so I got him.
00:15:10.000 There's a helicopter coming in to get him.
00:15:15.000 So I got people there really helpful.
00:15:19.000 I got a monitor back.
00:15:20.000 Was it the only one person shot that you saw?
00:15:21.000 Yeah, I did CPR, did chest compressions as well as a brief one.
00:15:27.000 Meanwhile NBC's Dasha Burns spoke with an OBGYN who carried the body off the stage.
00:15:35.000 I heard several gunshots.
00:15:37.000 The man beside me suffered a gunshot wound to the head, was instantly killed, fell to the bottom of the bleachers.
00:15:47.000 Another woman looked like she got hit in the forearm or hand, and at that point, State police and a SWAT team, you know, showed, started
00:15:57.000 evacuating the bleachers and then I helped carry the man out of the bleachers to a
00:16:00.000 tent that was behind the bleachers. You helped carry the man yourself? What was
00:16:05.000 his condition when you were carrying him? He's deceased.
00:16:09.000 There's a GoFundMe for the families of the people who were killed and wounded
00:16:14.000 in Pennsylvania. I highly recommend you go check it out.
00:16:18.000 We'll drop a link on YouTube.
00:16:20.000 We'll drop a link wherever we can, obviously, in terms of social media in order to raise money for the families.
00:16:25.000 So what exactly was Secret Service doing?
00:16:27.000 Because if you see an overhead map of the area, there's a building that is extremely close.
00:16:33.000 We're talking like 150 meters maybe.
00:16:35.000 Very, very close to the actual stage where President Trump was shot.
00:16:40.000 How in the world did Secret Service not catch this?
00:16:42.000 There are two questions.
00:16:43.000 One is, why didn't they react faster when they saw the shooter?
00:16:46.000 Because it turns out there were a lot of people who saw the shooter.
00:16:48.000 Number two is, why didn't they know that the shooter was up on the roof?
00:16:52.000 The first question is easier to answer.
00:16:54.000 Susan Crabtree over at RealClearPolitics.
00:16:57.000 She says, here's my reporting on why the Secret Service did not shoot until after the shooter engaged and some context about the House Republican investigation already underway into whether the agency's DEI policies are affecting its readiness.
00:17:08.000 The blowback against the Secret Service started within the hour of the assassination attempt and continued even after Trump and others credited the agency with saving Trump's life by quickly killing a shooter crawling across a nearby rooftop.
00:17:17.000 But a source within the Secret Service community tells RealClearPolitics the agency rules of engagement in this situation are to wait until the president is fired upon to return fire.
00:17:25.000 You want to take a shot, then find out the guy was holding a telescope, the source suggested?
00:17:28.000 The Secret Service is by nature reactive, and you better be right when you do react or you're effed.
00:17:32.000 So first of all, that protocol should probably change.
00:17:35.000 If you are foolish enough to go up top of a roof and bring a telescope, then Secret Service has to do its job.
00:17:43.000 It has to take preventative measures.
00:17:45.000 The Secret Service protocol requires a counter-sniper aware of a potential shooter to radio directly to Intel Division Team to respond and investigate.
00:17:51.000 In this case, the investigation may have been cut short by the shooter firing his weapon, so the counter-sniper then fired as quickly as possible in return.
00:17:58.000 The source praised the counter-sniper who acquired the target and responded within three seconds, calling their performance incredible.
00:18:03.000 The counter-snipers are highly trained and extremely accurate.
00:18:06.000 However, that is the answer as to why the shots went off first.
00:18:11.000 The real question is, why in the world was this person on the roof of an adjacent building with a rifle?
00:18:18.000 So here is video that has emerged of Trump rally goers shouting that they see the shooter moments before the
00:18:23.000 shooting.
00:18:24.000 And you know that's a little bit of a lie.
00:18:28.000 He's got a gun!
00:18:30.000 He's got a gun!
00:18:32.000 He's got a roof!
00:18:38.000 Stay down! Stay down!
00:18:40.000 Stay down!
00:18:42.000 You can hear it right there.
00:18:44.000 People shouting he's got a gun before the first shots are fired.
00:18:46.000 TMZ has actual footage of the attempted assassination.
00:18:49.000 You can see him lying on top of the roof.
00:19:08.000 He's killed almost immediately by the Secret Service.
00:19:10.000 How did he get on top of the building?
00:19:12.000 How did he get on top of the building?
00:19:16.000 It's just unbelievable that this was even a possibility.
00:19:22.000 Again, an overhead map shows law enforcement snipers on the roof of a nearby building behind the stage where Trump was speaking.
00:19:29.000 The shooter was on the only other nearby building, which is extremely, extremely close to where President Trump was speaking.
00:19:37.000 How is he allowed up there?
00:19:38.000 There are a lot of people who are engaging in a lot of theorizing today, but that is the fundamental question.
00:19:44.000 The fundamental question is, how is it that this person was able to climb onto the roof with a long gun?
00:19:49.000 How was that possible?
00:19:51.000 How is that possible?
00:19:52.000 Speaker Mike Johnson has already announced a full-scale investigation.
00:19:54.000 He says the House will conduct a full investigation of the tragic events today.
00:19:58.000 The American people deserve to know the truth.
00:19:59.000 We'll have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP.
00:20:07.000 This was only exacerbated.
00:20:09.000 By footage of some of the agents afterwards.
00:20:12.000 So, as you could even see in the original footage of the attempted assassination of President Trump, many of the people who are attempting to jump on him and cover him are people who are shorter and smaller than President Trump.
00:20:23.000 Which is a disaster area.
00:20:25.000 I travel with private security.
00:20:26.000 I am not President Trump.
00:20:28.000 I get some threats, I am not President Trump.
00:20:30.000 My security, they are bigger and stronger than I am.
00:20:32.000 That's why they're security.
00:20:34.000 If you can't shield President Trump with your body, what are you even doing in this job?
00:20:38.000 This particular video has gone viral as well it should.
00:20:40.000 It is a video of President Trump climbing into his travel vehicle here.
00:20:46.000 And as you'll see, there are two Secret Service agents standing by the car.
00:20:50.000 Both of them are female.
00:20:52.000 Both of them do not look like they are in particularly good shape.
00:20:54.000 One of them is fumbling around to reholster her weapon as though she doesn't know how to reholster a weapon.
00:21:00.000 It looks like something out of Reno 911.
00:21:03.000 It's pathetic.
00:21:04.000 Here's some of the footage.
00:21:06.000 Here she is, she's trying to figure out what to do.
00:21:16.000 She reaches in, she's trying to reholster her weapon, she can't find the holster.
00:21:19.000 She's not sure, like...
00:21:24.000 This, of course, is raising some fairly serious questions about what in the hell is Secret Service staffing?
00:21:31.000 How in the hell are they staffing this thing?
00:21:34.000 Well, perhaps one of the explanations for how you end up with Secret Service agents who don't know how to reholster a weapon is the fact that they have been actively attempting to DEI the entire Secret Service.
00:21:44.000 And it turns out when you lower standards in order to achieve particular quotas, the quality goes down.
00:21:49.000 There's a damn shock.
00:21:51.000 This is Secret Service head Kimberly Cheadle explaining to CBS News, not all that long ago, that her goal is a 30% Secret Service agency.
00:21:59.000 Your goal should be protecting people like President Trump.
00:22:02.000 You don't have that many of them.
00:22:06.000 To expand hiring, they're aiming to have 30% women recruits by 2030, and even allowed YouTube influencer Michelle Khare to train with ages.
00:22:17.000 I'm very conscious, as I sit in this chair now, of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everybody in our workforce, and particularly women.
00:22:34.000 I'm sorry, that is not the goal of the Secret Service.
00:22:36.000 And once again, the peculiar oddity of diversity, equity, and inclusion in which it matters more who does the job than how well they do it has consequences.
00:22:45.000 Just pathetic.
00:22:45.000 Okay, so President Trump reacted to this.
00:22:49.000 He issued a statement, and honestly, it's a beautiful statement.
00:22:52.000 He said, I want to thank the United States Secret Service and all of law enforcement for the rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania.
00:22:58.000 Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured.
00:23:04.000 It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country.
00:23:06.000 Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead.
00:23:09.000 He released this quite early.
00:23:10.000 I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.
00:23:12.000 I knew immediately that something was wrong and that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.
00:23:18.000 Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.
00:23:20.000 God bless America.
00:23:22.000 Later, he released a second statement.
00:23:24.000 This morning, early this morning, he posted, thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers
00:23:29.000 yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from
00:23:31.000 happening.
00:23:31.000 That is 100% true.
00:23:34.000 I mean, as I pointed out, he moves his head two inches and he's dead.
00:23:39.000 And this country is forever changed in radical and insane ways.
00:23:44.000 He says, quote, we will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness.
00:23:49.000 Our love goes out to other victims and their families.
00:23:51.000 We pray for the recovery of those who are wounded and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.
00:23:55.000 In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united and show our true character as Americans remaining strong and determined and not allowing evil to win.
00:24:03.000 I truly love our country.
00:24:04.000 I love you all.
00:24:05.000 I look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin.
00:24:09.000 It's again, a beautiful statement from President Trump in response to all of this.
00:24:13.000 The first major Democratic politician to respond was not the sitting president of the United States.
00:24:18.000 The first major politician to respond was Barack Obama, who issued a statement to Mediaite, quote, there's absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy.
00:24:25.000 Although we don't know yet exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn't seriously hurt and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics.
00:24:33.000 Michelle and I are wishing him a quick recovery.
00:24:36.000 Okay, then President Biden finally made a public statement.
00:24:41.000 He came out, he said it was sick, but he still refused to label it an assassination attempt after it was completely obvious.
00:24:46.000 Remember, he didn't speak until about 8.15 last night, which is past his bedtime, apparently.
00:24:52.000 This is two hours after the attempted shooting.
00:24:56.000 Everyone knew by this point that there was an assassination attempt.
00:25:00.000 It was on video.
00:25:02.000 The blood was evident on President Trump's face.
00:25:04.000 And here was Joe Biden saying, well, we just, we don't know.
00:25:06.000 We don't know.
00:25:07.000 And then he suggests we have to unify.
00:25:09.000 There's no place in America for this kind of violence.
00:25:13.000 It's sick.
00:25:14.000 It's sick.
00:25:16.000 It's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country.
00:25:18.000 We cannot allow for this to be happening.
00:25:20.000 We cannot be like this.
00:25:22.000 We cannot condone this.
00:25:24.000 Mr. President, do you think this was an assassination attempt?
00:25:28.000 I don't know enough.
00:25:30.000 I have an opinion, but I don't have any facts.
00:25:33.000 So I want to make sure we have all the facts before I make any more comments.
00:25:37.000 Thank you.
00:25:39.000 Just tepid and pathetic.
00:25:40.000 Tepid and pathetic.
00:25:41.000 If this had been an assassination attempt against a Democrat, you know, you know that this would be a completely different statement by President Biden.
00:25:48.000 And the reason it would be a completely different statement by President Biden is because one of the great lies that the left has told over the course of my lifetime is that heated political rhetoric is only a feature of the right.
00:25:57.000 The left can say whatever the hell they want about any Republican, particularly President Trump.
00:26:02.000 They can say it over and over.
00:26:03.000 They can shout it from the rooftops.
00:26:05.000 They can run entire political campaigns based on it and then declare they're not answerable to reality.
00:26:12.000 Hearing President Biden call for unity in this moment after this, of course, he should.
00:26:17.000 He should have all along.
00:26:19.000 Instead, he has run a political campaign for re-election on the basis that Donald Trump is Hitler.
00:26:23.000 If you keep saying your opponent is Hitler, somebody might take you seriously, as it turns out.
00:26:30.000 Here is Joe Biden.
00:26:32.000 This is his speech at 2022 in Independence Hall.
00:26:36.000 I said this is one of the most dangerous and fascistic political speeches I ever heard.
00:26:39.000 It was Independence Hall, 2022, flanked by members of the military in the background against a blood-red Independence Hall.
00:26:46.000 Here was Joe Biden, again, this is in the lead-up to the midterm elections, before Donald Trump was even the nominee.
00:26:52.000 Donald Trump had not even declared his candidacy for the presidency, again, at this point, suggesting that the That the victory of his political opponents would end democracy in America.
00:27:04.000 The most irresponsible political rhetoric of my lifetime.
00:27:07.000 Here was Joe Biden in 2022.
00:27:10.000 Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.
00:27:18.000 History tells us the blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy.
00:27:30.000 For a long time, we've told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed.
00:27:37.000 But it's not.
00:27:38.000 We have to defend it.
00:27:40.000 Protect it.
00:27:44.000 Hell.
00:27:46.000 So he suggests the answer is vote.
00:27:47.000 But to untrained ears, if someone says, this person, Julius Caesar, is a threat to the Senate, if somebody says that this person, Hitler, is a threat to democracy, a threat to the West, a threat to your basic freedoms, if this person becomes president, there might not be any more elections.
00:28:02.000 If you say that over and over and over again, Why would you possibly be shocked if somebody takes you seriously?
00:28:07.000 Again, only the shooter is responsible for the shooting, but President Biden is responsible for the increase in the temperature in this country to a radical degree.
00:28:14.000 Here is President Biden at Univision interview, April 2024.
00:28:17.000 This is just a couple of months ago.
00:28:22.000 What in your view constitutes the primary threat to freedom and democracy at home?
00:28:27.000 Donald Trump.
00:28:30.000 Donald Trump is the primary threat to freedom and democracy at home.
00:28:32.000 So if you remove the threat, Then there's no more threat, according to Joe Biden, the current president of the United States.
00:28:39.000 Absolute insanity.
00:28:41.000 Absolute insanity.
00:28:42.000 And again, he didn't stop.
00:28:44.000 This is a tweet from two days ago.
00:28:48.000 Two days ago, literally the day before the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump, from Joe Biden, 7 p.m.
00:28:56.000 This is in 24 hours before somebody tried to shoot Donald Trump in the head.
00:29:00.000 Quote, Americans want a president, not a dictator.
00:29:04.000 Not a dictator.
00:29:05.000 Now, let me explain something to you.
00:29:06.000 Joe Biden doesn't believe that Donald Trump would be a dictator.
00:29:08.000 In fact, he knows he wouldn't.
00:29:10.000 He's lying.
00:29:11.000 He's been lying the entire time.
00:29:12.000 The Democratic Party has been lying the entire time.
00:29:15.000 Because Donald Trump was not that thing.
00:29:15.000 How do we know?
00:29:17.000 He was already president.
00:29:19.000 In fact, he exercised executive authority in ways far less far-reaching than Joe Biden has.
00:29:26.000 And yet, the entire political campaign of Joe Biden has been written on the basis of the idea that Donald Trump is a singular, ever-present, clear and present danger to the very foundations of a democratic republic like the United States.
00:29:41.000 Would it be a wonder then that someone took that seriously?
00:29:45.000 It's meant to be taken seriously.
00:29:47.000 It's meant to be taken seriously.
00:29:49.000 I'm not saying that Joe Biden wanted Donald Trump assassinated.
00:29:52.000 I am saying that Joe Biden wants Donald Trump removed from the political scene.
00:29:58.000 He wants to do it democratically.
00:30:00.000 He wants to do it by voting.
00:30:01.000 Maybe he doesn't want to do it democratically.
00:30:02.000 Maybe he wants to do it by activating his DOJ in order to jail his political opponent.
00:30:07.000 But is it any wonder that an unhinged person Would take those words and translate that into, I need to stop Hitler today.
00:30:15.000 I need to stop the dictator.
00:30:16.000 There's only one way to stop a dictator, typically speaking.
00:30:19.000 That way has very rarely been the ballot box.
00:30:22.000 Again, this is not rare for Joe Biden.
00:30:24.000 This is a tweet from June 28th, 2024.
00:30:27.000 That's two weeks ago.
00:30:29.000 Quote, Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation.
00:30:32.000 He's a threat to our freedom.
00:30:33.000 He's a threat to our democracy.
00:30:35.000 He's literally a threat to everything America stands for.
00:30:38.000 Literally a threat to everything America stands for.
00:30:41.000 He's a cruel, malevolent, evil man, says Joe Biden, an incipient dictator, who if he wins this election, there may never be another election.
00:30:49.000 And then you're shocked when someone took you seriously?
00:30:52.000 You're shocked when somebody took you seriously?
00:30:55.000 Just last week, after the Supreme Court made what is a fairly routine decision about presidential immunity that was wildly misinterpreted and deliberately misinterpreted by the dissent, Sonia Sotomayor to suggest that Donald Trump might have the ability to activate SEAL Team 6 to kill his political opponents.
00:31:17.000 The Biden-Harris campaign put out a statement, quote, Today's ruling doesn't change the facts, so let's be very clear about what happened.
00:31:23.000 January 6th, Donald Trump snapped after he lost the 2020 election and encouraged a mob to overthrow the results of a free and fair election.
00:31:30.000 Trump is already running for president as a convicted felon for the very same reason he sat idly by while the mob violently attacked the Capitol.
00:31:36.000 He thinks he's above the law and is willing to do anything to gain and hold on to power for himself.
00:31:41.000 Since January 6th, Trump has only grown more unhinged.
00:31:44.000 He's promising to be a dictator on day one.
00:31:46.000 By the way, that is a lie.
00:31:47.000 What he said is that he would be a dictator for one day and he was joking and he was saying it about executive orders on immigration, calling for our constitution to be terminated.
00:31:55.000 Also a lie.
00:31:56.000 He said, That if they had terminated the Constitution through electoral fraud, then that would dissolve the country.
00:32:01.000 He was saying they were the ones who were terminating the Constitution.
00:32:04.000 Even if I disagree with his take on electoral fraud, this is not what he was saying.
00:32:08.000 Promising a bloodbath if he loses.
00:32:10.000 A lie!
00:32:10.000 That is not what he said.
00:32:11.000 He said there would be an economic bloodbath if he lost.
00:32:14.000 So this is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris lying about President Trump.
00:32:18.000 Quote, the American people already rejected Donald Trump's self-obsessed quest for power once.
00:32:22.000 Joe Biden will make sure they reject it for good in November.
00:32:24.000 And then he went on national television and suggested that if Donald Trump was made president of the United States again, he might kill his political opponents using the power of presidential immunity.
00:32:34.000 He literally said that two weeks ago.
00:32:37.000 It doesn't stop.
00:32:38.000 This is the entirety of the Joe Biden campaign because he's got nothing else.
00:32:43.000 Two weeks ago, the Biden headquarters put out a tweet suggesting that Donald Trump's quote-unquote Project 2025 America would look like The Handmaid's Tale.
00:32:53.000 They literally took a graphic from The Handmaid's Tale and they tweeted it out of women in the red habit.
00:33:02.000 And the nun's hat underneath the Washington Monument turned into a cross.
00:33:08.000 And Biden-Harris headquarters tweeted out 4th of July under Trump's Project 2025.
00:33:12.000 How many times can you say that your political opponent is going to impose a fascist dictatorship before somebody takes you seriously?
00:33:19.000 How many times?
00:33:21.000 The lies that they have told about President Trump are insane and disgusting and vile.
00:33:26.000 They've always been insane, disgusting and vile.
00:33:29.000 President Trump was already president.
00:33:30.000 We know that these are lies and they keep pushing them.
00:33:33.000 Joe Biden put out an ad on race just a couple of days ago in which he suggested that President Trump hates black people.
00:33:40.000 This sort of rhetoric raises the temperature.
00:33:43.000 It raises, it increases the possibility of free radicals.
00:33:47.000 This has always been true.
00:33:48.000 Here's an ad that Joe Biden just put out.
00:33:50.000 And again, it is just chock filled with lies and the impression that Donald Trump is a racist, bigoted dictator would be.
00:34:00.000 Joe Biden, and I approve this message.
00:34:03.000 Of course I hate these people.
00:34:05.000 Donald Trump disrespecting black folk is nothing new.
00:34:07.000 He was sued for refusing to rent his apartments to black families, and called for the execution of five innocent black and brown teenagers.
00:34:14.000 And it's more than anger, it's hatred.
00:34:15.000 It's why Trump stood with violent white supremacists, warned of a bloodbath if he loses the next election, and if he's president again, vowed to be a dictator who wants revenge on his enemies.
00:34:26.000 Now, who do you think that is?
00:34:28.000 Of course I hate these people.
00:34:31.000 Okay, that ad came out like three days ago.
00:34:33.000 Okay, that ad says that he sides with white supremacists.
00:34:36.000 It says that he hates black people.
00:34:36.000 A lie.
00:34:38.000 A lie.
00:34:38.000 It says that he will be a dictator who unleashes a bloodbath if he loses.
00:34:42.000 A lie.
00:34:43.000 All of those are lies.
00:34:45.000 And they were promulgated for a political purpose by Joe Biden and by his team.
00:34:50.000 Now, I'm old enough to remember when Gabby Giffords, who is a congresswoman from Arizona, was shot in a mass shooting.
00:34:57.000 And the mass shooter, it turns out, was a schizophrenic crazy person.
00:34:59.000 And the entire media leapt to blame Sarah Palin.
00:35:02.000 Because Sarah Palin had put up a list of targeted districts where people should put their money.
00:35:07.000 Well, if Sarah Palin can get blamed for that, then explain to me this.
00:35:10.000 How is it that Joe Biden can days ago say, quote, I have one job, that's to beat Donald Trump.
00:35:16.000 I'm absolutely certain I'm the best person to be able to do that.
00:35:18.000 So we're done talking about the debate.
00:35:20.000 It's time to put Trump in a bullseye.
00:35:23.000 Yeah, I've been told that that sort of rhetoric is dangerous.
00:35:25.000 But I guess when it comes to Joe Biden, it's not dangerous anymore.
00:35:29.000 I suppose.
00:35:30.000 By the way, it is worth noting at this point that it was just a couple of months ago, April 19th, that Democrat Bennie Thompson, ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, introduced the Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated Toward Convicting an Extremely Dishonorable Disgraced Former Protectees Act.
00:35:47.000 The Disgraced Former Protectees Act.
00:35:49.000 What did it do?
00:35:50.000 It was designed to deny secret service protection from Donald J. Trump.
00:35:55.000 That was like two months ago.
00:35:57.000 And again, all of this was mirrored by the media.
00:36:00.000 Six days ago, the New Republic put out this image on their cover.
00:36:04.000 The New Republic used to be a fairly serious left liberal publication.
00:36:07.000 Now it's turned into slate.com.
00:36:10.000 Except for even more radical people.
00:36:12.000 The cover, for those who can't see it, says, The New Republic, American fascism, in sort of the old-style German Hitler font.
00:36:19.000 American fascism, what it would look like.
00:36:20.000 And it is a picture of Donald Trump's face merged with the face of Adolf Hitler, with the Hitler mustache and everything.
00:36:27.000 That was The New Republic six days ago.
00:36:30.000 Six days ago.
00:36:33.000 This is madness.
00:36:35.000 Absolute crazy madness.
00:36:38.000 Here is a montage of members of the media stating over and over that Donald Trump is a would-be dictator, a would-be Hitler, Orange Hitler.
00:36:47.000 They were saying this for years.
00:36:51.000 Let's deal with Hitler, okay?
00:36:53.000 I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that.
00:36:55.000 I mean, that is Mussolini-Hitler-like language.
00:36:58.000 Trump's affinity for Hitler was always covered under an umbrella of his stupidity.
00:37:02.000 Echoing Hitler's words, Listen to this.
00:37:05.000 Well, Hitler was duly elected.
00:37:08.000 Echoing the hateful rhetoric of Adolf Hitler.
00:37:11.000 I refuse to live under Donald Trump's reign again.
00:37:14.000 I refuse to risk our democracy.
00:37:16.000 What would a second Trump term in the White House mean for the rule of law in our country?
00:37:23.000 It would be the end of democracy.
00:37:24.000 Anybody that votes Republican and doesn't understand you're voting for the end of democracy.
00:37:29.000 That's the kind of language Hitler used in Mein Kampf.
00:37:32.000 About vermin and Hitler and Mussolini.
00:37:35.000 That's a horrifying clip.
00:37:37.000 That's a fascist clip.
00:37:38.000 He's just going full-on Hitler.
00:37:40.000 If Trump wins, it would be the end of democracy in the United States.
00:37:46.000 This was the campaign.
00:37:47.000 This is the campaign.
00:37:50.000 When you say that over and over and over, while condemning Donald Trump's rhetoric, we can all see what you're doing.
00:37:55.000 And it has real consequences.
00:37:57.000 Here is Joy Reid of MSNBC.
00:37:59.000 This is July 5th.
00:38:01.000 This is nine days ago.
00:38:04.000 It's been a week before someone tried to shoot the President of the United States in the head.
00:38:08.000 Here is Joy Reid.
00:38:11.000 Then let me know who I gotta vote for to keep Hitler out the White House.
00:38:15.000 That's it, I'm done.
00:38:16.000 Oh, and by the way, if it's Biden in a coma, I'mma vote for Biden in a coma.
00:38:21.000 I don't even really particularly like the guy.
00:38:22.000 A lot of his policies, don't like him.
00:38:24.000 He's not Donald Trump, right?
00:38:26.000 Yeah, Hitler, White House.
00:38:28.000 We keepin' him out.
00:38:29.000 Keepin' Project 2025 out.
00:38:30.000 That's all I care about.
00:38:31.000 Up and down the ballot from the root of- Hitler, White House.
00:38:35.000 Okay, you can't keep saying that over and over again.
00:38:37.000 Somebody's saying, hey, maybe I should take out Hitler.
00:38:40.000 Again, why is this in any way something controversial?
00:38:43.000 It's not.
00:38:44.000 I've been calling for years on my program, my entire political career actually, stop saying that your political opponent is the end of democracy.
00:38:52.000 This is the last election.
00:38:53.000 There will never be another one.
00:38:55.000 It is inherently bad and wrong.
00:38:57.000 And the left has been doing with Donald Trump to an extent that no other American politician in modern history has been treated.
00:39:04.000 Truly, not since Abraham Lincoln has a presidential candidate been treated this way by the media, by their political opposition, as quote-unquote, the end of democracy.
00:39:11.000 We know how it ended for Lincoln.
00:39:13.000 Obviously, somebody attempted to end it for Donald Trump the same way yesterday.
00:39:18.000 The media were complicit in this.
00:39:20.000 The media fomented this.
00:39:23.000 They continue to foment this, by the way.
00:39:26.000 So I should point out that in the very early moments, like the first half hour after the shooting, the attempted shooting of Donald Trump, it wasn't a shooting because somebody, other people died.
00:39:34.000 The immediate headlines from the media tried to ignore the actual story in a way you know they would not have if, God forbid, this were Joe Biden.
00:39:42.000 Here was CNN's headline, Secret Service rushes Trump offstage after he falls at rally.
00:39:47.000 Did something make him fall?
00:39:48.000 How did he fall exactly?
00:39:50.000 How did he fall?
00:39:51.000 He was shot in the ear.
00:39:54.000 New York Times, Trump hurt but safe after a shooting.
00:39:58.000 Oh, there was a shooting, was there?
00:40:00.000 But like, was it an assassination attempt?
00:40:03.000 That's what you call it when someone tries to kill a political official.
00:40:07.000 The Associated Press.
00:40:08.000 Donald Trump has been escorted off the stage by Secret Service during a rally after loud noises ring out in the crowd.
00:40:13.000 Oh, someone must have sounded an air horn or something.
00:40:16.000 You wonder why you've destroyed your credibility?
00:40:17.000 It's because you are so hell-bent On destroying your own credibility in the name of a political narrative that you end up with garbage headlines like that.
00:40:25.000 And the media have not stopped.
00:40:26.000 Understand, they have not stopped for one single solitary second.
00:40:29.000 Within moments of the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump.
00:40:33.000 Again, an assassination attempt that failed by centimeters.
00:40:37.000 Maybe millimeters.
00:40:38.000 It literally took off a piece of his ear.
00:40:40.000 Within moments, the entire media apparatus had swiveled into position.
00:40:45.000 And they were going to finally take on violent rhetoric from President Trump.
00:40:49.000 I'm not even kidding.
00:40:51.000 The narrative here, the actual story here is an entire political party, an entire political side of the aisle geared around the idea that Donald Trump is a grave existential threat to democracy.
00:41:02.000 And then someone took that seriously, presumably, and tried to shoot the President of the United States.
00:41:06.000 And the media swiveled into place and said the problem was Donald Trump and his supporters and their rhetoric.
00:41:12.000 So, here with CNN's Jamie Gangle attacking Donald Trump.
00:41:15.000 Why?
00:41:16.000 Because when he got up from the ground after having been shot near his head, in the ear, he got up and he said, fight, and then USA.
00:41:24.000 And this is the kind of dangerous rhetoric that could lead to violence.
00:41:26.000 You pathetic, sad sack ass clowns.
00:41:30.000 Are you kidding me?
00:41:31.000 Are you effing kidding me?
00:41:32.000 Like what?
00:41:34.000 He's the one who got shot.
00:41:37.000 One of his supporters was murdered.
00:41:39.000 He gets up and he says, fight.
00:41:42.000 On the basis of just almost getting murdered?
00:41:44.000 And your complaint is that his rhetoric is too heated?
00:41:47.000 What about your rhetoric?
00:41:49.000 What about your side of the political aisle?
00:41:50.000 Yeah, truly, the danger, the rhetorical danger to democracy is from Donald Trump.
00:41:54.000 Clearly, that's the problem.
00:41:55.000 It has nothing to do with an entire ecosystem built on the idea that Donald Trump is the kind of person who needs to be eliminated from American society in order to ensure the future of democracy.
00:42:06.000 Here's CNN's Jamie Gangle trying to flip the script here.
00:42:09.000 I do want to say there was one thing that when I watched the tape, I found odd because of all of the heated rhetoric.
00:42:19.000 And that is that after he was hit, former President Trump got up and said, fight, fight, fight.
00:42:27.000 I think what we're hearing from people is that's not the message that we want to be sending right now.
00:42:33.000 We want to tamp it down.
00:42:35.000 I would just note one thing on this, kind of to that point.
00:42:40.000 To that point, tamp down the rhetoric.
00:42:43.000 He got up after being shot in the head, okay?
00:42:47.000 Your ear is part of your head.
00:42:48.000 He got shot in the ear.
00:42:49.000 If he had turned his head at the last minute, he is dead.
00:42:51.000 It's his brain matter on the stage.
00:42:54.000 And then the media, I'm sure, would issue all of their crocodile tears about how upset they are for the death of Donald Trump.
00:43:02.000 I'm sure they'd be deeply, deeply upset after having called him a deep and existential threat to the democracy.
00:43:07.000 The real problem is that Donald Trump got up Like a champ and then started pumping his fist and saying fight and then said USA to the crowd.
00:43:16.000 That's the problem.
00:43:17.000 It's that sort of rhetoric that can't be allowed in America.
00:43:20.000 Every left wing piece of radical rhetoric is not only allowable but morally decent.
00:43:24.000 Burning down cities in 2020 is totally decent.
00:43:27.000 But if you get shot in the ear and God forbid you get up and you say to your crowd fight.
00:43:31.000 As you should, you are the existential threat to democracy once again, so it's just doubling down.
00:43:36.000 Here is CBS News' Margaret Brenneran, and she's lecturing Steve Scalise.
00:43:40.000 Now Steve Scalise, who is the House majority whip, Steve Scalise was shot by a radical Bernie Sanders supporter.
00:43:47.000 He almost died.
00:43:49.000 He almost died.
00:43:49.000 Okay, so he too was a victim of a radical left-winger.
00:43:53.000 He was shot, almost killed, and Margaret Brennan starts lecturing him about instructing Republican members to rein in the rhetoric.
00:44:00.000 Yeah, clearly the rhetorical problem is on the right side of the aisle.
00:44:02.000 Nailed it.
00:44:05.000 But I wonder what your message is.
00:44:08.000 Have you specifically instructed members in the coming hours to rein in some of the rhetoric that I will point out some are using online that is somewhat incendiary in terms of really blaming this somehow on the administration?
00:44:28.000 Have you asked them to refrain from that?
00:44:31.000 I've already been very vocal within moments of the shooting that political violence is not something anybody should tolerate.
00:44:40.000 But also, I came out, went further and said that we need to dial the rhetoric down.
00:44:45.000 And there's been a lot of rhetoric for the last few months.
00:44:51.000 Unbelievable.
00:44:51.000 Margaret Brennan then said, this could inspire violence.
00:44:56.000 You mean the attempted, like the big problem is going to be the backlash?
00:44:59.000 It's gonna be the backlash.
00:45:01.000 Now they're all just doing the Norm Macdonald joke.
00:45:02.000 The big problem with 9-11 is how many people might be mean to Muslims.
00:45:05.000 I mean, like, this is where we are now.
00:45:08.000 Donald Trump, somebody almost killed the former president of the United States.
00:45:12.000 And Margaret Brennan's first move is to suggest that this might inspire Republican violence.
00:45:17.000 It seems to me the problem is not Republican violence.
00:45:20.000 It seems to me the problem is someone tried to shoot the president of the United States, the former president, and leading presidential contender, and did kill somebody.
00:45:28.000 That seems to me like the big problem.
00:45:30.000 Again, it's like the other Norm Macdonald joke, where somebody's talking about the big problem with Bill Cosby is that Bill Cosby, there are so many problems with race in America.
00:45:43.000 He said, it seems to me the big problem was the assassination attempt, Margaret.
00:45:50.000 We're showing you this video on repeat because these events just happened.
00:45:54.000 But we want to make clear that this is something we are reporting to you as a historic event as it unfolds.
00:46:02.000 But we are very mindful that this kind of event can inspire violence.
00:46:08.000 It can inspire retaliation.
00:46:11.000 And we want no part of that, Sam.
00:46:13.000 January, this is not minimizing January 6th.
00:46:15.000 I think January 6th was quite terrible.
00:46:17.000 This is not on the same level.
00:46:18.000 Trying to shoot the former president of the United States in the head is not on the same level.
00:46:23.000 And yet the media are going to treat it as not only on the same level.
00:46:25.000 This will be memory hold within about five minutes if the media have their way here.
00:46:30.000 NBC's Lester Holt and Frank Figliuzzi, they too did the same thing.
00:46:34.000 This is going to be the new media narrative is this might, this might spur violence from right-wingers.
00:46:39.000 You never know.
00:46:40.000 Trump supporters might go nuts now.
00:46:41.000 That's the big problem.
00:46:42.000 The big problem is the Trump supporters.
00:46:44.000 Trump nearly gets shot.
00:46:45.000 The problem is, you know, the Trump supporters.
00:46:47.000 Here is NBC's Lester Holt and Frank Figliuzzi attempting to explain this one.
00:46:52.000 Are you fearful or does law enforcement look at the possibility that something like this could inspire others who may have harbored similar thoughts?
00:47:01.000 Oh, absolutely.
00:47:02.000 The copycat thing here.
00:47:04.000 Look, sadly, we've seen it over the last couple of years, haven't we?
00:47:07.000 With people kind of taking on FBI buildings and it doesn't end well for them, like Cincinnati, Ohio, or a man who tried to swing a weapon at FBI agents in Provo, Utah, who were arresting him.
00:47:21.000 This kind of thing begets more violence and revenge.
00:47:25.000 So if you're going to have protest areas in Milwaukee with presumably people who are anti-Trump, can you imagine people Who think in their head the answer is to seek revenge for today's event, maybe against those who are protesting against Trump.
00:47:39.000 This presents quite the challenge for next week.
00:47:42.000 They're wish-casting violence on the other side that has not even happened yet.
00:47:47.000 They're wish-casting it.
00:47:49.000 It's unbelievable.
00:47:51.000 NBC's Garrett Haack doing the same thing, fretting that Republicans might seize on the images.
00:47:54.000 We can't show the images anymore because they might seize on the images of President Trump raising his hand to show that he had survived an assassination attempt.
00:48:00.000 That might be really bad.
00:48:01.000 Republicans might be mean after that.
00:48:04.000 His supporters, though, are using images like the ones we're seeing on the screen, including now both of his sons pinning those images to their ex accounts, the website formerly known as Twitter, pointing out the idea that their father, the Republican nominee in waiting, if you will, is a fighter and kind of Seizing on this moment to elevate him politically.
00:48:25.000 And so we have the physical update here from the former president.
00:48:28.000 Again, he claims that he was shot through the upper part of his right ear.
00:48:32.000 By all accounts, will be just fine.
00:48:35.000 The political reverberations, of course, entirely unpredictable at this moment, but already going on behind the scenes.
00:48:42.000 The Trump campaign, as we've reported earlier in the evening, putting their staffers on lockdown, telling people not to talk to the press, Not to talk at all while they figure out the steps at a more senior level they want to take going forward.
00:48:55.000 And Lester, I'll just add, as I mentioned earlier in our broadcast tonight, that concerns about the former president's safety on the campaign trail have always been on the front burner at the senior level of the Trump campaign.
00:49:10.000 The media are a funhouse mirror.
00:49:11.000 They're supposed to be a mirror to reality and they're a funhouse mirror in which everything ends up upside down and backwards.
00:49:19.000 It is left-wing, Democratic, radical rhetoric about how Donald Trump is Hitler that raises the temperature.
00:49:25.000 Somebody tries to shoot Donald Trump.
00:49:26.000 Again, I can't repeat this enough.
00:49:27.000 Somebody tries to shoot the former president in the head and misses by literally this much, by this much.
00:49:33.000 Okay, I'm holding my fingers very, very close together because that is literally the difference between Donald Trump being alive and dead today.
00:49:39.000 And their first move is about the Republican rhetoric.
00:49:42.000 George Stephanopoulos and Martha Raddatz, this morning on ABC News, They started hitting Trump for his rhetoric.
00:49:50.000 Understand, so it's a completely unfalsifiable matrix they've created here.
00:49:54.000 If somebody had tried, God forbid, to kill Joe Biden, it would have been Trump's rhetoric.
00:49:57.000 And if somebody tries to kill Donald Trump, it's also Trump's rhetoric, according to geniuses George Stephanopoulos and Martha Raddatz over at ABC.
00:50:06.000 President Trump and his supporters have contributed to this violent rhetoric as well.
00:50:10.000 Well, absolutely, George.
00:50:12.000 We were just looking back this morning at some of the things that former President Trump has said.
00:50:17.000 He warned last March of potential death and destruction if he were charged by the Manhattan District Attorney.
00:50:23.000 Our country is being destroyed as they tell us to be peaceful.
00:50:27.000 Trump in January warned of bedlam in the country if the criminal charges against him succeeded.
00:50:33.000 And of course in March, He said, now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole.
00:50:38.000 That's going to be the least of it.
00:50:39.000 It's going to be a bloodbath for the country.
00:50:42.000 That will be the least of it.
00:50:43.000 He said he was partly joking and that that was taken out of context.
00:50:47.000 But those are indeed his words.
00:50:49.000 And you have heard it from supporters as well.
00:50:52.000 And supporters are certainly in some parts angry.
00:50:55.000 And let's remember January 6th.
00:50:59.000 These people are clowns.
00:51:01.000 They're clowns.
00:51:01.000 They've lost the trust of the American people.
00:51:03.000 They should have lost the trust of the American people.
00:51:04.000 George Stephanopoulos said before the debate the only question he would ask Donald Trump over and over and over again is the threat to democracy question.
00:51:12.000 He can ask whatever questions he wants, but this notion that the radical left-wing rhetoric that has been mainstreamed by the Democratic Party The ad after ad, the picture after picture of Donald Trump as existential threat to America.
00:51:25.000 There will be no more elections.
00:51:27.000 Donald Trump will be a dictator.
00:51:28.000 You might have all your friends killed.
00:51:29.000 All your rights will be taken away.
00:51:30.000 You'll be shipped off on boxcars.
00:51:31.000 That sort of talk is unbelievably dangerous.
00:51:35.000 Rhetoric does have consequences.
00:51:36.000 Again, for the ninth time of the show, only the shooter is responsible for what the shooter does.
00:51:40.000 But when you keep raising the temperature, When you keep raising the temperature, you're doing something deeply wrong.
00:51:45.000 And when you're lying to do it, you're doing something deeply evil.
00:51:47.000 And the left has been doing something both deeply wrong and deeply evil here.
00:51:51.000 That is the reality of the situation.
00:51:53.000 All right, folks, we will bring you additional details as they emerge.
00:51:57.000 Obviously, everything is flowing out in real time.
00:52:00.000 At this point, I'm sure we're going to find out more about the shooter.
00:52:03.000 Meanwhile, the RNC is slated to happen this week.
00:52:06.000 It's going to be yet another shocking and astonishing week in the history of American politics.
00:52:12.000 Thank God Donald Trump is alright.
00:52:14.000 Our prayers Go out to the families of the people who were killed and wounded at the rally.
00:52:20.000 Again, there is a GoFundMe.
00:52:21.000 Please give generously if you have the ability to do so.
00:52:25.000 God save the United States of America.
00:52:27.000 And remember, folks, your fellow Americans are not the enemy.
00:52:31.000 Your fellow Americans are not the enemy.
00:52:33.000 Stop labeling your fellow Americans a danger to the future of the republic sufficient that they must be eliminated from American life or we're not going to last.
00:52:41.000 All right.
00:52:41.000 We'll be back here tomorrow with much more.
00:52:42.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.