Shots were fired at a pro-Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night. President Trump was rushed to a local hospital with blood on his face, but is otherwise fine, according to the Trump campaign and the media. Michael Krumholz explains why this is so shocking.
00:12:14.980Was it something else that sounds like a gunfire but is not?
00:12:18.660The reason that anyone was even asking that is because there are typically such strong security perimeters at these events that it would seem unthinkable that someone could get a gun in there.
00:12:28.500But the reports are now coming out, this was gunfire, at least one attendee dead, and the shooter happily dead before he could do more damage than he already did.
00:12:40.240Very happily, President Trump seems to be okay.
00:12:43.700The image of Trump standing there defiant, blood coming down his face, composing himself, fight, fight, fight.
00:12:52.860You can see him, obviously, with more emotion than usual, but still in command of his speech and his body says, fight, fight, fight.
00:13:36.140It calls to mind one very clear historical incident that was October 14th, 1912, when a president in many ways very similar to Donald Trump and who Donald Trump has said he takes inspiration from, Teddy Roosevelt was shot.
00:17:17.300Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is ostensibly running for president against Trump and Biden, has come out, asked Americans to pray for Trump.
00:17:25.860Now is the time for every American who loves our country to step back from the division, renounce all violence, and unite in prayer for President Trump and his family.
00:17:33.780Obviously, the Republican National Convention is set to kick off in about 36 hours.
00:17:43.560It's set to kick off on Monday, fully.
00:17:45.560I mean, the Republican, many of the Republicans are already in Milwaukee.
00:17:50.080The convention is in that sense already underway.
00:17:52.360But it formally kicks off 36 hours from now, something like that.
00:18:00.800Many, if not most, major Republicans and conservatives and right-wingers, we're talking activists, journalists, politicians, they're going to be there too.
00:18:13.820The presidential nominee appears almost to have been murdered.
00:18:17.280We're getting more confirmation, more reports in, this time from Sky News, that at least one rally attendee is dead, sadly.
00:18:27.040We don't know really anything more about who that attendee is.
00:18:32.260We don't even really know where the shot came from.
00:18:36.020Again, the Secret Service is saying this is an active investigation.
00:18:39.340The reports are that the gunman is dead.
00:21:26.720A rhetorical attack on the separation of powers and on the Supreme Court.
00:21:32.800And quite violent, especially when you consider that Supreme Court justices are appointed for life.
00:21:38.240So that, you know, to say you're going to feel the whirlwind, we're going to whip up all these people, there was just a new report that the left is pouring $10 million or more into an effort to demonize the Supreme Court.
00:21:51.040Now, it's one thing to spend money to demonize an elected politician.
00:21:55.620Then you say, all right, now we're going to persuade people and you're going to kick them out of the ballot box.
00:21:59.320It doesn't make any sense for the Supreme Court.
00:22:01.060The Supreme Court is not supposed to be party to electoral politics.
00:22:05.120So the only thing that that could do is to delegitimize the court and to increase threats of physical violence against the Supreme Court, the conservatives specifically on the Supreme Court.
00:22:15.420That has largely been memory hold, too.
00:22:52.680I think any time a former president and party nominee is told to drop down by Secret Service and comes up with blood on his face, I think it's pretty serious.
00:23:02.940I'm glad, though, that he and Michelle are wishing him a quick recovery.
00:23:06.140Is Joe Biden going to make a statement?
00:24:43.840And he ended up with blood on the side of his face.
00:24:46.080Are we talking about inches away from a former president, the current leading presidential candidate in 2024, being murdered two days, less than two days before the Republican National Convention?
00:25:05.880How does anyone attend a Trump rally now?
00:33:26.860When Reagan went up for re-election, he won 49 out of 50 states.
00:33:34.040The only state he didn't win was Mondale's home state of Minnesota.
00:33:37.820And I spoke to one of the men who ran Reagan's campaign in 84, and he said he thinks Reagan won that, too, but they weren't going to push for all 50.
00:33:47.240The White House has finally released a statement.
00:37:17.960More information is emerging now. So we mentioned the suspected shooter is dead. An audience member is dead. We heard from a doctor, a medical professional, who attempted to revive the rally-goer unsuccessfully, said the rally-goer had been shot in the head and brain matter was available, or was visible, rather.
00:37:42.640According to reports that are coming out now, another person from the rally is in critical condition. That's according to a Washington Post reporter, citing the Butler County District Attorney.
00:37:57.320So what people are fearing now is that you're going to hear more of a trickle. Okay, initially it was shots fired. We don't know if anyone was injured. Then shots fired. We don't know where the shooter is. Then it was shots fired. You know, President Trump is bloodied, but appears to be okay.
00:38:17.400Okay. We have an eyewitness who's coming to us on Zoom right now. This is Mike Wright. Mike, do I have you?
00:38:27.820Well, so we got to the Trump rally. We had VIP sections. We were probably 20 to 30 yards from the stage.
00:38:38.880The president had been talking probably for about five minutes, and we heard three cracks suppressed. So almost like, you know, the snaps you throw on the ground.
00:38:48.140So it was, and then, you know, chaos kind of ensued for a little bit. Earlier in the day, I'd seen a couple sharpshooters on the roof of a building. I'd actually shown my son. I said, hey, look, they're here to protect President Trump when he comes on stage.
00:39:08.360And then after those three quick cracks, probably four seconds later, I saw those sharpshooters firing back toward a building that's adjacent from the fairgrounds.
00:39:23.100All at the same time, three shots, they start shooting back. Secret Service is on stage, you know, has Trump to the ground.
00:39:32.280And then, you know, different, I don't know what, Elio came up on stage. Everyone was kind of panicking.
00:39:40.840After that, there was some commotion from some bleachers to my left, probably about 30 yards to my left.
00:39:46.880And so from all my friends and family that were at the event, there was, in some pictures I saw, what I kind of summarized happened was,
00:39:58.220there was the shooter was on the roof of a building called AGR, probably three to 500 yards away from the stage.
00:40:42.720It's almost like a big checkmark, right?
00:40:44.160So like the, if Trump was here, I'm sorry, if the sharpshooters were here, the building where the shooter was at was here and the president was here.
00:40:54.660So in the stand, the bleachers were in the middle.
00:40:57.040So, you know, it seems like it would make sense that when he was shooting through the bleachers toward the president, he hit a few people.
00:41:04.100And then the police sharpshooters were shooting back at the building.
00:41:07.680I did see a picture of a deceased person on the rooftop of a building too, which I would assume was a shooter.
00:41:14.840The big question, even I saw a lot of the reports hesitated to say it was even gunfire because it didn't make any sense that there would be gunfire at a rally of any presidential election.
00:41:27.040But certainly of a former president, the U.S. Secret Service, as you mentioned, there are sharpshooters on the building.
00:41:33.480They lock these areas down quite well.
00:41:47.760Presumably, this was a pretty serious shooter.
00:41:55.040This wouldn't have just been some wacko with a pistol or something.
00:41:59.780If he's firing from that far away, he's able to do that kind of damage.
00:42:03.920There's blood on the president's face.
00:42:05.420We still don't know all of the circumstances around it.
00:42:07.600Obviously, the photo that has now, it's an overused word, but it certainly applies here, has become iconic, is of the top of President Trump's ear, quite bloodied, and then some blood on the side of his face.
00:42:24.120It's unclear if the president was shot or if it was shrapnel or if we just have no idea really yet.
00:42:31.760But in any case, if a shooter is able to fire through the bleachers from that kind of a distance and bloody up a president, this was not just a random haphazard act of violence.
00:42:47.420This would seem to have been something that was well-coordinated.
00:42:51.140I mean, it would have had to have been for him to get up on that building.
00:42:54.700And kind of thinking about it now, if the shooter was 300 to 500 yards away from me, there's a chance that I didn't hear the—I just heard the crack of the bullet, not the actual sound of the rifle going off.
00:43:07.900But the first three shots, I definitely heard the crack of the bullets kind of going past.
00:43:15.100And because the bullets would have probably went, I don't know, maybe 10 yards in front of me with the trajectory.
00:43:21.200But the sharpshooters for sure was suppressed.
00:43:25.180But yeah, for him to get up on that building, on that rooftop, yeah, it would have had to have been planned.
00:43:33.160And so as far as the president's face, that's all right, real quick.
00:43:37.480So as far as like the president's face, I originally thought, you know, when they stood him up after a couple minutes, he gave a thumbs up and he was not happy.
00:43:51.780I told my wife, I said, they tackled him so quick, he could have hit his head off the ground, off the podium.
00:43:58.440That was my first reaction as well, and it might well have been the case.
00:44:05.300I mean, I suppose the shooter could have hit him, and if so, you know, happily it would have just hit him off to the side.
00:44:13.880He does appear pretty bloodied up in any case.
00:44:17.180So, you know, if you're a U.S. Secret Service, you know, you're not going to be gentle in trying to protect the president as a man is firing multiple rounds to murder him.
00:46:04.880Well, I'm glad to hear that you're safe.
00:46:10.580I'm glad to hear that people around you are safe.
00:46:13.640We will pray for the person, well, for the deceased and for the person who's critically injured, according to reports from the Washington Post.
00:49:34.840And so I want to thank the Secret Service and all the agencies, including the state agencies,
00:49:39.080that have been engaged in making sure that the people who – and we have more detail to come relative to other people maybe injured in the audience.
00:49:51.720I may be able to come back a little later tonight, but we'll put out a statement if we don't – if I'm not able to – if it's not convenient for you all.
00:49:59.300But the bottom line is that the Trump rally was a rally that he should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem.
00:50:08.120But the idea, the idea that there's political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of.
00:50:21.060And if I am able to speak to Donald, I'll let you know that as well.
00:50:25.760But so far, it appears he's doing well, number one.
00:50:30.680Number two, that they're thoroughly investigating what happened to anyone else in the audience.
00:50:35.840I have – we have some reports but not final reports.
00:50:39.860And every agency in the federal government – and I'm going back to my phone to speak with the federal agencies that are being put together again to give me an updated briefing.
00:50:49.900If anything happened, they learned more in the last couple hours.
00:50:52.720So thank you very much, and I hope I get to speak to him tonight, and I'll get back to you if I do.
00:52:13.040What have you done to unite the country?
00:52:15.500Were you uniting the country when you launched your presidential campaign on a lie that Donald Trump called Nazis fine people in Charlottesville?
00:52:22.740A lie that you continue to peddle even though it has been debunked again and again by left-wing sources just a couple of weeks ago by Snopes.
00:52:55.380Was it uniting the country when following your lead, your flax in the political apparatus and in the establishment media, but I repeat myself, called Trump Hitler 24-7?
00:53:29.420Well, if democracy is on the ballot, if Donald Trump is Hitler, if Donald Trump surrounds himself with the very fine people, the Nazis, all these lies that you've told, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
00:54:34.860And we all decided, hey, you know, when we hear Trump up there, we're going to walk up through the field, stand by the trees up there under the shade, and listen to the rally.
00:54:45.020We couldn't see him, but we could hear him.
00:54:47.260So we walked up, and probably five to seven minutes of Trump speaking, I'm estimating here, I have no idea, you know.
00:54:56.640But we noticed a guy crawling, you know, bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us.
00:55:08.860So we're standing there, and, you know, we're pointing at the guy crawling up the roof.
00:59:32.260And then you add on top of that the question, okay, if this guy said to police, and you can hear at the beginning, he says, I told police there's a guy with a rifle on that building.
00:59:42.480So if we believe this man at all, if he is credible, and who knows, this is just being brought to us by the BBC, he at first says, I talked to police.
01:03:37.480We have pretty serious looking employees of the U.S. federal government taking down that shooter.
01:03:47.900This is not just a kind of local security operation.
01:03:53.080Obviously, we're talking about a former president of the United States, current nominee.
01:03:57.660As Mike Wright, we were talking to earlier, who was an eyewitness at the rally, told us the Secret Service had gunmen posted ready to take down any potential threat.
01:04:10.280So when the shots rang out, shots fired back, ostensibly from U.S. Secret Service.
01:04:15.600There you see two guys in camo, wielding presumably fully automatic weapons, then standing over the dead shooter.
01:11:46.860The source familiar with President Trump's security detail is telling the Federalist that the former and future president's detail has been asking for beefed up protection and resources for weeks, but has been rebuffed time and again by President Biden's Department of Homeland Security.
01:12:06.260The Department of Homeland Security oversees secret service protective detail and the DHS, according to this report that is developing from the Federalist.
01:12:17.480And they were not responsive to those requests for more resources.
01:12:24.600Because this was obviously a particularly perilous time for President Trump.
01:12:37.120And it was particularly perilous because the attempts to destroy his campaign have not worked.
01:13:22.200And he proposed all sorts of radical new rules that I suspect the Democrats thought the Trump campaign would either shoot down or try to negotiate.
01:13:30.820And then they could say Trump's a chicken.
01:14:14.040And the people who would replace Biden, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, whatever, give me a break, none of them can beat Trump.
01:14:21.120So the Democrats are caught between a rock and a hard place if they can even oust Biden, which I don't think they can.
01:14:28.920There's nothing left, as we have been saying for months.
01:14:34.720It was a particularly perilous moment.
01:14:36.720And now, if this report coming from the Federalist is true, that the Trump campaign had been wisely, reasonably asking for beefed-up security protections for weeks, and the Biden administration says no?
01:14:47.440And then shots ring out, at least one dead, Trump with blood all over the side of his face?
01:14:56.940I'm not even going to articulate the anxieties that that raises for people.
01:15:03.660That is so ghastly, not even going to articulate it.
01:16:40.560I mean, we're talking about a town of about 12,000 people in rural western Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh.
01:16:47.940And so according to one eyewitness that we spoke with, the shots were fired from a building through the bleachers at the president.
01:17:00.380Then, U.S. Secret Service, in the words of one eyewitness, blew the guy's head off.
01:17:08.780But not before that shooter had killed a rally attendee, critically injured another, and bloodied the president's face somehow.
01:17:19.820Now, that story – well, the whole story is developing.
01:17:24.580The question about whether or not the Trump campaign had been asking for increased security from the Biden administration in recent weeks and been rebuffed,
01:17:37.680that story is also developing, and that sheds a really dark light, a contradiction in terms, something of a paradox on what just happened.
01:17:51.340Elon Musk now is tweeting out that clip of an eyewitness saying that he informed police in Secret Service about a suspicious man on the roof with a rifle.
01:18:00.320For example, Elon is calling for the head of the secret service and the leader of Trump's security detail to resign.
01:18:09.820Trump, of course, the top trending news on – well, on X, where I'm pulling for the latest, it tends to be the best in terms of breaking news, but trending all over.
01:18:21.260The establishment news outlets not giving us much new information.
01:18:25.160The latest that we're seeing is that the Secret Service is investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt.
01:20:38.980President Trump has just posted on Truth Social.
01:20:40.860I want to thank the United States Secret Service and all of law enforcement for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania.
01:20:50.680Most 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.
01:21:00.220It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country.
01:21:03.360Nothing is known at this time about the shooter who is now dead.
01:21:07.020I was shot with a bullet that pierced my upper part of my right ear.
01:21:10.280So this is now confirmation from President Trump, the former president and the leading Republican, the nominee of the party, has been shot.
01:21:21.840I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.
01:21:25.080I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound shots and immediately felt the bullet ripping through my skin.
01:21:30.780Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.
01:22:41.860And happily, happily, I guess you would say that happily, he was shot in the part of his head that's just kind of protruding just a little bit in his ear.
01:23:39.400If you've ever fired a gun, if you have any familiarity with firearms, we're talking about a considerable distance because the shot was fired, according to reports, outside of the venue.
01:23:53.160Donald Trump being alive and stable versus Donald Trump being dead on a stage in Pennsylvania was the difference of a breath, of a hair pull of the trigger, of the way the shooter's blood was pumping at that precise moment.
01:24:13.980You're talking about no distance, virtually no distance between Donald Trump shot, gets up, says, stop, wait, wait, wait, knowing that another shot could be coming.
01:24:25.720Fist up in the air, fight, fight, fight, because these could be his last words.
01:24:29.440Walks off the stage, aided by Secret Service.
01:24:32.920And President Trump dead on the ground in Pennsylvania.
01:25:17.440And you could tell, the reason that I suspected he was shot was when I saw that picture.
01:25:24.160As the eyewitness we talked to, he then made me think, okay, well, maybe it was just the blood on his face was from when he was tackled by Secret Service.
01:25:33.460But when you look at the picture closely, you can see that his ear looks particularly bad.
01:30:05.180You were telling me before when we were chatting briefly that you never had a chance to make it to a Trump rally, that this was your first time.
01:30:12.440Would you feel safe coming back to another Trump rally?
01:30:15.700Yeah, you know, it's a very random event that happens.
01:30:19.860You know, I feel safe generally where I go in the country.
01:30:23.240You know, I think the problem is we have a very, everyone seems very angry.
01:30:30.060And, you know, it makes you kind of, you know, I'll go to a Trump rally again, but I'll think twice.
01:30:34.840You know, you definitely want to have your head on the swivel.
01:30:36.500It just seems like there's a lot of angry people out there.
01:30:38.320And I'm not shocked that this happened.
01:30:41.120I'm shocked that I was sitting there and it happened next to me.
01:30:43.420Obviously, you never anticipate that to happen, but it's just horrible.
01:30:49.780You know, we shouldn't be at a level of political discourse in this country where this is going on.
01:36:38.900And then, but you heard from another eyewitness who said, I don't know if Trump was actually shot.
01:36:42.320He might have just been injured when the Secret Service tackled him.
01:36:46.180Maybe it was that, you know, bullets rang out and it's so awful and it's terrible and it's now a threat to anyone who shows up to support President Trump.
01:36:53.500And it's obviously, it's terrorism and it's an intimidation attempt to Trump's supporters.
01:42:23.380If you, if you merely oppose someone politically, if you, if you merely, uh, think, okay, so-and-so is, uh, you know, he's got a bad economic policy or something.
01:42:42.700But, uh, you know, all, he's a, he's a, he's a fine guy.
01:42:45.680Then, then the, the audience is not impelled to go murder that person.
01:42:50.780If you hear, oh, this person's really bad for the country.
01:42:53.200If you hear even, you know, this person supports some awful, say something, you know, abortion or something.
01:42:57.160This person supports policies that actually do lead to a lot of death.
01:42:59.900Even that does not, does not lead to assassinating a, a, a top politician.
01:43:08.620But, but when you hear so-and-so is Hitler, so-and-so is the actual symbolic, uh, expression of pure evil to, for whom there is absolutely, uh,
01:43:29.900nothing that would not be justified to stop him.
01:57:12.860Was this a failure of the police, of Secret Service?
01:57:16.540It would seem to be some failure occurred.
01:57:19.560Not the guys, you know, the guys on the stage seem to have taken good care, but how does this happen?
01:57:27.020And then we heard from a reported eyewitness who said, yeah, I saw a guy with a rifle getting up there in a building and I reported it to police.
01:57:37.460He went on to say he reported it to Secret Service and they didn't pull Trump from the stage.
01:58:27.380I want to thank the United States Secret Service and all of law enforcement for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania.
01:58:33.120More importantly, 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 who was badly injured.
01:58:40.420We now know, or at least we're getting reports, that there have been two people who have been critically injured.
01:58:46.940President Trump obviously did not know that or perhaps that hadn't even been reported at the time.
01:58:52.000It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country.
01:58:56.160Nothing is known at this time about the shooter who is now dead.
01:58:59.000I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.
01:59:02.240I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.
01:59:11.560Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.
02:06:21.680We're getting a headline from deadline, a headline. This is an older from earlier, obviously in the day.
02:06:29.060This is a, an article. I'm going to beat Trump. Defiant Biden tells donors and Jeffrey Katzenberg,
02:06:36.720he's done talking about debate disaster will not exit the race. So this article came out,
02:06:43.300July 8th. It is now July 13th. This July 8th came out 12, 15 PM. Biden says, and you'll see why I'm
02:06:52.340reading this article in just a moment. I have one job and that's to beat Donald Trump. I'm absolutely
02:06:57.960certain I'm the best person to be able to do that. Biden said to his reelection national finance
02:07:02.840committee in what was described as a forceful presentation that sounded like the Biden that I
02:07:07.080used to know. Having, having repeatedly said over the past week that the live face-off on CNN was
02:07:15.560Trump with a bad night. The president of the United States today added, so we're done talking about
02:07:21.200the debate. It's time to put Trump in a bullseye. As President Joe Biden quoted, how many days ago?
02:07:33.240Five days ago? Five, give you a little context. Six days ago, the New Republic, one of the most
02:07:39.620prestigious left-wing magazines, runs a cover story, American fascism, President Trump as Hitler.
02:07:46.520And they even explain their choice of cover. And they insinuate if they don't state it outright
02:07:51.640that they'd do anything to stop Trump in the same way that they would do anything to stop Hitler.
02:07:57.520Doesn't just stop at TV ads. But then President Biden said a day after the New Republic aired their
02:08:07.220now infamous cover calling Trump Hitler, President Trump tells deadline five days ago
02:08:14.460We're done talking about the debate. It's time to put Trump in a bullseye. And then Trump gives,
02:08:23.860or Biden rather, gives a weak nothing statement from the White House. He issues a statement almost
02:08:29.420certainly just written by some staff, six sentences, mealy mouth, nothing. And then he showed up without
02:08:33.640a tie, just sauntered in, said nothing. There were words coming out of his mouth, I guess. He didn't
02:08:40.380really convey very much. Said, I tried to call Donald. I guess he's in the hospital because he got
02:08:43.640his ear shot off by, you know, a would-be assassin. But, you know, I'll try to talk to him later
02:08:48.680anyway. And, you know, so anyway, I'll, maybe I'll come to you later on.
02:08:53.020The violence, the political, where did this violence come from? This political violence has
02:08:55.920no place in America. Five days ago, he says, we're done talking about the debate. It's time to put
02:08:59.640Trump in a bullseye. Well, they did. They did. They succeeded at that. That's one thing that Biden's
02:09:04.900been effective at. Maybe the only thing Biden's been effective at.
02:09:07.820It's senseless. That's what Kamala Harris said. Joe Biden, I don't understand how this could happen
02:09:14.840in America. You don't understand. Kamala Harris, it's senseless. It's senseless? Do we have a little
02:09:20.560retrospective on how the Democrat liberal media establishment has been discussing President
02:09:26.780Trump? Of course, it's Trump is a Nazi time again. Let's deal with Hitler, okay? I don't think
02:09:35.200it's hyperbolic to say that, I mean, that is Mussolini-Hitler-like language. Trump's affinity
02:09:39.660for Hitler was always covered under an umbrella of his stupidity. Echoing Hitler's words. Listen to
02:09:46.040this. Well, Hitler was duly elected. Echoing the hateful rhetoric of Adolf Hitler. It echoes Hitler.
02:09:54.300That's the kind of language Hitler used in Mein Kampf. Got vermin and Hitler and Mussolini. That's a
02:10:00.660horrifying clip. That's a fascist clip. Just going full on Hitler. From Hitler's Germany. We just need
02:10:06.100to say for the record that the term vermin was really effectively used by Adolf Hitler. Echoed
02:10:13.400dictators like Hitler. With language evoking authoritarian figures like Adolf Hitler. Adolf
02:10:19.780Hitler. Donald Trump parroted the autocratic language of Adolf Hitler. Talk about the brilliance
02:10:24.880of Hitler's generals. Correct. Let me ask you something. If you could stop Hitler, like fully
02:10:31.500adult Hitler, had already been the leader of Germany, then let's say he got ousted for a
02:10:37.000little and he's about to come back and you could stop Hitler, would you kill Hitler? Everyone would
02:10:43.060kill Hitler. That's the point. In the common language, in the world of symbols we all interact
02:10:52.540with. Hitler represents absolute evil. Hitler represents the kind of evil that justifies in
02:11:01.480the popular consciousness anything to stop. So much so that every few years we have a debate
02:11:08.760over whether or not you'd go back in time and kill baby Hitler. Remember, there was a moment
02:11:13.280actually during the 2016 campaign when some joker reporters were asking about whether candidates
02:11:20.600would kill baby Hitler. And Jeb Bush said, oh, I'd kill that baby Hitler. Then actually, Ben Shapiro
02:11:28.180of Daily Wire fame got in trouble because he was speaking at a pro-life rally. He said, you know,
02:11:32.900I wouldn't kill baby Hitler. I know you always want to kill Hitler, but baby Hitler is a baby and
02:11:37.080you know, I don't think we should be killing babies. So it was kind of, it was a final coda to this
02:11:43.700silly debate, but it's a silly debate that tells you something about our language. To call someone
02:11:48.440Hitler is to say, you must be destroyed by any means necessary. Murdering you would be justified.
02:11:56.600That's what it means to call someone Hitler. All of the liberals have called Trump Hitler.
02:12:03.120The electeds, the journalists, the activists, not just the fringe ones, the tippy, tippy top,
02:12:09.580the anchors, the heads on all the big networks, Hillary Clinton, all the big politicians,
02:12:15.500they've all done it. And now you hear, when they make statements at all, there are more than a few
02:12:23.300sentences. You hear vague platitudes about violence, and then you're going to hear the passing of the
02:12:30.880buck. Oh, this is so senseless. Where would this come from? It's unthinkable.
02:12:35.680Well, it makes a lot of sense, actually. It's hideous. The sense that it makes derives from
02:12:46.680false premises that I reject, that sensible people reject, people who recognize Trump isn't Hitler.
02:12:53.000But they're false premises that you have advanced. They're false premises that your followers have
02:12:59.020followed. And now that one shooter in Pennsylvania followed to its fullest extent,
02:13:05.320by attempting to and very nearly succeeding at killing Donald Trump. There's a statement now
02:13:14.260from Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who says, there is no place for political violence,
02:13:21.640including the horrific incident we just witnessed in Pennsylvania. It is absolutely unacceptable
02:13:25.760and must be denounced in the strongest terms. My heart goes out to all the victims,
02:13:30.820and I wish the former president a speedy recovery. You are seeing a stronger statement
02:13:36.920being made by AOC than by the White House. Stronger statement being made by AOC, the fringe
02:13:45.280lunatic leader of the squad, than you are seeing being made by President Joe Biden or Vice President
02:13:51.880Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris's statement in particular was totally disgraceful, totally
02:13:57.700disgraceful, completely unacceptable, to call it senseless. Joe Biden's wasn't much better.
02:14:08.500I don't know if Joe Biden was awake while he was giving that statement. I can't imagine he actually
02:14:12.880wrote it. Trump's statement was extraordinarily tactful. He didn't even get to the point
02:14:21.680of telling people that he had been shot until more than halfway through it. He talked about the
02:14:28.560shooting. Amazing, the way he's focusing on others. Thank you to law enforcement. Condolences to the
02:14:36.380family of the person who was killed and those who were injured. A statement then on how awful this act
02:14:43.940is in our country. Don't forget, this happened to him. They blew off a piece of his ear. They nearly
02:14:49.880blew off his skull. But still, just the political statement that this could happen in our country.
02:14:56.600Then on the shooter, shooter's dead, nothing's known. Then and only then, I was shot with a bullet
02:15:02.360that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong. He knew it
02:15:07.740happened. And then he concludes, God bless America. Without question, the best, most human,
02:15:13.240most courageous statement, most politically responsible statement made by anybody so far
02:15:21.100came from Trump. Came from Trump. Came from the guy who was shot and nearly killed.
02:15:30.120We're not even talking about, I know this is almost frivolous to say, it's not that he was shot in his
02:15:39.100leg. It's not that he was shot in the finger or something. He was shot in his ear. He was shot
02:15:48.700a whisper away from them blowing this guy's brains out, okay? It was a pretty good shot. It was pretty,
02:15:58.640pretty close. By the grace of God, didn't quite succeed, but it was as close as it possibly could
02:16:08.140have been. To the entire world watching the leading, a former American president and the
02:16:16.640leading candidate for president in 2024, murdered on stage. We're still waiting on confirmation
02:16:25.440of the identity of the shooter. Other networks, I think, are irresponsible with the way they're
02:16:34.420speaking. We're trying to be as cautious as we can and bring you only the facts.
02:16:40.660There is some talk and rumor over who the shooter is, what his motivations might have been,
02:16:48.480but we're still waiting on some confirmation. Fight, fight, fight. For those of you who were just
02:16:59.040tuning in, I know that people are coming in and out. There are many people in the country who might not
02:17:03.380even know that this has happened yet. We have footage of it. The short story is that President
02:17:10.180Trump was addressing a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, and during his speech, shots rang out from outside
02:17:17.180the speech venue, outside of the security perimeter, killing one rally attendee, critically injuring at
02:17:24.480least two others now, according to reports, and hitting the president in the ear. We have the footage.
02:17:32.220What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing?
02:17:38.220What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? I'm only doing this game. What are you? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? Are you doing? How are you doing? How? I'm hoping. How are you doing?
02:17:45.020What are you doing, how are you doing? How are you doing, how are you delivering, how are you doing, how are we giving it? And how's it to be doing? How are you delivering, how are you giving it to the sky? Okay? Becoming the sky, at do it allowed us. In connection to the sky.
02:18:54.500USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA
02:19:24.500Law enforcement has told CBS News that the alleged shooter was firing from about 200 to 300 yards away.
02:19:35.760So we're talking about a football field away from Trump on the stage.
02:19:38.940He was not within the security perimeter, but it's raising all sorts of questions.
02:19:42.420How did the police headed Secret Service not spot this, not stop this?
02:19:48.060This was a, this is a small town, you know, this is a town of about 12,000 people when there isn't a rally going on.
02:19:54.500Now, there are going to be a lot of questions for the Secret Service, a lot of questions for police coming up, especially on top of reports.
02:20:06.380The Federalist is reporting that the Trump campaign has been asking for increased protection in recent weeks.
02:20:15.860Trump, as a former president, is entitled to Secret Service protection.
02:20:18.860He's the nominee of the Republican Party, so they should probably boost his Secret Service a little bit.
02:20:22.620But in recent weeks, with the collapse of the Biden campaign, with the crisis in the Democrat Party, calls for a new nominee, the disastrous debate for Biden, Trump's continued elevation in the polls, obviously things are getting a little bit more perilous for Trump.
02:20:37.800Everything that his opponents have tried to do to stop him from becoming the next president have failed.
02:20:43.960So some of us have observed that the only thing left for them to do is to kill him.
02:20:48.340It doesn't take a brain surgeon, doesn't take a genius to understand that this could have happened, especially while the Democrats are saying Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, and Trump is the next Hitler, and insinuating that they could take him out by any means necessary.
02:21:04.220So at this perilous moment, according to this report from the Federalist, the Trump campaign asks for more Secret Service.
02:21:14.600Well, that means they have to ask the Department of Homeland Security.
02:21:17.580Department of Homeland Security is run by Alejandro Mayorkas for Joe Biden.
02:21:22.140So if that report is accurate, there are going to be a lot of questions.
02:21:28.220Did the Biden administration intentionally deprive President Trump of Secret Service, of security, at a time when his life was in danger?
02:21:40.200You couple that with Joe Biden, his entire administration melting down five days ago, then speaking to donors, saying it's a little spooky.
02:21:52.240One of my lights just went out, and with everything that's going on, it gives you a little startle, doesn't it?
02:21:57.160Joe Biden talking to Deadline just five days ago, saying it's time to put Trump in a bullseye.
02:22:06.600His words, not mine, being reported by Deadline.
02:22:45.700To be expected, of course, from President Trump, the man who, after being shot in the ear, stands up, blood coming down his face, tells Secret Service, no, wait, I'm not leaving.
02:22:57.520He puts his hand up in the ear to lead, tell people it's okay for these.
02:23:03.140It might be his last words, telling them to fight on.
02:23:05.000Of course, he's saying that keep the convention going, because this is the context that a lot of people are not aware of.
02:23:11.580The Republican National Convention is set to kick off, in earnest, in about, I don't know, at this point, what, 25 hours or something?
02:23:26.060Assuming the convention goes on, and we're getting word from Philip Wegman, who's a good reporter, who's talking to the Trump campaign, saying things are going on as planned.
02:26:58.980At least two are in critical condition.
02:27:01.000We know that this has occurred after weeks and weeks and months and months of calling Trump Hitler, of saying he's a threat, not just to this policy or that policy, but to our very democracy.
02:27:19.340This was the theme of the Biden campaign.
02:27:22.700We're told he's like Hitler and anything would be justified to take him down.
02:27:32.380And so this conclusion, for those of us who've been paying any attention, for anyone with even a modicum of common sense, this was, of course, going to be the conclusion.
02:27:46.040For the irresponsibility of his rhetoric.
02:27:48.100For his campaign as it stands right now.
02:27:49.780Now, as for President Trump, an amazing, an amazing display of political courage, personal courage and political courage, an amazing display.