Former President Donald Trump returned Saturday to campaign under heavy security at the Pennsylvania site where he was wounded by a would-be assassin — and called the field a “monument to the valor of our first responders.”
Trump praised the Secret Service agents who “were on top of me so fast,” and the counter-sniper who fatally shot his assailant during his July 13 rally at the Butler Farm Show Grounds.
“Had that not happened it would have been a very different story,” Trump said.
Trump — who suffered a gunshot wound to his right ear — began speaking shortly after 6 p.m. and stopped around 6:11 p.m. to mark when the shooting started 12 weeks earlier.
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He then called for a moment of silence, which was followed by a tolling of bells and a playing of “Ave Maria” to honor Corey Comperatore, the hero firefighter who was fatally shot protecting his family.
“When the sound of gunshots pierced the air that July evening, he threw himself on top of his wife and daughters,” Trump said. “He was hit hard and he gave his life to shield their lives.”
Trump repeated themes from his stump speech, including saying that the U.S. needed the “best schools,” “strong borders,” more manufacturing and leaders who don’t “answer to the lobbyists.”
Those who “want to stop us from achieving this future have slandered me, impeached me, indicted me, tried to throw me off the ballot and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill me,” he said.
His speech was interrupted by a medical emergency in the audience, during which the crowd sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and chanted “God bless Trump.”
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Trump also introduced billionaire Elon Musk, who said that “the true test of someone’s character is how they behave under fire.”
He added: “We have one president who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs, and another who was fist-pumping after getting shot.”
Musk called the Nov. 5 election that pits Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris the “most important election of our lifetime.”
