ghazi52
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
The former president was six minutes into a campaign speech in a scorching field and turning his head to look at a chart of immigration statistics, when eight shots rang out. Trump winced and grabbed his ear, ducking down behind his podium as Secret Service agents flooded the open-air stage.
Surrounded by bodyguards and with blood trickling across his face, Trump raised his fist and shouted “fight, fight, fight” to the crowd — providing his campaign with a now iconic image.
“The first thing I said is, ‘How many people are dead?’ Because, you know, we had a massive crowd. As far as the eye could see,” Trump said recently.
In fact, his first words, captured by the stage microphone, were “Let me get my shoes,” corroborated by witness Erin Autenreith, who was sitting in the first row.
There was shock across the political spectrum and President Joe Biden joined a host of world leaders in reaching out to Trump to wish him well.
The shooting prompted calls from all sides to lower the temperature of an overheated campaign — but the pause was short, and tensions simmered.
Though his ear was apparently grazed by one of the bullets fired by Thomas Crooks from an AR-15 type rifle, Trump emerged otherwise unscathed.
The Secret Service — charged with protecting presidents, candidates and foreign dignitaries — came in for withering criticism for failing to secure the building from where the shots were fired, just a few hundred feet away from the stage.
The attempt on the business mogul’s life was the first of a string of dramas that has shaken up the White House race, capped by Biden’s shock withdrawal and replacement by Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.
Then on September 15, a man was apprehended after being seen at Trump’s Florida golf course wielding a rifle and a GoPro camera in what the FBI said was a second assassination attempt.
Surrounded by bodyguards and with blood trickling across his face, Trump raised his fist and shouted “fight, fight, fight” to the crowd — providing his campaign with a now iconic image.
“The first thing I said is, ‘How many people are dead?’ Because, you know, we had a massive crowd. As far as the eye could see,” Trump said recently.
In fact, his first words, captured by the stage microphone, were “Let me get my shoes,” corroborated by witness Erin Autenreith, who was sitting in the first row.
There was shock across the political spectrum and President Joe Biden joined a host of world leaders in reaching out to Trump to wish him well.
The shooting prompted calls from all sides to lower the temperature of an overheated campaign — but the pause was short, and tensions simmered.
Though his ear was apparently grazed by one of the bullets fired by Thomas Crooks from an AR-15 type rifle, Trump emerged otherwise unscathed.
The Secret Service — charged with protecting presidents, candidates and foreign dignitaries — came in for withering criticism for failing to secure the building from where the shots were fired, just a few hundred feet away from the stage.
The attempt on the business mogul’s life was the first of a string of dramas that has shaken up the White House race, capped by Biden’s shock withdrawal and replacement by Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.
Then on September 15, a man was apprehended after being seen at Trump’s Florida golf course wielding a rifle and a GoPro camera in what the FBI said was a second assassination attempt.
