US

Trump calls for unity in face of ‘evil’ after shooting

FBI investigates gunman’s motive for trying to kill former president

Donald Trump with blood on his face surrounded by Secret Service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, folllowing an attempted assassination. Photograph: Rebecca Droke/AFP
Steff Chávez and Lauren Fedor in Washington, Colby Smith in New York and Joe Miller in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania
Sun Jul 14 2024 - 20:32

Donald Trump called for national unity in the face of “evil” as the FBI investigated the motives behind his attempted assassination at a US presidential campaign rally on Saturday.

The Republican candidate was injured in what the FBI called an assassination attempt at an election rally on Saturday evening, an act of political violence that has transformed the 2024 race and threatens to further polarise the country with less than four months to go until polling day in November.

“We will fear not but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness,” the former president posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. “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.”

Mr Trump added: “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening” and that he looked “forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin”.

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Six minutes and twenty seconds into former US president Donald Trump's speech in Pennsylvania shots were heard, two minutes later he was being whisked away.

Mr Trump will head on Monday to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he will be formally selected as the Republican nominee for president.

After the incident he was treated at a medical facility before leaving western Pennsylvania late on Saturday. A campaign official posted a video of him walking down the stairs of his private aeroplane in New Jersey in the early hours of Sunday, with the caption: “Strong and resilient. He will never stop fighting for America.”

Both Republicans and Democrats endorsed an investigation into apparent security lapses.

Speaking to NBC on Sunday, House speaker Mike Johnson said he had asked “pointed questions” to Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, about the surveillance measures put in place at the rally, including whether drones were in use. The Secret Service is responsible for protecting current and former US presidents.

Mike Turner, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN: “We need to know how an individual could be at that elevation that was seen by apparently bystanders on the ground,” he said. “How could that not be noticed by the Secret Service? We need to know: Is this a protocol failure? Is this a resource issue? Or is this just a failure of those who were on site that day?”

Ruben Gallego, a candidate for the US Senate in Arizona, wrote to Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle calling on “all those responsible for the planning, approving and executing of this failed security plan to be held accountable and to testify before Congress immediately”.

John Fetterman, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, echoed the need for an investigation as he called for calmer rhetoric before what he said would be the biggest election “in our lifetime”.

Shots were fired towards the stage shortly after Mr Trump began his rally from an “elevated position” outside the venue in Butler, western Pennsylvania, according to the US Secret Service. One spectator – identified by Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro as Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief – was killed and two others critically wounded, authorities said. All of the victims were male.

After the shots Mr Trump crouched and was surrounded by Secret Service agents. They rushed him offstage with blood streaming down his right ear and streaked across his face. He pumped his fist in the air and shouted “fight, fight, fight!” to the crowd before being placed in his motorcade and driven away for medical attention.

The FBI identified the gunman as Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a town in the battleground state about 40 miles from where the rally took place.

Crooks, on the roof of a building outside the open-air venue where Mr Trump was speaking, was killed by Secret Service agents. His motives for trying to kill the former president were not yet known, the FBI said.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024