(MILWAUKEE) — After formally accepting the Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump recounted surviving Saturday’s assassination attempt.
With a bandage covering his right ear, Trump addressed the crowd at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, saying it would be the only time he would share what happened at the rally.
“You’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s too painful to tell.”
During the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a gunman opened fire from a nearby roof, striking Trump in the ear, killing a rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, and wounding two others. Before Trump was hit, he had turned his head to the right to look at a screen and hit with a glancing blow.
“The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together,” Trump said.
“Behind me and to the right was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership,” he recounted. “In order to see the chart, I started to turn to my right, and was ready to begin a further turn, which I’m lucky I didn’t, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me, really hard, on my right ear.”
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,'” the former president said.
Secret Service agents swarmed Trump as he ducked behind the podium, with blood dripping down the side of his face, “Bullets were continuing to fly.”
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump repeatedly told the crowd, to which they responded, “Yes you are!”
“Thank you. But I’m not. And I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.”
Police are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt and potential act of domestic terrorism. The motive is unknown, but officials said that the shooter searched for images of both President Trump and President Biden as well as dates for the Butler rally and the Democratic National Convention.
The shooter was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Trump held a moment of silence for Comperatore, a former fire chief who died when he “dove on his family” to protect them during the rally, his wife said.
Making his first public remarks since the shooting, Trump expressed his “gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt.”
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