McCormick narrowly escapes shooting with his life
Former president Donald Trump survived an attempt on his life during a campaign event Saturday, July 13 in Butler County, but one spectator and the shooter were killed, and two others were injured.
Had the timing of the gunfire been slightly different, U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick may have been added to the casualty list.
“I think two minutes the other way and I would been on the stage with him,” the Republican said.
Prior to a planned speech at his campaign event, Trump invited McCormick onto the stage at the Butler Farm Show grounds to promote McCormick’s campaign for Senate, in which he will face off against incumbent Democrat Bob Casey.
“He introduced me and talked about the race, and he said ‘Dave, why don’t you come up on the stage?’” McCormick said. “He said this in front of 15,000 people.”
It was here that fate turned, and Trump — for whatever reason — changed his mind, according to McCormick.
“I started to go up onto the stage, and he goes, ‘No, no, I’ll have you come up later,’” McCormick said. “So I went back down to my seat, and a couple minutes later is when the shooting started. I probably missed that shooting by a minute or two.”
McCormick said he didn’t realize what a dangerous situation he was in until he had a conversation with his six daughters later Saturday.
“I wasn’t particularly worried about my own safety at that time,” said McCormick, who served in the Gulf War. “But I got back late last night. And I've got six daughters, and I talked to them on the phone, and they were frightened. It really hadn't occurred to me that my safety was at risk. But unfortunately, political life these days is a real risk, and it was kind of a rude awakening.”
McCormick expressed relief that not only he was spared, but so was the former president.
“(I feel) just a huge sense of relief that the president wasn't killed,” McCormick said. “It was one inch away from him being killed. That would have been catastrophic for the country.”
On the other hand, he regrets how the country fell into a state where such an event happened in the first place.
“(I feel) a sense of fear of our political system and the rhetoric being so nasty that it creates an environment where violence is encouraged,” McCormick said Sunday. “We're going to have conflict, but let's have conflict about ideas. Let’s have conflict about policies. Let's have conflict about leadership, and let's resolve the conflict through elections and through policymaking, not through violence.”
