Trump describes assassination attempt in personal detail as he accepts Republican nomination
MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump, somber and bandaged, accepted the GOP presidential nomination on Thursday at the Republican National Convention in a speech where he described how he felt during an assassination attempt that could have ended his life.
“I'm not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump told the packed convention hall as thousands of people listened in silence. “There was blood pouring everywhere, yet, in a certain way I felt very safe because I had God on my side.”
The 78-year-old former president, known best for his bombast and aggressive rhetoric, offered a softer and deeply personal message that drew directly from his brush with death. He asked for a moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, the retired fire chief who was slain at the rally July 13.
“The discord and division in our society must be healed. We just heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” Trump said, wearing a large white bandage on his right ear, as he has all week, to cover a wound he sustained in the Saturday shooting. “I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”
Trump told the story of what happened to him Saturday when he survived an assassination attempt.
But he said, “You’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell.”
He recalled, prior to the shot fired at him, the former president was talking about immigration and “in order to see the chart” his campaign had prepared, he said, he turned to his right “and was ready to begin.”
But instead, he “felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.”
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that?’” he said. “It can only be a bullet.”
Trump said he raised his hand to his ear and saw that it was “covered with blood.”
“I immediately knew that it was very serious, that we were under attack,” he said, and proceeded to drop to the ground as bullets continued to fly. He said brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage “and pounded on top of me so that I would be protected.”
“In a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side,” he said. If he hadn’t turned his head, he said, “I would not be here tonight.”
Images of Trump from the assassination attempt were being displayed on screens behind him, including pictures of him lying down on the stage with Secret Service agents piled on top of him.
Trump added that he spoke with the rally two attendees who were wounded, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, and their families. He also said he spoke with the family of Comperatore, including his wife Helen.
The Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company and Comperatore’s family had the uniform and helmet sent to Milwaukee for the event.
A GoFundMe campaign to support Comperatore’s family was up to $6.3 million Thursday night, Trump said.
Trump’s address marks the climax and conclusion of a massive four-day Republican pep rally that drew thousands of conservative activists and elected officials to swing-state Wisconsin as voters weigh an election that currently features two deeply unpopular candidates. Sensing political opportunity in the wake of his near-death experience, the often bombastic Republican leader embraced a new tone he hopes will help generate even more momentum in an election that appears to be shifting in his favor.
But with less than four months to go in the contest, major changes in the race are possible, if not likely.
Trump’s appearance comes as 81-year-old Democrat Biden clings to his party’s nomination in the face of unrelenting pressure from key congressional allies, donors and even former President Barack Obama, who fear he may be unable to win reelection after his disastrous debate.
Long pressed by allies to campaign more vigorously, Biden is instead in isolation at his beach home in Delaware after having been diagnosed with COVID-19.
While Trump offered a gentler tone than usual on Thursday night, the crowded speaking program of the convention’s final day was also designed to project strength in an implicit rebuke of Biden. It was decidedly more masculine than it has been for much of the week.
Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White called Trump “a real American bad ass.” Kid Rock performed a song with the chorus, “Fight, fight!” And wrestling icon Hulk Hogan described the former president as “an American hero.”
Hogan drew a raucous response when, standing on the main stage, he ripped off his shirt to reveal a red Trump-Vance “Make America Great Again” shirt.
“As an entertainer I try to stay out of politics,” Hogan said as he briefly broke character. “I can no longer stay silent.”
Like many speakers during the convention, Carlson also suggested that recent events were divinely inspired and that he wondered “if something bigger is going on.”
“I think it changed him,” Carlson said of the shooting, praising Trump for not lashing out in anger afterward.
“He did his best to bring the country together,” Carlson added. “This is the most responsible, unifying behavior from a leader I’ve ever seen.”
