Donald Trump to return to Pennsylvania for rally in Harrisburg
PHILADELPHIA — Former President Donald Trump will return to Pennsylvania next week for the first time since he survived an assassination attempt in Butler County earlier this month.
Trump will hold an indoor rally Wednesday evening in Harrisburg at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. The Secret Service has encouraged the Trump campaign to stop its outdoor rallies in favor of indoor events, which NBC News reported he plans to follow for the foreseeable future.
Doors open at 2 p.m., and Trump is set to speak at 6 p.m., according to the event page.
The Harrisburg rally comes less than three weeks after a 20-year-old man opened fire on Trump’s outdoor campaign rally in Connoquenessing Township. Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet in the attack, while Buffalo Township firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed and two others were wounded.
The Secret Service failed to protect the former president from the gunman who scaled a nearby building — despite spotting him 20 minutes beforehand — due to several major security mistakes. The event led to widespread criticism of the Secret Service. Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned this week, after testifying at a tense Congressional hearing during which she said the shooting was the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified at that same hearing that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, had scoped out the area on two occasions before the assassination attempt, including flying a drone to survey the grounds. He also searched the internet for queries such as “How far away was [assassin Lee Harvey] Oswald from Kennedy,” on the same day he registered to attend the rally.
Just days after being was shot, Trump appeared before the Republican National Convention to accept the party’s nomination for president.
He recounted the assassination attempt in his speech, telling attendees how he had turned his head slightly to gesture to a chart about border crossings and heard a loud whizzing sound when he felt something hit him.
”I said to myself, ‘wow what was that?’ I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack, and in one movement, proceeded to drop to the ground,” Trump said.
”There was blood pouring and yet, in a certain way I felt very safe because I had God on my side,” he added.
The Wednesday rally will also mark Trump’s first visit to the state since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Allyson Bayless, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign in Pennsylvania, said in a statement that Trump comes to the state when “voters here have never been more fired up to defeat him.”
