Donald Trump to honor supporter killed, those injured in Pennsylvania assassination attempt

CNN
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Donald Trump said Friday he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania — the place where the former president survived an assassination attempt nearly two weeks ago — for a rally that will honor his slain supporter Corey Comperatore and those injured in the shooting.

Trump announced the “big, beautiful” rally in an all-caps message on his Truth Social platform, noting that the event would “honor the soul of our beloved firefighter hero, Corey, and those brave patriots wounded two weeks ago.” He did not specify when the rally would take place.

On July 13, Trump had just delivered his speech when a gunman fired eight shots on stage in Butler, a city north of Pittsburgh in one of the most important states in the 2024 election.

Trump’s right ear was bloody, and he appeared days later at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee wearing a large white bandage over the injured ear.

At the convention, the former president paid tribute to Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter who authorities said shielded his wife and children from gunfire in his final moments.

Trump’s reaction to the shooting — standing up and raising his right fist while shouting “Fight” at Butler’s crowd as the Secret Service rushed him off stage — became a rallying cry at the Republican convention and in his campaign appearances since.

Trump and his allies used the Republican convention to issue calls for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt. However, in his speech on the final night of the convention, Trump returned to his usual attacks on his Democratic rivals, and has repeated those attacks at campaign rallies ever since.

“What a day it will be – fight, fight, fight!” Trump said Friday in his social media post announcing the Butler rally.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers at a hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday that there was “some doubt” whether Trump was hit by a bullet or shrapnel.

“No, unfortunately it was a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, no shrapnel,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “No wonder the once-famous FBI has lost America’s trust!”

The FBI said Thursday that investigators were continuing to examine bullet fragments and other evidence from the attack on Trump, but the agency has consistently considered the shooting an attempt to assassinate the former president.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned this week amid scrutiny over security failures related to the assassination attempt. The move comes as lawmakers and an internal government watchdog continue investigations into the agency’s handling of Trump’s protection and how the shooter nearly killed the Republican presidential nominee.

“In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to resign as Director,” Cheatle wrote in her resignation letter. She acknowledged that on the day of the shooting, the agency “failed” to fulfill its mission “to protect our nation’s leaders.”