USA "Attempted assassination" of Trump - shock in the US election campaign
Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump has been injured in a gun attack during a campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania.
14.07.2024, 04:58
SDA
The suspected gunman was killed, the Secret Service announced. One spectator was killed and two others were injured and in a critical condition.
Trump himself spoke out after the attack and said that he had been shot in the ear. The attack is being investigated by law enforcement authorities as an "attempted assassination", according to several US media outlets.
The Secret Service said the suspected gunman had opened fire from an "elevated position" outside the venue. An eyewitness told a TV station that onlookers had seen an armed man lying on the roof of a house shortly beforehand. According to US media, investigators found an assault rifle.
On video recordings of the event in the town of Butler, bangs could be heard. Trump then grabbed his ear and ducked to the ground. Security personnel ran onto the stage and shielded him. Standing upright and supported by Secret Service agents, he then left the stage. He raised his fist in the air. It looked as if Trump had blood on his ear. The Republican had only just started his speech in Butler when the incident occurred.
Panic in the audience
Panic broke out in the audience after the incident. People were screaming. The Trump supporters were evacuated after the incident. The area around the stage was cordoned off with yellow flutter tape and secured by heavily armed emergency services.
Trump was first medically examined. "I was hit by a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear," the Republican wrote on Truth Social, a platform he co-founded. "I knew immediately that something was wrong because I heard a hissing sound, gunshots and immediately felt the bullet pierce my skin." Trump went on to write: "It was bleeding profusely and that's when I realized what was going on."
Attack in the middle of the election campaign
Trump is running for the Republican Party in the presidential election in November and wants to challenge Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, who is running for a second term. The Republican Party convention begins on Monday in Milwaukee, where Trump is to be officially chosen as his party's candidate for the election. The party intends to hold the nomination convention as planned despite the attack. This was announced by the party and Trump's campaign team in a joint statement.
Biden strongly condemned the attack on Trump. "I am grateful to hear that he is safe and well," he said in a written statement. "I pray for him and his family and for all who were at the rally as we wait for more information." This kind of violence has no place in America.
That evening, Biden appeared before the cameras in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the Democrat was staying over the weekend, and said: "This is sick, this is sick". The president later spoke to his challenger on the phone. The content of the conversation was not initially disclosed. The White House announced that Biden wanted to return to Washington that evening, contrary to the plan.
Politicians condemn violence
Following the attack, US Vice President Kamala Harris warned against an escalation of violence. "We must all condemn this heinous act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to further violence," the Democrat said on X.
A number of high-ranking representatives from both parties condemned the attack, including former President Barack Obama and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The Republican chairman of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, wrote on the X platform that he was praying for Trump. The Democratic minority leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, expressed similar sentiments on X. "America is a democracy," he wrote there. "Political violence in any form is never acceptable."
The Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, also told X that he was shocked by the incident and relieved that Trump was doing well. "Political violence has no place in our country."
The political mood in the USA has been heated for years. At the beginning of the year, the US Department of Justice lamented a "deeply troubling increase in threats" against public officials and democratic institutions in the country. The presidential election on November 5 is the first since the dramatic upheavals surrounding the 2020 election, which ended in an unprecedented outbreak of violence. At that time, Trump had not accepted his election defeat against Biden and incited his supporters for months with allegations of election fraud. Finally, on January 6, 2021, Trump supporters violently stormed the US Capitol, the American parliament and the heart of US democracy. Several people were killed in the unprecedented attack.
There has always been violence against high-ranking politicians in the USA, including against presidents. In 1865, US President Abraham Lincoln was shot dead in the box of a theater in the US capital Washington while watching a comedy. James Garfield was killed in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901. US President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in an assassination attempt on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. When President Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington in 1981, a bodyguard threw himself over him protectively.
