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- By Levi Rickert
Native Vote 2024. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, was hit with a bullet that grazed his ear at an outside rally in rural Butler, Pennsylvania shortly at 6 pm on Saturday. The FBI is calling the incident an attempted assassination that left one rally-goer dead and two others critically injured.
The former president was about five minutes into his speech when shots were heard and he was seen reaching for his right ear. U.S. Secret Service agents immediately surrounded Trump and pushed him to the floor and shielded him with their bodies until it was determined it was safe to remove him from the stage. He was then rushed to a local hospital to determine his well-being.
Television video showed blood streaming from Trump’s right ear and down the right side of his face,
Within an hour, the Secret Service issued a statement that read: “An incident occurred the evening of July 13 at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has implemented protective measures and the former President is safe. This is now an active Secret Service investigation and further information will be released when available,”
The FBI is now involved in the investigation of th assassination attempt.
“This evening we had what we are calling an assassination attempt against our former president, Donald Trump,” Kevin Rojek, a special agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said later into the evening during a news conference at the Butler Township Police Department.
The shooter, who was discovered on top of a nearby warehouse roof, was killed by secret service snipers within minutes of the shooting. The FBI identified him as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pa., a small town about 35 miles from the rally location. Crooks was registered as a Republican, but made a $15 donaton to a progressive political action committee in 2021 while still in high school His motive to kill the ex-president is not yet known
President Joe Biden, Trump’s opponent in the upcoming presidential election, was apprised of the attempted assassination while at his vacation home in Rehoboth, Delaware. The president called the incident sick and called for unity in the country.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said.
Biden spoke with Trump later in the evening.
"As we await additional information, we are praying for President Trump, his family, our brave law enforcement, and our country," Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and only Native American serving in the U.S. Senate, posted Saturday early evening.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and longest Native American to ever serve in the U.S. Congress, said in a post: "My thoughts and prayers are with President Trump."
Former Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer, who was a Trump delegate to the 2020 Republican Natonal Convention and who spoke at the virtual convention, said to Native News Online:
"As First Nations People, our Creator set us here on this continent. We are still here. Our First Nations prayers are powerful! Please join me in praying for President Trump, the assailant's family, and the great nation. It's in our being reconciled back to the One who created us that we are made right again; thus we can be reconciled to one another."
Late Saturday night, Trump’s campaign released a video of the ex-president exiting his plane in Newark, N.J. President Biden left his vacation home a day early and arrived at the White House after midnight so that he could assess the situation with top federal officials on Sunday morning.
The assassination attempt came within less than 48 hours of the beginning of the Republican National Convention that kick off at 2 pm on Monday afternoon. Republican national party officials said the convention will continue as planned. The former president is expected to make his acceptance speech on Thursday night.
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