Former President Donald Trump on July 27 said he will continue to hold outdoor rallies, disputing reports to the contrary.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump said on July 27 that he will continue to hold outdoor rallies despite the assassination attempt earlier this month in Pennsylvania.
The former president appeared to be pushing back on reports, citing anonymous sources, that indicated that the Secret Service had advised his campaign to stop holding outside rallies in the wake of the shooting, which occurred at a fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
The agency has not issued a public statement about the claims.
In a Truth Social post, former President Trump wrote: “I will continue to do outdoor rallies, and Secret Service has agreed to substantially step up their operation. They are very capable of doing so. No one can ever be allowed to stop or impede free speech or gathering!”
Soon after he got on the stage at the Butler rally and started to speak, a shooter opened fire on him from a rooftop building about 400 feet away, striking his right ear. The suspected gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, killed one rallygoer and injured two others.
Later that week, the 45th president was nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, and he later delivered an address to the Republican National Convention with a large bandage on his right ear.
The FBI also confirmed in a statement on July 26 that a bullet hit the former president, after FBI Director Christopher Wray drew backlash for suggesting to a House panel earlier in the week that it may have been shrapnel that struck his ear.
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency told The Epoch Times.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the Secret Service and its director, Kimberly Cheatle, came under fire over the agency’s preparation for the Butler rally. While Ms. Cheatle had initially resisted calls to step down from her post, she ultimately resigned last week after hours of hard questioning from members of the House and a joint statement from top Republicans and Democrats asking her to step down.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” Ms. Cheatle said in her resignation letter. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
Former President Trump held an indoor rally on the evening of July 27 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and was joined by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). Earlier in the day, he appeared at a bitcoin and cryptocurrency event in Nashville.
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, the House Homeland Security Committee stated that it opened a full investigation into the incident. President Joe Biden also said hours after the shooting that he would direct an independent review of the matter, and the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office posted notices on its website saying it would review the shooting and security detail for the Butler rally.
At the St. Cloud rally, former President Trump defended one of the female Secret Service agents who rushed to his aid immediately after the shooting, following criticism of the agency for hiring women for the job.
Referring to the agent, who has not been named, the former president said: “She got criticized by the fake news because she wasn’t tall enough. She was so brave, she was shielding me with everything, she wanted to take a bullet.
“Every one of them—there wasn’t one that was slow. A woman who was on my right, she was shielding me. Beautiful person—she was shielding me, everything she could. And she got crushed. And she got criticized by the fake news because she wasn’t tall enough.”