United States: ‘I should be dead,’ Donald Trump says after assassination attempt

“I should be dead,” former US President Donald Trump said after surviving an assassination attempt that he described as “a very surreal experience” in an interview with the New York Post on Sunday.

“I shouldn’t be here, I should be dead,” Donald Trump told the newspaper, during an interview aboard his plane en route to Milwaukee for the Republican Party convention, where he is expected to be confirmed as the party’s presidential nominee.

It was a “very surreal experience,” he said of the attack Saturday at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, wearing a white bandage over his right ear, according to the newspaper.

“Violence must not become something normal”

A call for calm has been Joe Biden’s watchword in recent hours. The American president called on his citizens on Sunday to “lower the temperature”, the day after the assassination attempt against former Republican President Donald Trump, which investigators consider to be “a potential act of domestic terrorism”.

“I want to talk to you tonight about the need to lower the temperature of our political life,” the American president declared, addressing his fellow citizens solemnly from the Oval Office at the White House.
Politics is not a “murderous battlefield” and “violence must not become something normal,” he said.

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“The higher the stakes, the more heated the passions,” the American president added. “However strong our convictions may be, they must never descend into violence. (…) It is time to calm down.”

He had already called on Americans on Sunday to “unite as a nation”, after having had a “short but good conversation” with his rival in the November presidential election on Saturday evening.

President Biden announced Sunday that he has ordered an “independent investigation” into the circumstances surrounding the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Donald Trump arrived Sunday evening in Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, in the north-east of the United States, where the Republicans must officially invest him as their presidential candidate against Joe Biden.

The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting senior political figures, said it was “fully prepared” to provide security there, despite concerns raised by the assassination attempt. “I cannot allow a shooter or a potential assassin to impose a change of agenda or anything,” Donald Trump insisted on his Truth Social network on Sunday.

One dead and two seriously injured among spectators

The 78-year-old former president and new candidate for the White House was wounded in the ear and evacuated, his cheek bloodied, after several shots were fired at a rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, which left one person dead and two seriously injured among the spectators. The deceased was identified as a former firefighter, Corey Comperatore, aged 50, according to the governor of this northeastern state.

Before being evacuated, the former president raised his fist in defiance, an image that is being played over and over again and has already become historic. “Only God prevented the unthinkable from happening,” the Republican candidate assured Sunday on his Truth Social platform. “At this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united,” the former president added.

Isolated shooter

The gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired several shots from the roof of a building outside the rally grounds about 150 yards from the Republican candidate before being “neutralized” by officers, federal authorities said.

The FBI confirmed Sunday that the shooter acted alone and had no identified ideological affiliation.
“We are investigating this as an attempted assassination but are also considering it as a potential act of domestic terrorism,” said Agent Bobby Wells. The FBI also said the weapon used, a semi-automatic rifle, was purchased legally.

Explosives were found in his vehicle parked not far from the meeting venue, according to the same sources.
The shooter’s motive remains unknown, however, President Biden stressed, calling on Americans not to draw “hasty conclusions.”

Conspiracy theories

The Republican candidate, who had just begun his speech, immediately took cover behind his lectern before being surrounded and protected by agents. He then got up, his hair disheveled and his face bloodied, before being taken to a vehicle to be evacuated. The assassination attempt has sparked outrage among many leaders around the world.

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The event has already reignited political tensions, with conspiracy theories flooding social media. And questions have begun to emerge about the security arrangements around Donald Trump, who is supposed to be one of the most protected figures in the world.

Witnesses said they saw the suspect before the shooting and alerted security services.
“Quite frankly, I’m surprised he was able to get up on that roof and shoot,” Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told MSNBC on Sunday.

Political Cracks in American Society

The event lays bare the political fissures in American society. While the impact on the campaign remains to be seen, the focus that has been on doubts about the health of Joe Biden, 81, and his ability to take on Donald Trump since their debate in late June has completely shifted.

The American president also postponed a trip planned for Monday to Texas (south), and his team decided to temporarily suspend its campaign advertising.

For Donald Trump, on the other hand, this already historic sequence could prove electorally fruitful, according to experts.