Trump Walks Past Assassination Attempt and On to GOP Convention

[Geee]

Real Clear Politics

Donald Trump walked slowly down the steps of his personal plane onto a New Jersey tarmac just after midnight Saturday. The American flag on the tail section visible just over his right shoulder, he was wearing what appeared to be the same white shirt and blue suit from earlier in the day. He waved.

Other than the Secret Service agent standing guard with an automatic rifle, the video would be entirely unremarkable. Instead, it was the first public image of the former president released by the Trump campaign after he survived an assassination attempt.

Hours earlier, just six minutes into a speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, five Secret Service agents tackled Trump to the ground, shielding him with their bodies, as shots rang out. A Secret Service sniper shot and killed the suspected gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthews Crooks, who had fired multiple times from a nearby rooftop. One of the shots grazed Trump’s ear, leaving a wound he described as “the worst mosquito bite of [his] life.”

“He’s amazed it happened. He understands he is blessed to be where he is today,” reported Fox News anchor Bret Baier after a Sunday conversation with Trump. “The doctor he talked to said if the bullet was a quarter of an inch different position, he would not be talking today.”