Shooting at Trump rally is being investigated as assassination attempt

1 / 2
A campaign rally site for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is empty and littered with debris after guns were fired on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, (AP)
Short Url
Updated 14 July 2024
Follow

Shooting at Trump rally is being investigated as assassination attempt

  • A local prosecutor said the suspected gunman and at least one attendee are dead
  • The attack was the first attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981

BUTLER, Pennsylvania: Donald Trump appeared to be the target of an assassination attempt as he spoke during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, law enforcement officials said. The former president, his ear covered in blood, was quickly pulled away by Secret Service agents and his campaign said he was “fine.”
A local prosecutor said the suspected gunman and at least one attendee are dead. It wasn’t immediately clear if Trump was shot.
The attack, by a shooter who law enforcement officials say was then killed by the Secret Service, was the first attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It comes amid a deeply polarized political atmosphere, just four months from the presidential elections and days before Trump is to be officially named the Republican nominee at his party’s convention.
“President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act,” spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility. More details will follow.”
The Secret Service said in a statement that “the former President is safe.” Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said after 8 p.m. that he spoke to his father on the phone and that “he is in great spirits.”
“There’s no place in America for this type of violence,” President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump as the presumptive Democratic nominee, said in remarks. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”
Two officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. They said the shooter was not an attendee at the rally and was killed by US Secret Service agents.

The officials said the shooter was engaged by members of the US Secret Service counterassault team and killed. The heavily armed tactical team travels everywhere with the president and major party nominees and is meant to confront any active threats while other agents focus on safeguarding and evacuating the person at the center of protection.
It’s still not clear yet whether Trump was struck by gunfire or was injured as he was pulled to the ground by agents.
Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger said in a phone interview that the suspected gunman was dead and at least one rally attendee was killed.
A rally disrupted by gunfire
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers during his last rally before the Republican National Convention opens Monday when the apparent shots began.
It took two minutes from the moment of the first shot for Trump to be placed in a waiting SUV.
As Trump was talking, a popping sound was heard, and the former president put his right hand up to his right ear, as people in the stands behind him appeared to be shocked.
As the first pop rang out, Trump said, “Oh,” and grabbed his ear as two more pops could be heard and he crouched down. More shots are heard then.
Someone could be heard saying near the microphone at Trump’s lectern, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as agents tackled the former president. They piled atop him to shield him with their bodies, as is their training protocol, as other agents took up positions on stage to search for the threat.
Screams were heard in the crowd of several thousand people. A woman is heard screaming louder than the rest. Afterward, voices were heard saying “shooter’s down” several times, before someone asks “are we good to move?” and “are we clear?” Then, someone ordered, “Let’s move.”
Trump could be heard on the video saying at least twice, “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes,” with another voice heard saying, “I’ve got you sir.”
Trump got to his feet moments later and could be seen reaching with his right hand toward his face. There appeared to be blood on his face. He then pumped his fist in the air and appeared to mouth the word “Fight” twice his crowd of supporters, prompting loud cheers and then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”
The crowd cheered as he got back up and pumped his fist.
His motorcade left the venue moments later. Video showed Trump turning back to the crowd and raising a fist right before he is put into a vehicle.
Reporters covering the rally heard five or six shots ring out and many ducked for cover, hiding under tables.
After the first two or three bangs, people in the crowd looked startled, but not panicked. An AP reporter at the scene reported the noise sounded like firecrackers at first or perhaps a car backfiring.
But then there were more shots. Panic set in as people realized what was happening. Shouts of “Get down!” rang through the crowd.
When it was clear the situation had been contained and that Trump would not be returning to speak, attendees started filing out of the venue. One man in an electric wheelchair got stuck on the field when his chair’s battery died. Others tried to help him move.
Police soon told the people remaining to leave the venue and US Secret Service agents told reporters to get “out now. This is a live crime scene.”
Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the rally told the AP that they helped people who appeared injured and heard bullets hitting broadcast speakers.
“The bullets rattled around the grandstand, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos broke. We hit the ground and then the police converged into the grandstands, said Chris Takach.
“The first thing I heard is a couple of cracks,” Dave Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he saw one of the speakers get hit and bullets rattling and, “we hit the deck.”
He said once Secret Service and other authorities converged on Trump, he and Takach assisted two people who may have been shot in the grandstand and cleared a path to get them out of the way.
“Just a sad day for America,” Sullivan said.
“After we heard the shots got fired, then the hydraulic line was spraying all around, you could see the hydraulic fluid coming out of it. And then the speaker tower started to fall down,” Sullivan said. “Then we heard another shot that, you could hear, you knew something was, it was bullets. It wasn’t firecrackers.”
“They weren’t super loud shots,” he said.
“You could hear it landing, ammunition landing, on metal,” Takach added.
Then they took cover behind a farm tractor.
Sullivan said they were concerned for Trump and saw him stand up.
“He got up and he gave a motion he was OK,” Sullivan said, raising a fist as Trump had.
Political violence again shakes America
The perils of campaigning took on a new urgency after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968, and again in 1972 when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously hurt George Wallace, who was running as an independent on a campaign platform that has sometimes been compared to Trump’s. That led to increased protection of candidates, even as the threats persisted, notably against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Presidents, particularly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, have even greater layers of security. Trump is a rarity as both a former president and a current candidate.
Biden was briefed on the incident, the White House said. He received an updated briefing from Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the United States Secretary Service, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.
He told reporters after 8 p.m. that he hadn’t been able to reach Trump yet but was briefed that the former president was “doing well.”
“I hope I get to speak to him tonight,” he said.
After the shooting at Trump’s rally the Biden campaign was pausing all messaging to supporters and is working to pull down all of its television ads as quickly as possible, the campaign said.
Donald Trump Jr. posted a photo on X of Trump, his fist raised and his face bloody in front of an American flag, with the words: “He’ll never stop fighting to Save America.”
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the three men on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, all quickly sent out statements expressing concern for the former president, with Rubio sharing an image taken as Trump was escorted off stage with his fist in the air and a streak of blood on his face along with the words “God protected President Trump.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a statement on X that he had been briefed on the situation and Pennsylvania state police were on hand at the rally site.
“Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable. It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States,” he said.
 


Vehicle crashes into entrance at Manila airport, killing 2 people including a 4-year-old girl

Updated 59 min 13 sec ago
Follow

Vehicle crashes into entrance at Manila airport, killing 2 people including a 4-year-old girl

  • Dozens of emergency personnel could be seen at Ninoy Aquino International Airport surrounding a black SUV that had rammed into a wall by an entrance

MANILA, Philippines: A vehicle crashed into an entrance at Manila’s airport on Sunday morning, leaving two people dead including a 4-year-old girl, according to the Philippine Red Cross.
The other victim was an adult male, the humanitarian group said in a statement.
Other people were injured in the incident and the driver of the vehicle was in police custody, according to the airport’s operator, New NAIA Infra Co, and the Red Cross.
Dozens of emergency personnel could be seen at Ninoy Aquino International Airport surrounding a black SUV that had rammed into a wall by an entrance. The vehicle was later removed from the site.
The airport operator said it is coordinating with the authorities to investigate the incident.


Australian PM basks in win, vows ‘orderly’ government

Updated 42 min 28 sec ago
Follow

Australian PM basks in win, vows ‘orderly’ government

  • Canada’s opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, lost his seat after Trump declared economic war on the US neighbor
  • Albanese said he would speak to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky later Sunday

SYDNEY, Australia: Australia’s left-leaning Prime Minister Anthony Albanese basked Sunday in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil.
Residents clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee Jodie Haydon visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and TV journalists.
Albanese’s Labour Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt.
“We will be a disciplined, orderly government in our second term,” Albanese said, after scooping ice cream for journalists in a cafe he used to visit with his late mother.
“We’ll work hard each and every day,” he promised, but took a quick break first for a Sunday afternoon visit to a craft brewery, Willie the Boatman, that serves “Albo Pale Ale.”
Dutton, a hard-nosed former policeman — who critics tagged “Trump-lite” for policies that included slashing the civil service — endured the rare humiliation of losing his own seat.US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, and the chaos they unleashed, may not have been the biggest factor in the Labour Party victory — but analysts said they helped.
“If we want to understand why a good chunk of the electorate has changed across the election campaign over the last couple of months, I think that’s the biggest thing,” said Henry Maher, a politics lecturer at the University of Sydney.
“In times of instability, we expect people to go back to a kind of steady incumbent.”
The scale of Albanese’s win took his own party by surprise.
“It’s still sinking in,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.
“This was beyond even our most optimistic expectations. It was a history-making night. It was one for the ages,” Chalmers told national broadcaster ABC.
But the win came with “healthy helpings of humility,” he said, because under-pressure Australians want “stability in uncertain times.”
Albanese has promised to embrace renewable energy, cut taxes, tackle a worsening housing crisis, and pour money into a creaking health care system.
Dutton wanted to slash immigration, crack down on crime and ditch a longstanding ban on nuclear power.Before the first vote was even counted, speculation was mounting over whether the 54-year-old opposition leader could survive an election loss.
“We didn’t do well enough during this campaign. That much is obvious tonight and I accept full responsibility,” Dutton told supporters in a concession speech.
Economic concerns have dominated the contest for the many Australian households struggling to pay inflated prices for milk, bread, power and petrol.
“The cost of living — it’s extremely high at the moment... Petrol prices, all the basic stuff,” human resources manager Robyn Knox told AFP in Brisbane.
The 36-day campaign was a largely staid affair but there were moments of unscripted levity.
Albanese tumbled backwards off the stage at a heaving campaign rally, while Dutton drew blood when he hit an unsuspecting cameraman in the head with a stray football.
Leaders around the world congratulated Albanese on his triumph.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hoped to “promote freedom and stability in the Indo-Pacific” with Australia, a “valued ally, partner, and friend of the United States.”
An unnamed Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Beijing was “ready to work” with Australia’s government.
Albanese said he had spoken with the prime ministers of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, and received “some good text messages” from leaders in Britain, France, “and a range of others.”
The premier said he planned to speak with the leaders of Indonesia and Ukraine, promising to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion: “That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is.”


Indian PM says Albanese re-election to strengthen ties

Updated 04 May 2025
Follow

Indian PM says Albanese re-election to strengthen ties

  • India is expected to host a summit meeting of the Quad later this year

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on Saturday on his general election victory, saying it would strengthen ties between the nations.
India has deepened defense cooperation with Australia in recent years as part of the Quad alliance with the United States and Japan, a grouping seen as a bulwark against China.
Modi said he looked forward to working together to “further deepen” ties with Australia and “advance our shared vision for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
India is expected to host a summit meeting of the Quad later this year.
“Congratulations on your resounding victory and re-election... This emphatic mandate indicates the enduring faith of the Australian people in your leadership,” Modi said on X.
Albanese wooed Modi during a visit to Australia in 2023, referring to him as the “boss” during a massive rally of Indian-Australians.
Modi had earlier hosted Albanese in India, when they performed a lap of honor aboard a cricket-themed golf cart before a Test match, and bonded over their countries’ shared love of the sport.


Romanians vote in a presidential redo after voided election sparked deep political crisis

Updated 04 May 2025
Follow

Romanians vote in a presidential redo after voided election sparked deep political crisis

  • The election redo is a crossroads moment for Romania as it seeks to restore its democracy and retain its geopolitical alliances
  • The decision to annul the election and the ban on Georgescu’s candidacy drew criticism from US Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Russia, which publicly supported his candidacy in the rerun

BUCHAREST, Romania: Romanians are casting ballots Sunday in a critical presidential election redo after last year’s annulled vote plunged the European Union and NATO member country into its worst political crisis in decades.
Eleven candidates are vying for the presidency and a May 18 runoff is expected. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and will close at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT). Romanians abroad have been able to vote since Friday.
Romania’s political landscape was shaken last year when a top court voided the previous election in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.
Like many countries in the EU, anti-establishment sentiment is running high in Romania, fueled by high inflation and cost of living, a large budget deficit and a sluggish economy. Observers say the malaise has bolstered support for nationalist and far-right figures like Georgescu, who is under investigation and barred from the rerun.
While data from local surveys should be taken with caution, a median of polls suggests that hard-right nationalist George Simion will enter the runoff, likely pitting him against Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, or the governing coalition’s candidate, Crin Antonescu.
Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician and former anti-corruption activist who founded the Save Romania Union party (USR) in 2016, is running on a pro-EU “Honest Romania” ticket. He says Romania needs a president “who has the will and the ability to reform the system.”
Veteran centrist Antonescu, 65, has campaigned on retaining Romania’s pro-Western orientation, while Victor Ponta, a former prime minister between 2012 and 2015, has also pushed a MAGA-style “Romania First” campaign and boasts of having close ties to the Trump administration.
Another hopeful, Elena Lasconi, came second in last year’s first round ballot and is participating in the rerun. She has positioned herself as a staunchly pro-Western, anti-system candidate, railing against what she describes as a corrupt political class.
Distrust in the authorities remains widespread, especially for those who voted for Georgescu, a sizeable electorate that Simion has sought to tap into.
“The anti-establishment sentiment is not like an anarchic movement, but is against the people who destroyed this country,” Simion, who came fourth in last year’s race and later backed Georgescu, told The Associated Press. “We are not a democratic state anymore.”
Simion said that his hard-right nationalist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party is “perfectly aligned with the MAGA movement,” capitalizing on a growing wave of populism in Europe after US President Donald Trump’s political comeback. AUR rose to prominence in a 2020 parliamentary election, proclaims to stand for “family, nation, faith, and freedom,” and has since doubled its support.
The election redo is a crossroads moment for Romania as it seeks to restore its democracy and retain its geopolitical alliances, which have become strained since the canceled election fiasco.
The decision to annul the election and the ban on Georgescu’s candidacy drew criticism from US Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Russia, which publicly supported his candidacy in the rerun.
The presidential role carries a five-year term and significant decision-making powers in national security and foreign policy.


Japan protests China’s airspace ‘violation’ near disputed islands

Updated 04 May 2025
Follow

Japan protests China’s airspace ‘violation’ near disputed islands

  • The Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement released late Saturday that its vice minister lodged “a strong protest” with the Chinese ambassador to Japan
  • On the same day, China’s coast guard announced it had used a helicopter to “expel” a Japanese airplane from airspace around the disputed islands

TOKYO: Tokyo has lodged a protest against Beijing after a Chinese helicopter “violated” Japan’s airspace and four vessles entered its territorial waters around disputed islands.
The islands in the East China Sea — known as the Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan — are claimed by Beijing but administered by Tokyo and are a frequent hotspot in bilateral tensions.
The Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement released late Saturday that its vice minister lodged “a strong protest” with the Chinese ambassador to Japan “over the intrusion of four China Coast Guard vessels into Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands” on the same day.
The vice minister also protested “the violation of Japan’s territorial airspace by a helicopter launched from one of the China Coast Guard vessels, strongly urging (China) to ensure that similar acts do not recur.”
Japan’s defense ministry said the helicopter flew within Japanese airspace for about 15 minutes on Saturday near the Senkaku islands.
“The Self-Defense Forces responded by scrambling fighter jets,” the ministry said.
Public broadcaster NHK and other local media reported that this is the first time a Chinese government helicopter violated the Japanese airspace off the disputed islands.
On the same day, China’s coast guard announced it had used a helicopter to “expel” a Japanese airplane from airspace around the disputed islands.
Liu Dejun, spokesman for China’s coast guard, said a Japanese civilian aircraft “illegally entered” the airspace of the islands at 11:19 am (GMT 0219) and left five minutes later.
Beijing frequently announces it has driven Japanese vessels and aircraft away from the islands, but Japanese officials have told AFP that Chinese authorities sometimes announce expulsions when none have occurred.
Unnamed Japanese officials told local media that Beijing was possibly reacting to a small Japanese civilian aircraft flying near the islands.
Chinese and Japanese patrol vessels in the East China Sea have routinely staged dangerous face-offs around disputed islands.
Tensions between China and other claimants to parts of the East and South China Seas has driven Japan to deepen ties with the Philippines and United States.