Trump is surround by U.S. Secret Service agents as he is helped off the stage after a shooting at his campaign rally in Butler, Pa. on Saturday.Gene J. Puskar/AP
Officials on both sides of the aisle expressed shock, condolences, and condemnation after an attack at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania left the former president bloodied and at least one spectator dead, according to a statement from the Secret Service. The alleged shooter was also reportedly killed, and two spectators were critically injured, officials said.
Top Democrats—including President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—condemned the violence. The Biden campaign also told reporters they were pausing communications and would pull down television ads in light of the apparent attack. Former President George W. Bush also said in a statement that he is “grateful that President Trump is safe following the cowardly attack on his life” and commended the Secret Service for their quick response. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told NBC News Sunday morning, “Obviously, we can’t go on like this as a society…we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down, we’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country. We need leaders of all parties, on both sides, to call that out and make sure that happens so we can go forward and maintain our free society that we all are blessed to have.” Third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an independent, also expressed concern and condemned the shooting, writing in a post on X, “Now is the time for every American who loves our country to step back from the division, renounce all violence, and unite in prayer for President Trump and his family.”
Early Sunday, authorities identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive remains unknown, and the Secret Service were not present at a midnight news conference on Sunday. Public records show Crooks is a registered Republican who appears to have donated $15 to a progressive political organization in January 2021.
But the immediate information void in the aftermath was flooded with social media posts that capitalized on the country’s deep political division and disarray during a contentious presidential campaign. On Saturday, a tweet that read “staged ass shooting,” a conspiracy theory, attracted 2 million views and “staged” began trending, while prominent Republicans began accusing President Biden and Democrats of causing the attack due to their anti-Trump rhetoric—and, in doing so, issued threats of their own. All of that was despite the fact that no information had been released on the shooter’s identity as of Saturday evening—which even Trump acknowledged in his first statement after the shooting.
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) said in a post on X that the local district attorney “should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.” In another post, Collins claimed, “Joe Biden sent the orders,” apparently referring to a recent statement Biden made to donors that “we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”
House Speaker Johnson, in the interview on NBC News Sunday, said, “I mean, I know that he didn’t mean what is being implied there, but that kind of language—on either side—should be called out.” On Sunday afternoon, NBC reported additional context from Biden’s remarks.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed, without evidence, “the Democrats and the media are to blame for every drop of blood spilled today.” She added: “President Trump said “FIGHT,” SO WE WILL!!”
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) told NBC News that he condemns “100 percent of all political violence,” before adding, without evidence, “it is obvious [the Trump shooting attempt] was because of the leftists.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) made a similar comment to NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver, saying, “I do believe that Joe Biden is responsible for the shooting today,” adding, “everyone who has called him a fascist, everyone who has called him a threat to democracy, who said that he should be put in a bullseye as Joe Biden said, they need to have some very deep reflection tonight before another tragedy like this takes place.”
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a major Trump campaign backer, said in a post on X, “Joe Biden and Democrats have invited this into our country”; in other posts Kirk appeared to blame the press and “the left” more broadly.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), in a joint statement with former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, called for Biden to “immediately order that all federal criminal charges against President Trump be dropped, and to ask the governors of New York and Georgia to do the same,” which they claimed “would help heal wounds and allow all Americans to take a deep breath and reflect on how we got here.”
Prominent Pennsylvania Republican and former Senate candidate Sean Parnell said in a post on X that he was at the rally and near Trump and the attendees who were shot, adding, “It happened because of this sort of BS rhetoric from [Biden] & the rest of your party,” while retweeting a post from Biden calling Trump “a genuine threat to this nation.”
Trump, for his part, said in a statement posted to Truth Social: “It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country.” He added that the shooter was dead, and he thanked the Secret Service and law enforcement for their quick response, while extending condolences to the family of those killed and injured.
Recounting the shooting itself, Trump said: “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”
In a new statement shared Sunday morning, Trump said, in part, “In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
