- Former President Donald Trump claims he was shot during a campaign rally.
- The video showed Trump with blood running down his face and clutching his ears in front of a screaming crowd.
- The Secret Service says the former president is safe.
Former President Donald Trump said he was shot during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Video from the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, shows Trump crouching down and holding his hands near his face, as agents can be seen running to cover him up.
Photos from the incident showed the former president with a bloodied face and his fist raised in defiance before being escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents.
In a statement, the Secret Service said a suspected gunman fired shots toward the stage from an “elevated position” outside the venue where Trump was holding a rally.
An FBI representative confirmed to Business Insider early Sunday morning that the shooter was Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
FBI spokesman Kevin Rojek said at a press conference just after midnight that the FBI is treating the incident as an attempted assassination of the former president.
One bystander was killed and two others seriously injured in the shooting, according to the Secret Service, which said its agents shot and killed the gunman.
In a post on Truth Social hours after the shooting, Trump thanked “the Secret Service and all of Law Enforcement who responded swiftly to the shooting that occurred in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
“First and foremost, I would like to express my condolences to the family of the person who died at the rally, as well as the family of the other person who was seriously injured. It is unbelievable that something like this could happen in our country. At this time, we do not know anything about the shooter who died.”
Trump wrote that he was shot with a “bullet that penetrated the top of his right ear.”
“I knew right away something was wrong as I heard the whoosh and the gunshot and felt the bullets going through my skin,” Trump wrote. “I was bleeding profusely and that’s when I realized what was happening. God Bless America!”
A spokesman for Trump called the shooting a “heinous act” but said the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee was “OK.”
NBC News correspondent Darren Botelho reported that after the incident, a security guard at the event could be heard saying, “The shooter is down.”
Dave McCormick, a Republican candidate for the Pennsylvania Senate, was sitting in the front row at the rally and told Politico that he thought someone in the crowd behind him had been shot.
“All of a sudden, gunfire started and it looked like someone behind me had been shot,” McCormick told Politico. “There was a lot of blood and the Secret Service surrounded President Trump.”
Representatives for the Butler Township Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office did not respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
Opposition politicians were quick to condemn the political violence and wish Trump a speedy recovery.
In a statement released after the shooting, President Joe Biden said he was “grateful” to hear that Trump was safe and well.
“As we await more information, we are praying for him, his family and all those who were at the rally,” Biden continued in the statement. “Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for evacuating him to safety. This kind of violence has no place in America, and we must come together as one nation to condemn it.”
Biden later addressed the nation, calling the shootings “horrible” and calling on Americans to end political violence.
“This is one of the reasons we have to unite our country,” Biden said. “We can’t allow this to happen. It shouldn’t be like this. It’s unacceptable.”
The Biden campaign later announced it was suspending television advertising in response to the shooting. The White House investigation report said Biden spoke directly with Trump that evening, but did not provide details of the conversation.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, in a post on X, vowed that the House would investigate the “tragic events” that took place at the rally.
“The American people have a right to know the truth,” Johnson wrote. “We will promptly have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and appropriate officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation appear at a committee hearing.”
