Donald Trump was back on Saturday in Butler, where he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on July 13, assuring, in a provocative tone, that he will “never” give up even if the shooter tried to ” silence”.
“Twelve weeks ago, right here, an assassin tried to silence me and our movement. This vicious monster…was close to achieving it, but the hand of Providence saved him. prevented,” declared Donald Trump, in front of an enthusiastic crowd. But the ex-president assures him: “I will never give up, never bend, never break.”
The Republican candidate for the American presidential election addressed several thousand people gathered in the town of Butler, in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, one month to the day before the presidential election on November 5 where he will face the Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
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A minute of silence
In the process, the Republican candidate marked a minute of silence, at the precise time when the shots rang out on July 13, with a strong tribute to the only victim, Corey Comperatore, before resuming his speech at the place exactly where it was then interrupted.
He also denounced those he called “the enemies from within, much more dangerous than those from without.”
“For the past eight years, those who want to stop us have slandered me, tried to impeach me, sued me, tried to take away my ballots and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill myself. But I have never stopped fighting for you and I will never stop,” assured the former tenant of the White House to his supporters.
Gathering under high security
The rally took place under very high security, with snipers set up on the roofs of several surrounding buildings and a drone flying over the crowd.
There were many more people who came to listen to Donald Trump than during the previous meeting in Butler, many dressed in a t-shirt bearing the image of the former president just after the assassination attempt, others with ear covered, reminiscent of the bandage he had worn in the following days.
Several speakers
Before entering the stage, the Republican was preceded by his running mate JD Vance, under the eyes of the richest man in the world Elon Musk, relatives of victims of the shootings and the police who protected him.
Invited to speak by Donald Trump, the billionaire presented the American election as “a fight that must not be lost”, fearing that otherwise it would be “the last election , that’s my prediction.”
“President Trump must win, to preserve the Constitution and democracy,” insisted Elon Musk.
A turning point in the campaign
The assassination attempt was seen as a pivotal moment in the electoral campaign, as Donald Trump stood out in opinion polls against Joe Biden after his disastrous televised debate and went two days later to “political martyr” at the Republican convention.
On July 13, in the middle of a meeting, a young man shot the former president, injuring him in the ear, killing a sympathizer present in the stands and injuring two others. For his team, Donald Trump “took a bullet for democracy.”
>> See the subject of 7:30 p.m. on July 14:
The Secret Service had shot young gunman Thomas Crooks, 20, perched on the roof of a building a few hundred meters away. The head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, was forced to resign.
>> To read: Criticized after the shots against Donald Trump, the director of the Secret Service resigns
For her part, Kamala Harris was in North Carolina, another key state in these elections, hit by a powerful hurricane which left at least 220 dead in the southeast of the United States, where she met teams of rescuers and victims.
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