Mississippi leaders react to Trump assassination attempt
Published 8:26 pm Saturday, July 13, 2024
- Photo courtesy of The White House / President Donald Trump departs Air Force One.
A shooting at Donald Trump‘s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania is being investigated as an attempted assassination of the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, law enforcement officials say.
A shooter is dead and an attendee was killed. Two attendees are critically injured. Trump’s campaign says he is “fine” after being whisked off the stage and is being checked out at a local medical facility.
Some of Mississippi’s top politicians issued statements Saturday afternoon in response to the apparent assassination attempt.
“I urge you all to join me in praying for President Trump,” U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., stated.
“Prayers for President Trump and all those in attendance at the rally,” said U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
“Haley and I are praying for President Trump, his family, and our country with the news coming out of Pennsylvania,” U.S. Congressman Michael Guest, R-Miss., stated.
“Pray for President Donald Trump! Pray for the Trump family! Pray for the attendees at the rally! And please…Pray for America! God’s protection and grace, along with the vigilance of patriots, is the only shield against evil,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, R, stated.
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.
Trump, in a social media post, thanked the U.S. Secret Service and law endorsement for their “rapid response” and also extended his condolences “to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured.”
“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead,” he said.
Trump says he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”
He wrote on his Truth Social site that he, “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. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.