WSJ What’s News - Trump Rally Shooting Leaves Nation on Edge

Episode Date: July 14, 2024

Special Edition for July 14. Former President Donald Trump was wounded at a Pennsylvania rally in an incident being investigated as an assassination attempt. White House reporter Ken Thomas reports from the scene of the shooting, and WSJ reporter and editor Aaron Zitner discusses what it could mean for U.S. politics. Sabrina Siddiqui hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Find yours at newbalance.ca slash running. New Balance. Run your way. Find yours at NewBalance.ca slash running. New Balance, run your way. It's Sunday, July 14th. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for The Wall Street Journal. This is a special edition of What's News. Former President Donald Trump was wounded and rushed off stage after gunshots were fired at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. His campaign said he's fine. The shooting is being investigated as an assassination attempt, and it's being condemned by politicians across the political spectrum. We'll look at what we know so far, the reactions coming in, and where this moment leaves the nation. Former President Donald Trump was rushed to a medical facility but appeared to be all right after gunfire erupted at a campaign rally he was holding yesterday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Take a look at what happened. In a post on social media, Trump said he was, quote, shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. The Secret Service said that one spectator was killed and two others were critically injured after multiple shots were fired. The suspected shooter was shot and killed by the Secret Service, and the FBI says it's working to identify the gunman and determine the motive. Authorities said the gunman used a rifle and fired from an elevated position outside of the rally.

Our White House reporter Ken Thomas was at the rally, and he joins me now. Ken, what was the scene like on the ground? Sabrina, I've covered a number of Trump rallies over the years, and this one was very routine in the beginning. It had all the trappings of Trump's signature rallies, thousands of people waiting to hear him speak, vendors outside the venue selling Trump hats and T-shirts. And he started his remarks in a very usual sense. He talked about the need to take back our country. And he spoke about the degree of Republican unity that he has seen as he runs for president. And it was about 10 minutes into his remarks when we heard what sounded like multiple gunshots ring out. There was a lot

of confusion within the crowd. People were crouching and taking cover. I was a lot of confusion within the crowd. You know, people were crouching and taking cover. I was in the press area just below where the news crews were filming and reporters instantly knew something was wrong. You know, I saw some reporters, you know, duck down as well and I got low. And then, you know, I just tried to try to figure out what was happening. Trump, you know, was obviously helped by the Secret Service. And after a few seconds, he got up and sort of raised his arm and pumped his fist to let the crowd know that he was okay. When I started speaking to eyewitnesses, they all told me that Trump had gone down, but then he got up and many of them noticed that he had blood on his ear. So there was just this

real fear that he might have been seriously hurt. There was just a lot of confusion at the scene. And there were people who were expressing their anger that something like this could happen. And, you know, there were people who were expressing their anger that something like this could happen. You mentioned these very vivid images of former President Trump visibly bleeding from his ear, pumping his fists at the crowd. What was the reaction like in that moment? It was just a lot of gasps. There were people who could not believe what was happening. It was just a surreal moment.

And, you know, when I spoke to a lot of eyewitnesses afterwards, they were saying that, you know, for some of them, this was the first time they had been to a Trump rally. And all of them just said that this is usually a place they can be together among each other, among their sort of fellow Trump supporters. And there's almost a community here. And this incident really punctured that sense of community. I was with a man who brought his 18-year-old son, who's going to be a senior in high school next fall. And, you know, he was actually in the stands and he saw an ER doctor go over to a person who had been shot in the crowd.

And he described watching that doctor trying to save this person's life and then saying to him, you know, he's gone. He's gone. As I had said, I covered the Trump White House in 2017 and 2018. And I have been to many Trump rallies before, but never anything like this. As you mentioned, you've covered a lot of political rallies over the years. There's a lot of discussion about how something like this could happen. What were your observations of the security at the rally? I think one of the things that was so difficult to comprehend was that this was a very typical security environment.

There were thousands of people here and all of them went through magnetometers. I went through a magnetometer myself and my belt buckle must have set it off. And so I was what we call wanded, you know, where an agent will use a handheld screening mechanism. And so there was a real sense of security like any other presidential event where the Secret Service is involved, where they handle the security. You know, one of the people I spoke with said, you know, that the crazy thing was just, I was thinking, you know, before the incident, I was probably at one of the safest places you could be. Ken, thank you so much for your reporting on what has been a very difficult situation to cover, I'm sure. And I just want to say we're

really glad that you're safe as well. And thank you for being here with us. Thank you, Sabrina. I appreciate it. That was The Wall Street Journal's Ken Thomas. President Biden received a briefing shortly after the incident. In remarks from Delaware, he said he was grateful to hear that Trump is safe and he condemned the shooting. There's no place in America for this kind of violence. It's sick. It's sick. It's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this. Biden also spoke with Trump and returned to Washington late Saturday. Messages of concern and support for Trump poured in immediately from top Democrats and top Republicans,

as well as former presidents, with all of them decrying political violence. Joining me now to discuss where this shocking moment leaves the nation is Wall Street Journal reporter and editor Aaron Zittner. Aaron, thanks for being here. I'd say good to be with you, but it's hard to say that at this moment. Absolutely. Aaron, we've already seen the political climate grow increasingly tense over these past few years. What kind of impact might an incident of this magnitude have? Well, you'd like to think that something like this would cause people to take a breath and calm the waters, but there's

not a lot of evidence right now that once we get beyond the statements that you usually see at a moment like this of hopes and prayers, that we'll go there. This nation, it's almost as if this campaign is playing out in two different ways. On the one hand, we're highly polarized. Ample polling exists to show that the members of one party not only distrust those of the other party, but dislike them and think very ill of them. Meanwhile, the rest of America is exhausted and feels alienated from politics and just wants to get away from this political combat. And where your thoughts immediately go is to this polarization and the rhetoric tied to it, does that amplify the risks that violent rhetoric and combative rhetoric and our discourse leads to violence in fact. And that's the question we'll be

sorting out in the coming days. Let's talk about that a little bit more. There was once a time when moments like these could be seen as unifying. And while there has been widespread condemnation of the shooting on both sides of the aisle, some Republican lawmakers are already blaming the events on President Biden's rhetoric. What does that say about where things might be headed? We don't know what inspired this, so people are guessing. And at the same time, we've already seen J.D. Vance, the senator from Ohio and a potential choice to be Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate, blame President Biden's rhetoric for this shooting, saying, hey, the Biden campaign is built on the idea of telling America that Donald Trump is an authoritarian who must be stopped. And that's the kind of rhetoric that leads to violence. So what I imagine we're going to see

in the coming days is some people saying, let's take a step back, take a breath and calm the waters. But it's hard to think that the political fighting over this won't continue. The Republican convention is set to begin in Milwaukee on Monday. Where does all this leave the presidential race? I think we have to let events play out more. But just to stick with where we are in this moment, when you look back, this moment might have been not expected, but certainly not unexpected. You think just back, it was the 2018 midterms when someone mailed pipe bombs to multiple critics of President Trump, to Barack Obama, to Hillary Clinton, to Kamala Harris. 2020, six men were arrested for plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor

of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, over her COVID crackdown. It was 2017 that Steve Scalise was shot and left in critical condition by someone who was a critic of President Trump and of GOP policies. Nancy Pelosi's husband was attacked. We've had, you know, a whole string of politically violent incidents in recent years. And it's only when a moment like this happens that I look back and see a string of these things. Where it leaves the presidential election right now, I don't know what changes. Donald Trump will go to the convention, he has said. He'll name his running mate. He'll be formally nominated by the convention delegates, and he will appear as someone who survived an assassination attack. Whether that gives people pause, that this is someone who they

want to have leading the nation, or if this amplifies his image is yet to be seen. That was the Wall Street Journal's Aaron Zittner. Aaron, thank you. Good to be with you. And we're all praying for calmer days ahead. And as we told you the other day, we had a conversation with our editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, recently about how The Journal

is covering the election in such a highly polarized political climate. That was, of course, recorded before Saturday's shooting. We'll have that conversation for you later today. And that's what's news. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Michael Cosmetis and deputy editor Chris Zinsley. Additional audio for this episode, courtesy of Reuters. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for The Wall Street Journal.