Saturday’s attempted assassination on former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a political rally in Butler, Pa., felt “surreal” to Ambassador Kip Tom, Leesburg.
Tom attended the rally after receiving a special invitation for a brief meeting with Trump.
In a phone interview Sunday afternoon, Tom said the event wasn’t even announced until about a week ago. Everybody rallied resources and got the venue put together.
The gates opened up at 8 a.m. Saturday.
“It was almost like a county fairgrounds, except it’s got airplane hangars on it because it used to be an airport, or maybe you can still fly airplanes out of there, I don’t know. So it’s a lot of older buildings. It’s a big venue. It’s got maybe a chain link fence around the outside of it. You’ve got tens of thousands of people coming in,” he said.
Temperatures got up to around 95 degrees Saturday. He said everyone got in lines to go through security.
“So it’s a long day for a lot of people, but I think this shows the resolve and the resiliency of Trump supporters in general. They all wanted to be there and spent the day, no matter it’s 95 degrees and shoulder to shoulder with people. I didn’t see anybody leaving,” Tom stated, although they did see some people pass out from heat exhaustion.
Tom took his seat about 3 to 3:15 p.m. Saturday. His front-row seat was up by the podium. The program started at about 4 p.m. with a blessing from a reverend. There were four to five speakers after that.
“Following that, security detail came and got a few of us people that were planning to have meetings with the president, and took us back into his special area. We got up and went back there and met up with the president. Once we got done, they escorted us back out and then just moments after that, the president walks out on the red carpet to the platform, waving and signaling to people,” Tom said.
During the meetings prior to Trump coming out on the stage, Tom said Trump was “highly charged, highly motivated. I think he enjoys rallies such as this, and this was no different than any in the past. It showed when he walked out on stage. He was highly charged again when he started giving his speech.”
Trump’s team put up a graph on the big screen about illegal migration into the United States.
“It was about the time that he turned his head to look at that and that’s when the first shot rang out,” Tom said.
Trump’s upper part of his right ear was pierced with a bullet.
Tom was sitting with ex-military officers, special forces and a couple senators.
When the first shot came out, Tom said Trump “put his hand to his ear and then he went down on his own to the floor, and the security force came up there and just threw their bodies on top of him to protect him.”
Tom said they continued to hear shots ring out.
“I, and some of other military folks, with some of the training we’ve had, said, ‘Get down, get down,’ and everybody in the crowd got down, and a few of us were trying to point out where the shooter was at because we could tell direction,” Tom said.
The shooting was coming from behind where Tom was sitting.
It was about shot six or seven where the shooter - later identified as Thomas Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa. - hit the person about 15 feet behind Tom. Tom said they heard a different caliber gun being shot, which he said was probably the shot that took out Crooks.
“Unfortunately, the person behind me, which you’ve all probably seen by now, is a husband, a father, a (former) firefighter,” Tom said, referring to Corey Comperatore. “... I was back there, and I can’t imagine what his children, his wife, his friends and neighbors who were around him saw after he was shot.”
At most venues when there’s been an active shooter, chaos usually breaks out with people scattering everywhere.
“That didn’t happen here. These people stayed put. They were curious if the president was OK. They got down when security told them to get down. When the president stood up and did the fist bump and waved to the crowd, people applauded and started chanting, ‘USA, USA,’” Tom said. “I think that says a lot about Trump, says a lot about the Trump supporters as well.”
Tom stated what seemed so surreal to him was as it was happening, he felt he was watching the John F. Kennedy assassination in 1963, when he was a young boy.
“That’s what it seemed like to me,” he said. “We can take it back to Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, then Reagan and those attempts. What I remember is, and if you look back through history how that changed the course of our country, even going between John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Imagine if that bullet would have been an inch closer yesterday, how that could have changed the outcome. Who would have been our candidate? No one can predict that.”
In his opinion, Tom said the attempted assassination can’t help but affect the election.
“But there’s a lot of daylight between now and Nov. 5, and many things could happen between now and then,” Tom said. “I think we’re still in an extremely close presidential race, and I encourage voters - especially since yesterday - to get out and vote. It’s their civil obligation to our nation, get out and vote.”
Trump announced via social media Sunday that he was still going forward with his plans, including attending the Republican National Convention, despite Saturday’s shooting.
“I don’t think this is going to slow Trump down at all. Like I said, he was pumped and excited about the rally yesterday, and he was still pumped and excited after the shooting yesterday. I think he continues to push forward and push hard,” Tom said.
Tom expects there will be increased security at the RNC, along with a more unified and energized delegate base at the convention.
“I think, one thing for certain, we can’t let an event like this put Americans into a place where they don’t feel safe and are scared of their shadow. I think they need to go on and live their lives and not be afraid to participate in a political event such as this,” he said.
There will be hearings on Capitol Hill scrutinizing the level of security for former presidents, presidents and candidates, he expects after talking to people in Washington.
“When I come back to Warsaw, Indiana, and say how does it affect us here, I think we need to continue to work to be unified across different politics, find our common ground. I think we need to find where we can work together and stop trying to divide ourselves so much. I think there’s an opportunity to emerge from this in a good way,” Tom concluded.