Trump returns to site of assassination attempt in Pennsylvania
Trump narrowly escaped assassination attempts in July and September
Republican officials hope rally will boost support in Pennsylvania
Secret Service faced criticism and made security enhancements
By Steve Holland
Oct 5 (Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday will return to the rural Pennsylvania site where he was nearly assassinated for a rally in the critical battleground state exactly one month before the Nov. 5 election.
Trump ally Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of social media platform X, will attend the rally. It will be the first time Musk has appeared at a Trump campaign event since endorsing the former president after the July 13 assassination attempt.
Trump narrowly escaped being shot in the head in Butler by a bullet that whizzed by and left his right ear bleeding, a near-miss that exposed serious gaps in security for the former president and led to heightened protection measures for his subsequent outdoor rallies.
It was the first of two attempts on Trump's life. On Sept. 15, a gunman hid undetected for nearly 12 hours at Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, with plans to kill him, prosecutors have said, but was thwarted by a U.S. Secret Service agent patrolling the course ahead of Trump.
Republican officials hope Trump's return to Butler will generate more support among his hard-core followers and drive up turnout for him in Pennsylvania, a state that he and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, see as crucial to winning on Nov. 5.
"I'm going back to Butler because I feel I have an obligation to go back to Butler," Trump told the NewsNation cable news network earlier this week. "We never finished what we were supposed to do."
Trump also will be joined at the rally by his vice presidential running mate, Senator JD Vance, and the family of firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was fatally shot during the attempt on Trump's life.
Another attendee of the July rally, Shane Chesher, 37, said he would return on Saturday for what he expects will be an emotional event.
Chesher said he witnessed the assassination attempt from a seat on the stage behind Trump and is still processing what happened.
"Honestly, I don't know that I understand still to this day what we experienced that day," Chesher said in an interview.
Returning to the site, he said, "will be spiritual, and I think it will be very emotional, good and bad."
The Butler shooting led to widespread criticism of the U.S. Secret Service and the resignation of its director.
Critics raised concerns about how the 20-year-old suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was subsequently shot to death by Secret Service agents, was able to access a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to where Trump was speaking.
A Secret Service probe found communication gaps and a lack of diligence ahead of the shooting. In its aftermath, the agency approved extra security measures for Trump, including using bulletproof glass to shield him at outdoor rallies.
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement before Saturday's rally that there had been "comprehensive changes and enhancements to our communications capabilities, resourcing and protective operations."
Trump credits turning his head to read a chart on a big video as having saved his life. With blood dripping down his face, he raised a fist and shouted "fight" to his supporters, a vivid image from that day. He wore a white bandage on his wounded ear for days after the shooting.
Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis
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Penafian: Entiti XM Group menyediakan perkhidmatan pelaksanaan sahaja dan akses ke Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian, yang membolehkan sesorang melihat dan/atau menggunakan kandungan yang ada di dalam atau melalui laman web, tidak bertujuan untuk mengubah atau memperluas, juga tidak mengubah atau mengembangkannya. Akses dan penggunaan tersebut tertakluk kepada: (i) Terma dan Syarat; (ii) Amaran Risiko; dan Penafian Penuh. Oleh itu, kandungan sedemikian disediakan tidak lebih dari sekadar maklumat umum. Terutamanya, perlu diketahui bahawa kandungan Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian bukan permintaan, atau tawaran untuk melakukan transaksi dalam pasaran kewangan. Berdagang dalam mana-mana pasaran kewangan melibatkan tahap risiko yang besar terhadap modal anda.
Semua bahan yang diterbitkan di Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian kami bertujuan hanya untuk tujuan pendidikan/maklumat dan tidak mengandungi – dan tidak boleh dianggap mengandungi nasihat kewangan, cukai pelaburan atau dagangan dan cadangan, atau rekod harga dagangan kami, atau tawaran, atau permintaan untuk suatu transaksi dalam sebarang instrumen kewangan atau promosi kewangan yang tidak diminta kepada anda.
Sebarang kandungan pihak ketiga serta kandungan yang disediakan oleh XM, seperti pendapat, berita, penyelidikan, analisis, harga, maklumat lain atau pautan ke laman web pihak ketiga yang terdapat dalam laman web ini disediakan berdasarkan "seadanya" sebagai ulasan pasaran umum dan bukanlah nasihat pelaburan. Sesuai dengan apa-apa kandungan yang ditafsir sebagai penyelidikan pelaburan, anda mestilah ambil perhatian dan menerima bahawa kandungan tersebut tidak bertujuan dan tidak sediakan berdasarkan keperluan undang-undang yang direka untuk mempromosikan penyelidikan pelaburan bebas dan oleh itu, ia dianggap sebagai komunikasi pemasaran di bawah peraturan dan undang-undang yang berkaitan. SIla pastikan bahawa anda telah membaca dan memahami Notifikasi mengenai Penyelidikan Pelaburan Bukan Bebas dan Amaran Risiko mengenai maklumat di atas yang boleh diakses di sini.
