During a recent interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, former President Donald Trump recounted Melania’s reaction to seeing her husband nearly killed on television. Trump noted that his wife was watching the rally live as the shooting occurred. The Republican presidential candidate suggested that Melania prefers not to discuss the harrowing incident.
During the July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks mounted the roof of a nearby building that had a direct line of sight to Trump. He began firing off rounds, one of which grazed Trump’s near, millimeters away from landing a lethal headshot on the former president. Trump defiantly stood up with blood streaked across his face, raising his fist in what has become an iconic picture.
Ingraham asked Trump, “What was Melania’s reaction? If you don’t mind my asking, this is very personal, when she learned about what happened on that field in Butler. Trump responded, “She was watching, she was watching live. It was all over the place. It was on television, so in your network, but it was all over the place.”
Trump continued, illustrating the impact the assassination attempt had on his wife. “And she was watching. I asked her that. I mean, I wasn’t there, I was on the ground, and when the world started to like. .. you could talk to people, I said, ‘so what was your feeling?’ And, she can’t really even talk about it, which is okay, because that means she likes me or she loves me,” he said.
“I mean, let’s say she could talk about it freely…that wouldn’t be … I’m not so sure which is better, but she the likes or loves me, and that’s nice,” the former president added. “But I will say this look. When I went down, she thought the worst had happened, because I went down and grabbed my and I saw it was my hand was loaded up with blood. You see it in slow motion, instant replay.
Trump further pointed out that if he had been hit by the bullet, it would have been captured in absurd detail by the litany of press around him. “You know, we had hundreds of press there, so this was covered live. They would have had instant replay and everything else, which they already do in this. But supposing the worst happened.” He further drew attention to Core Comperatore, who died in the grandstands behind Trump protecting his family from the gunfire. “You know, one man, Corey, was killed, hit compared horribly, amazing man, horribly in the head. And you know, to guard he was guarding his family,” Trump added.
Watch the conversation below:
The American Tribune previously reported that Melania had been “traumatized” by the rally shooting in a manner that had changed her perspective on life. “Melania Trump’s statement was the epitome of graciousness and a beautiful, heartfelt message of vulnerability and transparency, She loves and supports her husband and has surely been traumatized by this heinous attempt to assassinate him,” sources said. “As much as Donald Trump himself will continue on, as will she, the events of Saturday changed her, and her family – and all of us. It can’t help but make her see every day and every decision differently.”
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