Assassination Attempt
Donald Trump held his first campaign rally on Saturday since narrowly escaping an assassination attempt a week ago. During the rally, he mocked Democrats and compared former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to a “dog.”
After briefly calling for national unity earlier in the week, Trump reverted to his typical campaign style, using insulting and often offensive language to attack his opponents.
He also repeated a series of false claims about immigration, the economy, and election fraud, which were major elements of his speech.
Trump frequently mocked Democratic President Joe Biden, portraying him as feeble. He derided senior Democrats, including Pelosi, for trying to persuade Biden to end his re-election bid.
There was a heavy police presence at Trump’s rally in Grand Rapids, with officers on every street corner for several blocks. U.S. Secret Service officers were positioned on the top balconies in the Van Andel Arena, giving them a bird’s eye view of the crowd inside.
Fresh from his nominating convention in Milwaukee, where his takeover of the Republican Party was solidified, Trump appeared in Grand Rapids with his new vice-presidential pick, Senator JD Vance from Ohio.
They took the stage in their first campaign event together with the Republican Party unified behind them. In contrast, uncertainty looms over Biden’s candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination.
Biden has faced calls from some senior Democrats to end his re-election bid after a poor debate performance last month raised concerns about his ability to beat Trump or complete another four-year term.
Many Democrats fear Biden may not have a realistic path to victory and believe the party needs a new candidate to take on Trump.
Trump criticized Democrats, accusing them of wanting to remove Biden from the ticket after he won their presidential nominating contest. “They have a couple of problems.
Number one, they have no idea who their candidate is,” Trump said to laughter and jeers from the crowd. “This guy goes and he gets the votes and now they want to take it away.”
Referring to Pelosi, Trump remarked, “She’s turned on him like a dog. She’s as crazy as a bed bug.” Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, responded to inquiries about Trump’s “dog” remark with, “Hahahahahahaha.”
Trump referred to the assassination attempt several times during the rally. “I hope I don’t have to go through that again. It was so horrible,” he said. Opinion polls show a tight race between Trump and Biden at a national level, but Biden is trailing in the battleground states that will likely determine the winner.
At his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend, the gunman was able to scale the roof of a building outside the Secret Service perimeter before opening fire on Trump.
The attack clipped Trump’s ear, killed a rally-goer, and wounded several others. The Secret Service, responsible for protecting Trump, declined to comment on security for the Grand Rapids event, and an investigation is underway into the security failures at the Butler rally.
In his convention speech on Thursday, Trump gave a detailed account of his narrow brush with death, telling the audience that he was only speaking to them “by the grace of Almighty God.”
Trump’s former physician, Ronny Jackson, stated on Saturday that Trump is recovering as expected from the gunshot wound to his right ear, noting intermittent bleeding and the potential need for a hearing exam.
The bullet fired at the July 13 rally in Pennsylvania came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head,” according to Jackson, a Republican congressman from Texas who served as physician to Presidents Trump and Barack Obama.
