Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick spoke firsthand from the front row at the rally where the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump took place on Saturday.
McCormick spoke to ABC News in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on the presidential candidate and 45th president of the United States. The Bronze Star decorated U.S. Army paratrooper veteran shared his views from the front row at the rally.
BREAKING: After gunshots were heard at a rally in Pennsylvania, former President Trump clutched his ears and collapsed to the ground onstage.
Dave McCormick, a Republican Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, attended the rally and described what he witnessed.https://t.co/lIl0QZ4z5Y pic.twitter.com/84BUAfFkcl
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) July 14, 2024
Trump was about to invite McCormick, who he endorses, onto the stage when shots were fired.
“I was in the front row and President Trump had just announced me, said I was going to come on stage, and I said, ‘Hold on a moment,’ and then several shots were fired, I think seven or eight,” McCormick recalled, stressing that it was unclear whether the shots were fired from one or two locations.
BREAKING: After gunshots were heard at a rally in Pennsylvania, former President Trump clutched his ears and collapsed to the ground onstage.
Dave McCormick, a Republican Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, attended the rally and described what he witnessed.https://t.co/lIl0QZ4z5Y pic.twitter.com/84BUAfFkcl
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) July 14, 2024
“And immediately, Secret Service agents swarmed over and took President Trump down and jumped on top of him,” he added. “And then he stood up, and I saw him put his fist out. He looked defiant, and he looked OK, but I wasn’t sure.”
“There appeared to be some blood, but it wasn’t obvious,” McCormick said.
A Republican Senate candidate backed by President Trump said the crowd ran to the ground for safety, but he then noticed someone injured in the bleachers behind him.
He told ABC News:
And then the whole crowd got on the ground, because I didn’t know if shots had been fired. And unfortunately, over my shoulder, I saw someone had clearly been shot. I was on the ground, and I saw, maybe three or four bleachers up behind me, there was a guy who looked like he was seriously injured, bleeding profusely. People were trying to administer first aid around him. Then some police officers came by, carried him out and probably tried to get first aid. That’s all I could see. I don’t know if there were any other injuries. I don’t know if anyone was arrested. As you can imagine, after that happened, the crowd was… very confused, very confused, and it was very confusing what was going on.
It’s unclear whether the injured person McCormick was referring to was a bystander or an assailant. McCormick also described how he felt at the time, emphasizing that “it was clear to me that the president had been assaulted and was in extreme danger.”
He added:
And as it starts to sink in, you start to think, “Is there still a shooter out there? Are they going to target other people?” And these situations, I’ve been in the military before, you have to be careful not to jump to conclusions too early because the facts come out over time. But I think what we all felt was a sense of, “Oh my god, we’re all in danger,” because there was clearly a shooter, at least one in the crowd, maybe more. I think it was just really frightening and shocking for everybody that was there.
At least one gunman was reportedly killed.
