Disturbing new footage from the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump offers a fresh look at the moment he was surrounded by Secret Service agents and had his shoes removed.
The video was shot from behind the stage. WebenThe photo shows Secret Service agents gathering around President Trump to protect him from further gunfire seconds after a bullet fired by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks struck him in the ear.
An agent is then seen throwing Trump’s shoes off the stage, after which the defiant Republican candidate quickly rises to his feet and shouts, “Let me put my shoes on! Let me put my shoes on!”
Previously unseen footage from an angle shows agents trying to escort a disheveled Trump off the stage, only for their efforts to be briefly thwarted when Trump raises his fist to assure the crowd that he had not been murdered.
The footage then shows the former president being held up close away from the stage, surrounded by a swarm of security personnel, as rally attendees applaud and chant “USA!”
Trump, 78, explained why he was removing his shoes in an interview with The Washington Post on Sunday.
“The officer hit me so hard that my shoes came off. They’re too tight,” Trump said.
The former president also praised the heroic actions of the Secret Service, which has been under intense scrutiny since Saturday’s assassination attempt.
“They’ve done an amazing job,” he said. “It feels surreal for all of us.”
Trump added that he told agents he wanted to return to the podium “to continue speaking” but was not allowed because “he had just been shot.”
One rally-goer who was sitting behind Trump in the front row when he was nearly killed described the moments leading up to the recently released video.
“First I saw him grabbing his ear, then he collapsed,” said Rich, of Angola, New York. Weben“I didn’t realize he was injured, but the Secret Service immediately jumped on him.”
Rich said the Secret Service conducted itself very professionally during the assassination attempt on Trump and that “they did exactly what you would expect them to do.”
Another New Yorker at the Pennsylvania rally recounted the mayhem that erupted seconds after the shots were fired.
“we, [Trump] One of the Secret Service guys [stage]So we went after him, and then just after that we heard pop, pop, pop, pop, and someone said, ‘Get down,'” Joyce Gallagher told the outlet.
“Your brain is trying to process the popping. It could be anything. It could be firecrackers. It could be some kind of prank. Whatever. But, you know, this is where the surreal thing happens. Immediately you see people on stage crouching, and you also see people saying, ‘Down, really down.’ I’ve never seen anyone get as far or as fast on the ground as I have.”
Read the latest Washington Post article about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Crooks, 20, was hit by Trump just before he reached his ear as the candidate spoke at a presidential rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but managed to escape.
The gunman is believed to have climbed to the top of a nearby building, crawled to the top with a rifle and fired at least five to seven shots at the former president from a distance of about 130 yards before being shot dead by a security force sniper.
“They took him down with one bullet between the eyes,” the former president said, praising the snipers.
Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention on Monday, two days after being shot by a sniper and covered in blood.
When the 78-year-old former president emerged from the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, most of his right ear was bandaged.
Trump made no comment during the appearance.
That same day, he was nominated by more than 1,215 Republican delegates and officially became the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
