BUTLER, Pennsylvania — Leading Republicans and Democrats swiftly condemned the violence at a campaign rally where former President Donald J. Trump was shot in the ear on Saturday.
“There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it,” President Biden said in a statement.
Republican Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas told Fox News that his nephew had been wounded at the rally. The incident has raised immediate questions about security lapses by the Secret Service, which provides former presidents, including Trump, with lifetime protection.
This was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
Ron Moose, a Trump supporter at the rally, described hearing about four shots. “I saw the crowd go down and then Trump ducked real quick,” he said. “Then the Secret Service all jumped and protected him within a second.”
The BBC interviewed an eyewitness who saw a man armed with a rifle crawling up a roof near the event. He said he and others pointed at the man, trying to alert security.
The shots appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said. The FBI has taken the lead in investigating the attack. At a briefing late Saturday, FBI officials expressed surprise that the suspect fired multiple shots. The Secret Service did not have a representative at the briefing, which included FBI and state law enforcement officials.
Hours after the attack, the Oversight Committee in the Republican-led House of Representatives summoned U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22. “Americans demand answers about the assassination attempt on President Trump,” the panel said in a statement on social media.
