ST. LOUIS – Former President Donald Trump was the target of an apparent assassination attempt Saturday at a Pennsylvania rally, law enforcement officials tell the Associated Press.
Trump’s campaign said in a statement that the former president was “fine” after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. A local prosecutor said the suspected gunman and at least one attendee are dead.
Political analysts John Hancock (Republican) and Michael Kelley (Democrat) spoke on what the shooting means in terms of the safety of high-profile political candidates and the role of the Secret Service in responding to such situations.
Brian Gant, a former Secret Service agent under Barack Obama with Missouri ties, tells FOX 2 that he expects increased monitoring of other potential threats of political violence.
Locals in Chesterfield shared mixed opinions of what happened in the shooting, some describing it was “an attempt to keep Trump out of office” and others fearing they “don’t know what’s really going on” in the modern political climate.
The shooting came just days before Trump was expected to accept the Republican nomination on the U.S. presidential ballot for a third consecutive election cycle.
