Former President Donald Trump recalled Saturday the moment that former First Lady Melania Trump and their 18-year-old son Barron learned of the assassination attempt on his life.
Thomas Matthew Crooks shot the former president in the upper right portion of his ear during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, moments before a sniper fatally shot him. Trump told Fox News’ Mark Levin that Melania watched the moment live on television, while Barron was at his tennis lesson.
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“[Melania] was watching it on television and Barron was outside having a tennis lesson. He’s a good tennis player, he was outside playing tennis and somebody ran up, ‘Barron, Barron, your father’s been shot,” Trump said. “He went, and he loves his father, he’s a good kid, good student, good athlete, actually. And he ran, ‘Mom, what’s going on?’ She couldn’t believe it. She was actually watching it live, can you imagine? And I got up, and let people know I was okay.”
Trump said his survival is a “miracle,” crediting the turning of his head to view the immigration numbers chart at the rally for saving his life.
“The amazing thing about the chart, I rarely use it in a speech. I just said ‘put out the chart.’ And then I turned around,” the former president said. “If I turned around just a little bit less, or a little bit more, if I turned around more or less, it would still the end.”
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The incident killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore as he shielded his daughters. Rally attendees James Copenhaver and David Dutch were also critically injured.
At least five Secret Service agents were put on leave Aug. 23, nearly six weeks after the assassination attempt. Crooks was reportedly spotted on the roof of the American Glass Research building located 130 years from the rally state, with footage from July 31 showing a figure visibly walking across the roof nearly 3 minutes before shots were fired.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her position on July 23 after the House Oversight Committee concluded that she “failed to provide answers” about the “stunning operational failure” during her testimony at a July 22 hearing.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.