The shooting of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was an act of “sick political violence”, according to his Democrat opponent and US President Joe Biden.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said during a press conference about the attack.
“It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country.”
Shortly after Trump began speaking at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, gunshots rang out, with a bullet reportedly grazing the candidate’s ear. In footage circulated on social media, Trump can be seen grimacing and raising his hand to his head before dropping drop to the ground, as secret service agents swarm the stage and repeatedly shout “Get down!” Screams could also be heard from the crowd.
According to subsequent news reports, a shooter is dead and an attendee at the rally was killed, with two others being critically injured. Trump’s camp has said he is “fine” and in “good spirits” after being whisked away to a nearby medical facility. Law enforcement officials are investigating the event as an assassination attempt.
“We cannot allow for this to be happening,” Biden told reporters in the wake of the incident.
“We cannot be like this, we cannot condone this…the bottom line is that the Trump rally was a rally that should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem. But the idea that there’s political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of. It’s just not appropriate. Everybody must condemn it, everybody. I’ll keep you informed, and if I am able to speak to Donald, I’ll let you know that as well.”
Biden also thanked the Secret Service and other agencies for engaging at the scene.
Asked if he thought it was an “assassination attempt”, Biden replied: ”I don’t know enough to [say] – I have an opinion, but I don’t have any facts, so I want to make sure we have all the facts before I make any more comments. Thank you.”
Meanwhile, on his Truth Social account, Trump himself released a statement confirming that he had been shot by a bullet in the ear.
“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” he said.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
This was not the first time Donald Trump was the target of such measures. In 2016, a British man was sentenced to 12 months in prison over his attempt to grab a gun in an apparent bid to kill Trump. He pleaded guilty to being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting an official function, after he was accused of grabbing a policeman’s gun at a Las Vegas rally to shoot the Republican candidate, as reported by BBC News at the time.