McCormick reacts to shooting at Trump rally, describes experience sitting front row

BUTLER, Pa. (WTAJ) — Thousands of voters and lawmakers traveled to Butler, Pennsylvania Saturday to listen to former President Donald Trump give his remarks hoping to capture enough voters to win the key battleground state in November.

Among them was Dave McCormick, Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for the United States Senate, who was seated front-row for what started as a routine stop on Trump’s campaign trail that quickly became an attack on the United State’s democratic process.

“Any time that someone tries to assassinate the leader of a party, that that’s undemocratic. That would be the case if someone tried to assassinate the, you know, the president, President Biden,” McCormick said.

McCormick describes the moments as shots rang out above the heads of the attendees. He said that had Trump moved only an inch in the other direction, he would have been killed.

“You never know how someone’s going to react when the bullets start flying. And the fact that he was hit and responded as he did and sort of had that self-awareness and the poise and the courage to sort of step up and be reassuring, defiant and, and sort of lead in that moment was really, I think, a remarkable thing,” McCormick said.

Following the shooting, the nation turned its eyes to the upcoming Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. with the safety of the candidate now being at the top of everyone’s minds — something McCormick had not previously had concerns about.

“When I got home last night and spoke, connected by text or by voice with my six daughters, it was, you know, they were they were really frightened because it had never occurred to them and really hadn’t occurred to me that much that the very act of running or political office, trying to serve your country could put you in harm’s way,” McCormick said.

In a press conference Sunday , secret service outlined the heightened security measures they plan to put in place for the upcoming Republican National Convention. Trump has arrived for the convention where he will be formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate.

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