Pennsylvania Senate candidate: It could’ve been me up there

Just a few minutes separated Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick from being on stage with Donald Trump when a gunman opened fire on Trump.

McCormick was in the front row of the rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, when the shots rang out. Moments earlier, the former president had invited McCormick to join him up on the stage, but then told him to wait a second.

“He came out on the stage and invited me up — introduced me and invited me up on the stage and then said no, no why don’t we wait and have you up a little bit later,” McCormick said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday." “And just a minute or two after that, the shots were fired. And so I would have been on stage.”

Secret Service jumped to action, climbing on top of the former president, McCormick said, but on the other side, a rally attendee was “bleeding very badly.” One person was killed in the shooting, now under investigation as an assassination attempt, and two others are in critical condition according to law enforcement.

As for his own campaign, McCormick, who is looking to unseat Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in battleground Pennsylvania, said he “didn’t even really think about” how this would change his own campaign until later in the night.

“Being a public official, we shouldn't have to worry that our lives are at risk if we're running for office or a certain public office,” he said Sunday. “You know, this extreme political rhetoric that certainly has to contribute to the violence we’ve seen … this is just unacceptable in our country.”

“We have to dial it back,” he added later.