“This has been our best campaign and then I got shot. How does that happen?” he asked the audience. “But I got lucky, God was with me. I tell you.”
“That was an amazing, horrible thing, amazing thing. And in many ways, it changes your attitude, your viewpoint on life,” the former president added. A bullet narrowly missed his head, injuring his right ear during the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. “And I think, honestly, I think you appreciate God even more.”
The clip, which is about one minute in length and appeared to have been recorded on a phone, was given to PBS and edited, according to the public broadcaster.
The former president’s comments this week could foreshadow his Thursday night speech at the RNC, where he is also set to receive the Republican Party’s nomination for president in November’s general election against President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, former President Trump said that the assassination attempt spurred him to change a speech that he had planned for the event, saying it will now focus more on “bringing the country together.”
“Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches,” aimed mostly at the current administration’s policies, he said. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”
Questions and criticism have emerged about whether the Secret Service and local law enforcement had sufficient resources to secure the Butler rally. On Wednesday, several top Republicans clamored for the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, to resign from her post.
However, the former president and his family members aren’t counted among the agency’s critics. In a statement published on July 14, former President Trump thanked the Secret Service agents for quickly responding to the shooting and for risking their lives.
Family members of the former president, including former First Lady Melania Trump and his son Eric Trump, have also defended the agency and praised the quick reactions of agents. In an interview earlier this week at the RNC, Eric Trump praised a female Secret Service agent who was seen around the former president as he was being whisked off the stage with blood streaks across his face.
The gunman was identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who lived in the Pittsburgh area near where the Trump rally was held. So far, the agency has not disclosed a motive for Mr. Crooks’ actions or whether he was motivated by a specific political animus to target the former president.
Suspected bomb-making materials were found inside Mr. Crooks’s vehicle and home, while FBI officials said they were able to get inside his phone earlier this week.
In a July 14 speech from the Oval Office, President Biden urged Americans to lower the heated “political rhetoric in this country,” adding that “it’s time to cool it down.”
