Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Saturday said he will continue to hold outdoor rallies despite the assassination attempt earlier this month in Pennsylvania.
The agency has not issued a public statement about the claims.
“They are very capable of doing so,” he said. “No one can ever be allowed to stop or impede free speech or gathering.”
Soon after he got on the stage at the Butler rally and started to speak, a shooter opened fire on him from a rooftop building about 400 feet away, striking his right ear. The suspected gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, killed one rallygoer and injured two others.
Later that week, the 45th president was nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate for the general election in November, later delivering an address to the Republican National Convention with a large bandage on his right ear.
The FBI also confirmed in a statement on Friday that a bullet hit the former president, after FBI Director Christopher Wray drew backlash for suggesting to a House panel earlier in the week that it may have been shrapnel that struck his ear.
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the bureau told The Epoch Times.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the Secret Service and its then-director, Kimberly Cheatle, came under fire over the agency’s preparation for the Butler rally. While Ms. Cheatle had initially resisted calls to step down from her post, she ultimately resigned last week after hours of hard questioning from members of the House and a joint statement from top Republicans and Democrats asking her to step down.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” Ms. Cheatle said in her resignation letter. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
Former President Trump held an indoor rally Saturday night in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and was jointed by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). Earlier in the day, he also appeared at a bitcoin and cryptocurrency event in Nashville, Tennessee.
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, the House Homeland Security Committee said it launched a full investigation into the incident. President Joe Biden also said hours after the shooting that he would direct an independent review of the matter, while the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office posted notices on its website saying it will review the shooting and security detail for the Butler rally.
At the St. Cloud rally, former President Trump defended one of the female Secret Service agents who rushed to his aid immediately after the shooting, following criticism of the agency for hiring women for the job.
Referring to the agent, who has not been named, the former president remarked, “She got criticized by the fake news because she wasn’t tall enough. She was so brave, she was shielding me with everything, she wanted to take a bullet.”
“Every one of them—there wasn’t one that was slow. A woman who was on my right, she was shielding me,” he said. “Beautiful person—she was shielding me, everything she could. And she got crushed. And she got criticized by the fake news because she wasn’t tall enough.”
