Inflammatory Rhetoric Toward Trump in Weeks Leading Up to Assassination Attempt, with Rich Lowry

it's a shocking moment in American history in the context of this race and in the context of the messaging almost Universal unless you're a fan of Donald Trumps or or a fair cover of him like like you are about the the messaging around him the rhetoric around him I'm not blaming this on rhetoric but we would be derel if we did not mention how it has been dialed up and in particular it has been dialed up as I think the left feels this election starting to slip away that's not to say that caused this we don't know who pre who pulled the trigger it's just there's been an atmosphere around this guy that has been dialed to an 11 for far too long and many of us believed it was only a matter of time before someone acted on it stunning pictures here this one is of President Trump on the ground bloody with his hand nearby his face trying to recover from what could have been an assassination your thoughts on what we're witnessing today I I want to weep for my country it's just uh it's horrible it's it's uh there are no words for how terrible this is and how terrible more terrible it could have been I mean we were centimeter how far away from president Trump's head being blown off at a rally on live television and these are moments Megan the reason why you know assassinations Fascinate people one of the reasons history T telescopes down to inches and seconds right if if JFK's driver had sped up rather than slow down to see what was happening after the the first one or two shots JFK would have survived that assassination attempt if the arch Duke Ferdinand one they threw a bomb at him which didn't work if he just said we're not doing anything else but he had kind of a trump likee Spirit he like we're going through this whole ceremony and in Saro I don't care and when he was heading back actually when to go to the hospital see the people hurt from the bomb if the car had not turned made a wrong turn down a narrow street that it couldn't get out of that happened to be that Gabriel Prince one of the assassination team was just standing there not knowing what to do was standing right there at that moment he would have lived and all of history would have been different that was the most consequential assassination in world history but that that uh that moment of trump pumping his fist shows what a sense of the moment right we get in fender benders where where your head head you know goes back a little bit and you're you're kind of shocked you don't know what happened to you or you know it takes a little while to get your senses to know that what that moment called for was strength and reassuring his supporters when you're right how does he know the Secret Service thinks the threat's been neutralized that's why they're picking him up how does he know right he he's just been inches from being killed how does he know that that is an image that will live throughout American political history rich I I don't know about you but I feel infus furiated right now I am angry over what is has been done to this man you and I sat together in 2015 and National Review said not not Trump not this guy here we are all these years later I see him so differently yes he's got character FL of course but this is this is the embodiment of strength in the face of an unbelievable Onslaught emotion Financial free with when it comes to his freedom and now his life literally with a bullet having shot him in the head his fist is in the air and he's telling the crowd and all of us fight fight for your country fight for what we're all in this for don't let them shoot you down don't let them shoot down your ideals don't let them ruin the country I I've never seen anything like this yeah so high politics is about you know it's about policy and ideas but a lot of it about emotion and and this is a guy you know one reason we couldn't stop him when when we tried in the primaries in 2016 is he he understood a crowd he understood the moment he he he got feeling and could play off of it and this is just the the the very Pinnacle of this that that was just an epic reaction and again it will never be forgotten and what you open with on the rhetoric who knows who the shooter was and but but if you literally think he's Hitler that's what they're telling us right the president United States incumbent is telling us that and maybe in not so many words what's the proper reaction just voting against them and hoping turn things turn out right if you take it seriously I think we've learned a lot of Democrats actually don't take it seriously but unfortunately a lot of people do if you take it seriously what do you do if it's existential for American democracy for our system of government our way of Life what do you do maybe you do whoever that that uh apparent shooter on the rooftop maybe you do what he did there is um video I don't know if we have it or can show it of a shooter forgive me we don't know that this is the shooter of what appears to be a man lying on a rooftop nearby and the reports online are that that's the shooter and he's dead he's motionless and he's lying down um we're gonna We I've spoken with somebody who is at the rally and we're going to have him call in talking about the security but it was tight as it would be for any Secret Service event with the former president never mind the leading Contender for the GOP nomination which of course takes place next week as a formal matter and so this person in order to have a gun Rich you know anywhere near shooting range of this President yeah I mean it does make you wonder how he did it whether he had help how on Earth anybody was within shooting range of the this man Donald Trump from a rooftop all of that is going to be investigated uh but you've got to say kudos to local law enforcement or the Secret Service whoever took this guy out because it all happened in seconds yeah so the you know all the professionals say and it just seems as though just watching as an amateur their reaction to this was Pitch Perfect I mean they they immediately go on Trump they're protecting him with their bodies which apparently moving act uh putting themselves on on the line but but there are going to be questions you know according to Twitter who who knows things things are going to change we're going to learn more you know as as we speak you know just during during this segment probably we're learning more but um how is it there there are indications that people are pointing to this guy on the rooftop and he got the shots off before the secret server got him maybe it was unavoidable who knows but there're going to be a lot of questions so it looks like the reaction was a secret service success but I think there'd be questions about how this guy was able to get within range and initially it seemed like there's some speculation maybe it's a BB because you know when you get shot in your ear you just it's not just a little blood right it's a horrible event and it seemed as though no one else was hurt but now of course we gotten the reports of other people in the crowd tragically hurt we've seen that video of the uh the Trump supporter who is there and is emergency room doctor I believe was trying to save someone Grievous head wound and didn't so so this was a a furious assassination attempt and if if anyone comes this close to to being killed that's under Secret Service protections there going to be a lot of critical questions afterwards uh we have that video again this is of uh an ER doctor who is on the scene let's take a listen that's exactly where I heard him com from what did you see sir um I Heard the shots um I um I thought it was firecrackers begin with uh somebody over there was screaming he's been shot he's been shot so I made my way over uh I said I'm an emergency department pH let me help you the guy had spun around was jammed between the benches he had a head shot here there's lots of blood and he had brain matter and so I got him there's a helicopter coming in to get him uh so uh I got people there really helpful I got you saw then I did CPR did chest compressions as well as a brief form one person you guys we need to evacuate everybody well that's horrible I mean that is horrifying rich and you in I mean we don't know it we don't have the angle straight but clearly as you point out within a within a a couple of centimeters that could have been president Trump and God prayers go out to the family of the of the Trump supporter that's how it appears uh who was shot and killed just there to support a president in advance of an election not not to have his brain matter Spilled Out all over the ground what is this country coming to Rich yeah talk about an offense against American democracy to attend what's become kind of a Civic ritual for half the country these Trump Ries which are so epic and ionic and be killed is just it's beyond words it's just horrific and profoundly wrong and again we're just we're tremendously lucky that that Trump himself wasn't killed and it's it'd be a human tragedy a family tragedy just for him and the people around him but it would just be an unbelievably awful thing for the country because these assassinations they are deranging events and our politics is deranged already it would get much much worse I mean we still we're still arguing over he who killed JFK right you know 50 or 60 years later so this is why it's extremely important to make sure this never ever happens and whatever these security Arrangements were going into this obviously they they need to be heightened but Trump you know there was a big thing on the January 6 commission oh we didn't want uh the people to be magged or to go through uh electric detectors on January 6 is because he's always he wants to be out there he wants the crowd to be U big and to have a good time and not have to wait forever and he trusts them right the the reason when when this is a big Scandal that Trump supposed want people to bring weapons to proximity to the capital someone was telling me he always joked with the Secret Service about these are my people just let them in it'll be fine but anyone who's out there in any crowd like that no matter how secret how much Secret Service protection is you are ultimately putting your body on on the line and we saw this dramatic evidence of that this afternoon and Rich here is the the report that I got uh from this is this he is the father of my friend uh his name is Larry Wood and he said that uh there were tens of thousands there by his estimation that he heard a single gunshot he and his wife were seated farther back then another then a pause and then the rapid fire that there were state police everywhere and I asked him about the security and he said it was tight and that they were forced to go through a magnetometer and even they as an older couple uh were not allowed to bring in his wife had a long umbrella and she couldn't bring it in right so they understand it always amps up when the former president is there and it amps up even more as he inches closer and closer to becoming the nominee again so they wouldn't let her in with the long umbrella so they had to be seated farther back and then they saw what we saw which was he appeared to get hit um from on the right side from a shooter who was off off to the right and then the crowd went went nuts I mean people started to realized you know he started to realize he said first he thought it was maybe fireworks he wasn't sure and then they they realized it was gunshots and that they needed to get out of there and you think about you know it's not just Donald Trump it's not just this poor Trump supporter who appears to have been murdered today forget the shooter it's it is the old it is men and women who are just out there to support their country their preferred candidate to show their love of the Stars and Stripes days after July forth and what they think it stands for by potentially voting for this man and they get scared to with an inch an inch of their lives running for their safety because they showed up at a trump rally that's what that's what they did today that's what Larry and his wife did today to show up at a trump rally in Pennsylvania the heart of the nation part of the Heartland and probably the most critical state in this election as in in Another Universe Rich we hear every other day that Trump's Hitler that he's the demon we hear from the president himself this week that it's time to put a bullseye on Trump I'm not blaming this on Joe Biden but I would be remiss in my duty if I did not point out that he he just on July 8th said to a group of Democrats whom he was trying to shore up about his mental acuity quote we done talking about the debate it's time to put Trump in a bullseye the left I mean the the headlines in the New York Times Rich when Sarah Palin had what looked like a gun site on certain districts prior to Gabby gord's being shot led to litigation that went on for years about whether she had been the subject of what she called a blood liable and now you've got the sitting president who's been so loose with his language called Kyle writtenhouse a white supremacist despite the fact that there was Zero evidence for that and none of it was was born out in that trial and he said it's time to put Trump in a bullseye days ago it's just totally irresponsible thanks so much for watching if you like what you just saw hit the Subscribe button for more clips and full episodes