Ex-Fire Chief Killed in Trump Shooting Remembered at Butler, PA, Rally
BUTLER, Pa. — Returning to the site where an attempted assassin’s bullet grazed his ear, former President Donald Trump got to finish what he started in July.
“As I was saying,” Trump joked early in his speech to the crowd of thousands in Butler.
Trump’s Butler return comes just three weeks after the Secret Service thwarted a second assassination attempt in Florida. And it comes just one month before Election Day as Pennsylvania promises to play a pivotal role in determining the outcome in the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
He walked onstage alone, but was flanked by Secret Service agents and covered by protective glass, to a live performance by Lee Greenwood of “God Bless the USA.”
The crowd went wild.
His speech capped a rally day marked by an emphasis on defiant strength, verbal attacks on Harris and the Democratic Party, and the promotion of falsehoods about immigration and other topics that have come define Trump’s multiple campaigns.
The rally stood out from typical campaign events, though, as speakers and attendees balanced firebrand politics with solemnity as they honored Corey Comperatore, the former Buffalo Township fire chief who was killed at the July rally on the same grounds. Trump dedicated the beginning of his speech to him, calling him “truly immortal.”
Comperatore’s firefighter jacket was displayed on the risers behind Trump, and his wife, daughters, sister, and other relatives were at the rally, Trump said.
“Twelve weeks ago, we all took a bullet for America and all we’re all asking is that everyone goes out and votes,” said Trump. “All of this will be for nothing if you don’t go out and vote.”
Throughout the rally, the crowd repeated in a chant: “Corey! Corey! Corey!”
“He gave his life to shield their lives,” Trump said of Comperatore, who reportedly used his body to shield his family at the July rally. After a moment of silence, opera singer Christopher Macchio sang “Ave Maria.”
Trump also spoke of David Dutch and James Copenhaver, the two attendees who were wounded but survived the July shooting. “They were big Trump fans and they still are,” Trump said.
The packed crowd was a high-energy sea of red hats, popping up from their seats and putting their hands in the air to respond to Trump throughout his speech. But tighter security showed through. At one point, a guard told an enthusiastic supporter standing in an aisle to return to his seat.
At one point Trump paused his speech as an attendee experienced a medical emergency. The crowd broke out into an a cappella rendition of the national anthem before Trump resumed his remarks.
Supporters traveled from as far as Japan, but many in the crowd hailed from Butler and surrounding communities that are still healing from the trauma of the July shooting.
Loren Stephenson, 40, a literature and writing professor who was raised in Butler and now lives in Indiana, Pennsylvania, attended the July rally and said Saturday’s event felt like “redemption.”
“It’s like your body went into shock,” she recalled of the shooting. “I actually thought someone was playing a sick joke. I thought it was firecrackers, but my fiancé and our friends, they’re much more familiar with firearms. They knew it was real.”
Stephenson, an independent, has supported Trump since 2016.
Angelina Marx, 20, a Butler Community College student, said she will either cast her ballot for Trump or not vote in her first election. Saturday was her first time attending a Trump rally.
“I feel like that’s a big reason why I’m here, it’s because I want to make sure that I believe in what I’m voting for,” said Marx, who had never been to a Trump rally before Saturday.
Marx said she likes the idea of electing a female president but that she doesn’t trust Harris.
A town once known for its agriculture, manufacturing of railroad cars, and Jeep production, Butler is now mainly known for being the site of the first assassination attempt against a president or presidential candidate in more than four decades.
“The community is strong, though,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., whose district includes Butler, said on Friday. “They’ve rebounded quickly.”
Kelly, who co-chairs the bipartisan House committee to investigate July’s assassination attempt, said security measures between the July rally and Saturday’s rally were “the difference between night and day.”
There was, among other things, an expanded perimeter, increased communication among first responders, and drones.
Speaking at the rally on Saturday, Butler Township Commissioner Edward Natali said he wants Trump’s return to change the narrative about Butler.
“One thing I want to see after today…,” he said, “I am declaring that Butler, Pennsylvania, is the undisputed capital of Trump country.”
When Trump last spoke in Butler, he was facing a beleaguered President Joe Biden. He’s now locked in a tight race with Harris. A Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll released last month showed the vice president leading Trump by 4 percentage points in Pennsylvania and the two candidates tied nationally.
After remembering the victims of the July rally, Trump launched into his typical anti-immigrant spiel, saying countries in Africa, Asia, and South America were sending “crazy” people to America. There has been no proof that this is true.
He also repeated a debunked claim about 13,000 murderers being on the loose, a figure that conflates not being detained by ICE with being free when many of those cited are in state or federal prisons.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who owns social media platform X and helped found Tesla, was one of the Trump campaign’s roughly 60 “special guests.” He spoke briefly and encouraged people to register to vote.
Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, spoke before Trump and struck a more combative tone when he accused Democrats of using inflammatory rhetoric in their political speeches after July’s Butler rally shooting.
“Even after that terrible assassination attempt that took one man’s life and nearly took many others… the media has continued to call Donald Trump, the guy who actually won his primary, a threat to democracy,” Vance said.
Trump has been indicted in federal court and Georgia for election interference after he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
But Vance, who in recent days has downplayed the Jan. 6 attack and the effect of Trump’s election denialism, attacked Harris and accused her of using divisive language.
“I think you all will join me in saying to Kamala Harris, how dare you talk about threats to democracy? Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy.”
As Trump wrapped his marathon rally, he sought to connect his survival in Butler to other moments where Pennsylvania played a uniquely pivotal role in the country’s history and
“From Gettysburg to Germantown and Philadelphia to Barren Hill, and from Brandywine to right here in Butler, this is the place where Pennsylvania patriots poured out their blood with the love of their country,” Trump said.
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