WORLD EXCLUSIVE – Ex-president donald trump has completely rewritten his convention speech in light of the assassination attempt on him on Saturday and will call for a new push for national unity on Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with Washington Examiner a day after being hit by a sniper's bullet, Trump said he wanted to seize a historic moment and unite the country.
“The speech I was going to give on Thursday would be a mess,” he said, “if that hadn't happened, this would have been one of the most incredible speeches” aimed primarily at President Joe Biden's policies. “Honestly, it's going to be a completely different discourse now.”
SECRET SERVICE CLOUD OF QUESTIONS AFTER FAILED TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
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It has gone, he said, from planning to excite his voter base to one that demonstrates his belief that the attack on him at a rally in Pennsylvania had completely changed the campaign. Both Republicans and Democrats have acknowledged this after Saturday's shocking incident.
Trump said he has been called by people from all over the country from different walks of life and different political views, noting that he was saved from death because he turned away from the crowd to look at a screen that showed data that was using in his speech.
“That reality is just setting in,” he said. “I rarely look away from the crowd. If I hadn't then, well, we wouldn't be talking today, would we?
Speaking as he boarded his plane in Bedminster, New Jersey, for Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention begins Monday and runs through Thursday, Trump said his speech will meet the timing that history demands. “It is an opportunity to unite the country. They gave me this opportunity.”
Early Sunday morning, Trump published on Social Truth that it was “only God who prevented the unthinkable from happening” and that he “would not be afraid”. Again, talking to him Washington Examinerhe invoked “God” for his release.
“This is an opportunity to bring the whole country together, even the whole world. The speech will be very different, very different than it would have been two days ago,” he said.
The Washington Examiner interview with Trump had to take place on his plane on the flight back from the rally in Bedminster. That deal put this reporter within feet of Trump when he was shot.
Trump congratulated Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was shot and killed at the rally, and two other supporters, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, who were injured and are recovering at a local hospital in stable condition.
Trump said his decision to raise his hand as the Secret Service led him off the stage was to let the people there know he was OK: “And for America to keep going, let's keep going, we're strong.” , he said.
The photograph of him holding his fist in the air, blood running down his face as officers surrounded him, has already become the iconic image of the 2024 election.
If he talks in Milwaukee about uniting the country, he would be echoing President Ronald Reagan, who in 1981 projected strength as he too recovered from wounds far more serious than Trump's from a would-be assassin in Washington , DC.
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Trump said that when he stood up and saw that the crowd hadn't moved, he had to tell them that he and the country would be fine. “The energy that came from the people there at that time, they stayed there; It's hard to describe how he felt, but he knew the world was watching. I knew history would judge it and I knew I had to let them know we're okay.”
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