Dave McCormick says Trump’s life was saved by ‘an inch difference’ in shooting

Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick stated “an inch difference” prevented former President Donald Trump from dying at this rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.

McCormick, who was in the front row at the time shots rang out, said Trump went down with the Secret Service immediately, adding that the former president showed “leadership” by assuring the public he was OK by raising his fist. He also said that an attendee at the rally behind him had been hit by one of the bullets, and was “bleeding very badly.”

“And so there were sort of two things going on at the same time, one to my left and one to my right.” McCormick said on ABC News’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. “And the president was taken off the stage, and there was a real confusion of what was going on, whether there were multiple shooters, whether the shooting was done, and really a sad day that the president, you know, an inch difference and the president would have been dead. It was a very scary moment.”

The candidate also condemned “extreme rhetoric” across the board, referencing the shooting on Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) in 2017 and the attack on Paul Pelosi, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband, in 2022. He encouraged others to come together to push back on political violence, arguing that U.S. residents need to recognize they have a “conflict of ideas” but that this should not justify “attacking people.”

McCormick is one of several people who have donated to a fundraiser from the Trump campaign aimed at supporting the victims of the shooting, as one victim was killed and two others were injured. As of noon on Sunday, the fundraiser has raised over $1 million, with $10,000 coming from McCormick and his wife, Dina.

Other donors listed include $50,000 from musician Kid Rock, $30,000 from former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and $10,000 from billionaire Bill Ackman, who gave his endorsement to Trump after the shooting.

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Former first lady Melania Trump has also reflected on the near-death experience of her husband, noting that the lives of herself and her son, Barron Trump, were “on the brink of devastating change.” She also condemned the shooter, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Matthew Crooks, and called him a “monster who recognized my husband as an inhumane political machine.”

The former president revealed Sunday that he still intends to speak at the upcoming Republican National Convention, where he is expected to become the party’s 2024 presidential nominee. Other members of the Trump family set to speak include his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as his daughter-in-law and co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Lara Trump.