Trump campaigns in Michigan in first appearance since apparent assassination attempt
Flint, Michigan – Former President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail Tuesday evening in his first public appearance since the second assassination attempt on his life.
“It’s a dangerous business, however, being president,” Trump said while sitting alongside Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former White House press secretary, at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan. “It’s a little bit dangerous. It’s, you know, they think race car driving is dangerous? No. They think bull riding, that’s pretty scary, right? No. This is a dangerous business, and we have to keep it safe.”
Trump later told the crowd he received a phone call Tuesday from Vice President Kamala Harris, calling it “very, very nice, we appreciate that.”
Speaking earlier Tuesday during a panel interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, Harris also acknowledged that she had spoken to Trump, saying that she “checked on him to see if he was OK.”
Previously Trump was blaming the rhetoric of Democrats and Harris, telling Fox News digital, “their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
Joseph Guajardo, a licensed counselor from Battle Creek, Michigan, said at Trump’s town hall in Flint that he hopes the former president will focus on policy, “instead of all the name-calling.”
“I think America is above all of this horrible rhetoric that’s been spoken of about President Trump and the other side, the other side being the Democratic party,” Guajardo said.
On Sunday, members of the former president’s Secret Service detail spotted an AK-47-style rifle poking through the bushes at Trump National Golf Course while Trump was golfing there.
An agent fired at the suspect, later identified as Ryan Routh, who fled the scene. Routh was later apprehended and charged with two firearms offenses. An investigation is underway.
Despite Sunday’s events and the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, Jim Jones, an Army veteran from Davison, Michigan and Trump supporter, said he’s not worried about his safety at Trump’s campaign events.
“I think when the good Lord wants you, he’ll take you,” Jones said, adding that he thinks “the good Lord has a job for Trump to do.”
Virginia Williamson, a nurse and Trump supporter in Flint, Michigan, said she wasn’t planning to attend Trump’s town hall Tuesday until she heard about the apparent attempt on Trump’s life.
“That’s why my husband and I are here today to show support,” Williamson said.
Trump campaign officials say that they are not planning changes to his schedule after Sunday’s events. A senior campaign official told CBS News that acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told Trump that it isn’t safe for him to golf without additional security measures. The Biden administration has asked Congress for a surge in funding for the Secret Service to help provide more resources to the agency.
Trump plans to hold a rally in Uniondale, New York, on Wednesday and a rally outdoors in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday.
