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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Wendy Urquhart and in the early hours of Sunday the 14th of July, this is a special edition after a series of shots were fired at Donald Trump at an election rally. The former president, who appeared to have blood on his ear, was whisked away in a car to safety. A spokesman for Mr Trump's campaign team has said that he is safe after the incident.
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Donald Trump was at a US election rally in Pennsylvania when gunfire was heard from the crowd and the former president was bundled off the stage by security officials. He raised a fist to his supporters before being taken away in a car. What appeared to be blood was seen on Mr. Trump's ear. He was criticizing President Biden when the incident happened. Worst president in the history of our country took over and look what happened to our country.
Probably 20 million people. And you know, that's a little bit old, that chart. That chart's a couple of months old. And if you want to really see something that's said, take a look at what happened.
Our correspondent Gary O'Donoghue was at the rally and spoke to this eyewitness. We were listening to him talk and all of a sudden from my left we heard a bunch of shots and people started running towards us so we just took off. People were, you know, running, tripping, falling and we just ran until we were across the street behind the building. Did you see anyone hit at all?
No, but I spoke with my mom on the phone and I think from what I understand, they got him. We can't confirm that at this stage at all. Could you tell where the shooting was coming from?
Was it from the crowd or from outside of the crowd? I think it was like one of these buildings back here. Right. So you think it was coming from higher up, possibly? Behind the fences, yeah. Okay. And what was the atmosphere like in the crowd at that moment when it started? Panic. Did people start running? Yeah. Right. And they were running and tripping over each other and, yeah. Yeah. And do you know, did the police move in pretty quickly? No.
From what I saw, yeah, there were police officers in the field, like right beyond the fence, and they took off immediately. A short time later, the BBC's Carl Nassman got an update from Gary. It was about 10 minutes into Donald Trump's speech, and he was talking about immigration. And then we heard, we were actually live on air at the time, and we
We were talking to our colleagues at the BBC World Service and we heard the shots. I heard maybe six or eight. It sounds like from that film you've just played there may have been more. But certainly six or eight in rapid succession.
We hit the dirt, we hit the deck because we had no idea where the shooting was coming from. And now since then, people have been streaming out of the event. The former president was taken away quickly, surrounded by the Secret Service and taken away immediately. Reports of some
blood on his ear, possibly him holding his ear. We don't know the detail. One eyewitness I've just spoken to who says he was 50 feet from the former president. He said when the shooting started, a speaker fell. I know it's not clear whether that was on stage or fell into the crowd. He said he saw one person being put into an ambulance. He said there was panic. People
hit the dirt, people started screaming. Another eyewitness I spoke to said there'd been a lot of panic in the crowd, as you can imagine. Both of those eyewitnesses were speculating about where the shots had come from, and they suggested there was a building just outside the perimeter where the shooting might have come from. Now, we don't know whether that's true or not. It's far too soon to tell. But it's
It's possible that the shooting was a combination of people shooting in and then people shooting out of the event because obviously former presidents have a lot of security. They have the Secret Service around them. They have people who are trained to shoot and shoot fast and shoot accurately. And some of that fire may have been return fire incidents.
at whoever it was who was firing towards the crowd, because clearly the firing was coming in towards the event itself. A lot of confusion still, as you can imagine. There'll be a lot of people wondering what's happened to the former president, what his condition is. We simply don't know that at this point in time. I'm sure that will become clear soon. But an enormous amount of shock here, a really shocking moment in this
what is, after all, an extraordinary political campaign. And I'm afraid this sort of thing, this sort of thing will only make the political situation in America even more divided, even more serious, even more fragile. It's a divided country in many ways, and these sorts of presidential campaigns can often be
be intense and be emotional and this as you were saying gary was just a couple of days before expecting the republican national convention in wisconsin it's of course speculation but we'd have to wonder what that might mean for that event which is scheduled to begin on monday
You were mentioning, Gary, we don't know the condition right now of Donald Trump. What we were able to see was he was ushered by a large group of Secret Service agents into a vehicle. He was driven away. And while he was being put into that car, he was on his own two feet and he was motioning to the crowd. He was holding his fist up. So that would appear to be a very good sign that
For the former president, we do have reports and we saw a video of Donald Trump holding his ear. That was when shots were being fired. There are reports that blood was spotted on his ear. We're going to wait to confirm that. And we don't know what that means about his potential condition. But we do know that he was moved into a vehicle and he left the scene almost immediately.
Gary, I think it's worth just reminding our viewers as you were there outside this large campaign event, one of the last ones before Wisconsin and before that RNC event, about the kind of security that is typically there, Gary, if we can still keep you there, if you don't mind. But these kinds of events featuring high-profile politicians, featuring presidents, featuring former presidents like Donald Trump, these are events that have...
Just massive amounts of security, don't they? Can you walk us through the types of security procedures that would be in place for a rally like today's? Well, people have to show up at these things hours and hours in advance. The media has to show up hours in advance, those who want to be inside. We weren't allowed inside this rally. That's why we're
outside, we didn't get credentialed for this rally. So if you want to go in, you have to take your equipment in hours and hours before. You then have to leave it all there. The Secret Service then do what they call a sweep, which is that they check everything that's inside already. And then they let the media back in. They let the crowds back in. The crowds have been coming in really for the last four or five hours.
and they're checked and they go through magnometers, their bags are checked. It's incredibly tight, the security, always at these rallies, particularly for former presidents, but for all political candidates. But, of course, this one is outdoors. This is in a sort of show field for farm shows, and this is a rural part of western Pennsylvania. We're about 30 miles or so north of Pittsburgh. This is a rural community. It's very much...
Donald Trump territory. He won this county by two thirds. Yeah, got two thirds of the vote back in 2020 in this county. This is these are, if you like, his people. And so the shock will be that someone got close enough.
seemingly got close enough to take some shots at the crowd or at the former president. We just don't know. I have to say the emotions are extraordinary here. I'm going to say something now which will be shocking, but I think it's worth knowing. So please prepare yourself for this. Just a moment ago, a guy walked past and said, they fired first, this is war.
That was Gary O'Donoghue talking to Carl Nasman. Now, our correspondent Nomi Iqbal is in Wisconsin ahead of that Republican National Convention, and she gave us more details and reaction.
I'm in Wisconsin because this is where the Republican National Convention is due to take place from Monday. Donald Trump will arrive here in order to be officially crowned the head of the Republican Party. And as you can imagine, the security is pretty tight here anyway, but it's really going to ram up now following what happened in Pennsylvania. And when the news came through, people just started rushing around like in shock, looking at their phones,
just, you know, completely taken aback by what had happened. And obviously we were trying to piece together information. We still are. But Donald Trump, we understand, you know, as he was holding this rally, shots were fired. We don't know who fired those shots. We don't know if they were necessarily aimed at him. There are some publications calling it an apparent assassination attempt. We can't say that for sure. We just don't know. He was taken off the stage, but before he was taken off by the Secret Service,
He did a fist pump and the pictures you might see all over social media now of him with what appears to be a very bloody ear and being taken away. Let me just give you a little bit of reaction so far that we've had, particularly from what I found interesting from the Democratic side. People are horrified by what's happened. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who's a Democratic leader, he said, my thoughts and prayers are with the former President Donald Trump.
I'm thankful for the decisive law enforcement response. America is a democracy. Political violence of any kind is never acceptable. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, also a Democrat, says I'm horrified by what happened.
Thank you very much.
I'm just looking at the statement that's come through from the communications director from the Trump team. President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility. More details will follow. Namia Iqbal in Wisconsin. Rodney Davis is a former Republican congressman who was witness to a shooting involving another U.S. politician.
I never expected to be practicing for a charity baseball game one morning at 7 a.m. in Alexandria, Virginia, and have to hear one of my colleagues scream, run, he's got a gun. You just let instinct take over. And what I witnessed that day in the 10 minutes of just pure horror of shooting was
Was something again, I wouldn't wish upon anyone, but I also got a chance to witness what well trained law enforcement officers do to run toward gunfire as those of us who were in the path of gunfire were able to run away.
That is something that we witnessed today, too, with the brave, courageous Secret Service officers. And there's one thing that always kind of intertwines these events. It's you just don't know what happened if you weren't there. And as I'm listening to some of your guests who were on the ground,
I will say to your viewers, trust them. Trust what they saw because they were on the ground witnessing these things. And it's going to take a while to figure out who did this, what actually happened, where the shots were fired from. But the best thing you can do at this point in the investigation is to listen to the people who personally witnessed what happened.
Well, some other lines that have emerged as we record this podcast are Stephen Chung, Donald Trump's spokesperson, has said President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out by a local medical facility. More details will follow. The White House says Joe Biden is receiving a briefing on the incident from the heads of the U.S. Secret Service and Homeland Security Department.
The leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, says he's grateful Trump appears to be fine and that violence has no place in US politics. The Democratic leader of the House, Hakeem Jeffries, said my thoughts and prayers are with former President Trump. And Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said he was horrified by the incident and relieved that Mr. Trump is safe.
Well, our correspondent Gary O'Donoghue has been speaking to more people at the rally. One of them is Greg, who was outside the venue, and he says he spotted the gunman and told the Secret Service, but they didn't pay any attention until after the shots were fired. We had a party here all day at the Brinkles Farm and Greenhouse here, and we all decided, hey, you know, when we hear Trump up there, we're going to walk up through the field,
Stand by the trees up there under the shade and listen to the rally. We couldn't see them, but we could hear them. So we walked up and probably five to seven minutes of Trump speaking, I'm estimating here, I have no idea, but we noticed a guy crawling, bear crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us.
So we're standing there, you know, we're pointing at the guy crawling up the roof. And he had a gun, right? He had a rifle. We could clearly see him with a rifle, absolutely. We're pointing at him. The police are down there running around on the ground. We're like, hey, man, there's a guy on the roof with a rifle. And the police were like, huh, what? You know, like they didn't know what was going on. You know, we're like, hey, right here on the roof, we can see him from right here. We see him. You know, he's crawling. Yeah.
And next thing you know, I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage? I'm standing there pointing at him for, you know, two, three minutes. Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. I'm pointing at that roof, just standing there like this.
And next thing you know, five shots ring out. So you're certain that the shots came from that guy on the roof? 100%. 100%. And he was up there for a couple of minutes? He was up there. You saw him up there for a couple of minutes? Absolutely. At least three to four minutes. And you were telling police and the Secret Service? We were telling the police. We were pointing at them for the Secret Service who were looking at us from the top of the barn. They were looking at us the whole time when we were standing by that tree. Could they see him? Probably not.
Because the roof, the way the slope went, he was behind where they could see. But why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here? I mean, this is not a big place.
Did you see, I mean, obviously everyone, when the shooting started, everyone was very panicked. You're pretty sure they shot the guy? Absolutely, 100%. Okay. You saw that happen? Yep, yep. Okay. And did you see them go up to him afterwards? Yeah, they crawled up on the roof. They had their guns pointed at him, make sure he was dead. He was dead, and that was it.
It was over. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. This special edition was mixed by Chris Murphy. The producer was Liam McSheffrey. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Wendy Urquhart. Until next time, bye-bye. The most powerful designer drugs are the digital ones we use daily, and we get high off them.
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