In this episode, Lisa interviews journalist Salena Zito about her eyewitness account of the July 13th, 2024 assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Zito discusses her new book, the political and cultural importance of America’s heartland, and why working-class voters are often ignored by the media and political elites. The conversation highlights Trump’s unique connection with these voters, his resilience after the attack, and the lasting realignment of working-class Americans toward the Republican Party. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Truth.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
With Lisa Booth, where we get to the heart of
the issues that matter to you. Today, we're joined by
Selena Zeito, the renowned journalist and author whose boots on
the ground reporting has redefined how we understand America's heartland.
Her latest book, Butler, The Untold Story of the Near
Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland,
takes us to the events of July thirteenth, twenty twenty four,
(00:25):
when President Trump was almost assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania. Selena
was an eyewitness, and her book explores its profound impact
on the political soul of Middle America, from the raw
emotions that day to the broader story of populism and
the place of Butler, Pennsylvania and the significance of that.
Selena shares her insights from her front row seat to history.
(00:45):
So let's get into the truth and what happened that
day and why it matters with Selena Zito. Selena Zido,
as I mentioned to you before, I'm a big fan
of your work. I think you just do really important reporting,
and so it's an honor to have you on the show.
(01:05):
And I'm just really looking forward to hearing your insight
and your thoughts on this broader conversation we're about to have.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, I'm gonna give it right back to you, Lisa.
I'm big fan too, so we're going to have a
really good discussion.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, well, I appreciate that so much, you Knowesleina. One
thing I love about you is you actually report, which
is is sad to say, but you've traveled over four
hundred thousand miles in your jeeps to report on Middle America,
working America, America's heartland. Like actually hearing from them, listening
(01:37):
to them, talking to people who are very frequently ignored
by the rest of the media.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Why is that so important to you?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And also why do you think they're so routinely ignored
by the rest of the media.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
They are ignored by the rest of the media, and oftentimes,
if we look over the past couple of decades, they've
also been ignored by both parties. The Democrats used to
have a hold on them and faced away. Republicans didn't
quite figure out how to get there right. They got
there a little bit in twenty ten, a little bit
in twenty fourteen, twenty sixteen, all of a sudden, they're like, wait,
(02:09):
these are our voters, right, and they started to recognize
that their values coincide with the Republican's values. So I
think that the problem is is as newspaper desert as
counties across this country become newspaper deserts, right, small local
newspapers close out, and people have been relying on national news.
(02:34):
They find that they are observed by national news as
sort of like zoo animals, and they don't quite know
how to cover them because you know, they live in
these super zip codes, right, and they went to the
best of the best schools, but they don't know anybody
it owns a gun. They don't know anybody that thinks
it's more important to live down the street from their
(02:56):
parents and grandparents and raise their children that way as
opposed to getting nice bonus in a big car every year.
And they don't know anybody that you know, lives is
happy in a place like this, and so they struggle
to cover them. And so what happens that it ends
up coming across demeaning and condescending. And so that is
(03:22):
the problem within our industry is that our industry has
too many people focused in these in these places that
don't know how to cover the rest of the country.
And I'm telling you, Erie, Pennsylvania decides an election, not
in New York City. So there should be a more
concentrated effort to understand and be respectful to these voters
(03:46):
instead of calling some kind of ism after their name, right, racism, fascism,
whatever ism that they want to think of, because they
don't understand them well.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
And that's what's so crazy to me about these voters
being ignored because they do decide elections.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I know, and so it's like you.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Would think that there would be.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Some desire to figure out, you know, why they vote
the way they do.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You know, like it's like you've got a very important
electorate that is just ignored and dismissed and belittled and
you know, the basket of deplorables and all these different things.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You know, why do you think.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
President Trump, I know you've written about this before, but
it is interesting to have a guy who's a billionaire,
who you know, comes from New York City, who has
been able to connect with these voters in a way
that we haven't seen Republican presidents in a very long time.
I mean, I know, you know, in fairness, he's been
talking about a lot of these issues like trade and
feeling like we're being taken advantage of since like the
(04:41):
nineteen eighties, right, Like, So it's not he's been very consistent.
But why do you think he has been able to
connect with, you know, working class voters in a way
that you know previous Republican.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Presidents have failed, or just presidents in general.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, so I think gets you the earlier point about
deplorables and ignoring these voters. There's a moment in my
book where I almost cried in frustration. I'm in Erie, Pennsylvania. Jd.
Vance is coming to the state for the first time.
He has a motor a motorcade with journalists right to
(05:17):
press corps following him, and we're driving through Erie. Now,
I grew up in Pittsburgh. Erie was our beach, right.
We didn't go to the Atlantic Ocean. We went to
Lake Erie. And I'm trying to point out to all
these other New York and DC reporters. I'm like, look
over there, this is what used to be here, and
this is what used to be there, and this is
why things changed. And they're all looking down on their
(05:38):
phone and they're just completely ignoring me. And I'm thinking,
you actually don't care you And there were lines of
people lined up on the streets to see JD. And
JD had only been picked like ten days earlier, right,
and he was going through that whole he's weird and
cat ladies thing, and they missed the entire moment because
(06:02):
they were looking at their phones. To your point about Trump,
here's you know. I remember the first time he came
down the escalator and I was thinking, what does a
three time married guy that lives in the Gold Tower
have anything in Howard Stern regular have anything in common
(06:25):
with the people that I cover? And then he said
a very important line in that speech. Everybody else talked
about Mexicans, right, that's all the press talked about. He
talked about the dignity of work, and I was like, boom,
he gets it. So I did my first interview with him,
Oh my gosh. It was a year later. We were
(06:47):
in Pittsburgh. We were he was at the Marcella's Shale
Coalition shale event and I said to him in that interview,
I said, you know, take you seriously, but they don't
take everything you say literally. Where my profession takes everything
you say literally, but they don't take your candidacy very seriously.
(07:11):
And so he goes, come with me, Zito, let's take
a walk. And there's no cameras. My recorder's not going
this was just taking a walk. So we go. We
leave the green room and we go to the back
of the convention center where all the people are that
make the event happen, right, that make it really nice
for the suits, the caterers, the janitors, the electricians, the plumbers, right,
(07:39):
And he is talking to them like one on one,
asking about their life, asking about why they do what
they do, what their family is like. And I'm watching
this and I'm thinking, oh, I get it. So after
we're done, it was just him and I talking. There's
no one else around. I said, where'd you get that from?
(08:02):
He goes, well, you know, I grew up in the
construction site. I listen to people, I observe people, and
people think that I'm sort of from this class, and
I get it. I like gold and I made it big. However,
these are the people that if without them, I wouldn't
(08:23):
have had anything that I have. These are the people
that built this country. These are the people that deserve
our most respect. And these are the people I'm most
comfortable with. Remember, and you know, he and I went
back and forth. I don't know if anybody's ever seen
the movie The Age of Innocence is Scorsese movie, where
it's all these layers of the upper echelon of New
(08:46):
York and it's very much still the same way. New
money you aren't allowed in the club. Old money, you're revered.
And he's outer Borough, right, his family is new money,
and they punched their way in. And he's always been
more comfortable with the working class than he has been
with the C suite. And you know, the CEOs now
(09:10):
he can he can negotiate with them. But if you
want to know who his people are, it were the
plumbers and the electricians that we walked around and talked to.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, you know, I also just think he hates bs,
so he probably gets in a way, you know, like
he's you know, obviously you take two seconds listening to
the guy, it's like very clear that you know, like
my you know, the way he talks about things.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So let's get to Butler.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Why why was it important for him to do this rally?
And Butler, before we talk about what took place that day.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So President Trump has always had a really good instinct
in understanding about place. It's a nuanced in American politics
that has often missed. There are basically two kinds of
people in this country. There are the place people are
very rooted to where they're from, and then there's the
place lists were very transient, who are not connected to
(10:05):
the communities or the cities or the towns that they
live in. They're just onto their next sort of accomplishment.
Neither is better. But the place decide elections now Butler,
Butler has only there's only been one other president beside
Trump that has a campaign there, and that was JFK.
(10:30):
And nobody, no other president has ever campaigned for president there,
And so he shows up in places like Butler. Butler
is equidistant from Pittsburgh to Erie. It is forty two
miles from East Palestine, where I have argued endlessly since
it happened that that was his inflection point, that is
(10:54):
where everything changed for him. At that point in February
twenty twenty three, was behind in the polls in the
first Hampshire poll with Ron De Santis, and he shows
up there and galoshes and hands out water and within
a week he's ahead in the pole primary polling and
never looks back. Places like that. There's this old Billy
(11:16):
Joel song called Allentown. Everybody's saying along to Allentown across
the country. I'm sure people are familiar with it, even
though it came out in the eighties. And there's this
guy and he's sitting against a steel beam and you
know he's losing his job, his town is dying. Well,
people sang along with that song like a ballad. But
(11:37):
not because everybody from across the country is from Allentown,
but because they recognized themselves in that moment. They saw
their town, they saw their place, they saw the struggles,
and they related to it. He does that when he
goes to places like Butler, and he's Palestine, so that's
why it was important for him to show up and Butler.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
We've got to take a quick commercial break.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
If you're loving this commerce station, please share it on
social media, send it to a friend. I find it fascinating.
I hope you do too. Stay tuned from Worslein as
you do. Just for context, I believe you had mentioned it.
You're a Pennsylvanian.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So, oh yeah, my family was one of the founding
families of Butler in the seventeen fifties.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So this is near and dear to your heart for
multiple reasons.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So you're there that day on July thirteenth, twenty twenty four,
You're covering this rally, probably thinking, you know, this is
just going to be a normal rally. At what point
did you realize something was a miss?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I know that.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
You know a lot of people were saying things they
saw Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
There were concerns that were raised.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Did did you realize anything was a miss before he
took the stage or what was the environment like in
the lead up to the shooting?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
So where people recognized that something was a miss was
very far away from where I was. Morning started where
I was supposed to interview him for five minutes before
the event. Then it changed I was going to interview
him for five minutes after the event, and then they
got a phone call and said, hey, do you want
to fly to Bedminster and we'll do the interview on
(13:15):
the plane. I'm like, okay, I'm in. And then in
the last few minutes this is why I didn't see anything.
They grabbed me and my daughter. My daughter took the
photo of the cover, she's a photo journalist, and said
it's no time. And when they said it's go time,
I thought that meant okay, they changed your mind again.
We're going to do the interview now, and so we
(13:36):
go rushing back. We're behind stage. He's meeting with like
state troopers, police officers, you know, all law enforcement that
make things work right, that served the community. And I
asked the press guy. I'm like, so, is is this
where we're doing the interview? And he's like, I don't know,
and he goes around the bed and ask the president
(13:58):
and then I President was like, no, I just want
to say hi to her. So I say hi to him,
and you know, we asked hi about my grandchildren. So
I miss all that at that point. As I'm done
talking to him and he says, I'll see you on
the plane, I go out Leek Greenwood song starts, so
I'm going I can't get back to the riser. So
(14:19):
they placed me in the buffer, so I am feet
away from him, follow him out, go around. They told
me to wait on the other side, you know, just
be like off to the side because they'll grab me
for the motorcade, and I'm with my daughter and if
you look at my Twitter account that day, you can
see me taking pictures, videos. And then I get settled
(14:40):
in that corner. He does two things I've never seen
him do before. And I've covered a lot of rallies.
A chart goes down, and I'm thinking, what is he
ross Proro, like, what's going on here? Right? This is
so a character for him. If he does have a chart,
it's at the end and on the other side, but
(15:00):
that is also very very rare. And then he does
something else that he never does, turns his head away
from the crowd. If you've covered a Trump rally or
watch one in detail, these are very, very transient moments.
He feeds off of them, they feed off of him.
He respects them by never turning away from them. And
(15:23):
he turned. Now he might turn his body to face
different parts of the of the of the of the stadium,
but never turns his neck. He turns his neck and
that's when the first four shots go out over my head.
I saw him immediately grab his ear. I saw the
blood streak across his face. I see a sea of
(15:44):
navy blue suits around him in a protective stance. At
the same time, the next round of shots go right
over me. I don't know why I can't unlock it
from my brain. But I don't know why I didn't
think I was ever in danger. I remember praying that
(16:04):
he was okay, and praying that no one else was hurt.
And it was at that moment that his press abe Michelle,
butcard he just took me out, like on the ground
and laid on top of me to protect me. There's
some really great photos you can see them. Just God
(16:24):
bless this young man, and so in that moment. I
always have my recorder on when I'm covering a rally.
I know a transcript will come out. However, I think
it's important as a reporter to get the nuance of
the way someone says something. So that's why I always
record it, because something can get be lost if you
(16:47):
just put dry coats or quotes around it. And so
I watch him. I can see him just at this
weird angle, and I can see his face, I see
him moving his hands. I can hear the conversation he's
having with the Secret Service agents. I know the shooter
is down. I know that the shooter is dead. I know,
(17:13):
it's all clear, except President Trump wants to put his
shoes on. And that becomes almost like comic relief listening
to them talk back and forth about he wants his
damn shoes on, and then the crowd starts chanting USA,
and I can see him mouth USA, but I can't
(17:34):
hear him, so I don't know if he said it
out loud, but I can definitely see him saying it.
And he gets up and he says, wait, wait wait.
They start to take him off the stage, and that's
when he does fight, Fight, Fight, And it's the next
morning when he calls me that I eventually find out
(17:56):
exactly why he said that before we get to that.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I mean, what was that like to see him yell fight, fight,
fight and the crowds change because I was on vacation
at the time and we turned it on, and I
mean seeing that just from the TV, yeah, I I
you know, it's it's one of those moments like you
don't forget, you know, And so what was it like
to be.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
There to see that, to hear that? I mean, you know,
I can't imagine being there in that moment, Like, what
was that like?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, I was only a couple of feet away. Yeah,
I actually wasn't surprised because as he was getting up,
I hear I see him saying USA right. So I know,
I feel like something monumental is going to happen, right,
I feel like something something big is going to happen.
(18:50):
I didn't know he would say fight, fight, fight, but
I thought he would say USA right. I thought he
would would would make some sort of gesture that let
every everybody know he was okay. I didn't know it
would be that big of a moment, and watching it
was just that decision, by the way, probably saved lives
(19:11):
that day, because there could have easily been a stampede.
There could have been chaos, there could have been instability
in that crowd. There's fifty thousand people there. It's not
like a little crowd, right, and people are highly emotional
and highly charged. It immediately brought the temperature down. It
immediately changed everything. Within within minutes, people were just quietly leaving.
(19:38):
And not only did they quietly leave, they took me
and my daughter in the back. I think because I
was sprawled out on the ground for the whole world
to see that God, I wore a scort that day.
They took us in the back for about forty seven minutes.
When I come back out to the farm show, it's
(19:59):
completely clear. It was very eerie. The flag's still blowing
on the screen from the cranes. There's a wheelchair in
the center of the farm field. That's it. So I'm
walking the farm field where where everybody was standing is
about a little over a quarter mile from we were
where we actually parked. And if you know western Pennsylvania
(20:22):
and all, it was rolling hills, so you can't see
the parking lot as you're walking up that hill. It's
a slow grade. I got to the top of the
hill heading towards our car, and nobody has left. They
didn't let anybody leave. Now there's fifty thousand people there.
There's at least fifteen thousand cars, maybe twenty. And people
(20:45):
weren't hugging each other. They were sharing food. They a
lot of people had cohlers in the back of their
vehicles and they were bringing out what water and food,
and people are like, anybody got a beer, and but
they're also saying it was a very moving experience. And
I remember looking down, and I wrote this in this book.
(21:07):
I remember looking at these people at the people there,
and it brought me to tears because I'm thinking, these
are the people that they call bitter, clinging to their grounds, deplorable, extremist, fascist, Nazis, racist,
and they could not be more of a better example
(21:28):
of who we are as a country, you know, part
of something bigger than self. And it really made me
very angry at my profession because this is they never
get the respect that they have earned.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
And I totally agree with you, and that's one thing
that makes me so mad because like Trump supporters are
just salty the people like, they're patriotic, they pay their taxes,
they love America, you know, like it's like they're just
trying to do the right thing. And so, you know,
I've been to I've seen it in action, how orderly,
how kind everyone is. I also was at the convention
(22:05):
center that night and everyone just spontaneously erupted in gospel
hymns and you saw all different people from all you know,
like it's like, you know this right, and so it
is really frustrating to see them demonized. So you talk
about sort of this this interaction and everyone coming together,
you know, I know, one watching the moment on TV like,
I was like, that's my guy, right, Like America, we
(22:27):
were beaten down.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
We needed a fighter. And then here's this guy and you.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Know, facing death, who then gets up rallies, you know,
the country, and stands determined against possible death. And what
I think is remarkable is he called you the next
day after almost being assassinated.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
He called you.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I know, I was first thing in the morning and
get a phone call, Selena. This is President Donald J. Trump.
I'm like, like, I don't know that, right, you know,
but he announces it and he says and before I
could even say anything, he says, I just want to
make sure that you and your daughter are okay, and
(23:12):
I really want to apologize for not getting that interview done.
And then I did something that my parents probably are
not proud of, even though I'm in my sixties. I
sti't worry about what my parents think. And it's sort
of like a truck driver to the president of the
United States, And I'm like, are you blinking kidding me, sir,
You've just been shot. I'm not worried about an interview.
(23:34):
He would go on to call me seven times. He
was were very emotional, very raw conversations and I suspect
why he called me. You know, if you've ever been
through something, if you're trying to explain it to a
family member or loved one, if they weren't there, they
(23:56):
don't understand how you feel. And I think the reason
he called me was he knew I was right there.
He saw me five minutes before I got shot, right,
And so these conversations were about why did I turn
my heads Selena, Why you know I don't do that?
(24:17):
Why do I put the chart down? I don't do that?
And they would evolve into conversations about the hand of God.
This is what he came to conclusion. I did not
press him at all. I felt like this was a
person who needed to just have someone listen to them
and have been through something. I mean, I had been
(24:38):
through something and I hadn't been shot, but that was
you know, there's a lot going on that day, and
we would we would talk at length about God, about faith,
about what he's you know, he has purpose, a different
purpose that if he becomes president again, that he would
(24:59):
treat it like he doesn't have a tomorrow, because you're
not Garret. He's learned that you do not have it tomorrow.
And in the final the final question I asked. I
didn't ask him anything. I just let him talk. In
the final phone call, he calls me he's heading to Milwaukee.
He had gone back and forth, like, am I going
to go to Milwaukee? Am I going to go to Florida?
(25:19):
I stay at Midminster? Right? He wasn't quite sure what
to do, and he ultimately decides, you know, I'm freaking
going to Milwaukee. Right. And he's getting on his plane
and we're on the phone. I can hear him going
up the steps. I can hear Lindsey Graham in the back,
(25:40):
and I said, mister President, I have to I just
have to ask you one question. Why did you say
fight fight? Fight? And he says, well, so you know,
in that moment, I was not Donald Trump. I was
someone who had been president. I was someone that might
be president again. And I needed to show the strength
(26:02):
of that moment warranted to show that our country remains
strong and diligent, that we are resolute no matter what
comes at us. I needed to show the grit that
we have always stood for and the exceptionalism that we've
always stood for. I understood if I'm carted off of there,
even and use. That's why I was about get my
(26:22):
shoes on. I'm not going to go walking in my
stockings and gravel, right, He said, If I'm carted off
of there, what does that do the people that are there?
What does that do to people were watching? I needed
to show that we are strong as a country and
we will never back down. I was like, wow, that
(26:43):
was pretty you know he has that's an obligation you
have as a president. That's just the obligation. And I
was thinking about the contrast he's telling me this. I'm
thinking about the contrast that we have seen for three
and a half years with President Biden and how it
had not reflected that, and how that was part of
(27:06):
the softening and weakening of support for Biden and why
people were already moving. I thought President Trump was going
to win before he was shot. I knew he was
going to win. After he was shot. I definitely knew
he was going to win, like hands down. When Biden
drops out, which is exactly a year ago today, and
(27:27):
our profession just turned its head away. They were already
loosely covering this situation, but our profession just turned away
to the next shining object and never looked back and
the American people saw that it was like a mask
was lifted right and that they were like, oh my god,
this is what people have been talking about, this is
(27:49):
what Trump's been talking about. It's a BS and we
can see it.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
We've got more of a Selena on Butler. What happened
that day and the events afterwards, stay tuned. It does
seem you talk about I remember people even talking about
how and I saw the pictures of the flag wrapped
around the poll and it looked like an angel and
President Trump talking about how God saved his life, which
(28:14):
I do believe that that is exactly what happened. It
does seem like with this administration he has more purpose
driven and more determined. And I think he even saw
it at the convention a week later after getting shot,
where you know, he was with his grandchildren. You could
just see him really like taking in the moment in
a way that we hadn't seen from him previously. How
(28:36):
changed do you think he is from that moment.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I think he's profoundly changed. Yeah, I've just talked to
him last week, and I know that faith and purpose
are very much a part of who he is. Look
he has expedited his presidency in a way that he's
gotten more done in the past six months than most
presidents get done in four years. And you might not
like it, not meaning you, but you know, you might
(29:03):
be sitting out there and like, oh, I don't like that.
That's okay. Did it though, and he did it with
an urgency of now because he is a definite understanding
that tomorrow and may not happen. And there's also a
very deep empathy I've always seen in him, but even
more pronounced within him. Last week, I interviewed him in Pittsburgh.
(29:25):
He was in town for this AI Energy summit. And
there's a photographer that I work with, who've worked with
for twenty years, so the President knows him. It's been
photographed by him very very often. And this photographer had
found out that his father had a terminal illness the
(29:46):
day before. I've never asked the president for anything in
my entire career. However, I know how much this photographer's
dad loves President Trump. And so I had one of
my books in my back pack and I said, mister President,
can I ask you for something? Because you know, he
never asked me for anything in the way that he
(30:06):
always talks yeah, And I said, I know, but this
one's special. And I explained to him and he said,
of course, I'll sign it, and he signs it. He
puts the photographer's dad's name on the front and then
he looks at the photographer and the photographer is has
tears in his eyes. He goes, you know what, I'll
do you one better and he said, put that video, Cameron.
(30:30):
And he holds up the book with his dad's name
on it, and he said, you have a good boy.
I want you to know that you have a good son.
He's always hustling, he's always working, and I know you've
got bad news. But God works in ways that we
don't always understand. So I want you to have faith.
And there's not a dry eye like all.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
These sacred service people, right, there's not a dry eye
in the room. And so there's a I think there's
an elevated level of empathy and recognition of faith in
God that people don't always see because sometimes his comportment is.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
A little rough around the edges. However, that is not
the full scope of who the president is. And seeing
this rise up in him has been really fascinating for me.
As someone who has covered him intently for over a decade.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Well, and that's something that I think is truly evil
in the way that he's demonized, because I've always seen
in him someone who like deeply, deeply, deeply loves America.
I mean he is as America first, Like he means it,
you know, like who really really cares about the people
he represents, and like it means something to him in
a way that I don't think it's meant to some
of these other presidents.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, he's so thoroughly demonized.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, you know the phrase make America great again? Right,
that has been turned into a slang terms by my
profession and Democrats, right, Meg, and Meg like gets like's
think it's a bad word. What people miss is make
America great again is aspirational, being part of something bigger
(32:15):
than self, being part of something making the country better.
That is so missed by the majority of our profession
it is astounding to me, and yet it is so
deeply embraced by the people that actually decide elections.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
President Trump is probably one of the most transform transformative
figures we've had, like in American history and maybe even
in world history. What's your perspective, and just how much
he has changed the country, the media, like the way
we do handle diplomatic relations, just like all of it,
the totality of it.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
So he's a disruptor and and it was a long
time coming. And and what do I mean by that, Well,
our cultural curators in corporations, academia, legacy, media, government institutions, right,
they've all been run by just a small select people
(33:15):
that live in the super zip codes in our country,
and they made decisions like what has happened in our universities,
and what has happened with our corporations and how they
depict people and how they sell to people, and with
Hollywood and with government and politics. He has blown it
all up. And some times I'm really shocked that people
(33:38):
didn't see this coming. Just think about recent disruptors in
our society. Amazon. Well before Amazon, everyone bought everything from Sears,
and Sears decided what brand you use. Amazon comes along
and disrupts the entire system. There's no more Seers, there's
no more Kmart, right, disrupted our whole buying, the way
(34:02):
we buy things and the way we trade things. And
the same with the iPhone. We went from something that
was tethered to a wall, to something we can conduct
our entire lives on. These are disruptors. It's only natural
to think about fed X. Before fed X, you know,
wait like three to six days to get a piece
(34:24):
of mail or package. Today you can get it overnight.
And so all of these entities were leading up to
this moment. It was natural that it would happen in
our politics. It's just it's just that it's interesting to
me that it is the elites that struggle the most
(34:47):
with it, and they're the ones that shouldn't understand it first.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
You know, when you look at just the political realignment
aspect of it, is that here to stay? I mean,
he's such a unique figure. Can Republicans keep that coalition together?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Or is that is that his?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Oh no, they can definitely keep it together. Here's the
problem he has. You know, whatever party has the working
class within their fold is the party that wins. And
the working class have definitely moved over to the Republican
Party for at least a generation. And so why do
(35:29):
I say that? How am I so sure about that? Well?
Democrats have not shown that they understand why they lost.
They have not shown how to reach out to the
working class and a white working class, black working class,
Asian working class, whatever, the Hispanic working class. They are
just not in tune what things, the things that are
(35:50):
valuable to them, they still don't understand. So this, this
working class coalition within the republic and Party stays for
at least a generation. I mean they were in the Democrats'
coalition for with the New New Deal Democrats for decades.
So you know, does that mean that when everything No,
(36:13):
but it does mean that they have that they have
that persuadable power within their coalition, and as long as
they continue to have an affinity for each other, they
will continue to win major elections.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Selina Zo number one New York Times bestseller. Everyone go
get the book. Butler Untold story of the near assassination
Donald Trump for America's Heartland. Really insightful stuff, great work.
Is always continuing to be impressed by you and just
so happy with your success because I you know, you
take the job seriously in a way that reporters just
(36:47):
don't anymore, and it's so important. So it's great to
see you have the success that you have because you
actually care, and unfortunately that's a rare quality these days.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Thank you so much for having me. I think you
do a great job as well.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
That was Selena Zito, author of the new book Butler,
the untold story of the near assassination of Donald Trump
and the fight for America's heartland. Really encourage you to
go out and get it. She's an incredible reporter. She's
a great person. Appreciate you guys at home for listening.
You guys are great people. Every Tuesday and Thursday the
show comes out, but you can listen to it throughout
the week. I also want to thank John Cassio, my producer,
(37:21):
for putting the show together.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Until next time,
Welcome to the Truth.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
With Lisa Booth, where we get to the heart of
the issues that matter to you. Today, we're joined by
Selena Zeito, the renowned journalist and author whose boots on
the ground reporting has redefined how we understand America's heartland.
Her latest book, Butler, The Untold Story of the Near
Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland,
takes us to the events of July thirteenth, twenty twenty four,
(00:25):
when President Trump was almost assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania. Selena
was an eyewitness, and her book explores its profound impact
on the political soul of Middle America, from the raw
emotions that day to the broader story of populism and
the place of Butler, Pennsylvania and the significance of that.
Selena shares her insights from her front row seat to history.
(00:45):
So let's get into the truth and what happened that
day and why it matters with Selena Zito. Selena Zido,
as I mentioned to you before, I'm a big fan
of your work. I think you just do really important reporting,
and so it's an honor to have you on the show.
(01:05):
And I'm just really looking forward to hearing your insight
and your thoughts on this broader conversation we're about to have.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, I'm gonna give it right back to you, Lisa.
I'm big fan too, so we're going to have a
really good discussion.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, well, I appreciate that so much, you Knowesleina. One
thing I love about you is you actually report, which
is is sad to say, but you've traveled over four
hundred thousand miles in your jeeps to report on Middle America,
working America, America's heartland. Like actually hearing from them, listening
(01:37):
to them, talking to people who are very frequently ignored
by the rest of the media.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Why is that so important to you?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
And also why do you think they're so routinely ignored
by the rest of the media.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
They are ignored by the rest of the media, and oftentimes,
if we look over the past couple of decades, they've
also been ignored by both parties. The Democrats used to
have a hold on them and faced away. Republicans didn't
quite figure out how to get there right. They got
there a little bit in twenty ten, a little bit
in twenty fourteen, twenty sixteen, all of a sudden, they're like, wait,
(02:09):
these are our voters, right, and they started to recognize
that their values coincide with the Republican's values. So I
think that the problem is is as newspaper desert as
counties across this country become newspaper deserts, right, small local
newspapers close out, and people have been relying on national news.
(02:34):
They find that they are observed by national news as
sort of like zoo animals, and they don't quite know
how to cover them because you know, they live in
these super zip codes, right, and they went to the
best of the best schools, but they don't know anybody
it owns a gun. They don't know anybody that thinks
it's more important to live down the street from their
(02:56):
parents and grandparents and raise their children that way as
opposed to getting nice bonus in a big car every year.
And they don't know anybody that you know, lives is
happy in a place like this, and so they struggle
to cover them. And so what happens that it ends
up coming across demeaning and condescending. And so that is
(03:22):
the problem within our industry is that our industry has
too many people focused in these in these places that
don't know how to cover the rest of the country.
And I'm telling you, Erie, Pennsylvania decides an election, not
in New York City. So there should be a more
concentrated effort to understand and be respectful to these voters
(03:46):
instead of calling some kind of ism after their name, right, racism, fascism,
whatever ism that they want to think of, because they
don't understand them well.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
And that's what's so crazy to me about these voters
being ignored because they do decide elections.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I know, and so it's like you.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Would think that there would be.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Some desire to figure out, you know, why they vote
the way they do.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You know, like it's like you've got a very important
electorate that is just ignored and dismissed and belittled and
you know, the basket of deplorables and all these different things.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You know, why do you think.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
President Trump, I know you've written about this before, but
it is interesting to have a guy who's a billionaire,
who you know, comes from New York City, who has
been able to connect with these voters in a way
that we haven't seen Republican presidents in a very long time.
I mean, I know, you know, in fairness, he's been
talking about a lot of these issues like trade and
feeling like we're being taken advantage of since like the
(04:41):
nineteen eighties, right, Like, So it's not he's been very consistent.
But why do you think he has been able to
connect with, you know, working class voters in a way
that you know previous Republican.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Presidents have failed, or just presidents in general.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, so I think gets you the earlier point about
deplorables and ignoring these voters. There's a moment in my
book where I almost cried in frustration. I'm in Erie, Pennsylvania. Jd.
Vance is coming to the state for the first time.
He has a motor a motorcade with journalists right to
(05:17):
press corps following him, and we're driving through Erie. Now,
I grew up in Pittsburgh. Erie was our beach, right.
We didn't go to the Atlantic Ocean. We went to
Lake Erie. And I'm trying to point out to all
these other New York and DC reporters. I'm like, look
over there, this is what used to be here, and
this is what used to be there, and this is
why things changed. And they're all looking down on their
(05:38):
phone and they're just completely ignoring me. And I'm thinking,
you actually don't care you And there were lines of
people lined up on the streets to see JD. And
JD had only been picked like ten days earlier, right,
and he was going through that whole he's weird and
cat ladies thing, and they missed the entire moment because
(06:02):
they were looking at their phones. To your point about Trump,
here's you know. I remember the first time he came
down the escalator and I was thinking, what does a
three time married guy that lives in the Gold Tower
have anything in Howard Stern regular have anything in common
(06:25):
with the people that I cover? And then he said
a very important line in that speech. Everybody else talked
about Mexicans, right, that's all the press talked about. He
talked about the dignity of work, and I was like, boom,
he gets it. So I did my first interview with him,
Oh my gosh. It was a year later. We were
(06:47):
in Pittsburgh. We were he was at the Marcella's Shale
Coalition shale event and I said to him in that interview,
I said, you know, take you seriously, but they don't
take everything you say literally. Where my profession takes everything
you say literally, but they don't take your candidacy very seriously.
(07:11):
And so he goes, come with me, Zito, let's take
a walk. And there's no cameras. My recorder's not going
this was just taking a walk. So we go. We
leave the green room and we go to the back
of the convention center where all the people are that
make the event happen, right, that make it really nice
for the suits, the caterers, the janitors, the electricians, the plumbers, right,
(07:39):
And he is talking to them like one on one,
asking about their life, asking about why they do what
they do, what their family is like. And I'm watching
this and I'm thinking, oh, I get it. So after
we're done, it was just him and I talking. There's
no one else around. I said, where'd you get that from?
(08:02):
He goes, well, you know, I grew up in the
construction site. I listen to people, I observe people, and
people think that I'm sort of from this class, and
I get it. I like gold and I made it big. However,
these are the people that if without them, I wouldn't
(08:23):
have had anything that I have. These are the people
that built this country. These are the people that deserve
our most respect. And these are the people I'm most
comfortable with. Remember, and you know, he and I went
back and forth. I don't know if anybody's ever seen
the movie The Age of Innocence is Scorsese movie, where
it's all these layers of the upper echelon of New
(08:46):
York and it's very much still the same way. New
money you aren't allowed in the club. Old money, you're revered.
And he's outer Borough, right, his family is new money,
and they punched their way in. And he's always been
more comfortable with the working class than he has been
with the C suite. And you know, the CEOs now
(09:10):
he can he can negotiate with them. But if you
want to know who his people are, it were the
plumbers and the electricians that we walked around and talked to.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, you know, I also just think he hates bs,
so he probably gets in a way, you know, like
he's you know, obviously you take two seconds listening to
the guy, it's like very clear that you know, like
my you know, the way he talks about things.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So let's get to Butler.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Why why was it important for him to do this rally?
And Butler, before we talk about what took place that day.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
So President Trump has always had a really good instinct
in understanding about place. It's a nuanced in American politics
that has often missed. There are basically two kinds of
people in this country. There are the place people are
very rooted to where they're from, and then there's the
place lists were very transient, who are not connected to
(10:05):
the communities or the cities or the towns that they
live in. They're just onto their next sort of accomplishment.
Neither is better. But the place decide elections now Butler,
Butler has only there's only been one other president beside
Trump that has a campaign there, and that was JFK.
(10:30):
And nobody, no other president has ever campaigned for president there,
And so he shows up in places like Butler. Butler
is equidistant from Pittsburgh to Erie. It is forty two
miles from East Palestine, where I have argued endlessly since
it happened that that was his inflection point, that is
(10:54):
where everything changed for him. At that point in February
twenty twenty three, was behind in the polls in the
first Hampshire poll with Ron De Santis, and he shows
up there and galoshes and hands out water and within
a week he's ahead in the pole primary polling and
never looks back. Places like that. There's this old Billy
(11:16):
Joel song called Allentown. Everybody's saying along to Allentown across
the country. I'm sure people are familiar with it, even
though it came out in the eighties. And there's this
guy and he's sitting against a steel beam and you
know he's losing his job, his town is dying. Well,
people sang along with that song like a ballad. But
(11:37):
not because everybody from across the country is from Allentown,
but because they recognized themselves in that moment. They saw
their town, they saw their place, they saw the struggles,
and they related to it. He does that when he
goes to places like Butler, and he's Palestine, so that's
why it was important for him to show up and Butler.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
We've got to take a quick commercial break.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
If you're loving this commerce station, please share it on
social media, send it to a friend. I find it fascinating.
I hope you do too. Stay tuned from Worslein as
you do. Just for context, I believe you had mentioned it.
You're a Pennsylvanian.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So, oh yeah, my family was one of the founding
families of Butler in the seventeen fifties.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So this is near and dear to your heart for
multiple reasons.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So you're there that day on July thirteenth, twenty twenty four,
You're covering this rally, probably thinking, you know, this is
just going to be a normal rally. At what point
did you realize something was a miss?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I know that.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
You know a lot of people were saying things they
saw Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
There were concerns that were raised.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Did did you realize anything was a miss before he
took the stage or what was the environment like in
the lead up to the shooting?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
So where people recognized that something was a miss was
very far away from where I was. Morning started where
I was supposed to interview him for five minutes before
the event. Then it changed I was going to interview
him for five minutes after the event, and then they
got a phone call and said, hey, do you want
to fly to Bedminster and we'll do the interview on
(13:15):
the plane. I'm like, okay, I'm in. And then in
the last few minutes this is why I didn't see anything.
They grabbed me and my daughter. My daughter took the
photo of the cover, she's a photo journalist, and said
it's no time. And when they said it's go time,
I thought that meant okay, they changed your mind again.
We're going to do the interview now, and so we
(13:36):
go rushing back. We're behind stage. He's meeting with like
state troopers, police officers, you know, all law enforcement that
make things work right, that served the community. And I
asked the press guy. I'm like, so, is is this
where we're doing the interview? And he's like, I don't know,
and he goes around the bed and ask the president
(13:58):
and then I President was like, no, I just want
to say hi to her. So I say hi to him,
and you know, we asked hi about my grandchildren. So
I miss all that at that point. As I'm done
talking to him and he says, I'll see you on
the plane, I go out Leek Greenwood song starts, so
I'm going I can't get back to the riser. So
(14:19):
they placed me in the buffer, so I am feet
away from him, follow him out, go around. They told
me to wait on the other side, you know, just
be like off to the side because they'll grab me
for the motorcade, and I'm with my daughter and if
you look at my Twitter account that day, you can
see me taking pictures, videos. And then I get settled
(14:40):
in that corner. He does two things I've never seen
him do before. And I've covered a lot of rallies.
A chart goes down, and I'm thinking, what is he
ross Proro, like, what's going on here? Right? This is
so a character for him. If he does have a chart,
it's at the end and on the other side, but
(15:00):
that is also very very rare. And then he does
something else that he never does, turns his head away
from the crowd. If you've covered a Trump rally or
watch one in detail, these are very, very transient moments.
He feeds off of them, they feed off of him.
He respects them by never turning away from them. And
(15:23):
he turned. Now he might turn his body to face
different parts of the of the of the of the stadium,
but never turns his neck. He turns his neck and
that's when the first four shots go out over my head.
I saw him immediately grab his ear. I saw the
blood streak across his face. I see a sea of
(15:44):
navy blue suits around him in a protective stance. At
the same time, the next round of shots go right
over me. I don't know why I can't unlock it
from my brain. But I don't know why I didn't
think I was ever in danger. I remember praying that
(16:04):
he was okay, and praying that no one else was hurt.
And it was at that moment that his press abe Michelle,
butcard he just took me out, like on the ground
and laid on top of me to protect me. There's
some really great photos you can see them. Just God
(16:24):
bless this young man, and so in that moment. I
always have my recorder on when I'm covering a rally.
I know a transcript will come out. However, I think
it's important as a reporter to get the nuance of
the way someone says something. So that's why I always
record it, because something can get be lost if you
(16:47):
just put dry coats or quotes around it. And so
I watch him. I can see him just at this
weird angle, and I can see his face, I see
him moving his hands. I can hear the conversation he's
having with the Secret Service agents. I know the shooter
is down. I know that the shooter is dead. I know,
(17:13):
it's all clear, except President Trump wants to put his
shoes on. And that becomes almost like comic relief listening
to them talk back and forth about he wants his
damn shoes on, and then the crowd starts chanting USA,
and I can see him mouth USA, but I can't
(17:34):
hear him, so I don't know if he said it
out loud, but I can definitely see him saying it.
And he gets up and he says, wait, wait wait.
They start to take him off the stage, and that's
when he does fight, Fight, Fight, And it's the next
morning when he calls me that I eventually find out
(17:56):
exactly why he said that before we get to that.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I mean, what was that like to see him yell fight, fight,
fight and the crowds change because I was on vacation
at the time and we turned it on, and I
mean seeing that just from the TV, yeah, I I
you know, it's it's one of those moments like you
don't forget, you know, And so what was it like
to be.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
There to see that, to hear that? I mean, you know,
I can't imagine being there in that moment, Like, what
was that like?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, I was only a couple of feet away. Yeah,
I actually wasn't surprised because as he was getting up,
I hear I see him saying USA right. So I know,
I feel like something monumental is going to happen, right,
I feel like something something big is going to happen.
(18:50):
I didn't know he would say fight, fight, fight, but
I thought he would say USA right. I thought he
would would would make some sort of gesture that let
every everybody know he was okay. I didn't know it
would be that big of a moment, and watching it
was just that decision, by the way, probably saved lives
(19:11):
that day, because there could have easily been a stampede.
There could have been chaos, there could have been instability
in that crowd. There's fifty thousand people there. It's not
like a little crowd, right, and people are highly emotional
and highly charged. It immediately brought the temperature down. It
immediately changed everything. Within within minutes, people were just quietly leaving.
(19:38):
And not only did they quietly leave, they took me
and my daughter in the back. I think because I
was sprawled out on the ground for the whole world
to see that God, I wore a scort that day.
They took us in the back for about forty seven minutes.
When I come back out to the farm show, it's
(19:59):
completely clear. It was very eerie. The flag's still blowing
on the screen from the cranes. There's a wheelchair in
the center of the farm field. That's it. So I'm
walking the farm field where where everybody was standing is
about a little over a quarter mile from we were
where we actually parked. And if you know western Pennsylvania
(20:22):
and all, it was rolling hills, so you can't see
the parking lot as you're walking up that hill. It's
a slow grade. I got to the top of the
hill heading towards our car, and nobody has left. They
didn't let anybody leave. Now there's fifty thousand people there.
There's at least fifteen thousand cars, maybe twenty. And people
(20:45):
weren't hugging each other. They were sharing food. They a
lot of people had cohlers in the back of their
vehicles and they were bringing out what water and food,
and people are like, anybody got a beer, and but
they're also saying it was a very moving experience. And
I remember looking down, and I wrote this in this book.
(21:07):
I remember looking at these people at the people there,
and it brought me to tears because I'm thinking, these
are the people that they call bitter, clinging to their grounds, deplorable, extremist, fascist, Nazis, racist,
and they could not be more of a better example
(21:28):
of who we are as a country, you know, part
of something bigger than self. And it really made me
very angry at my profession because this is they never
get the respect that they have earned.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
And I totally agree with you, and that's one thing
that makes me so mad because like Trump supporters are
just salty the people like, they're patriotic, they pay their taxes,
they love America, you know, like it's like they're just
trying to do the right thing. And so, you know,
I've been to I've seen it in action, how orderly,
how kind everyone is. I also was at the convention
(22:05):
center that night and everyone just spontaneously erupted in gospel
hymns and you saw all different people from all you know,
like it's like, you know this right, and so it
is really frustrating to see them demonized. So you talk
about sort of this this interaction and everyone coming together,
you know, I know, one watching the moment on TV like,
I was like, that's my guy, right, Like America, we
(22:27):
were beaten down.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
We needed a fighter. And then here's this guy and you.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Know, facing death, who then gets up rallies, you know,
the country, and stands determined against possible death. And what
I think is remarkable is he called you the next
day after almost being assassinated.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
He called you.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I know, I was first thing in the morning and
get a phone call, Selena. This is President Donald J. Trump.
I'm like, like, I don't know that, right, you know,
but he announces it and he says and before I
could even say anything, he says, I just want to
make sure that you and your daughter are okay, and
(23:12):
I really want to apologize for not getting that interview done.
And then I did something that my parents probably are
not proud of, even though I'm in my sixties. I
sti't worry about what my parents think. And it's sort
of like a truck driver to the president of the
United States, And I'm like, are you blinking kidding me, sir,
You've just been shot. I'm not worried about an interview.
(23:34):
He would go on to call me seven times. He
was were very emotional, very raw conversations and I suspect
why he called me. You know, if you've ever been
through something, if you're trying to explain it to a
family member or loved one, if they weren't there, they
(23:56):
don't understand how you feel. And I think the reason
he called me was he knew I was right there.
He saw me five minutes before I got shot, right,
And so these conversations were about why did I turn
my heads Selena, Why you know I don't do that?
(24:17):
Why do I put the chart down? I don't do that?
And they would evolve into conversations about the hand of God.
This is what he came to conclusion. I did not
press him at all. I felt like this was a
person who needed to just have someone listen to them
and have been through something. I mean, I had been
(24:38):
through something and I hadn't been shot, but that was
you know, there's a lot going on that day, and
we would we would talk at length about God, about faith,
about what he's you know, he has purpose, a different
purpose that if he becomes president again, that he would
(24:59):
treat it like he doesn't have a tomorrow, because you're
not Garret. He's learned that you do not have it tomorrow.
And in the final the final question I asked. I
didn't ask him anything. I just let him talk. In
the final phone call, he calls me he's heading to Milwaukee.
He had gone back and forth, like, am I going
to go to Milwaukee? Am I going to go to Florida?
(25:19):
I stay at Midminster? Right? He wasn't quite sure what
to do, and he ultimately decides, you know, I'm freaking
going to Milwaukee. Right. And he's getting on his plane
and we're on the phone. I can hear him going
up the steps. I can hear Lindsey Graham in the back,
(25:40):
and I said, mister President, I have to I just
have to ask you one question. Why did you say
fight fight? Fight? And he says, well, so you know,
in that moment, I was not Donald Trump. I was
someone who had been president. I was someone that might
be president again. And I needed to show the strength
(26:02):
of that moment warranted to show that our country remains
strong and diligent, that we are resolute no matter what
comes at us. I needed to show the grit that
we have always stood for and the exceptionalism that we've
always stood for. I understood if I'm carted off of there,
even and use. That's why I was about get my
(26:22):
shoes on. I'm not going to go walking in my
stockings and gravel, right, He said, If I'm carted off
of there, what does that do the people that are there?
What does that do to people were watching? I needed
to show that we are strong as a country and
we will never back down. I was like, wow, that
(26:43):
was pretty you know he has that's an obligation you
have as a president. That's just the obligation. And I
was thinking about the contrast he's telling me this. I'm
thinking about the contrast that we have seen for three
and a half years with President Biden and how it
had not reflected that, and how that was part of
(27:06):
the softening and weakening of support for Biden and why
people were already moving. I thought President Trump was going
to win before he was shot. I knew he was
going to win. After he was shot. I definitely knew
he was going to win, like hands down. When Biden
drops out, which is exactly a year ago today, and
(27:27):
our profession just turned its head away. They were already
loosely covering this situation, but our profession just turned away
to the next shining object and never looked back and
the American people saw that it was like a mask
was lifted right and that they were like, oh my god,
this is what people have been talking about, this is
(27:49):
what Trump's been talking about. It's a BS and we
can see it.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
We've got more of a Selena on Butler. What happened
that day and the events afterwards, stay tuned. It does
seem you talk about I remember people even talking about
how and I saw the pictures of the flag wrapped
around the poll and it looked like an angel and
President Trump talking about how God saved his life, which
(28:14):
I do believe that that is exactly what happened. It
does seem like with this administration he has more purpose
driven and more determined. And I think he even saw
it at the convention a week later after getting shot,
where you know, he was with his grandchildren. You could
just see him really like taking in the moment in
a way that we hadn't seen from him previously. How
(28:36):
changed do you think he is from that moment.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I think he's profoundly changed. Yeah, I've just talked to
him last week, and I know that faith and purpose
are very much a part of who he is. Look
he has expedited his presidency in a way that he's
gotten more done in the past six months than most
presidents get done in four years. And you might not
like it, not meaning you, but you know, you might
(29:03):
be sitting out there and like, oh, I don't like that.
That's okay. Did it though, and he did it with
an urgency of now because he is a definite understanding
that tomorrow and may not happen. And there's also a
very deep empathy I've always seen in him, but even
more pronounced within him. Last week, I interviewed him in Pittsburgh.
(29:25):
He was in town for this AI Energy summit. And
there's a photographer that I work with, who've worked with
for twenty years, so the President knows him. It's been
photographed by him very very often. And this photographer had
found out that his father had a terminal illness the
(29:46):
day before. I've never asked the president for anything in
my entire career. However, I know how much this photographer's
dad loves President Trump. And so I had one of
my books in my back pack and I said, mister President,
can I ask you for something? Because you know, he
never asked me for anything in the way that he
(30:06):
always talks yeah, And I said, I know, but this
one's special. And I explained to him and he said,
of course, I'll sign it, and he signs it. He
puts the photographer's dad's name on the front and then
he looks at the photographer and the photographer is has
tears in his eyes. He goes, you know what, I'll
do you one better and he said, put that video, Cameron.
(30:30):
And he holds up the book with his dad's name
on it, and he said, you have a good boy.
I want you to know that you have a good son.
He's always hustling, he's always working, and I know you've
got bad news. But God works in ways that we
don't always understand. So I want you to have faith.
And there's not a dry eye like all.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
These sacred service people, right, there's not a dry eye
in the room. And so there's a I think there's
an elevated level of empathy and recognition of faith in
God that people don't always see because sometimes his comportment is.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
A little rough around the edges. However, that is not
the full scope of who the president is. And seeing
this rise up in him has been really fascinating for me.
As someone who has covered him intently for over a decade.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Well, and that's something that I think is truly evil
in the way that he's demonized, because I've always seen
in him someone who like deeply, deeply, deeply loves America.
I mean he is as America first, Like he means it,
you know, like who really really cares about the people
he represents, and like it means something to him in
a way that I don't think it's meant to some
of these other presidents.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, he's so thoroughly demonized.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, you know the phrase make America great again? Right,
that has been turned into a slang terms by my
profession and Democrats, right, Meg, and Meg like gets like's
think it's a bad word. What people miss is make
America great again is aspirational, being part of something bigger
(32:15):
than self, being part of something making the country better.
That is so missed by the majority of our profession
it is astounding to me, and yet it is so
deeply embraced by the people that actually decide elections.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
President Trump is probably one of the most transform transformative
figures we've had, like in American history and maybe even
in world history. What's your perspective, and just how much
he has changed the country, the media, like the way
we do handle diplomatic relations, just like all of it,
the totality of it.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
So he's a disruptor and and it was a long
time coming. And and what do I mean by that, Well,
our cultural curators in corporations, academia, legacy, media, government institutions, right,
they've all been run by just a small select people
(33:15):
that live in the super zip codes in our country,
and they made decisions like what has happened in our universities,
and what has happened with our corporations and how they
depict people and how they sell to people, and with
Hollywood and with government and politics. He has blown it
all up. And some times I'm really shocked that people
(33:38):
didn't see this coming. Just think about recent disruptors in
our society. Amazon. Well before Amazon, everyone bought everything from Sears,
and Sears decided what brand you use. Amazon comes along
and disrupts the entire system. There's no more Seers, there's
no more Kmart, right, disrupted our whole buying, the way
(34:02):
we buy things and the way we trade things. And
the same with the iPhone. We went from something that
was tethered to a wall, to something we can conduct
our entire lives on. These are disruptors. It's only natural
to think about fed X. Before fed X, you know,
wait like three to six days to get a piece
(34:24):
of mail or package. Today you can get it overnight.
And so all of these entities were leading up to
this moment. It was natural that it would happen in
our politics. It's just it's just that it's interesting to
me that it is the elites that struggle the most
(34:47):
with it, and they're the ones that shouldn't understand it first.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
You know, when you look at just the political realignment
aspect of it, is that here to stay? I mean,
he's such a unique figure. Can Republicans keep that coalition together?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Or is that is that his?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Oh no, they can definitely keep it together. Here's the
problem he has. You know, whatever party has the working
class within their fold is the party that wins. And
the working class have definitely moved over to the Republican
Party for at least a generation. And so why do
(35:29):
I say that? How am I so sure about that? Well?
Democrats have not shown that they understand why they lost.
They have not shown how to reach out to the
working class and a white working class, black working class,
Asian working class, whatever, the Hispanic working class. They are
just not in tune what things, the things that are
(35:50):
valuable to them, they still don't understand. So this, this
working class coalition within the republic and Party stays for
at least a generation. I mean they were in the Democrats'
coalition for with the New New Deal Democrats for decades.
So you know, does that mean that when everything No,
(36:13):
but it does mean that they have that they have
that persuadable power within their coalition, and as long as
they continue to have an affinity for each other, they
will continue to win major elections.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Selina Zo number one New York Times bestseller. Everyone go
get the book. Butler Untold story of the near assassination
Donald Trump for America's Heartland. Really insightful stuff, great work.
Is always continuing to be impressed by you and just
so happy with your success because I you know, you
take the job seriously in a way that reporters just
(36:47):
don't anymore, and it's so important. So it's great to
see you have the success that you have because you
actually care, and unfortunately that's a rare quality these days.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Thank you so much for having me. I think you
do a great job as well.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
That was Selena Zito, author of the new book Butler,
the untold story of the near assassination of Donald Trump
and the fight for America's heartland. Really encourage you to
go out and get it. She's an incredible reporter. She's
a great person. Appreciate you guys at home for listening.
You guys are great people. Every Tuesday and Thursday the
show comes out, but you can listen to it throughout
the week. I also want to thank John Cassio, my producer,
(37:21):
for putting the show together.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Until next time,
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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