Richard Arnold: US correspondent on Trump's recovery after Pennsylvania rally shooting

Former president Donald Trump is gearing up for his next set of appearances after yesterday's shooting. 

Trump was shot in the ear and moved off stage after a shooter opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania - and one attendee was killed.

US correspondent Richard Arnold says president Joe Biden reached out to Trump after yesterday's incident.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stard side Richard anold morning, what do you, Mike? And
Trump's just tweeted out looking forward to speaking to our
great nation at the RNC. So presumably we don't hear
from him again until later on the week.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I don't know. I think at previous Republican conventions he
would make appearances, which is not the usual way these
things go. But Trump is very communication savvy, so we'll
see how this plays. But he is telling associates privately
today that he's doing well right now, despite his ear
being grazed by that would be assassin's bullet, says Republican
Senator Tom Cotton, who spoke with Trump a short time ago.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
He's doing well, He's in good spirits.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
President Biden spoke with Trump last night in what was
described as a respectful brief telephone calls. Three rally goers
were shot. As you know, one man was killed and
two others still are in critical condition. The twittery year
old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by the
Secret Service moments after he at least those six to
eight bullets from an AR fifteen style rifle. And most

(00:54):
everyone will have seen the video of the shooting.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Take a look at what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Which shows Secret Service agents in putting their lives on
the liners. They took Donald Trump off the stage after
his ear was bloodied by the bullet, his face was spatted,
and he pumped the air with his fish, shouting fight, Fight, Fight.
There were also heroics from Corey compre Tore, the Pennsylvania
firefighter who was shot dead. Says the state's Democratic governor,

(01:24):
Josh Shapiro.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Cory died a hero.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Cory dove on his family to protect them last night.
So the whole situation is shocking, but is it surprising?
There are serious questions about the security perimeter that was
in place and about access to the rooftop of an
adjacent building. One person saw the shooter scramble to the
roof of this place, right alongside the rally and well

(01:49):
within range of the semi automatic rifle the shooter was
carrying with him, and there's rally goer says that Crooks
was up there for several minutes as this crowd member
tried to get police to react, like hey man, the
guy in the roof for the prave for and the
police are like, oh, you know, like 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.

(02:11):
You see him, He's crawling. And next thing, you know,
I'm like, I'm thinking myself, I'm like, why is Trump
still speaking? So several minutes of this, we now find
that this twenty year old shooter had an AR fifteen
style weapon that appears his father had purchased legally. These,
of course, are the weapons that former President Clinton banned
back in ninety four, but former President George W. Bush

(02:32):
back on sale ten years on. Biden has sought to
ban them again, not effectively. These are the weapons used
in seemingly endless shooting massacres from Stockton to Sandy Hawk
to the Las Vegas massacre where you reicre more than
one hundred rounds were fired from a hotel room across
from a music concert, Sixty people killed, at least four
hundred and thirteen others wounded. A bump stock was used
to turn that rifle into a virtual automatic. Trump banned

(02:56):
those bump stocks, then just the other day, the conservative
majority Supreme Court allowed them to go on sale. Thanks
a lot in the Trump crowd. Last night, another rally
goer says this later, shooting easily could have led to
Trump's assassination. He had not moved his head at that
neck of time, it could have been a lot. So
that's the close up view. Again. Shocking, but is it surprising.

(03:16):
There have been many reactions, starting with Biden calling the
shooting sick and then pledging a full and open investigation
in comments a short time ago, I urge everyone, everyone,
please don't make assumptions about his motives or's affiliations. Let
the FBI do their job. Compare this to three of
the Trump vice presidential wannabes who blamed the Biden campaign

(03:38):
within minutes of the shooting. Mind you said, JD Vance
the Biden campaign retory quote led directly to President Trump's
attempted assassination end quote. Well, we didn't even know who
the shooter was at that point and still do not
know the motive except that he was a lone acute
at high school. Biden also said there is no place
for political violence in the United States. So that's an
encouraging hope, But look at the history. Twenty eleven Democratic

(04:00):
congress Member Gabby Gifford shot in the head while campaigning.
Twenty seventeen Republican Steve Scalise nearly killed when shot while
playing in a congressional baseball game. Charlottesville, twenty seventeen. One
person killed, as then President Trump said they were very
fine people on both sides. Twenty twenty one, multiple people
died during violence at the US Capitol. So this week,
Republicans gather for their big presidential convention starting tomorrow in Milwaukee,

(04:24):
where we can expect most every speaker to address these issues.
Late in August, Democrats will do the same. We can
see right now that politicking aside Mike, those questions are
key to America's future.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Exactly good one. We'll see Wednesday, Mate Richard Donold stateside.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
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Speaker 1 (04:44):
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