Fire chief killed in Trump shooting. Remembering rally in Butler, PA

Aliya Schneider, Layla A. Jones and Fallon Roth
The Philadelphia Inquirer
(TNS)

BUTLER, Pa. — When former President Donald Trump returned to the site where an assassin’s bullet grazed his ear, he was able to finish what he started in July.

“Like I said,” Trump joked at the start of his speech to the crowd of thousands at Butler.

Trump’s butler return comes just three weeks after the Secret Service foiled a second assassination attempt in Florida. And it comes just a month before Election Day as Pennsylvania promises to play a crucial role in deciding the outcome of the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

He walked on stage alone, but was flanked by Secret Service agents and covered by protective glass, to watch Lee Greenwood’s live performance of “God Bless the USA.”

The crowd went wild.

His speech capped a day of rallying marked by an emphasis on defiant strength, verbal attacks on Harris and the Democratic Party, and the spreading of falsehoods about immigration and other issues that have come to dominate Trump’s diverse campaigns.

The rally stood out from typical campaign events, however, as speakers and participants balanced heated politics with solemnity in honoring Corey Comperatore, the former Buffalo Township fire chief who was killed at the July rally for the same reasons. Trump dedicated the beginning of his speech to him, calling him “truly immortal.”

Comperatore’s firefighter jacket was visible on the risers behind Trump, and his wife, daughters, sister and other relatives were at the rally, Trump said.

“Twelve weeks ago we all took a bullet for America and all we all ask is for everyone to go out and vote,” Trump said. “This will all be for nothing if you don’t vote.”

Throughout the rally, the crowd repeatedly chanted, “Corey! Corey! Corey!”

“He gave his life to protect their lives,” Trump said of Comperatore, who reportedly used his body to protect his family at the July rally. After a minute’s silence, opera singer Christopher Macchio sang “Ave Maria.”

Trump also spoke about David Dutch and James Copenhaver, the two attendees who were injured but survived the shooting in July. “They were big Trump fans and still are,” Trump said.

The packed crowd was an energized sea of ​​red hats, jumping out of their seats and raising their hands in the air to respond to Trump throughout his speech. But tighter security measures made their presence felt. At one point, a security guard asked an enthusiastic supporter standing in an aisle to return to his seat.

At one point, Trump interrupted his speech when a participant experienced a medical emergency. The crowd broke into an a cappella singing of the national anthem before Trump continued his remarks.

Supporters traveled from as far away as Japan, but many in the crowd were from Butler and surrounding communities still recovering from the trauma of July’s shooting.

Loren Stephenson, 40, a literature and writing professor who grew up in Butler and now lives in Indiana, Pennsylvania, attended the July rally and said Saturday’s event felt like “redemption.”

“It’s like the body went into shock,” she recalled of the shooting. “I actually thought someone was playing a sick joke. I thought they were fireworks, but my fiancé and our friends are much more knowledgeable about firearms. They knew it was real.”

Stephenson, an independent, has supported Trump since 2016.

Angelina Marx, 20, a Butler Community College student, said she will either cast her vote for Trump or not vote in her first election. On Saturday she attended a Trump rally for the first time.

“I think that’s one of the main reasons I’m here, because I want to make sure that I believe in what I’m voting for,” said Marx, who had never been to a Trump rally before Saturday.

Marx said she liked the idea of ​​electing a female president, but she didn’t trust Harris.

Butler was once known for its agriculture, railroad car manufacturing and jeep production. Today, Butler is best known as the site of the first assassination attempt against a president or presidential candidate in more than four decades.

“But the community is strong,” U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., whose district includes Butler, said Friday. “You recovered quickly.”

Kelly, co-chair of the bipartisan House committee investigating the July assassination attempt, said security measures between the July rally and Saturday’s rally were “the difference between night and day.”

There was, among other things, an expanded perimeter, increased communication between first responders and drones.

At Saturday’s rally, Butler Township Commissioner Edward Natali said he wanted Trump’s return to change the narrative about Butler.

“One thing I want to see today…” he said, “I declare that Butler, Pennsylvania is the undisputed capital of Trump country.”

The last time Trump spoke in Butler, he was facing a beleaguered President Joe Biden. He is now in a close race with Harris. A Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll released last month showed the vice president leading Trump by four percentage points in Pennsylvania and the two candidates tied nationally.

After remembering the victims of the July rally, Trump launched into his typical anti-immigrant spiel, saying countries in Africa, Asia and South America were sending “crazy” people to America. There is no evidence that this is true.

He also repeated a debunked claim that 13,000 murderers are at large, a number that equates the fact that they are not being detained by ICE with their freedom when many of those named are in state or federal prisons.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who owns the social media platform X and co-founded Tesla, was one of the Trump campaign’s roughly 60 “special guests.” He spoke briefly and urged people to register to vote.

Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, spoke before Trump and struck a more combative tone as he accused Democrats of using inflammatory rhetoric in their political speeches after the Butler shooting in July.

“Even after this horrific assassination attempt that left one man dead and nearly killed many others … the media continues to describe Donald Trump, the man who actually won his primary, as a threat to democracy,” Vance said.

Trump was indicted in federal court and in Georgia on election interference charges after attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

But Vance, who in recent days had downplayed the Jan. 6 attack and the impact of Trump’s election denial, attacked Harris and accused her of using divisive language.

“I think all of you will join me in saying to Kamala Harris: How dare you talk about threats to democracy? Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy.”

As Trump wrapped up his marathon rally, he tried to connect his survival in Butler to other moments in which Pennsylvania played a uniquely key role in the country’s history

“From Gettysburg to Germantown to Philadelphia to Barren Hill and from Brandywine to right here in Butler, this is the place where Pennsylvania patriots shed their blood with the love of their country,” Trump said.

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