In a new interview, Donald Trump described how Melania Trump watched the attempt on his life live on television with heartbreaking eyes.
Trump miraculously survived the assassination attempt of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks on July 13.
Laura Ingraham asked him how his wife Melania experienced the traumatic day at home.
“She was watching,” he said. “She was watching live. It was everywhere. It was on television.”
Trump added that his wife can’t even talk to him about that terrible day, although he sees it as a sign that she really cares about him.
Donald Trump described in a new interview how Melania Trump heartbreakingly watched the attempt on his life live on television
Trump added that his wife can’t even talk to him about that terrible day, even though he sees it as a sign that she really cares about him
“She can’t even really talk about it. That’s okay, that means she likes me — she loves me. She could talk about it freely, I don’t really know which is better. She likes me or she loves me, that’s cool.”
Melania believed “the worst had happened” when she saw the shooting live, because he had been captured by the Secret Service.
Trump continued to have sympathy for the Secret Service agents who ultimately abandoned him.
“I want to say one more thing about Secret Service… they were very brave. They came. Bullets were flying over me. I went down and they were — they were on top of me, I had a lot of very big, strong people on top of me.”
Trump repeated that several times, but he fully understood what went wrong that fateful day.
“Someone should have been on the roof, local law enforcement should have been contacted, and we saw this man, who was a very disturbed individual… what about the Trump fans yelling about him?”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after the assassination attempt.
Trump added that the Secret Service sniper who took out Crooks did a good job, “but it should have happened nine seconds sooner.”
Melania believed ‘the worst had happened’ when she witnessed the shooting live, because of the way he was shot by the Secret Service
Trump miraculously survived the assassination attempt of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks on July 13
He added that he will speak with the FBI on Thursday to provide a “victim impact statement.”
In a group call with those assigned to protect Trump, it was reported that 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks had been among them for more than 90 minutes before Trump was shot, rather than an hour as the FBI previously claimed.
When one of the three snipers tried to stop at about 4:26 p.m., they saw a man sitting on a picnic table, who they later confirmed was Crooks.
It turned out that the shooter’s father had called police on the day of the shooting after Crooks failed to return from what he thought was a routine Saturday visit to the local shooting range.
It also emerged that Crooks had been at the former president’s rally three hours before he opened fire, raising suspicions even with the Secret Service, as he was carrying a rangefinder used by hunters to take long-range shots.
But he was never arrested or questioned.
He later climbed to the roof of the building where he was lurking, shot Trump and killed retired volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore.
Crooks had told his boss he needed the day off on Saturday and gave his colleagues one final chilling message: that he would be back on Sunday.
Trump continued to have sympathy for the Secret Service agents who ultimately abandoned him
Trump added that the Secret Service sniper who took out Crooks did a good job, “but it should have happened nine seconds earlier.”
The gunman searched online to find out “how far away” Lee Harvey Oswald was from John F. Kennedy when he shot him, FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed in shocking testimony before Congress earlier this week.
FBI Director Christopher Wray also told lawmakers that the 20-year-old gunman flew a drone 200 yards from the stage just two hours before opening fire in Butler, Pennsylvania, and had three explosives in his car.
Trump survived the attempt on his life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania and was quickly removed from the stage by the Secret Service.
The FBI continues to believe that Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper, acted alone.
On Tuesday, Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the agency amid mounting questions about the massive security lapses at the meeting.
Cheatle took responsibility for the catastrophic failures after being criticized by both Republicans and Democrats when she appeared before Congress on Monday.
In a stunning moment, Cheatle admitted Monday that her officers on the scene were alerted two to five times that a “suspicious person” had been reported before Trump took the stage.
The security chief has faced mounting questions about why there was no officer on the roof from which Crooks opened fire on the former president, and why Trump was allowed to take the stage even when a threat was detected.