It was hard to miss the enormous American flag towering over the Butler Farm Show grounds on July 13 as it waved over the rally site where former President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak just days before a crucial selection of running mates and the Republican National Convention.
On July 13, the two of us who had been covering Trump’s third run for president for more than a year went to what we thought would be a typical Trump rally in an open field in suburban Pittsburgh, a crucial election rally . area in a crucial state of the battlefield. It ended with a gunman trying to take Trump’s life and the death of a firefighter. Corey comparator.
We were standing at the front of the press area at 6pm and Trump took the stage (an hour late, as can be the case) and immediately knew something was wrong when what sounded like fireworks to our left. That’s where gunman Thomas Crooks had climbed onto an unprotected building just outside the security perimeter and fired several shots.
A hydraulic lift holding up a huge stack of speakers was struck, causing smoke to billow out and the speakers to slowly fall to the ground. As we took cover, all we could think about was grabbing our phones and getting started. Olivia recorded the sounds of panicked reporters and attendees huddled along the press stands and bike racks that separated us, the screams of frightened children, and, only realizing this as she listened many times since, the sound of the people around Corey Comperatore clamoring for shouted for help.
Jake spoke with emergency room Dr. James Sweetland, who ran to help Comperatore, said he heard the gunshots and went to help, finding Comperatore “pinned between the benches” before trying to save his life.
We were both shocked when the crowd turned on us in the moments after Trump’s motorcade sped out of Butler, with one man shouting, “This is your fault!”
What would become a typical Trump rally was no longer so typical.
Eighty-four days later Trump returnedand so did the two of us, taking the same route from downtown Pittsburgh, parking in the same location and enduring similar heat with no shade in the press area next to fellow reporters who, like us and the former president, chose to return and facing our trauma.
The stage was set up in the same location, with the same American flag flying above Trump and the crowd behind him that day.
But for all that was the same that day, there were striking differences. The building where the gunman had climbed, crawled over and ultimately fired fatal shots was completely hidden from the crowd by hikers. Several teams of snipers were stationed throughout the rally grounds. It was perhaps the largest crowd we’ve seen at a Trump rally yet.
And we are not the same people. Witnessing the events of July 13 took away our sense of security in doing our work, and the consequences continue to affect us. There was a moment of shock at one point, as the speaker on stage paused as the crowd shouted “medic” for a woman who was fainting. We were frozen in fear as we heard the same words shouted in the seconds after Trump’s assassination attempt, as people shouted for a doctor to take care of Comperatore.
But just like July 13, we had to get to work. Like those in the tens of thousands who chose to return, there was a sense of unfinished business at this fairground. We had gone on to Milwaukee and the Republican National Convention to cover Trump’s first public appearance since Butler, but we knew we had to come back here, no matter how painful it was to land back in Pittsburgh, drive north across Route 79 and retreat to the Butler Farm Show and finish the job: for the two of us, for CBS News, for the country.
Unlike other speakers on stage Saturday who defended Trump’s words “fight, fight, fight,” Sweetland went out of his way to mention that he is a former Democrat and implored the crowd to find five Democrats they could stand with could find. commonality.
“Democrats are like teenagers,” Sweetland said. “You think they’re not listening, but they are.”
Eight-four days later the whole race has changed, and so have we.
