'I’m supposed to be dead’: Donald Trump breaks silence following assassination bid
15 July 2024, 07:03 | Updated: 15 July 2024, 08:40
Donald Trump has said he's "lucky to be alive" in his first interview since Saturday's assassination attempt.
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The former president said he is "supposed to be dead" following Saturday's shooting, as the former president arrived in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.
He added that he has rewritten his "humdinger" of a speech ahead of the convention, which will see Trump formally nominated as the Republican candidate and announce his running mate.
He added that he had "tempered" his language following the attack.
Trump's arrival in the state on Sunday comes as his team confirmed the schedule would go ahead as planned, despite an attempt on the president's life just a day earlier.
Saturday evening saw a shooter take aim at the former president during a rally in Pennsylvania, with Trump shot in the ear by a sniper before being rushed off stage by close security.
During a mid-air interview with the Washington Examiner, Trump said that the speech he planned to give on Thursday was set to be "a humdinger".
Around 50,000 people are expected to attend the four-day event, as the party appeals to voters ahead of November’s tightly fought US general election.
It comes as President Biden "we don not know the motives for the shooting yet," adding "I do want to speak to what we do know... there is no place in America for this type of violence."
In a prime-time national address from the Oval Office, Mr Biden said political passions can run high but "we must never descend into violence".
During the interview, Trump said: "I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?"
It comes as the gunman behind Donald Trump’s assassination attempt had explosives in his car and used a firearm purchased by his father during the attack.
"The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,' he added as part of the interview.
Trump later told the New York Post: "I'm not supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be dead".
"I'm supposed to be dead," he added.
It comes as the president said he had survived "by luck or by God" following Saturday's shooting.
The FBI confirmed that 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, a Republican party supporter, was the gunman behind the attack on Saturday.
Mr Trump was rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents when multiple gunshots were fired at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Kevin Rojek, FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, said that investigators do not yet know if he took the gun without his father's permission.
