The Attempted Assassination of Trump Serves as a Reminder to Return Him to the White House
Dave McCormick, the combat veteran-turned-businessman who is trying to wrest a crucial Pennsylvania Senate seat from one of Joe Biden’s closest allies, was moments from joining Donald Trump on stage when the assassin’s bullet struck.
McCormick reflected on the sliding doors moment this week on the floor of the RNC convention in Milwaukee, where he was mobbed by fellow Pennsylvanians every step he takes.
“It’s the craziest story ever,” said the former hedge fund CEO and father of six.
“Trump says ‘come up and speak.’ So I get up, I start walking, I go through the first lane of security, and he goes, ‘No, no, I’m gonna show my chart. You come up later.’ And then I sat down, and the shooting started two minutes later.”
As the assassin’s bullets whizzed over his head Saturday evening, McCormick watched in horror as one found its mark on Trump, miraculously only nicking his ear when he tilted his head to look at a chart of illegal-migration figures on the big screen.
“It was an incredibly scary moment,” McCormick said.
“We were an inch away from losing the president. History was playing out right in front of us and I’m still trying to get to grips with it. Imagine the consequences for America. It was a horrible, horrible tragedy for the families [of victims] and it was a wake-up call for our country.”
Ballots, not bullets
He says Trump’s close call reinforces the importance of the political arena, where conflict is resolved with ballots rather than violence.
“We have a huge fight here on ideas . . . I think the Democrats are taking our country in a way that’s going to destroy it, and I think we have ideas that are going to fix it. We can’t act like these are small differences. They’re huge differences, but we need not fight out those differences in an environment of political rhetoric that’s encouraging violence . . .
“We have to fight for the future of the country on ideas and convincing the voters, not dehumanizing the other side in a way that says the only way we can exist is if the other side is destroyed. That’s just not American.”
McCormick is the underdog against three-time Democrat incumbent Sen. Bob Casey in one of the most hotly contested elections in the nation this November.
Casey, 64, is Democrat royalty in the battleground state.
His late father, Bob Casey Sr., was the popular Pennsylvania governor 30 years ago and led the anti-abortion wing of the Democratic Party.
Casey grew up on the same street as Biden in Scranton, Pa., and their families have been close for decades.
Biden constantly plays up his Scranton roots, even though he left when he was 10.
He likes to say he is Pennsylvania’s “third senator,” and boasts that wife Jill is a “Philly girl” and Eagles fan.
