Trump returns to site of first assassination attempt

President Donald Trump triumphantly returned to Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday — exactly twelve weeks after an attempted assassin shot Trump in the ear, killed a rally attendee, Corey Comperatore, and injured several others.

Trump previously promised he would go back to finish his rally in Butler, and he did indeed show up at the same spot where he was very nearly killed, kicking off the event with an acknowledgment that the last time he was there, his speech was cut short. “As I was saying…” Trump said to cheers and laughter. He referenced the famous illegal immigration chart that likely saved his life, as he turned his head to look at it at the exact moment the shooter fired, ensuring the bullet grazed his ear and did not go through his head. “I love that chart. I love that graph. Isn’t it a beautiful thing?” he quipped. 

Saturday’s rally also marked the first time tech billionaire Elon Musk appeared at one of Trump’s rallies. Musk recently endorsed the former president and launched America PAC, which is investing millions of dollars and has partnered with TPUSA to assist the Trump ground game in Arizona and Wisconsin. Musk leaped in the air as Trump introduced him and painted a comparison between Trump and Biden:

“We had one president who could not climb a flight of stairs. Another who was fist-pumping after getting shot. Fight, fight, fight. Blood coming down the face. America is the home of the brave. There is no truer test than courage under fire. So who do you want representing America?” Musk asked the audience. He urged the crowd to register to vote and get their friends and family to do so as well.

Of course, the rally had plenty of somber moments. Trump spent a significant chunk of time early on paying tribute to Comperatore, who Trump noted sacrificed his life to save his family members and was a well-respected fire chief. The crowd chanted “Corey” and, after a brief moment of silence, opera singer Christopher Macchio performed Ave Maria. Trump called his fallen supporter “truly immortal” and surmised he was on the stage with him that day. 

-Amber Duke

On our radar

STEIN IS FINE The “Abandon Harris” group urging voters not to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris over the administration’s policy in Gaza endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein. The group launched in October 2023 and was initially named “Abandon Biden” and wants a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. 

MONEY WHERE MUSK’S MOUTH IS Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk is offering $47 to Americans who get another person to register to vote in a swing state and sign a petition expressing support for the First and Second Amendments. “Easy money,” Musk asserted. 

VANCE TRIMS MARGINS A Yahoo News/YouGov poll that had Vice President Kamala Harris leading by five points nationally after the presidential debate last month now shows Harris with just a two-point lead after the vice-presidential debate between Senator JD Vance and Governor Tim Walz. 

America remembers October 7 terror

One year after Hamas terrorists burst into southern Israel, murdering more than 1,200 Israelis and non-Israelis alike, thousands of Americans rallied in public across the country expressing their support for both America and Israel in the wake of the worst terrorist attack launched against either country since September 11, 2001.

Among the events was a memorial rally and march held on the National Mall. The event was keynoted by Senator JD Vance, the GOP’s vice-presidential candidate, who had a simple message for those in attendance: “We want the good guys to win and the bad guys to lose…The only way to end the war is if Hamas would let the hostages go.”

Vance’s Democratic counterpart, Governor Tim Walz, spent the day taping with Jimmy Kimmel and visiting an exhibit commemorating the terrorist attacks. 

Throughout the rally, which was organized chiefly by the Philos Project, chants of “bring them home” echoed throughout the Mall. Vance lamented that “it is disgraceful that we have a president and vice president who haven’t done a thing” to do so, adding that if he and Donald Trump are victorious, they will go after the accreditations of colleges that harbor antisemitism. 

Other speakers spanned the political and religious spectrum. Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, advocated for making a deal with Hamas, which he called “Satan,” in order to release his son and the roughly 100 other hostages who are still held illegally by Palestinian terrorists.

At the rally’s conclusion, the relatively small crowd marched to the White House to “wake up Biden,” in the words of an attendee. 

Native American leader Laralyn Riverwind saw everyone off by assuring them that everyone will dance again soon, referencing the Re’im music festival where the attacks started. 

–Matthew Foldi

Joy or jokes?

The Harris-Walz campaign has had itself quite the week, media-wise, conducting not one, but two interviews.

While Governor Tim Walz waded into frenemy territory with a Fox News Sunday interview by Shannon Bream, Vice President Kamala Harris chatted with hostess Alex Cooper on her adult-content Call Her Daddy podcast.

The Fox hit, numerous outlets have noted, marked Walz’s first solo interview and first appearance on a Sunday show as would-be VP, and, according to ABC News, it was also only Walz’s “fourth national media interview that’s aired since he was selected to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate.”

Bream pressed Walz on the multiple questionable things he’s said about himself during the short course of his vice-presidential run, namely: his “stolen valor,” his non-trip to China during the Tiananmen Square protests and claims he and his wife used in vitro fertilization. In response, Walz said, “I will own up when I misspeak; I will own up when I make a mistake.” Regarding other head-scratching points he’s made, such as stating during his debate with JD Vance that he “became friends with school shooters,” Walz insisted voters “heard me the other night speaking passionately about gun violence and misspeaking.”

When Bream challenged Walz to answer how late-term the Harris-Walz campaign would make abortion legal, Walz refused to answer, calling the question “a distraction” (a sidestep the Daily Beast labeled as “deft” ).

Meanwhile, on the “sex-positive” podcast side of things, Kamala was likewise discussing abortion, claiming, “There are now twenty states with Trump abortion bans. This is the same guy that said women should be punished for having abortions.”

Taking a suddenly libertarian attitude toward politics, Kamala added, “You don’t have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree, the government shouldn’t be telling [a woman] what to do. If she chooses, she’ll talk to her priest, her pastor, her rabbi, her imam, but not the government telling you what to do, and that’s what is so outrageous about it.”

Cooper and Kamala had a good laugh when the pair agreed there are no laws dictating what a man does with his body, though Clay Travis took to Twitter/X to note, “The correct answer is, yes, the draft.”

Call Her Daddy was Spotify’s second most popular podcast last year, after The Joe Rogan Experience, but Cooper’s fall from the top could be swift. Many loyal listeners commented that they were disgusted by Cooper’s decision to wade into politics and would never listen to her show again.

Next up for the Harris-Walz ticket… a serious press briefing?! No. Kamala is slated to sit down with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, while Walz will appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Causing the world to wonder: is this the campaign of “joy,” or jokes?

–Teresa Mull