Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Thursday appeared on “Mornings with Maria” and told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that dehumanizing language and political polarization led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
McCormick was present at the rally when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump, piercing his ear, killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore, and injuring two more.
The former Trump administration official told Bartiromo, “I just think this is the result of increasingly polarization in our politics, increasingly negative rhetoric that is dehumanizing.” He said that the aftermath of the tragedy is an opportunity to “step back from the brink,” adding it was “lucky the president wasn’t killed.”
McCormick, after highlighting the loss of Comperatore, argued that Republicans and Democrats must settle their severe differences electorally.
“I believe that we’re headed in a desperately wrong direction, and we need to get the country back on track,” said McCormick. “I think President Biden and Bob Casey are part of the problem.”
Nonetheless, he explained, “As we debate those ideas, and we have that conflict, we need to do it in a way that resolves this in elections, with civil discourse.”
We have huge differences in ideas, but we must debate our conflicts through civil discourse and elections — never violence.
Great to join @MariaBartiromo live from Milwaukee. pic.twitter.com/j02eH71qjh
— Dave McCormick (@DaveMcCormickPA) July 18, 2024
McCormick previously confirmed he was only feet away from Trump and expected to take the stage and provided new details about his proximity to the gunfire to Bartiromo.
“The president told me beforehand, ‘I want to have you come up on stage,'” explained the Senate nominee, adding that Trump then invited him on stage only to quickly ask McCormick to briefly return to his seat until a more opportune part of the speech.
“I got back to my seat, and within a minute or two, the shooting started,” McCormick explained.
A reporter who was at the rally previously told The Pennsylvania Daily Star that McCormick was “definitely in the line of fire” at the rally, with the bullets almost certainly passing over his head.
Earlier in the week, McCormick delivered remarks at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he described the presidential race as a choice between Trump’s “remarkable strength” and the “sad, disgraceful decline” offered by Biden and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).
McCormick argued Casey “has been warming a chair and drawing a paycheck,” and “when he votes, it’s for Joe Biden’s old, tired ideas.”
In the wake of the attempted assassination, McCormick suspended its negative advertising and challenged the Casey campaign to suspend its own. The Democrat’s campaign later claimed it paused all advertising within hours of the shooting and that it would resume at an undetermined date.
Watch McCormick’s full Fox Business appearance:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dave McCormick” by Fox Business.Â
I just read an article this morning that stated on the Monday morning after the attempted assassination 34%of democrats polled believed the assassination attempt was faked for political reasons.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/blueanon-watch-one-third-democrats-believe-trump-faked-assassination-attempt-conspiracy
You could show these liberals a photo of the globe from space and they would still claim the earth is flat.These liberal marxist democrats are a threat to national cohesiveness and are infected with a psychotically disorder. They will never become part of the solution, they will always be the problem. If President Trump is reelected we can expect four years of non-stop juvenile behavior. I just hope that if their actions step over the line to break any laws that they are dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. And that should start with the Biden Crime Family, then start cleaning out the alphabet agencies.