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
