Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) believes that former President Donald Trump has a “special connection” with the people of Pennsylvania after he came millimeters away from being assassinated in Western Pennsylvania on July 13.
Fetterman made the observation during a conversation with The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg during the 2024 Atlantic Festival on Thursday.
“Trump has created a special kind of hold within the coronet he’s remade – the party – and he has a special kind of place in Pennsylvania, and I think that only deepened after the first assassination attempt,” Fetterman said.
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Trump was nearly killed with 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from an uncovered roof located roughly 150 yards from the former president’s podium. Retired firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed, while two additional rally goers were critically wounded.
The former president was also a casualty, as his ear was grazed by a bullet when he turned to look at a chart.
“I also want people to understand, you know, and it’s not science, but there is, there’s energy and there are kinds of anger on the ground in Pennsylvania — and people are very committed and strong,” Fetterman said Thursday. “And I joked that his signs became like the state flower – and you see that everywhere.”
Trump will be returning to Butler, Pennsylvania for another rally in October. “By the way, we’re going back to Butler and we’re going to go back in October.We’re all set up and we’re the people are fantastic in Butler. It’s a big it’s a great area,” Trump told Elon Musk in an X spaces discussion last month.
“These are incredible people. Like the three that, in the case of Corey, killed, and the other two. The families are great, I’ve gotten to know them. But we’re going back to Butler.”
While a number of pollsters currently have Vice President Harris leading over her Republican challenger, Fetterman remains unconvinced, pointing to polls showing Hilary Clinton with a commanding lead ahead of the 2016 election.
“Everybody thought that it was in the bag, but that’s not the energy and the other kinds of things that were really consistent with what I’m witnessing all across,” Fetterman recalled. “And then, sadly, we saw what happened.”
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