Trump announces outdoor Pennsylvania rally to 'finish our speech' at site of first assassination attempt

Former President Trump is slated to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, and hold an outdoor rally at the same location of the first assassination attempt in July.

"President Donald J. Trump will return to Butler, Pennsylvania, to hold a rally on the very same ground where he came within a quarter of an inch of losing his life less than three months ago," the campaign said in a news release Wednesday.

The Republican presidential nominee is slated to speak Oct. 5 at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds in the suburb north of Pittsburgh. 

During a rally Wednesday in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump said that he wanted to return to the venue to "finish our speech."

"As you know, there have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of… and the first case in Butler, Pennsylvania, great place, and we're going back to Butler," he said. "We're going to go back and finish our speech."

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During the rally, Trump's campaign said that the former president would honor those lost in the assassination attempt.

Corey Comperatore, 50, was a firefighter and a father of two daughters. He "historically sacrificed his life to shield his wife and daughters" during the assassination attempt against Trump, the campaign said.

Trump will also recognize the two other Americans who were wounded by the shooter, David Dutch and James Copenhaver. 

"He will express his deep gratitude to law enforcement and first responders, and thank the entire community for their outpouring of love and support in the wake of the attack," the campaign said.

Trump's campaign said that his return to the location of the first assassination attempt is a "tribute to the American spirit."

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"In America, we do not let monsters like that evil assassin have the last word. Every time our nation is struck by attack or hardship, we rally, we persevere, and we prevail," the campaign said in a statement. "When terrorists knocked down our towering skyscrapers, we rebuilt taller. When our communities are ravaged by fire, storm, or natural disaster, we pull together and come back stronger."

"And when a shooter attacked our democracy and tried to end this movement, President Trump will return to the site, joined by tens of thousands of proud citizens, and together, they will celebrate a unifying vision for America’s future in an event like the world has never seen before," it continued.

Trump's campaign said that he is "more determined than ever" following the two assassination attempts in the past nine weeks, one in Butler, Pennsylvania and the other at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

"In that Butler field on July 13th, he took a bullet for democracy — and on November 5th, he is going to save our democracy," they said. "With the help of the amazing people of Pennsylvania and citizens all across our land, we will make America safer, stronger, freer, and greater than ever before."

DAVID MARCUS: 5 reasons Kamala Harris is snubbing the Al Smith Dinner, Catholics, and tradition

Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that she will not be attending this year’s Al Smith Dinner, making her the first presidential candidate since Walter Mondale in 1984 to snub New York City’s famous Catholic event.

The tradition began in 1960, with John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon donning their high hats, white spats and Arrow collars, and ever since, it has been an evening of national and political unity.

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Gotham’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan called Harris’ decision "disappointing," reminding the veep that Walter Mondale lost all but his home state when he RSVP’d in the negative way back in 1984, and even some liberal pundits are scratching their heads at the decision.

After all, the Al Smith dinner is a venerated institution because it is a rare moment in today’s politics when candidates poke gentle fun at each other and enjoy dinner together, showing the country that there is more that unites us than divides us.

In fact, Harris has at least five very good reasons for ducking this showcase of togetherness, and each is deeply cynical. But taken together, they explain exactly why she is turning her back on tradition and potentially alienating Catholic voters.

The vice president is running a bizarre and unprecedented campaign in which she insists she no longer holds the positions she did three years ago and doesn’t feel much need to let us all know what the new positions are. This leaves one strategy for her, and that is to paint Donald Trump as a fascist would-be dictator who would destroy democracy a day after being sworn in using a copy of Project 2025. 

Having a wonderful dinner under the auspices of His Eminence, the smiling and congenial Cardinal Dolan, really doesn’t send that message. In fact, it sends exactly the opposite message. And if Trump isn’t actually evil incarnate, then people might suddenly start comparing economic policies, and the Democrats can’t have that.

It’s no secret that the Harris campaign has been closeting their candidate away from unscripted events whenever possible. Medieval monks weren’t this cloistered. In order to participate in the dinner, Harris would have to appear on the dais, without a teleprompter, in front of a crowd that wasn’t hand-chosen and deliver 5-10 minutes of comic material. Nothing we have ever seen Harris do even remotely suggests she is capable of this, and her handlers may know all too well that she isn’t.

The Harris campaign has settled into an approach in which it vaguely moves to the center by disavowing her past as the most liberal member of the Senate, while also winking at progressives to let them know she really doesn’t mean it. Snubbing the most important Catholic event on the political calendar sends exactly that message to her far-left supporters. Sure, she has to say certain things to get elected, but she is really all about sticking it to the oppressors, and what represents that better than insulting the Catholic Church?

As we have seen with the Harris campaign hand selecting only left-leaning networks for proposed debates against Trump, and declining the one on Fox News that had been scheduled with President Joe Biden, Kamala is not willing to face Trump on equal terms. Without an edge, without wildly biased debate moderators, there is no reason to believe Harris can go toe to toe with anyone, much less Donald Trump. She was not battle tested in a primary, and wants no part of a fair fight.

The main goal of anyone delivering remarks at the Al Smith dinner is to score some laughs, and with decent enough joke writers most politicians can manage it, but can Kamala Harris? While it's true that many of her incomprehensible word salads are unintentionally funny, when she actually tries to be amusing she generally starts cackling at her own joke while saying, "right? right?’ to a confused and distinctly not laughing audience. This is just one more aspect of the vice president that the Hidin’ Harris campaign wants to keep under wraps.

Traditions matter to societiesc. So does the ability, even in the midst of the most heated political times, to put all that aside and remember that we are all human beings first. But sadly, those kinds of old-timey ideals do not fit with Harris’ agenda.

Harris not only wants us to dislike each other based on our politics, she needs us to, because if Trump is a human being, if he is a decent, fun person who simply has different political opinions, then Harris has no case to make. So tradition, the church, and basic comity be damned. 

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