GOP lawmakers rally around image of bloodied Trump
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Former President Trump is rushed off stage by Secret Service at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.
An image of former President Trump spattered with blood after he was grazed by a bullet at a Pennsylvania rally swiftly became a symbol around which Republicans in Congress rallied.
Why it matters: Scores of Republican lawmakers posted photos of a defiant and bloodied Trump on social media – and not just conservatives or close Trump allies.
- Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), a swing-district lawmaker, posted the photo on X, writing, "Praying for President Trump, his family, and for the safety of all those in attendance today."
- "In this - I think we rally behind President Trump. This is an attack on him and our nation," one centrist House Republican told Axios.
State of play: Some lawmakers, including Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), simply posted the photo of Trump without any text.
- Other GOP-led organizations, including the House Judiciary Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, did the same.
What happened: Trump was pulled off stage by the Secret Service after gunshots rang out at his Butler, Pa. rally.
- Trump's campaign said he was "fine" and being treated at a local hospital, but the shooter and a rally attendee have died, the Butler County district attorney told various outlets.
- Trump confirmed in a Truth Social post that he was "shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear."
- The Secret Service confirmed in a statement that the shooter is deceased and fired the shots from outside the security perimeter set up for the rally. Two spectators suffered critical injuries, and another spectator was killed, the statement added.
- The shooting has been met with bipartisan condemnation in Washington, D.C., with President Biden saying in a statement: "There's no place for this kind of violence in America."
Zoom in: Some lawmakers took their social media posts a step further, with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) writing in a now-deleted post on X, "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT."
- Luna then posted a new version making clear she was quoting the former president, who appeared to say those words as he raised his fist before being rushed off stage.
- Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), pointing to a Politico report that Biden said earlier this week, "We're done talking about the debate, it's time to put Trump in a bullseye," posted on X: "Joe Biden sent the orders."
- Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said in a statement that to "take the political temperature down," Biden should "immediately order that all federal criminal charges against President Trump be dropped, and to ask the governors of New York and Georgia to do the same."
Go deeper: Apparent gunshots at Trump rally met with bipartisan condemnation
