A Republican member of Congress discussed his experience being at the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during an event at the School of Media & Public Affairs on Wednesday.
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) said he was in the front row at the July 13 Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was shot in the ear and two people died after being shot by a gunman perched on a roof not far from where the former president was speaking. During a talk hosted by the GW College Republicans and moderated by GW College Republicans’ Director of Political Affairs Carson Sturgis, the congressman said it was a “bad situation,” and that he felt “angry” as he heard the shots ring out.
“I thought he was probably dead,” Meuser said.
Meuser said about 28,000 people were at the rally in Butler when Trump was shot, and that between records from Capitol Police, Secret Service and local police, only one suspicious individual — the shooter—was identified some time before the shooting.
“You would think that that person would have been approached,” he said.
Meuser said Trump showed strength when he raised his fist in the air as Secret Service agents rushed to take him off the stage after the shots rang out.
“Anyone who just gets shot and has the fortitude to do that, just leadership instincts, pretty amazing,” Meuser said.
Minutes before the shots rang out, Meuser said Trump appeared to call for Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick to come on the stage.
“But then he said ‘You know what Dave, you come up afterwards,’ and no more than two minutes later, eight shots rang out,” Meuser said.
Meuser’s colleague Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) is the chair of the bipartisan task force investigating both the assassination attempt on Trump in July and the attempt on Trump’s life at his golf course earlier this month.
Meuser was first elected to Congress in 2018 after the previous representative for the 9th district, Bill Shuster, opted not to run for reelection. Meuser unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2008, when he came in second place in a GOP primary for Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district.
Meuser said the information Congress received about the first assassination attempt is “completely insufficient.” A bipartisan Senate committee report released Wednesday said the security lapses at the July Trump rally were “preventable” and that the Secret Service failed to block the shooter’s line of sight to Trump.
“It makes people question their government,” Meuser said. “Right, that the government can’t be transparent with people. The American people can handle the truth.”
Meuser said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “has been dead silent through both of the assassination attempts,” which he said is not surprising as he criticized Mayorkas’ handling of immigration at the southern border.
He said he sat in a closed-door briefing with Mayorkas regarding the border earlier this year where Mayorkas insisted the border was secure while describing “tens of thousands” of pounds of drugs and an influx of human trafficking at the border.
Meuser criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ handling of the border, referring to her as the “border czar” and said Democrats are weak on immigration.
“That’s why this election is just unbelievable,” Meuser said.
During the Trump presidency, Meuser said the border was sometimes “a bit of a disaster” but that he believes Trump did more to secure the border — like when he requested that the Mexican military police the border — than President Joe Biden. He said the immediate focus on immigration policy needs to be “securing the border,” though Meuser said he supports “some legal statuses” and the DACA program, which protects eligible young adults who came to the U.S. illegally as children from deportation.
“I have a saying, ‘High fences, wide gates,’” Meuser said. “We’re a welcoming country, but we got to know who’s coming in.”
Meuser was asked about Pennsylvania, which is projected to be one of the closest states on election night, according to the election forecasting website FiveThirtyEight. Meuser said polls show a tight race in the state, and that the voter registration gap in the state is trending in favor of Republicans.
“I think much of what they’re doing is actually backfiring, just like their policies have,” Meuser said, referring to Pennsylvania’s Governor Josh Shapiro implementing automatic voter registration last year.
When asked by a student what Trump’s likelihood of winning Pennsylvania is, Meuser responded with “we’re going to win,” drawing applause from the crowd, before finishing his comment: “or die trying.”
