Trump falsely suggests his rivals ‘tried to kill me’ as he rallies at site of assassination attempt

Donald Trump returned to the site where he was nearly assassinated this summer, but his brush with death doesn’t appear to have changed him in the slightest.

On Saturday evening, Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania — walking out to a live rendition of “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood — and opened with the words “as I was saying,” referencing the fact that his previous rally at the site ended abruptly when a gunman fired an AR-15 toward the stage, grazing his ear and killing one attendee and injuring two others.

Rather than giving the former president a new perspective on the political temperature in the country, Trump’s rhetoric appears to have become more volatile; during the rally, he suggested that his political opponents “maybe tried to kill me.”

“Over the past eight years, those who want to stop us from achieving this future have slandered me, impeached me, indicted m, tried to throw me off the ballot, and who knows, maybe even tried to kill me,” he said. “But I never stopped fighting for you, and I never will.”

His son, Eric, made a similar claim earlier in the night.

The younger Trump told the crowd that “they” tried to “get my father everyday” since he launched his first campaign for the White House, and then said “they tried to kill him.”

Trump took a moment to recognize the three men who were shot alongside him during the July 13 assassination attempt. He noted David Dutch and James Copenhaver, who could not attend the rally because he was undergoing a surgery related to his wounds.

He then recognized Corey Comperatore, who was fatally shot at the July event. Trump called for a moment of silence during which bells tolled. An opera performer then began singing “Ave Maria.”

The rally was briefly stalled