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Despite the media’s attempt to portray Trump supporters as vengeful after the attempted assassination of the former president, many attendees said they witnessed acts of courage and kindness in the aftermath of the shooting.
Thomas Smith, a Pennsylvania local, spoke with The Federalist on Tuesday after attending his first Trump rally. The event ended in an assassination attempt that wounded former President Donald Trump, killed a local father, and seriously injured two others.
“I truly felt like that day we saw good conquer evil right in front of our face. In the face of terror, I saw people standing tall … and doing the right thing. I just think that needs to be said,” Smith told The Federalist.
Smith, a school administrator, drove over an hour with his wife to the rally. He had hoped to hear Trump talk about school choice. His active school shooter training kicked in as soon as he heard the gunshots, and he covered his wife with his body.
“My wife had said, ‘Tom, I think that was fireworks going off over there by the woods.’ And I said, ‘Honey, that was definitely not fireworks, that was gunfire,’” Smith said.
Heroic Moment
Smith described the now iconic moment Trump stood with his fist in the air as “George Washington-like.”
“I was so inspired by his actions,” Smith said. “[H]im standing up with his fist in the air and saying, ‘fight, fight,’ was so unbelievably encouraging and inspirational … he stood there in front of all of that and took the time to make sure people that came there to support him knew that he was okay. It was an unbelievable moment.”
Many leftists framed Trump’s response differently.
The Guardian columnist Moira Donegan called Trump enthusiastic for “outright violent politics” in an opinion piece blaming the former president for the attack.
“But he rose from the stage … to raise a fist in the air and yell ‘Fight!’, Trump was defiant, and calling for revenge,” Donegan claimed. “The risk of vigilante violence by Trump supporters, meant to avenge their leader or punish his perceived enemies, will be high.”
Other photographers echoed Donegan’s characterization in off-the-record conversations with Axios regarding the photo, captured by AP’s Evan Vucci.
Photojournalists at a major news outlet, remaining anonymous, argued, “It’s dangerous for media organizations to keep sharing that photo despite how good it is.”
Another photographer called it “a propaganda machine” that makes Trump “a martyr.”
Smith says this characterization is a “mistake” and “really a stretch.”
“For someone to take that moment and to twist it into something other than inspirational, that we need to fight for our country in a positive way, I think it’s a twist on terms,” Smith said.
The reporters seemed out of touch to Smith, who emphasized he was there with Trump.
“Fight for our country! That’s, that’s what this was about. You know, we should fight for our country, not each other,” Smith said. “In my opinion, [it was an] inspirational moment for the folks that were there, that he was doing well and that we need to continue to fight for our country.”
Acts of Kindness
Multiple news outlets amplified reports of rallygoers shouting at journalists and behaving chaotically.
“Immediately after shots were fired, the crowd turned on media, channeling their anger toward reporters standing inside the press pen. ‘Fake news. This is your fault!'” Axios reporter Sophia Cai wrote in a series of tweets. “Several rallygoers pointed fingers at a male reporter on the media riser who they accused of laughing about the shots. ‘Look at him, he was laughing.’”
CBS correspondent Scott MacFarlane reported much of the same.
“Some in the crowd turned on us,” MacFarlane wrote on Twitter less than two hours after the shooting. “[D]ozens of rally-goers cursed and made obscene gestures. And ran toward bike rack barricades … but didn’t cross them.”
But Smith witnessed a very different crowd response.
“[W]hat I saw were acts of kindness, people caring about one another, thoughtfulness,” Smith told The Federalist. “I did not see one person acting aggressive, acting hostile, or being crazy in a negative way back where I was. I did not see any of that. In fact, I saw quite the opposite of that. And I had said to my wife, it looks like everybody’s calm.”
The Guadian’s Donegan characterized the Republican response as “grubby, single-minded self-interest,” but Smith emphasized the countless “acts of kindness” he witnessed all around him.
“I saw an 80-year-old man … that was standing there for hours in the heat near my wife and I. When the gunshots were fired, I was obviously very concerned for my wife, but I saw other people grab that guy and take care of him,” he explained.
Smith also recalled the crowd helping a wheelchair-bound elderly woman and her 7-year-old granddaughter to safety.
Elsewhere, rally attendee Rico Elmore rushed to the aid of victim Corey Comperatore despite the risk of active gunfire.
“Shots were fired and I jumped over the barrier and put my hand on the [Comperatore’s] head that was profusely bleeding,” Elmore, covered in blood, told a Forbes reporter after the shooting. “[He] was a stranger.”
New footage shows him assisting in ER doctor Dr. Jim Sweetland’s attempt to save Comperatore’s life.
“Corey’s body was unfortunately wedged between the fourth and fifth benches on that stand,” Sweetland explained in a CNN interview. “Two individuals, who were scared, and there was blood and there was brain matter at the scene, these people were courageous enough to get up and help me get Corey back on the bench so that I could perform CPR on him.”
Comperatore did not survive. Footage showed attendees embracing Comperatore’s widow as she wailed at the sight of her husband. Another man held Comperatore’s daughter, shielding her from the horrific scene.
“The look on their faces is something I’ll never forget,” Sweetland told CNN. When he asked for water to wash Comeratore’s blood off of his hands, dozens of rallygoers rushed forward with their bottles.
“It’s such a horrific … event where people could have been acting crazy and acting all for themselves.” Smith said. “I saw just the opposite, where people want to help each other, cared for one another, and doing whatever they could to help people… anything other that is a lie. I watched it.”
So Many Great Americans
Smith only knows Comperatore, a veteran who “loved Jesus with every fiber of his being,” through the news.
“He was involved in his community. He loved his children … he was a great American,” Smith said, adding, “There were great Americans in that field.”
Smith said Comperatore was emblematic of the majority of rallygoers.
“They weren’t extremists, they were Americans. They want certain things for their country, that’s all … That’s our God-given right to do that,” Smith explained. “There were so many great Americans in that crowd, and it just felt terrible that they had to endure that.”
Others expressed the same sentiment.
“For eight years the press has always found one or two kooks at Trump rallies to present to their audience as representative of the crowd as a whole,” one X user wrote. “Sad it took an assassination attempt and the death of an attendee for them to interview the overwhelmingly kind and decent people I’ve always found in attendance.”
Donations have poured in since Saturday, including contributions from rally survivors. Fundraisers for victims of the assassination attempt now total over $6 million.
Smith and his wife pray for the victims every night. He hopes people know that goodness came out of a tragic event.
“We need to make sure that the truth comes out regarding what we witnessed … There was good conquering evil in many ways, and that’s my take from that day,” Smith told The Federalist.
“My wife and I did find good in something that took place there. And that was that we are highly inspired by the actions of President Trump and the folks that were in the vicinity.”
Monroe Harless is a summer intern at The Federalist. She is a recent graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in journalism and political science.
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