Trump mentions Butler County rally shooting at Pittsburgh summit
PITTSBURGH — When President Donald Trump came to the Pittsburgh area just days after the one year anniversary of the July 13, 2024, campaign rally shooting in Butler County, it was impossible to avoid talking about that day, even just for a brief moment.
Trump came to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, July 15, at the behest of U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, who spearheaded the “Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit” at Carnegie Mellon University. The summit served as an opportunity to get high-ranking public and private sector officials together to discuss innovation, energy and artificial intelligence.
As part of introducing Trump to the stage, McCormick brought up the recent anniversary of the rally shooting.
“A year ago, almost to the day, I was with you at Butler, and I witnessed your strength and your courage on that day,” McCormick told Trump. “Dina (Powell McCormick) and I are beyond grateful that you’re here safely with us, and we are honored and thrilled to have you back in the town we’re proud to call home.”
Trump took a moment out of his opening remarks to mention the Butler County shooting and respond to McCormick by telling a story.
“I actually looked down to the right, before that thing happened, and I said ‘oh, there’s David McCormick, he’s running for the Senate. David, come on up.’ And there was a little, there were so many people, there was a little problem he had coming up so I said ‘look, just do it later.’ About a minute later, so if you would’ve came up I don’t know what ... would’ve happened, right? It worked out better this way,” Trump said to McCormick with a chuckle.
Trump then teased McCormick by saying he was responsible for saving McCormick’s life that day.
“I don’t know if he would’ve been around,” Trump said with a smirk while the audience erupted in laughter. “I want to take full credit for that, I said, ‘no, don’t bother, we’ll do it later,’ so if I didn’t say that, who knows?”
Trump then used the shooting, and its anniversary, to juxtapose how the country, and state, were doing then compared to now.
“Exactly one year ago this week, David was at that rally in Pennsylvania. Twelve months later, look at what we have,” Trump said.
Trump went on to say he had spoken to NATO leaders and many had told him the country went from “dead” to the “hottest country anywhere in the world.” He then announced over $92 billion of investments in Pennsylvania from companies such as Meta, Google and FirstEnergy.
