Donald Trump has recounted his experience surviving the assassination attempt against him, telling the audience that he would only tell the story once.
“As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life,” he said.
“You’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s actually too painful to tell.”
His description of the event began with details of the weather, and charts on display during the speech.
“I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,” Trump said.
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.’
Trump takes the stage alongside uniform of fallen firefighter
“And moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down, and my hand was covered with blood.
“Bullets were continuing to fly as very brave Secret Service acts rushed to the stage.
“There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side.
“The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark and I would not be here tonight.”
Trump went on to speak about the crowd’s reaction at the rally after the shots rang out.
“In almost all cases, as you probably know, and when even a single bullet is fired, just a single bullet, and we had many bullets that were being fired, crowds run for the exits or stampede but not in this case.
“This massive crowd of tens of thousands of people stood by and didn’t move an inch. In fact, many of them bravely but automatically stood up, looking for where the sniper would be.”
Trump said that “most people” in the crowd assumed he was dead.
“The ears are the bloodiest part – if something happens with the ears they bleed more than any other part of the body, for whatever reason, the doctors told me that,” he said
“This beautiful crowd. They didn’t want to leave me.”
The audience at the RNC cheered when Trump recounted the moment the gunman was killed.
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump said.
“I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.”
Trump then detailed how he raised his fist at the crowd following the assassination attempt.
“I wanted to do something to let them know I was OK. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting ‘fight, fight, fight’,” he said.
Trump is now speaking about the man killed in the shooting, Corey Comperatore, as well as two other men struck.
He said he spoke to the wounded men today.
“They were serious Trumpsters, and still are, but Corey, unfortunately, we have to use the past tense,” he said.
Comperatore was killed shielding his family from the bullets.
“He went right over the top of them and was hit,” Trump said.
“What a fine man he was.”
Very unusually, Trump seems very muted and perhaps on the verge of tears.
He then led the crowd in a moment of silence for “our friend Corey”.
