Donald Trump told Dave McCormick ‘you woulda been in primetime’ after Butler shooting
McCormick, the Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate, was almost on stage with Trump when a shooter fired at the former president in Butler, Pa., on Saturday.
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MILWAUKEE — On the final day of the Republican National Convention, GOP Senate candidate Dave McCormick addressed the bleary-eyed Pennsylvania delegation and recounted a phone call with former President Donald Trump the day after Trump was shot in Butler.
McCormick said he called Trump and the former president remarked how close McCormick had come to being on stage with him during the shooting — but with a different reflection than expected.
“I thought he was gonna say, ‘you could have been shot,’ and he goes ‘you woulda been in primetime,’” McCormick said.
The assassination attempt has been an omnipresent theme at the convention, where the crowd of attendees has acknowledged the shooting by lifting their fists and chanting “fight,” and some have put square pieces of gauze on their ears to mimic Trump’s bandage. The shooting has been mentioned in nearly every speech on the RNC stage, and it holds particular significance for the Pennsylvania delegates, several of whom were at the Saturday rally.
At the Pennsylvania delegation breakfast Thursday morning, McCormick reminded the group that Trump opposed him in 2022 when he ran against celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz.
“When I decided to run again, I was a little anxious,” McCormick said. “How’s that gonna work? We don’t agree on everything, how’s that gonna go down?”
But Trump gave McCormick a warm endorsement at a rally in Philadelphialast month, and McCormick said when he saw the former president backstage before the Butler rally, Trump promised his McCormick intro would be “ten times better, wait ‘til you see.”
McCormick was sitting near the stage at the rally Saturday when Trump called him up and then changing his mind, turning to talk about the border instead.
“He said, ‘go sit back down I’ll have you come back later,’” McCormick said. “And a minute or two later, the bullets started firing and I could see the president grab his ear and go below the podium.”
McCormick said seeing Trump get back up and pump his fist gave him chills.
“That’s not the first time I’ve heard bullets fired but I think you put 100 people behind that podium when bullets start firing, 99 stay in the fetal position. One or two have the courage the defiance, the reassurance to stand.”