Trump: Assassination attempt a chance to bring America together

(JNS) - The attempt on his life is an opportunity to unify the United States of America, former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday, a day after he was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

"This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together," Trump told the Washington Examiner.

Trump also talked to The New York Post about the harrowing experience, saying that he was "supposed to dead" and calling it "surreal." 

"The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle," said Trump.

He gave the interviews en route to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, where he will officially accept the party's nomination for the presidency ahead of the November election.

Trump was rushed off stage, bleeding from the side of his head, after being shot at the political rally in Butler, Pa. on Saturday.

The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, a southern suburb of Pittsburgh (Butler is a northern suburb), on Sunday as the "subject involved" in the shooting.

In the Examiner interview, Trump again praised Corey Comperatore, who was shot and killed at the event, along with David Dutch and James Copenhaver, who were wounded and are hospitalized in stable condition.

He also commended the Secret Service agents in the Post interview for killing the shooter, saying that "they took him out with one shot right between the eyes."

"They did a fantastic job," he added. "It's surreal for all of us."

The former president also explained his defiant reaction on the campaign stage after narrowly escaping death, raising a clenched fist in the air and repeatedly shouted, "fight, fight, fight."

"America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong," he said. "The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it's hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK."

Trump also revealed that he was saved because he had turned his head briefly towards a screen displaying data for use in his address.

"That reality is just setting in," Trump said. "I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?" he added.

"It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance," he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday night addressed the nation from the Oval Office, urging Americans to "take a step back."

"The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that," said Biden, adding: "Politics must never be a literal battlefield, God forbid, a killing field," he said.

"An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation-everything," he continued. "It's not who we are as a nation. It's not America, and we cannot allow this to happen. Remember-while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We're neighbors, we're friends, coworkers, citizens. And most importantly, we are fellow Americans," he added.

"We must stand together."

Israelis from across the political spectrum on Sunday conveyed overwhelming support for Trump, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing the "heinous" shooting as "an attempt to assassinate American democracy."

Netanyahu added that he "would like to send him in my name, in the name of my wife, Sara, in the name of the ministers of the Israeli government and in the name of the entire people of Israel our best wishes for a speedy recovery and a return to full strength."

Robert Wells, assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, said on Sunday that the assassination attempt was being investigated "as a potential act of domestic terrorism," adding that the shooter had acted alone.

Crooks used an "AR-style 556 rifle," according to FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek, a semi-automatic weapon that was bought by his father.

Authorities were still probing how Crooks accessed the weapon and whether he took it without his father's knowledge.

The FBI was still trying to determine a motive for the attack.