Donald Trump revealed how his loved ones reacted to the failed assassination attempt on him at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills on Friday night.
In footage obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, Trump said some of his friends had experienced a religious awakening following the shocking, near-fatal attack on his life, and said one of his sons made a wild comparison to golf.
The former president admitted he believes the shooting at his campaign rally in July was God’s way of saying, “We want you to help our country.”
He added: ‘Some of my friends have become religious about this. My son said it was like dropping a putt from one foot.
It would be the equivalent of that distance, and then [the shooter] was taken out by a sniper.’
Footage obtained by DailyMail.com of the former president speaking at a fundraising event in Beverly Hills on Friday night
Trump said he believes the assassination attempt was God’s way of saying, ‘We want you to help our country’
The 78-year-old added: “I have to say this about the Secret Service: they were very brave. I was on the ground and within seconds they were all on top of me. They were in the line of fire.”
He also talked about the hospital he was taken to and the staff who worked there. They said they loved him.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired eight bullets in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, hitting Trump in the ear and killing three people in the crowd, one of them fatally.
Trump recovered from his injuries and appeared at the Republican National Convention two days later, while Crooks was shot on the spot.
Crooks had parked his vehicle near the rally site in Butler before climbing to the roof of a nearby industrial manufacturing building.
From his high vantage point, almost as close to the president as the Secret Service snipers assigned to protect him, Crooks had a clear and unobstructed line of fire and, armed with his father’s AR-15 rifle, he fired the shot.
It wasn’t the snipers’ quick reaction, but a chance turn of Trump’s head that made the difference between a glancing blow and a killing shot.
Crooks was killed by a sniper seconds after he opened fire on the former president and Republican presidential candidate.
Crooks was spotted wandering through merchandise stalls less than two hours before he wounded the ex-president
Trump, pictured here surrounded by Secret Service agents, recovered from his injuries and appeared at the Republican National Convention two days later
An internal Secret Service investigation report found that multiple catastrophic security incidents occurred prior to the shooting.
Officials called the entire operation to protect the former president “alarmingly sloppy” and cited “significant weaknesses” in the communications system.
Much has already been revealed about the random communications between local police, but the investigation revealed that the Secret Service did not have access to real-time updates from local police.
When authorities in the area were contacted about a suspicious man who had shown up at the meeting, it was not heard on Secret Service Radio, which is used by the service in lieu of the military-backed systems used to protect the president and vice president.
The snipers who eventually took out Crooks were initially ordered to send photos via text message to only one Secret Service official, meaning no general bulletin could be sent.
This lax behavior came despite the fact that police had seen Crooks carrying a rangefinder and said he was behaving strangely.
Officials called the entire operation to protect the former president “alarmingly sloppy” and cited “significant weaknesses” in the communications system
No one from the Secret Service could hear afterward that authorities had tried to find Crooks after he was spotted as Trump began his speech and never secured the roof of the AGR building he used to fire the shots.
The investigation is said to have gone beyond the shooting, as it emerged that the Secret Service delayed security for Trump during the campaign despite an Iranian plot to assassinate American political candidates.
US leaders, such as Senator Richard Blumenthal, who serves on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, have said they expect a shocking revelation from the investigation’s findings.
“I think the American people will be shocked, appalled and dismayed by what we are going to report to them about the failures of the Secret Service in the attempted assassination of the former president,” he said Thursday.
Directors within the organization have already started rolling after disgraced director Kim Cheadle resigned following the shooting.
The Secret Service confirmed that Office of Protective Operations Assistant Director Mike Plati resigned ahead of the report’s release on Friday, while Chief John Buckley and a senior, unnamed Pittsburgh agent are retiring.
