Trump credits Ron Johnson-supplied chart as difference maker in assassination attempt
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson may have played a serendipitous role in former President Donald Trump surviving the Saturday assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
That’s because Trump, as he detailed in an interview with The New York Post, turned his head slightly the moment before shots were fired to read a chart on illegal immigration. The source of that chart? Johnson, the senator said on Fox News's Special Report with Bret Baier.
In an interview with Baier, the senator said he initially showed a chart on illegal immigration to Trump on a plane ride to a rally in Green Bay. The senator said that Trump liked the chart, and his team took it, tweaked it and used it at the Saturday rally.
President Trump claimed, “That chart that I was going over saved my life.”
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson helped develop that chart. Here’s @SenRonJohnson with @BretBaier:pic.twitter.com/3pzSbzODlr— Jason Calvi (@JasonCalvi) July 15, 2024
Describing the sequence of events, Baier said that Trump was addressing the crowd when he turned to address a screen, that had the chart on it. The host said that Trump wasn’t meant to bring up the chart at that time, but brought it up early, and luckily turned his head.
Almost immediately, the former President is shot at and he ducks down. Right after, he is crowded by United States Secret Service agents.
A bullet pierced his right ear, but he was not seriously injured.
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump told The New York Post, describing the attempt on his life as surreal. “I’m not suppose to be here, I’m suppose to be dead.”
Trump told the Post he would have died if he had not turned his head to read the chart.
“I’m happy to have been of service there,” Johnson said on the Fox News program and said he had been developing the chart since 2014.
Baier described it as “pretty amazing.”
“It is. God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t he?” Johnson responded.
The attempt on Trump’s life occurred on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Authorities said Saturday evening that a spectator died, and two other spectators were in critical condition after a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage. The shooter was "neutralized" by the Secret Service and died, according to the agency.
The shooter was identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
One rally spectator, identified as Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed in the shooting. Two others, both adult men, were hurt.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson-supplied chart a difference maker in Trump assassination attempt
