Donald Trump rally shooting updates: Biden calls for calm, unity

We are now closing the live blog, but please follow our live coverage on this new page where we will continue reporting on the latest developments since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a campaign rally.

Stay with the Al Jazeera Live team as we bring you all the latest developments, analysis and reactions throughout the day.

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Tens of thousands are getting ready for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the issue of security likely to dominate conversations.

“I feel pretty safe. I know security measures have been amped up quite a bit. I feel pretty confident, especially after yesterday’s night event that everybody will have their eyes wide open as far as security goes,” Milwaukee resident Corin Jones said. “I like to have confidence in us as a society that we won’t let things get out of control beyond what they already are,” he added.

“As far as security concerns, I trust that all is being taken care of considering what happened yesterday. This is gonna be even tighter than usual,” Phillip Reitz, another resident, said.

At the event, one of the most important in US elections, Trump is expected to be officially confirmed as the party’s candidate for the presidential election and to announce who is going to be his running mate.

The former president has told the New York Post newspaper that his assassination attempt was a “very surreal experience”.

“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump told the Post in an interview while on board his plane en route to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.

The 78-year-old praised Secret Service agents for killing the attacker, saying “they took him out with one shot right between the eyes”.

The image of Trump raising a defiant fist as Secret Service agents bundled him away made front pages around the world and spread virally on social media.

“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” the former president told the Post, adding “They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”

Dmitri Mehlhorn, a Democratic strategist and a major donor to mostly Democratic candidates, has apologised for suggesting that Trump’s shooting had been staged.

“Last night, I sent an email I now regret. I drafted and sent it without consulting my team. I have apologized to them directly. I also want to apologize publicly, without reservation, for allowing my words to distract from last night’s central fact: political violence took yet another innocent American life,” said Mehlhorn, who is also an adviser to billionaire Reid Hoffman.

The statement comes after news website Semafor reported that he sent an email saying “this ‘shooting’ was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash”.

• The 20-year-old man suspected of shooting Trump was a dietary aide at a nursing facility. He grew up in Bethel Park, an affluent suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Local media said he graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022.
• He went on to enrol at the Community College of Allegheny County and graduated with an associate degree in engineering science in 2024, a school official said.
• According to The New York Times, he was registered as a Republican but made a donation to a progressive cause in 2021. His parents were registered as a Democrat and a Libertarian.
• Crooks did not appear to have a public profile on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
• US officials say he had no apparent history of mental health and had not been on federal law enforcement’s radar.
• The FBI believes Crooks acted alone and the shooting is being investigated as a potential act of domestic terrorism.
• They have not determined what motivated Crooks to try and kill Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris says on X that she and her husband Doug Emhoff extend their “deepest condolences” to the family of Corey Comperatore.

“He was a husband, father, and firefighter who was shielding his family from gunfire,” Harris said in the post. “Our hearts break for this loss from yesterday’s abhorrent violence.”

As the Republican Party gears up for its national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, our podcast The Take delves into how the city is getting ready for this event – and a possible Trump presidency.

Listen below:

Bitcoin has surged to a two-week high after the attempted assassination of the former president, who has presented himself as a champion of cryptocurrency.

Some investors said the attack bolstered his chances of winning back the White House and trades betting on his victory are expected to increase this week.

Bitcoin rose 8.6 percent to $62,508, touching a two-week high of $62,698 earlier in the session, taking its year-to-date gains to 47 percent. Ether was also up 6.8 percent at $3,322.

“He’s certainly positioned himself as pro-crypto and as the odds of his re-election were galvanised by the shooting on the weekend, it’s certainly put a big boost underneath the bid in crypto markets and Bitcoin obviously, just an absolute standout,” said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG.

Trump is due to speak at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 27, the organisers said last week.

The Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company has paid tribute to Comperatore, the retired firefighter who was killed while attending Trump’s rally.

Black bunting was draped over the firehouse where Comperatore’s equipment was hung with flowers below, to pay tribute to his life and dedication to his Western Pennsylvania community.

Craig Cirrincione, 27, who worked alongside Comperatore for several years, reflected on the loss of his former colleague and his passion for helping others, saying: “He’s just one of the guys, he don’t do it for the thanks or the pat on the back. Nothing like that.”

First lady Jill Biden spoke with former first lady Melania Trump by phone on Sunday, a day after the assassination attempt on her husband, NBC News reported, citing a White House official.

We reported earlier that Melania Trump issued a statement expressing gratitude for the “brave” officers “who risked their own lives to protect” the Republican presidential candidate. She went on to describe the gunman as “a monster” who saw Trump “as an inhuman political machine”.

The US president is set to fly on Monday to Las Vegas, where he will deliver remarks on Tuesday at a gathering of the NAACP, an influential civil rights group, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Biden is also scheduled to speak to Latino leaders in the city and participate in other community events on Wednesday.

The Biden campaign had paused all political communication, including advertisements attacking Trump, in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on him.

The Associated Press news agency is reporting that Trump spent much of Sunday on the phone with friends, news hosts and local and foreign officials.

Ohio Pastor Darrell Scott, a longtime ally, said Trump “was in great spirits” when they spoke on Sunday morning, the AP reported. “He was great, like he always is. He didn’t even make a big deal of it,” Scott said. “He was actually trying to downplay it somewhat, asking how I was doing.”

Reince Priebus, who also served as Trump’s White House chief of staff, told ABC’s This Week that Trump was “grateful for the miracle of what happened”. He added, “One quarter inch turned the other direction and we’re obviously talking about something very different this morning.”

The former Brazilian president said Trump had narrowly escaped death during the attempted shooting, much as he had when stabbed in the stomach at an election rally during his 2018 campaign.

“He was saved, in my opinion, as I was,” Bolsonaro said in a video posted on X.

“The doctors say it was a miracle that I survived in 2018, considering the severity of the injuries, and he [Trump] was saved by a matter of a few centimetres. This, in my opinion, comes from above,” he said, looking to the sky.

These are the highlights from the FBI statement:

• The FBI is investigating the Trump shooting rally as an assassination attempt and potential domestic terrorism.
• The probe to date indicates the gunman acted alone but the FBI is continuing “to conduct logical investigative activity to determine if there were any co-conspirators associated with this attack”.
• The FBI has yet to identify a motive. It is working to determine the sequence of events and the shooter’s movements before the shooting, collecting and reviewing evidence, conducting interviews and following up on all leads.
• The FBI has obtained the gunman’s telephone.
• The FBI found “suspicious devices” in the gunman’s home and his vehicle that have been “rendered safe by bomb technicians”.

Bennie Thompson, a member of the US House, said one of his staff members was no longer employed after he learned of a post the staffer made on social media.

Screenshots of her apparent Facebook post, which was related to the attempted assassination of Trump, circulated on social media after the shooting. In the post, the staffer said: “I don’t condone violence but please get you some shooting lessons so you don’t miss next time ooops that wasn’t me talking.”

Thompson chaired the special House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Here’s a quick recap:

• Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office, denouncing political violence and appealing for calm and unity following the assassination attempt on his Republican rival.
• Trump told the Washington Examiner that he has rewritten his speech for the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee to focus on unity and not on Biden. He also said that the reality of his brush with death “is just setting in”.
• The Secret Service said there will be no changes to the security plans for the RNC, while the Wisconsin governor has asked officials to revisit a prior decision that allows people to bring guns within blocks of the event venue.
• The FBI is investigating Trump’s shooting as “potential domestic terrorism”, but is yet to identify the gunman’s motive, a spokesperson said. The agency said the gunman used an AR-style rifle.
• Corey Comperatore, who died in the rally shooting, was killed while shielding his wife and child from the bullets coming in their direction, according to his daughter. She called the 50-year-old a “real-life super hero”.
• Pennsylvania authorities identified the other two men who were wounded in the shooting and said they were both in stable condition.