Former President Donald Trump was interviewed by Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Saturday at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The town of Butler was made infamous in July when a shooter opened fire during a Trump campaign rally. Over the weekend, the Republican presidential candidate returned to the site of the attempted assassination with “beefed up security,” and officers were seen along the fence line of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where the rally took place.
In the interview with Ingraham, Trump discussed the assassination attempt, the recent hurricanes and his desire to be a protector of women.
Here are five key takeaways from the interview, which aired on Monday night’s episode of The Ingraham Angle.
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Trump Spoke in Detail About the Assassination Attempt in Butler
On July 13, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, climbed onto a roof and fired eight rounds from a rifle at Trump, while the former president spoke at an outdoor rally nearby. Crooks struck Trump with a bullet that pierced his right ear, killed one rallygoer and critically injured two others.
Speaking about the assassination attempt, Trump said: “It was a lot of blood. When I was down and bullets were flying over my head, I noticed tremendous amounts of blood.”
He said he didn’t want to go out on a stretcher as a lot of people were watching him, adding that the Secret Service thought he was “hit in three or four places because there was so much blood.” Trump praised the Secret Service and said they did a “great job.”
He also said of the moments after being grazed by the bullet, “My first instinct was to finish my speech.”
Earlier in the interview, Ingraham asked Trump if he he’d been close to tearing up at Saturday’s rally, given the emotional atmosphere. “If I admitted that, I think I’d lose a lot of votes,” he said, adding: “Do you want a president that cries? I don’t think so.”
Trump Criticized the Biden Administration’s Response to the Recent Hurricanes
Trump described the Biden administration’s response to the hurricanes that have affected Southern states such as North Carolina, Georgia and Florida as “horrific.”
When Ingraham asked what he would do differently, Trump said, “I’d have a tremendous team of people.” He added: “I was in North Carolina yesterday. I was in Georgia. And Georgia’s different. You have a good governor. He’s doing a very good job. But North Carolina is a disaster, and it was also hit very hard, but they don’t have the people.”
Ingraham told Trump that President Joe Biden had described the response to the hurricane as “robust.” Trump responded: “Nobody says that. He doesn’t know what robust is.”
Trump then praised the billionaire Elon Musk for helping with the hurricane relief efforts and supplying his “great gadgets.”
Trump Responded to Biden’s Concerns About a Peaceful Transfer of Power
Ingraham mentioned Biden’s recent comments about the peaceful transfer of power following November’s election. At a White House press briefing on Friday, Biden said of the election: “I’m confident it will be free and fair. I don’t know whether it will be peaceful.”
He added, given that Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, haven’t accepted the outcome of the last election, “I’m concerned about what they’re going to do.”
When Ingraham asked Trump what he thought Biden “was getting at” with his comments, the former president said: “I don’t think he knows. I really don’t. I think he has no idea what he said. I really don’t.”
Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign and a representative for Biden for comment.
Trump Said He Was Winning the Legal Cases Against Him, Criticizing the Filings
Ingraham asked Trump how, on a personal level, he dealt with the “lawfare that continues to be waged” against him.
“It’s been totally discredited,” he said. “The biggest case was in Florida. We won the case in its entirety. We’re leading in most of the other cases, and a couple of them are just really bad judges that are, you know, Democrat judges, Democrat areas.”
He added: “What they did is, they said, ‘Let’s go after this guy, and let’s cost him a lot of money, but more importantly, a lot of time and a lot of thought.'”
Ingraham then asked Trump about restoring faith in the justice system, noting the concerns of his critics that he’ll use the courts to get back at his opponents and adding, “Punitively using government institutions is what got us in this mess in the first place.”
Trump replied: “They’ve started a terrible precedent. We’ve never had this.”
Trump Said He Wants to Be the Protector of Women
Addressing women voters during the interview, Trump said, “I say to the women—and I think I do very well with the women … I will keep you safe.” He added, “I’m not going to let people hurt you.”
The former president also said, “It’s my job to protect as president … I want to protect women.”
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