(Fox News) Five days after surviving an assassination attempt, former President Trump pleaded for national unity as he formally accepted the GOP presidential nomination during the culminating moment of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” Trump emphasized as he addressed the thousands of delegates, party officials and activists packed into Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum and to the national audience of Americans watching the convention from home.
“The discord and division in our society must be healed. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” the former president noted.
The shooting, at Trump’s rally Saturday in western Pennsylvania where one spectator was killed, along with the gunman, instantly impacted the tone and message of the convention, and as Trump has acknowledged, altered his convention address.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives for the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
“Let me begin this evening by expressing my gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt at my rally on Saturday,” Trump said. “As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life.”
The former president and GOP presidential nominee said that “so many people have asked me what happened, and therefore, I’ll tell you what happened.”
“You’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell,” he said.
Trump recounted the shooting, saying he knew “we were under attack.”
Trump praised the “very brave Secret Service agents who rushed to the stage and pounced on top of me for protection.”
“There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe, because I had God on my side,” Trump said. “The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had NOT moved my head at the very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be with you tonight.”
“I am not supposed to be here tonight. I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God. Many people say it was a providential moment,” Trump said.
But the crowd chanted: “Yes you are. Yes you are.”
And he acknowledged that “none of us knows God’s plan, or where life’s adventure will take us. But if the events of last Saturday make anything clear, it is that every single moment we have on earth is a gift from God. We have to make the most of every day for the people and country we love.”
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump embraces the turnout coat and helmet of former Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department chief Corey Comperatore, who was killed at his rally last week, as he gives his acceptance speech on Day 4 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 18, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
Trump also pointed to the helmet and firefighting jacket of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief killed at the rally, which were placed on the stage by the former president. And he asked the audience to observe a moment of silence.
He said he has raised more than $6 million in recent days for Comperatore’s family, and the families of the two men who were seriously wounded in the shooting.
The former president also took time to thank his wife, former first lady Melania Trump.
“On this journey, I am deeply honored to be joined by my amazing wife, Melania,” Trump told the crowd in Milwaukee during an emotional speech.
He then referred to her letter to America, in which she called for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt against her husband.
“I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans,” she wrote. “Dawn is here again. Let us reunite. Now.”
The former president praised the letter.
“And Melania, thank you very much. You also did something really beautiful. A letter to America calling for national unity. And it really took the Republican Party by surprise. I will tell you, it was beautiful,’ he said.
“Some very serious people said that we should take that letter and put it as part of the Republican platform. That would be an honor, wouldn’t it?”
The former president also thanked his family, especially his children and grandchildren.
