Trump says "I don't mind" if someone had to shoot through media
Lititz, Pennsylvania — Former President Donald Trump said during a rally on Sunday that he wouldn't mind if someone tried to shoot through the media riser to assassinate him while he was complaining that the bulletproof glass positioned around him was "ridiculous."
"I have a piece of glass over here, and I don't have a piece of glass there. And I have this piece of glass here, but all we have really over here is the fake news," Trump said, pointing to the glass positioned between him and the head-on riser where the press was located. "And to get me somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don't mind that so much. I don't mind that."
He repeatedly mocked the media and reporters throughout the rally, calling the media "bloodsuckers."
Trump's comments came as he was talking about the bulletproof glass surrounding him at his outdoor rallies, a measure that was implemented after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. A bullet grazed Trump's ear at the Butler rally, and an audience member was killed. Secret Service snipers killed the shooter. Two months after the Butler shooting, another man was arrested with a gun and charged with attempting to assassinate Trump, this time at his golf course in Florida.
"The problem is, when you watch me tonight, you'll say, 'the President doesn't look that good.' Well, how the hell do you look good? Look at the size of this sucker," Trump said, while going to survey the thickness of the glass.
Trump later said that there may be a sniper in the field, harkening back to his first assassination attempt, and commented that his supporters would be his glass.
"Glass here. There's nothing over there. They're my glass. See? Those people are my glass," Trump said, pointing to the crowd.
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, said in a statement afterward that Trump was trying to protect the media.