Former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Saturday marks exactly one month to Election Day 2024, and will see former President Donald Trump return to Butler, the scene of a July attempt on his life that left a rally-goer dead. His presidential campaign said he will be joined by a large group of “special guests” that includes the family of Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed at the July 13 rally, GOP vice presidential nominee U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, and tech CEO Elon Musk.
In an election year that has had a nonstop carousel of unprecedented moments, surely the image of Trump with blood streaming down his face, fist raised in the air, will be one of the most indelible.
Pennsylvanians knew the state was going to be a battleground going into 2024, with a former president and unpopular incumbent — the two oldest candidates ever to seek the Oval Office — ready to slug it out until November. But to say that things have shifted in the presidential race since July 13 would be an understatement.
The former presumptive Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, left the race July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who Democrats nominated at their convention in August. Trump now faces a younger opponent who has cut into his poll numbers and popularity, rather than the elderly Biden who appeared to have lost his fastball.
While he’s expected to honor Comperatore and the first responders who were at the scene on July 13 at Saturday’s rally, it’s also likely Trump will express his unhappiness with special counsel Jack Smith, whose 165-page motion outlining Trump’s alleged actions to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election was unsealed on Wednesday.
Much of the motion concerns Trump’s interactions with individuals in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Judge Tonya Chutkan is tasked with determining which of Smith’s allegations can stand in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling that former presidents enjoy immunity for some official acts and duties, but no immunity for personal acts. Smith argues that Trump acted in a private capacity in the aftermath of the 2020 election, in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob.
The presidential race in Pennsylvania remains extremely close, with most polls showing Harris and Trump neck-and-neck. The battle for the state’s 19 electoral votes has brought the candidates and surrogates to Pennsylvania’s urban, suburban and rural areas, in an attempt to reach the undecided voters that may ultimately tip the scales one way or the other.
While Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania in 2016, Biden edged out a win over Trump in 2020, by around 80,000 votes.
Trump is scheduled to take the stage in Butler at 5 p.m.
This is a developing story that will be updated
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