The former first lady released a lengthy note the morning after Donald Trump was shot, calling on people to “look beyond the red and the blue”
Melania Trump released an emotional statement the morning after her husband, Donald Trump, was shot at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, calling for Americans to put “love, compassion, kindness and empathy” above politics.
“When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron’s life, were on the brink of devastating change,” the former first lady wrote in a statement on Sunday, July 14, also expressing sympathy for the families of bystanders who were wounded, including one who was killed.
“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to snuff out Donald’s passion — his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” she said. “The core facets of my husband’s life — his human side — were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”
“Let us not forget that differing opinions, policy, and political games are inferior to love,” she added. “Political concepts are simple when compared to us, human beings.”
Melania continued, “American politics are only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love, compassion, kindness and empathy are necessities.
“And let us remember that when the time comes to look beyond the left and the right, beyond the red and the blue, we all come from families with the passion to fight for a better life together, while we are here, in this earthly realm.”
Declaring that “dawn is here again,” Melania said, “This morning, ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence.”
“We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realize this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships again,” she wrote.
Former President Trump was mid-speech at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, when gunfire rang out. Secret Service agents rushed the stage and surrounded the former president, whose ear was grazed by a bullet.
The suspected shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents, but not before a bystander was fatally shot and two more critically wounded. A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined.
In a statement given to PEOPLE, the Trump campaign said the former president was “fine” and was “being checked out at a local medical facility.” His campaign confirmed that the Republican National Convention, which begins in Milwaukee on Monday, July 15, would move forward as planned.
In the wake of the incident, several Democratic lawmakers spoke out against the violence, including President Joe Biden, who called it “sick.”
“That’s one of the reasons we have to unite this country. We cannot allow this to be happening. We cannot be like this, we cannot condone this,” Biden said in live, televised remarks.
“The bottom line is, the Trump rally is a rally that he should have been able to conduct peacefully without any problem,” he continued. “But the idea that there’s political violence, or violence in America like this, is just unheard of. It’s just not appropriate. Everybody must condemn it. Everybody.”
An official for Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign said shortly after the shooting that they would be pulling down their television ads “as quickly as possible.”
