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Speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt, Rep. Mike Kelly called on Americans to “wake up” and stop acting “like a Third World country.”
“Physically I’m OK. Mentally I’m OK. But … this has got to stop. It absolutely has to stop,” said Kelly, who represents Butler County.The Hill on sunday.
President Trump was grazed by a bullet just minutes into his evening rally, sending shockwaves across the country amid deep divisions in American politics. The gunman, identified by federal authorities as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed one person and seriously injured two others in the crowd before being “neutralized” by Secret Service agents.
Kelly said neither he, his wife, grandchildren nor other relatives who attended the rally were harmed.
It’s time to “dig deep into what’s happened to America,” the Pennsylvania Republican continued. “This is certainly not the America I grew up in. My parents lived through the Great Depression and World War II and saw our future, but we’re now like a Third World country.”
“This is not the United States of America anymore. It’s a divided state and it’s too extreme,” he added.
Kelly argued that all Americans, regardless of their political views, need to take a hard look at increasingly divisive rhetoric.
“The reality is that you have to take responsibility for what you say, and I think we need to start taking that responsibility personally,” Kelly said. “This is not about any particular political party, this is not about any particular group of people.”
Unlike other members of his party who condemned President Joe Biden immediately after the riot, Kelly said it was “premature to start making condemnations.”
President Joe Biden issued a similar warning during a press conference on Sunday afternoon. [the shooter’s] Motivations and relationships.”
The assassination attempt came two days before Trump is due to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he is expected to be nominated as the GOP presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, former Secret Service officers have questioned the agency’s handling of the shooting, and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee has announced his committee will open an investigation into the incident.
Authorities are investigating a motive for the massacre and how a man with a rifle was able to get so close to the former president. The FBI said Sunday that the shooting is being investigated as an assassination attempt and an act of domestic terrorism.
“The question is, ‘Why did this young man decide that day to kill a presidential candidate?'” Kelly said. “I don’t believe the Secret Service could have done anything to counter any law enforcement agency that does something like that. It starts in the hearts and minds of men and women.”
“It’s time for the whole country to wake up,” Kelly said. The Hill“This has become an untenable situation.”