by Virginia Mercury

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia lawmakers reacted to the shooting at a July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania — where former President Donald Trump and two others were injured and two people, including the shooter, were killed — by denouncing political violence.

Youngkin thanked God for “protecting” Trump, he said in a statement Sunday afternoon and condemned “this evil violence.” 

“Yesterday’s attempted assassination of President Trump was an action of pure evil — an affront against our morality, an affront against our liberty, an affront against the very foundations of our great nation. If we ever deem it acceptable, then we will lose our Republic,” Youngkin wrote.

“This is not Cuba. An attack on a U.S. presidential candidate is an attack on American democracy itself,” Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, the son of a Cuban immigrant, posted on X. 

House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott, D-Chesapeake, and Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, together released a statement Saturday evening. Both said they were “shocked and alarmed” to learn of the shooting, and said they were praying for Trump and the victims.

“In America, we settle political differences through free and fair elections. There is no place for violence in politics. Every American has the right to gather peacefully and participate in our political system,” Scott and Gilbert wrote.

Virginia Senate Finance and Appropriations Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, posted on X that she was “disgusted” by the events at the rally, and offered prayers for Trump and his family after the shooting. 

“Political violence has absolutely no place in our democratic systems,” Lucas wrote.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, posted that political violence “is not how we resolve elections in America,” and thanked the Secret Service for protecting Trump and rally participants. 

Trump was shot shortly after he began speaking at the rally in Butler. Trump said on Truth Social that a bullet “pierced the upper part of my right ear.” Two other men were shot and injured, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania, was attending the rally with his family when he was killed in the shooting.

On Sunday, the FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who is now dead. The agency is investigating the incident as an assassination attempt on Trump. The Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported that “Crooks was a registered Republican,” according to state voter records, “and a Federal Election Commission filing showed he made a $15 donation on Jan, 20, 2021 to the Progressive Turnout Project, before he would have been old enough to vote.”

The deadly shooting occurred days before the Republican National Convention, which starts Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Trump is expected to speak at the convention and will be formally deemed the party’s presidential nominee on Thursday. Officials said Sunday that the convention is expected to continue as planned.

President Joe Biden, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland, gave remarks from the White House on Sunday, calling the attack on Trump “contrary to everything we stand for as a nation.” Biden, who is campaigning against Trump in an increasingly heated presidential race, appealed to the nation for unity and said there would be an independent review of the shooting.

Officials will “assess exactly what happened and we’ll share the results of that independent review with the American people as well,” Biden said. 

He also directed the Secret Service to review security measures ahead of the four-day Republican convention.

(Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and X.)