Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a former White House physician, described the aftermath of the recent shooting at a rally for former President Trump in Pennsylvania.
According to an interview published Tuesday in The New York Times, Jackson had been onboard Trump’s plane the day following the rally. He redressed Trump’s ear while they were flying to Wisconsin for the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC).
“The bullet took a little bit off the top of his ear in an area that, just by nature, bleeds like crazy,” Jackson told the Times. “The dressing’s bulked up a bit because you need a bit of absorbent. You don’t want to be walking around with bloody gauze on his ear.”
Trump faced an assassination attempt Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pa. He was hit in the ear and came into the convention hall at the RNC Monday with a bandage over it.
Shortly following the assassination attempt, Jackson and Trump spoke, according to the Times interview.
“He picked the phone up and he goes, ‘I’m not taking a lot of calls, but this is my doctor. I’m taking this one,’” Jackson said, per the Times.
Jackson said to Trump that he could assist him in any way possible, by way of medicine or media, according to the Times interview.
“I would prefer to have you here,” Jackson said the former president said, per the Times. “And I said, ‘OK, enough said.’”
Jackson caught a plane Saturday and made it to the former president’s golf club in Central New Jersey near 4:30 a.m. the next day, per the Times interview.
The Texas Republican said Saturday that he had a nephew who got grazed by a bullet at the Pennsylvania rally.
“They heard the shots, and everybody dropped to the ground,” Jackson explained. “And I don’t know if you guys have the picture or not, but he was grazed in the neck. A bullet crossed his neck, cut his neck, and he was bleeding.”
