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Former first lady Melania Trump denounced the assassination attempt of her husband at his Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, calling the shooter a "monster" who "sought to ring out Donald's passion."
In a Sunday statement, the former first lady issued a call for unity as she thanked the Secret Service agents who rushed to her husband's aid as he spoke to his supporters. In her remarks, she focused intently on the effects of the shooting on her family.
"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," she said.
And she addressed the suspected shooter, whom authorities identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks and who was killed on Saturday, as a "monster."
"A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald's passion — his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration," she said. "The core facts of my husband's life — his human side — were buried below the political machine."
The former first lady in her statement also urged Americans to come together regardless of their political orientation.
"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," she said.
Trump was speaking to his supporters on Saturday when gunshots rang out at the Pennsylvania event, and the former president was swarmed by members of the Secret Service. Photos from the Trump rally showed Trump with a bloodied ear as he emerged from the assassination attempt.
Trump in a Truth Social post wrote that a bullet had "pierced the upper part" of his right ear and thanked the agents who came to his aid during the incident.
Melania Trump has not been as active on the campaign trail this year as she was in 2016, but she has been a firm supporter of her husband's reelection bid.
