A CNN correspondent is being raked over the coals for scolding former President Donald Trump over the first words he uttered seconds after being shot during an assassination attempt at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The would-be assassin fired as many as eight shots toward Trump from his AR-15-style rifle while in a prone position on the roof of a building roughly 400 feet from the rally stage. The spray of bullets killed a firefighter in attendance, critically injured two spectators, and nicked Trump in his ear.
After Trump realized he had been shot in the ear, he dropped to the ground, and Secret Service agents rushed to shield the former president. Seconds later, Secret Service agents were notified that the gunman had been neutralized and attempted to rush Trump off the stage. However, Trump instructed them to wait, looked at the crowd with blood on his face, pumped his fist, and yelled: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Trump was then ushered off the stage as the crowd chanted “U-S-A!”
However, CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel criticized Trump for his reaction that occurred within 80 seconds after being shot in the ear.
“I do want to say there was one thing that, when I watched the tape, I found odd because of all of the heated rhetoric, and that is after he was hit, former President Trump got up and said, ‘fight, fight, fight,’” Gangel said.
Gangel added, “I think what we’re hearing from people is that’s not the message that we want to be sending right now. We want to tamp it down.”
The CNN correspondent was lambasted on social media for criticizing a man who had just been a victim of an assassination attempt.
Talk show host Megyn Kelly: “The man was bleeding from a bullet wound to his head. WTF is wrong with you @jamiegangel? In any event it was the most inspirational ‘FIGHT’ many people have ever seen or heard. The fact that you heard it as you did shows how badly you’ve lost the thread.”
Donald Trump Jr.: “Someone attempted to assassinate my father tonight and this is what CNN is focused on. These people are vile.”
Gun rights activist Dana Loesch: “Your network and colleagues should do a self-check on rhetoric.”
Talk radio host Erick Erickson: “This is why there must be media accountability. CNN’s Jamie Gangel is upset that 30 seconds after Trump got shot he wasn’t lecturing his crowd. Unbelievable. Victim shaming.”
Former Trump speechwriter Darren J. Beattie: “Media is the enemy of the people. It’s very unfortunate that they feel comfortable talking like this.”
Reporter Megan Basham: “Unbelievable. CNN right now criticizing Trump for telling his supporters to fight only seconds after he was shot by a would-be assassin. Tsk tsk’ing that it wasn’t the right tone to take.”
Author Jim Hanson: “What a foul wretch. CNN is a cancer.”
Another CNN personality also tried to blame Trump’s criticisms of Biden as a cause of the rise in extreme rhetoric that led to an assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Scott Jennings – a Republican strategist and contributor to CNN – explained during an appearance on the cable news network that the failed assassination attempt stemmed from the nonstop fearmongering that Trump being elected again would be the end of the United States as we know it.
“The rhetoric around him over the last few weeks that if he wins an election, our country will end, our democracy will end, it’s the last election we’ll ever have. These things have consequences, okay? I don’t know what the motivations of the shooter are. I don’t know any of the details, but I know the rhetoric around Trump has grown extreme,” Jennings began.
“We have people in this country who are dedicated to telling half the country that if Donald Trump wins an election, the country will end, the Constitution will go away, and so on and so forth,” Jennings stated. “What I want to hear from all elected officials is this kind of hyperbolic extremism has consequences, and it must end. Yes, we’re all shocked, and yes, political violence has no place. Where does it come from? It’s got to stop.”
CNN host Wolf Blitzer attempted to make a “both sides” argument and replied, “But we’re also hearing from Trump very, very strong statements of condemnation of Biden, the worst president, the most dangerous president, and all of that. He’s speaking very, very strongly against President Biden.”
Jennings fired back, “Who’s in the hospital?”
Blitzer maintained, “You say calm things down. I agree both sides should calm things.”
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