Republican Congressman Dan Meuser was one of many Pennsylvanians who went to Butler, PA, on July 13, the day that an assassin attempted to take the life of former President Donald Trump.
Meuser and Dave McCormick, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, happened to be standing in the front row of the rally near a group of men who go by the name “The MAGA Boyz” when the shots rang out, around 6:11 p.m. Secret Service piled on top of Trump, who narrowly escaped the assassination attempt.
In the frantic moments that followed the gunfire, the stunned crowd attempted to figure out where the shots were coming from and whether a shooter or shooters were actually among them. Rally-goer Devin Dashnaw said he turned to Meuser and urged the congressman to get behind him.
“These are the guys that are in D.C. fighting for us,” Dashnaw, who stands at a lofty six feet and eight inches and is a member of The MAGA Boyz, explained to The Daily Wire. “I told him to get behind me.”
“F*** that. Let’s fight,” the congressman told Dashnaw.
Dashnaw was impressed. Three months later, recalling the incident to The Daily Wire ahead of Trump’s October return to Butler, he said he would never forget the congressman’s words.
“I get goosebumps still to this day,” Dashnaw said.
In a Monday phone interview with The Daily Wire, Meuser explained that he thought they were still under fire when he spoke to Dashnaw.
“I thought there were shooters out there,” the congressman said. “We didn’t know that our secret service and our sniper killed the shooter until many minutes later. We had no idea. We thought we were hearing gunfire coming from the other side as well, and then we’re hearing ‘Medic! Medic!’ coming from the other side. So we really thought there was a crossfire.”
“I just had a sense of anger,” Meuser continued. “Truly, I just was angry. I wasn’t thinking safety, I mean, we’re standing there in white shirts, red hats, we looked like a target. And as it turned out, the bullets were flying, the FBI told us afterwards, 18 inches over our heads.”
Republican Pennsylvania Congressmen Dan Meuser and Guy Reschenthaler attend Saturday’s rally in Butler, PA.
Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Meuser, Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly, and candidate Dave McCormick attend Saturday’s rally in Butler.
Meuser is sure it was the third or fourth shot that hit Trump.
“I was able to spin and turn, and saw him grab his head and dive to the ground,” he explained. “After I saw him hit the deck, Dave and I both…we were about to leap over, the two of us. We looked at each other, we were heading over the rail to get to the president.”
Then they realized that the Secret Service was covering the president. At this point, Meuser said, it sounded like the gunfire had come from under the bleachers.
“I was peering underneath the bleachers and that’s when the guys, the MAGA Boyz, great guys, all Marines or former Marines and Army soldiers, they were like, ‘Get behind us.’”
Corey Comperatore, who was sitting a few rows above the congressmen, was tragically killed by the gunfire during this time. Meuser could hear someone calling for a medic for Comperatore.
“I made my way over to Corey, and the doctor was working on him…and this other guy was giving him mouth to mouth, so he had people around him,” the congressman shared.
“There was a lot of blood,” he stressed. “A lot of blood…”
Like many of the Trump supporters who attended the July rally, Meuser returned to Butler on Saturday for a massive rally in support of Trump and remembrance of Comperatore. When the clock struck 6:11 p.m., Trump called for a moment of silence as a bell tolled in Comperatore’s honor.
Trump then invited acclaimed tenor Christopher Macchio on stage for an emotional rendition of Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” during which time attendees could be seen wiping tears from their eyes.
And in a gesture of remembrance for the deceased father, the Trump campaign marked off the spot where he was shot, covering the chair with his firefighter uniform. Speakers repeatedly referenced Comperatore and his sacrifice throughout the rally, and the crowd prayed for him on a number of occasions.
“It was really quite an experience,” the congressman shared. “People were very happy, yet solemn, if you can be both at the same time. There wasn’t a lot of high-fiving and, you know, Trump rally-style stuff. Everybody was sort of orderly.”
Meuser himself had been worried about the thought of Trump returning to Butler.
“I didn’t think it was safe for him to go back to Butler, right before the election and everything,” he shared. “But he was determined to do it, and frankly, it turned out to be not just a good idea, but an unbelievably great idea.”
Dashnaw also returned to Butler on Saturday, where he and his fellow MAGA Boyz again sat behind Trump. In a phone interview ahead of the rally, he addressed whether he had any hesitations in returning to the scene of the shooting.
“That man stood there and took a bullet for us and stood up and told us to fight, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing,” Dashnaw told The Daily Wire last week. “If I could stand on stage right behind him, that’s where I would be.”
