‘It Feels Like It’s 1968’: Eyewitness Tells CNN He Saw Trump, People Near Him on Bleachers Get Shot

CNN political reporter Alayna Treene interviewed a man who was sitting behind former President Donald Trump at the rally when the shooting happened, and he shared the harrowing details of what he witnessed.

Trump was speaking on stage at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when shots rang out and he grabbed his ear. He was surrounded by Secret Service and rushed off the stage, with what appeared to be blood on the side of his face, and then driven away.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesman, issued a statement, saying that the former president was “fine” and “being checked out at a local medical facility,” as well as offering thanks to those who gave assistance.

One rally attendee was killed and one was wounded and is in serious condition, and another was wounded as well, but most details are still unknown, according to the latest reports. The Secret Service has also confirmed that the shooter was shot and killed, and the incident is being investigated as an assassination attempt.

Treene spoke with a man named Joseph who was sitting behind Trump in the bleachers Saturday for the “harrowing moment.”

He described the sound as “confusing” and seeming “initially like firecrackers went off,” because it wasn’t clear where the sound was coming from, but then he knew it was gunshots. He said that a man to the right of him in the bleachers “took a gunshot wound to the head, and was killed” and another woman was wounded when she “got hit in the forearm and hand, it looked like.”

Treene asked Joseph how he was “feeling right now” after having “witnessed something terrible happen” and so much “chaos.”

“It’s something you don’t expect,” he replied. “It’s a bolt out of the blue, so it’s very shocking.”

“It was just massive confusion,” Joseph continued, adding that he “saw Donald Trump get hit,” it “looked like he got grazed in the right ear with a bullet.”

He saw the man who “died on the bleachers” and there was “just complete pandemonium” afterwards, and he heard more gunfire erupting. (Note: what Joseph is describing is most likely the Secret Service response, firing at the shooter.) He then helped carry the body of the man down behind the bleachers along with other rally goers and they took him to a tent and put a towel over his head.

This was Joseph’s first Trump rally and Treene asked if he would feel safe attending another one in the future. He characterized the shooting as a “very random event” and said he feels “safe generally” anywhere in the U.S., but the “problem” is that “everyone seems very angry.” He said he would go to a Trump rally again but he would “think twice” and “you definitely want to have your head on a swivel.”

He continued discussing how it “seems like there’s a lot of angry people out there” so “I’m not shocked this happened, I’m shocked that I was sitting there and it happened next to me.”

“It’s just horrible,” said Joseph. “We shouldn’t be at a level of public political discourse in this country where this is going on. It feels like it’s 1968 — it’s just, you know, horrible.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.