In a fiery speech Tuesday night on Day Two of the GOP convention, Lara Trump—RNC Co-chair and wife to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s son Eric—described the awful moment her family witnessed the attempted assassination of her father-in-law on live TV.
There is nothing to prepare you for such a moment, she said:
“There’s no doubt that Saturday was one of the most frightening moments of my father-in-law’s life. Millimeters separated him from life and certain death,” she said. “And yet, it was in the midst of it all, as he was jostled off-stage by Secret Service that he knew how defining that moment would be for our country and he foisted his fist in the air.”
But it was watching the nightmare unfold with her two children that really brought it home for her:
Lara, the wife of Donald’s son Eric Trump, said despite numerous threats made against the family in the past, “none of that prepares you as a daughter-in-law to watch in real-time someone try to kill a person you love.”
“None of that prepares you as a mother to quickly reach for the remote and turn your young children away from the screen so that they’re not witness to something that scars the memory of their grandpa for the rest of their lives,” she said.
Lara Trump called the prayers and support the family has received since the shooting “overwhelming.”
She called her father-in-law “a lion” and “exactly what this country needs now.”
She spoke movingly about the profound effect it had on her and her family.
Our family has faced our fair share of death threats, mysterious powders sent to our homes. Tasteless and violent comments directed towards us on social media.
But none of that prepares you, as a daughter in law to watch in real time. Someone try to kill a person you love. None of that prepares you as a mother to quickly reach for the remote and turn your young children away from the screen so that they’re not witness to something that scars the memory of their grandpa for the rest of their lives.
The prayers and well-wishes we’ve received over the last 72 hours have been overwhelming, to say the least.
And my heart goes out to the family who lost a husband and a father because of this senseless act. All of you here tonight and watching at home mean the world to all of us in the Trump family.
If Donald Trump has shown us anything, it’s that when it feels impossible to keep going, those are the times we must keep going.
God bless the Trump family.
There were many excellent speeches on this Tuesday night, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio reminded us powerfully that although Donald Trump’s miraculous survival from Saturday’s assassination attempt was indeed a blessing, that doesn’t mean tragedy was averted. An American father and patriot was gunned down, as Rubio so movingly commemorated.
See: An Emotional Marco Rubio Delivers Profound Tribute to Dad Killed by Would-Be Trump Assassin
I remember way back when, in the days when I had toddlers, and 9/11 happened. As I dealt with my own shock, I also realized that letting my littluns see this travesty could be traumatizing to them, and I whisked them away from the TV. I can only imagine Lara Trump and her family’s reaction in the moment the shots rang out. I, for one, thought he might have been mortally wounded.
She also spoke about the Donald Trump that we don’t see, and how different he is from the caricature of the man the mainstream media portrays him to be. She was effective throughout, but to me, the most powerful part of her speech was when she spoke about the humanity of the situation—what it’s like to live through these moments. It’s easy to see many of these folks as movie characters, talking heads on our TV, but they’re real people with real emotions.
To watch the grandfather of your kids almost assassinated in real time must have been traumatizing indeed.
