It wasn’t a shock, but a moment of déjà vu. A sequence of pops and cracks, a chilling moment of silence across the crowd of more than 15,000, and President Trump being rushed at by his security detail. Is this really happening?
As a field producer with one of the five major broadcast networks, you are occasionally assigned as the “network pool” responsible to be the eyes and ears at a major event of interest, directing a small team with the goal of providing editorial independence to the press corps. Frankly, it’s a mundane job, a series of emails and messages of people coming and going and hoping that you are sent to a place with good internet. That was my role at Trump’s Butler rally on Saturday, July 13, and up until 6:11 p.m. it was uneventful.
In that 30 seconds after hearing the first sequence of gunshots, screams and cheering, I didn’t know much, but I did know that whatever was going on was life-changing.
I’ve covered conflicts and protests all over the world, from Jan. 6 to Ukraine to Israel. These assignments often put you in a place where you become out of control. I found that imagining myself in those situations and thinking about what I would do in that scenario cooled my nerves, planning your mindset ahead to stay in the moment.
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Instinctually, that mindset flipped back in. As I was still trying to process what was happening, somehow I remembered the story of Shelly Fielman, the cameraman who filmed the Reagan assassination. I turned to my cameraman and without hesitation called out, “Keep your eyes on Trump! Do not stop filming under any circumstance.” We had to capture the moment, no matter what would happen.
But it still wasn’t clear what exactly was happening. When the president was pulled from the ground and dragged away to his motorcade after punching his fist in the air, I realized I had to send some sort of wire report.
At that moment, many of us couldn’t believe what we had just seen. All indications pointed to some kind of attack. But we didn’t actually know that. Though placed in a riser situated just 100 feet away from the stage, we didn’t see any gunmen, couldn’t see if Trump was injured and heard barely anything besides screaming from the audience.
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Verify then report. Trust is built on accuracy. Analysis or guesses only cause more confusion. Your words are used to guide the editorial to the whole world. You represent the press corps, and the duty is to get it right. With virtually no internet, I called my boss and said the following:
FROM POOL PRODUCER JAMES LEVINSON:
Pool heard a series of loud explosions or loud bangs// USSS went and immediately covered President Trump//Pool heard residual bangs afterwards and crowd ducked for cover//Agents grabbed Trump, who was seen waving his fist in air, they left stage left to car and appear to have left the premises//Pool is efforting more information from campaign
The work continued — hours of calls, follow-ups and confirmations before being rushed away by the Secret Service.
To date, that video has been viewed, analyzed and reposted in every corner of the internet. It tells a story on its own, but it’s important to remember that it is only one part of the puzzle of what actually happened that day. In the hours after the incident, the theories, motives and speculations dominated the conversation.
In every conversation I’ve had about the assassination, the same three words come: “You witnessed history.” I think it’s also important to remember that for three families who came to the rally, that day will be remembered as one of the worst of their lives. I’m sure they wished it was just any ordinary day.
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I’ve learned in this job that history is often associated with tragedy. It’s a privilege to cover moments like this, and our duty is to make sure we can be as accurate as possible and treat our readers and viewers with respect. More information and rewrites and reviews will continue to come. I hope that my first draft of history met that moment.
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