Front Row Seat To a Dark Day

Texas Ag Commissioner Talks to the Record About Being Near Trump During Shooting 

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller stood 30 feet away from Donald Trump when a would-be assassin tried taking the former President’s life in Butler, Penn., on July 13.

Miller described the harrowing scene in an interview with the Fayette County Record last week.

“I was six feet from the red carpet where President Trump walked to the stage,” Miller said. “When he was facing the front of the podium, I was to his right.”

Miller was standing in the front row when the gunfire began.

“I heard the first pop and I thought, ‘I didn’t see any balloons around here. Where did that come from?’” Miller recalled. “Then I heard the second and third pop, and I said, ‘Oh, that’s gunfire.”

Miller said he scanned the crowd to look for someone with a gun, but he didn’t see anyone.

“I looked back to Trump, and he had the same puzzled face everyone else had,” Miller said. “He turned to my section, towards me, and just as he turned, he took a bullet in the ear. He went prone on the stage floor. The best I recall, three more shots rang out.”

In that moment, Miller said he remained standing scanning the crowd for the shooter.

“Everyone else is on the ground, crouching as low as they can, and I can’t find the gunman,” Miller said. “The shots were not very loud. I’m thinking it was a small caliber weapon, like a little .22 or something. I thought it wasn’t in the crowd, because the people in the crowd would have jumped him.

“Then I thought it was someone in the camera pit,” he added. “Maybe someone could have snuck a gun in with all that camera equipment. I was scanning all the journalists and photographers, and they’re all flat on the ground.”

Miller said he feared some of the bullets struck Trump in the body.

“I thought if he took three or four shots to the body, he may be dead,” he said. “About that time, he starts getting up. I said, ‘Good, he’s not dead.’ But I don’t know how bad he was hit. So he gets up, and from my angle, he’s got five or six of these agents hanging on him. He’s struggling, and he’s determined to go back to the mic. He’s going to finish this speech. He’s got blood running down the side of his head. And you can see it. He was like, ‘Na, they didn’t get me.’ I know him well enough to know his mannerisms. But he couldn’t overpower those agents. They weren’t letting him go back to the mic.”

That’s when Trump made the iconic fist pump and shouted “Fight” to the crowd as the agents escorted him off the stage.

Miller said he was close enough to hear Trump ask the agents for his shoes.

“Somehow his shoes got knocked off,” Miller said. “One of the agents kicked one off the stage as he went down. I guess he was afraid he’d trip over it. The other (shoe) was still on the stage long after he left.

“So they whisked him off and the crowd was chanting ‘USA! USA!’ over and over,” Miller added. “I was convinced they hadn’t gotten the shooter. I was within three or four feet of the agents on my side. They all had 9mm and .45 guns, you know, larger caliber. If one of those goes off within 30 feet of you, you’re going to hear it. They have a loud report. But that never happened. So I was like, ‘Where is this guy?’ You can’t let anybody leave. And nobody was leaving yet. We stayed there about 20 minutes.”

Miller credited the security personnel with keeping the crowd under control. Suddenly, though, Miller noticed Trump wasn’t the only one who was shot.

“But people behind me were yelling, ‘We need medical help! We need a medic!’” Miller said. “I was thinking, ‘What in the world?’ I looked behind me and a man had gotten shot in the head. He was dead. There was a lady behind me with a big chest wound. She was bleeding out. And I had just talked with Congressman Ronny Jackson’s nephew, and he took a bullet to the neck. But it wasn’t lifethreatening.

“My section was receiving the incoming fire,” Miller added later in the interview. “Ronny Jackson was just right behind me. Those other people were right behind me. I keep thinking about my reaction. I never ducked until one of the Secret Service told me to get down. He got down, so I said, ‘Well, maybe I ought to get down.’ But he wasn’t shooting at me. I thought, ‘I’m not the target. I’ve got to find the guy.’ I was determined to find the shooter. But I never did.”

Miller said he never looked up at the rooftop where the shooter was positioned.

“No, I never looked up at that rooftop,” Miller said. “I was convinced the shooter was right there with us. Of course, I was wrong, come to find out. The reason the shots weren’t loud is because they were coming from 130 or 150 yards away. They’re not going to be that loud. And I didn’t hear the return fire 30 seconds later when the snipers took him out. Those snipers had suppressors on their rifles, so I didn’t hear anything. In the moment, I thought I had a clear grasp of what was going on, but I was wrong.”

Miller had lots of questions for leadership and management of the U.S. Secret Service.

“One of those agents was only like 5’2”,” Miller said. “There was no way she could handle a big 6’2” man like Trump. Anybody with any cowboy logic can tell you that’s not the way to do it. I saw on TV this morning that it was 26 seconds before the Secret Service returned fire. He had half a minute. That’s more time than ever should have been allowed.”

Miller said he’s been following the news reports of people in the crowd pointing out the shooter to law enforcement on the scene well before the shooting.

“It’s very suspicious,” Miller said. “There’s lots of conspiracy theories.”

Miller was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last week for the Republican National Convention when he spoke with the Fayette County Record by telephone. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle came to the convention on Wednesday. Several national media outlets reported she was there to deliver a private briefing to Trump about the assassination attempt. Miller described the scene there when she walked through the convention arena and was surrounded by a group of Republican senators demanding answers.

“What did she expect?” Miller asked. “Apparently there was a conference call where the senators could ask questions. She took the Democrat questions but she didn’t take any Republican questions. Those senators were there, about four or five of them, and they just mobbed her. She had to leave. It was pretty rough.

“The Secret Service hasn’t had a press conference,” Miller said. “The Justice Department hasn’t had a press conference. TheAttorney General – no one – there’s been no one respond to it. They’re keeping it pretty quiet. They’re keeping it as quiet as they can. But I don’t think they’re going to be able to keep it quiet.”

The FBI identified 20-year-old Matthew Thomas Crooks as the man who allegedly shot at Trump during the rally.

Miller was at the rally in Pennsylvania as part of his “Gas and Groceries Truth Tour.” He launched the tour to highlight the rising cost of essentials for everyday Americans.

“About two and a half months ago, I was thinking, ‘They’re going to keep Donald Trump tied up in the courthouse or the jailhouse,’” Miller said. “They’re not going to let him campaign any more than they have to. So someone has got to get out there and take the message.

“I studied it, and in the swing states, if I can move one percent of the voters, which is not much, then Trump will win every one of those swing states,” he added. “That’s what matters to people - the cost of gas and groceries, utilities, they can’t afford to buy a home, they’re having to drive a 20-year-old car. No one is taking vacation. That’s what’s on the working man’s mind.”

Miller has been driving around Texas in a doubledecker tour bus wrapped in graphics showing the rising cost of gas and groceries over the last few years. He’s been stopping at courthouses and community events to talk with citizens about the economic problems they face. His stop in Butler, Penn., was his first outside of Texas.