>the guy in the hat doesn't even flinch
When a bullet whistled dangerously close to Donald Trump’s head last Saturday, Vince Fusca was there in the crowd, following the former president’s speech from the stands behind him. This past Monday, the day that Trump made a triumphant reappearance at the Republican National Convention with his left ear bandaged, Fusca was there again, wearing his unmistakable short-brimmed fedora and browsing the stands at the event, which runs through Thursday in Milwaukee.
“Seeing him from behind as he fell to the ground the way he did, I said to myself: ‘That’s it, they killed him,’ he told EL PAÍS while a couple of supporters of the Republican candidate waited to get their picture taken with him. They had also recognized him after watching footage of the assassination attempt, in images that have gone around the world around a billion times at this point.
Fusca could not answer the question of how he and those around him were able to remain calm in those moments, although he said that he was “willing to take action to neutralize the shooter,” a 20-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks whose motive is still a mystery to investigators. His plans, he added, were to travel directly to Milwaukee from the place where the rally was being held, a farm in Butler, Pennsylvania, near his own place of residence. But after the attack he changed his mind: it was better to spend Sunday at home, to “assimilate the trauma,” and drive to the convention the next day. “I couldn’t miss this in any way; I am a convinced Trump supporter from the beginning,” said Fusca, who gained some notoriety in 2022 as a failed Senate candidate for Pennsylvania.
https://english.elpais.com/usa/elections/2024-07-17/in-the-court-of-donald-trump-a-journey-into-the-bowels-of-the-republican-national-convention.html