Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was rushed offstage unexpectedly Saturday evening after an incident during a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada.
A pair of Secret Service agents grabbed the nominee and hustled him off the stage as he was speaking. He was whisked away after an “unidentified individual” in the crowd shouted “gun,” according to a U.S. Secret Service statement released Saturday night. The Secret Service said no weapon was found at the scene.
A small scuffle occurred in the crowd after Trump left the stage, and a man was led away by law enforcement.
The protester identified himself as Austyn Crites from Reno in an interview with The Guardian. The man, who is a registered Republican, said he was holding a sign with the words “Republicans against Trump” on it before he was kicked, punched, and wrestled to the ground. Authorities released him after conducting a search and a background check.
Emerging shortly after the incident, Trump reassured the crowd, but he did not offer details as to the nature of the incident.
“Nobody said it was going to be easy for us but we will never be stopped. Never, ever,” Trump said.
“I want to thank the Secret Service, these guys are fantastic. They don’t get enough credit,” he added, before continuing his stump speech.
In a statement released by his campaign, Trump thanked Secret Service “for their fast and professional response.”
Though law enforcement said no weapon had been found at the scene, several figures associated with the Trump campaign seemed to suggest that there had been one. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and Dan Scavino Jr., the campaign’s social media director, both retweeted a post calling the incident an “assassination attempt” ― actions that caught the attention of reporters on Saturday evening.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violenceand is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
