Trump Supports Female Secret Service Agent Who Received Backlash After Assassination Attempt: 'She Wanted To Take A Bullet'
Donald Trump lauded the female Secret Service agent who "bravely" protected him during an assassination attempt despite criticism she was too petite to adequately defend the 6-foot-3 ex-president.
Trump, 78, spoke highly of the agent's actions during the July 13 incident while addressing a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday.
"There was great bravery displayed... Every one of them. There wasn't one that was slow," Trump told the audience. "There was a woman to my right shielding me. A beautiful person. She was shielding me with everything she could."
"She got criticized by the fake news because she wasn't tall enough," he continued. "She was criticized and she was so brave."
"She was shielding me with everything. She wanted to take a bullet," Trump added, prompting cheers from the crowd.
The female agent faced significant criticism online, including from tech billionaire Elon Musk, who said her height seemed inadequate to shield the former president.
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On July 15, Musk, 53, tweeted: "Having a small person as body cover for a large man is like an undersized Speedo at the beach - doesn't cover the subject."
"Could be a man or a woman, to be clear, just needs to be large enough to do the job," he continued.
Armed with an AR-style rifle, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, opened fire at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooting left one audience member, former fire chief Corey Comperator, dead and two others injured.
Crooks, who was a nursing home kitchen worker, was shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper.
He was 20.
