The whizzing noise could have been mistaken for fireworks, but Salena Zito owned a gun and knew the sound of one. Those were shots flying over her head in Donald Trump’s direction. Four of them.
Zito was in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 last year because she was a local journalist and Trump was her beat. She had chronicled his upset win in 2016, his loss in 2020, his political exile, his unlikely comeback.
Minutes earlier she had been backstage talking to the president about his re-election campaign, and he was upbeat. Now she was standing only four feet away from the biggest moment of his campaign, possibly his life.
As blood trickled down his cheek and Secret Service agents stormed the stage, Trump raised his fist in the air and shouted “USA!” Amid the chaos, Zito had been pinned to the ground by a security detail. Her shocked face and splayed-out legs, clad in her signature cowboy boots, were broadcast live on Fox News. Her daughter, a photographer, and son-in-law were all next to her, also on the ground.
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