President Donald Trump was saved from death at the hands of a would-be assassin last summer in Butler, Pennsylvania, by an "absolute underscore of divine intervention," former Rep. Jack Kingston said on Newsmax Sunday.
"God could have moved the president slightly an inch one way or the other," the Georgia Republican, appearing on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend" with former Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., commented. "It was just incredible, the hand of God that was on there."
Further, the attack and Trump's reaction to it revealed Trump's character, said Kingston.
"When the chips are down, when all the facade is removed, you see the character of a human being," he said. "That's what we say when he raised his fist and said 'fight, fight, fight.' People did not know if he was dead or alive … it was just unbelievable."
Meanwhile, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, there was talk about toning down political rhetoric, but that hasn't happened "because we're dealing with total hypocrites here," King said.
"[They] always find some crazy way to justify it, to rationalize it," he added. "It's dangerous. It sets into motion what we saw at Butler last year."
King said he thinks 100 years from now, people will be referring to the Butler incident as a defining moment in politics and public life.
"You never know what you're going to do when the moment strikes, if you're off script, if something unexpected happens," said King. "Nothing could be more unexpected than having a bullet go through your ear and to know what to do, how to do it, how to respond to that, not to panic. That showed true leadership, which means that if an international crisis does come, that's the person you want in there in the situation room making those tough decisions."
The former congressmen also discussed the response to the deadly flooding in Texas, after criticism of how the emergency has been handled.
"You can always do an after-action report to see if anything can be improved, said King. "The fact is, this has been very, very well done. I believe those who could have been saved are being saved. The government is in there right away trying to rebuild, trying to trying to get this going in the right direction. It's a horrible tragedy, and the government is doing what it can."
Kingston added that the left-wing media made a "swing and a miss" by trying to blame the Trump administration cuts to the National Weather Service for the tragedy.
"It turns out later, in fact, they had enough staff," Kingston said. "They said that there wasn't a warning. In fact, it turns out there was a warning 12 hours [earlier], and then three hours, and then immediately when it happened. So the media is just trying to dig their teeth into something that Donald Trump does wrong. And in this case, without regard to the victims or their families."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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