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President Donald Trump will supposedly return once more to southwestern Pennsylvania—this time in order to attend the funeral service of fallen firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was fatally shot during the assassination attempt against the president last week during a campaign rally in rural Butler, Pennsylvania.
The New York Post, who first broke the report, claimed that President Trump is set to arrive for the service on Friday, just one day after accepting the 2024 Republican nomination for president in Milwaukee.
When asked if President Trump was making plans to attend the service, an unnamed source close to the president had reportedly told The Post, “Of course he is.”
Minutes after the president began speaking with supporters during the Butler rally on Saturday, gunshots rang out from a rooftop outside the venue.
The suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, skimmed President Trump’s ear—just “millimeters” away from hitting the president’s head. Secret Service agents then immediately rushed the stage and dove on top of the president.
As the shooting persisted, Comperatore, who was heroically shielding his family members from the gunfire, was tragically killed during the attack, while two others were critically injured.
After Crooks fired multiple gunshots, Secret Service promptly returned fire and killed him.
Three days after her husband’s death, Helen Comperatore wrote on Facebook that President Trump called her to express his sympathies, saying that he was “very kind.”
“He was very kind and said he would continue to call me in the days and weeks ahead,” she claimed. “I told him the same thing I told everyone else. He left this world a hero and God welcomed him in. He did not die in vain that day.”
Mrs. Comperatore further told The Post on Monday that she received a phone call from Joe Biden, but did not answer because she “didn’t want to talk to him.”
“I didn’t talk to Biden,” Mrs. Comperatore said. “My husband was a devout Republican and he would not have wanted me to talk to him.”
“I don’t have any ill-will towards Joe Biden,” she said. “I’m not one of those people that gets involved in politics. I support Trump, that’s who I’m voting for but I don’t have ill-will towards Biden.”
Comperatore was a former fire chief for the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company in Sarver, Pennsylvania.
A GoFundMe was set up on Sunday to support the Comperatore family. As of Wednesday afternoon, over $1.2 million had been raised.
A public viewing will take place on Thursday at Laube Hall in Freeport, followed by a private funeral service.