‘An affront’: Delaware officials urge unity after assassination attempt at Trump rally

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Delaware officials are reacting to Saturday’s assassination attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump. He was holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when a 20-year-old white male with an AR-style rifle shot at him several times. Trump survived with only an ear wound. A rally attendee was killed and two others were injured.

Gov. John Carney posted a message on social media Saturday night, asking people to pray for him and all of the rally attendees.

“This kind of violence has no place in our politics,” he said on X, formerly Twitter. “It is completely unacceptable and an affront to our country’s values.”

Carney signed an assault weapons ban into law in 2022. Delaware State Sportsman Association sued the state and asked for a stay against the law going into effect. The district court and the Third Circuit Appeals Court have both denied the injunction, but more litigation lies ahead.

Legislative Hall staff and lawmakers have been debating for the past few months about the level of security needed at their place of work.

The state is in the beginning stages to build an addition to the current building, which would include a parking garage across the street, where there’s currently a parking lot.

The Legislative Building Committee voted in April to build a $2 million tunnel from the addition to Legislative Hall that only lawmakers and staff would have access to.

Democratic staff members and lawmakers on the committee voted for the tunnel, citing security concerns with how the current parking arrangements for legislators make them more vulnerable. Two women protesting the war in Gaza were arrested at Legislative Hall on June 30 while reportedly trying to speak with Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman.

A Senate spokesperson said the arrests were a pending court matter and they would have no further comment.

Senate Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn, a Republican, said the shooting at the rally made him more aware of the vitriol out there directed toward elected leaders.

“People have to realize there’s people on the other side of the issue that believe as passionately the other way, and that’s something that we have to respect here in this country,” he said. “Resorting to violence, resorting to an attempted assassination is absolutely not something that we should ever want to condone.”

Despite the assassination attempt Saturday against Trump, Pettyjohn said he doesn’t believe lawmakers need to be cut off from members of the public and the press. Pettyjohn is on the building committee and voted against the Legislative Hall tunnel.

“I don’t think that that’s something that we need to do in Delaware,” he said. “We’re always out there with our constituents, and to have a tunnel where we’re isolated from people, when we’re going in and out of the place, that we’re trying to do the work for the people, I think it sends the wrong message.”

It’s unclear whether the money for the tunnel was included in the Capital Improvements bill. House Speaker Valerie Longhurst said June 30 that money was put in for parking spaces, but the tunnel was “probably off the table.” It was still included in the engineering designs presented to the building committee June 14.

Other Delaware lawmakers said they are also worried about division throughout the nation. GOP Rep. Mike Smith wrote on his Facebook page, “We’re Americans. We’re all on the same team.”

“I’m very worried about our country,” he said in the online post. “But with every challenge comes an opportunity so my hope is we can use yesterday as an opportunity to self-correct our behavior and become a unified country again. If you’re a Republican, I hope you still root for our elected Democrats and visa versa. If they succeed, we all succeed.”