'Blaze News Tonight' RECAP: Implications of Trump’s near-assassination, JD Vance, and eerie parallels between Trump and Roosevelt

Last weekend, President Trump came within a literal inch of death during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The following Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed his classified documents case due to the unconstitutionality of Jack Smith's involvement. BlazeTV host of “Stu Does America” Stu Burguiere joins "Blaze News Tonight" to discuss the historic last few days for Donald Trump and what they could mean come November. Next, Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford and Blaze Media national correspondent Julio Rosas tune in from the RNC convention in Milwaukee to discuss President Trump's VP pick — Ohio Senator JD Vance — and the anti-Trump protests raging in the streets outside the convention. Next, the panel discusses the group of attendees at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally who witnessed the shooter mount the roof and who called for help but were ignored. Former intelligence analyst for the Department of Defense and chief researcher for Glenn Beck Jason Buttrill joins to break down the failure of the Secret Service to protect former President Donald Trump from danger. Lastly, BlazeTV host of "The Glenn Beck Program" and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck joins the show to discuss the parallels between the attempted assassination of Trump and that of President Theodore Roosevelt.

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Historic days for Donald Trump

At a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, former president Donald Trump was nearly assassinated when a shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire from a nearby rooftop, hitting Trump in the ear. Two days later, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Trump’s classified documents case, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed.

“This is probably one of the craziest sequences of events that I've ever seen in politics,” says BlazeTV’s Stu Burguiere.

“To just have a bullet go through your ear, you're an inch away from dying, to have the presence of mind to stand up there and raise your fist and show America that … not only did this not hurt you, but we're going to keep going is one of the most incredible moments — the most bada** moment — I've ever seen,” he tells Jill.

According to Stu, Trump’s bold display of courage will likely result in “a bump” for him, meaning that people who have never considered voting for him before may find themselves “crossing that line for the first time because there is something really, truly American” about “the way [Trump] reacted.”

Further, Stu suspects the mainstream media will soften toward Trump for a while and conveniently “forget about all the rhetoric” it’s been spreading about his similarity to Hitler.

“You call somebody Hitler over and over and over again, it's going to create an impression among some unstable people that the correct, moral thing to do is to take him out,” says Stu, suggesting that the media’s rhetoric is at least partially to blame for Trump’s almost-assassination.

Republicans unite at Milwaukee RNC Convention, anti-Trump protests rage on

According to Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford, currently attending the RNC convention in Milwaukee, the events that occurred over the weekend seem to be unifying the right.

“The Republicans were already set to walk into this week more unified than the Democratic Party by an absolute long shot, but the historic deadly attack and the attempted assassination that we watched on television on Saturday has even heightened that,” says Bedford, adding that the spectrum of Republicans coming together ranges from warmongering Nikki Haley to 50 Cent.

As for Trump’s VP pick — Ohio Senator JD Vance — Bedford alleges that the majority of convention attendees seem “thrilled with this decision,” but there are certain individuals, “some of the old Tea Party conservatives,” for example, who are not so thrilled.

“What choosing Vance says — a young senator, 39 [years old], in his first term, a rising star, telegenic, intelligent — is it allows the MAGA movement to know that there's some kind of future, a potential successor, after Trump's second term in office if he wins,” Bedford explains.

For all the unity among Republicans, however, there seems to be equal solidarity among Trump-haters. Footage shows mass anti-Trump protests in the streets of Milwaukee, where Trump-Hitler rhetoric has not waned at all.

Blaze Media national correspondent Julio Rosas tells Jill that in the press conference that followed the march on the RNC, protest leaders were “denouncing Trump,” likely realizing that his “popularity [is] rising in the aftermath” of the assassination attempt.

“One of the speakers did say that, generally speaking, she was against any assassination attempt on any politician, but then she caveated that by saying it's undeniable that Trump's rhetoric, policies, and actions has led to the legitimization of political violence by white nationalists,” Rosas reports.

Secret Service failure?

Police forces and Secret Service at the rally where President Trump was shot have come under intense scrutiny after a group of bystanders witnessed the armed shooter mount the roof but were ignored when they reported the threat.

Jill plays the footage of one witness recounting to the BBC’s Gary O'Donoghue that he “[pointed] at the guy crawling up the roof” to police and Secret Service and even told police that “there's guy on the roof with a rifle,” but nothing was done until after Crooks had already started firing.

He also asked: “Why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs?”

Former intelligence analyst for the Department of Defense and chief researcher for Glenn Beck Jason Buttrill calls the situation “ridiculous” and “chaotic.”

Jason, who’s “worked alongside Secret Service,” says that he “cannot fathom how this happened,” as Secret Service — especially when the protective operation involves a president — will “show up weeks in advance” to conduct a “site survey” for the purpose of developing a “multi-tiered security plan.”

Part of that security plan involves setting up “firing positions” that fall “outside the perimeter,” completely debunking the narrative of the Secret Service director who claimed that “they’re not responsible outside that perimeter.”

All considered, it seems highly unlikely that the roof from which the shooter fired was not considered a high-risk area by the Secret Service prior to the rally.

Parallels between Teddy Roosevelt & Donald Trump’s almost-assassinations

Glenn Beck, a lover of history, couldn’t help but notice several parallels between Donald Trump’s near-death experience and that of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.

When Roosevelt was shot, the bullet “didn't go into his lungs” but rather “lodged between two ribs because the speech and his glasses,” which he’d put into his front coat pocket, “caught that bullet,” says Glenn, adding that Roosevelt “went on to give the speech” despite his wound.

“The way Donald Trump handled the assassination attempt is almost identical to what Teddy Roosevelt did,” he tells Jill. “When Donald Trump got up and he said, ‘Wait, wait, wait,’ and then he looked at the crowd and held his fist up and he said ‘fight.’ I ... immediately thought of Theodore Roosevelt.”

Jill agrees, adding that Trump “never backs away from a fight,” which is also “what Teddy Roosevelt is known for.”

As for Trump’s decision to select JD Vance as his running mate, Glenn says, “I think it was a really good move.”

Vance, according to Glenn, has the potential to carry on Trump’s legacy and counteract the left’s narrative that Trump will refuse to leave office.

“You could interpret this as … Donald Trump saying, ‘I know I'm only going to be there four years,”’ says Glenn, meaning that Vance, if he runs for president in 2028, could actually accomplish much of what Trump set out to do — things that Trump knows are impossible to achieve in one term.