Mary Trump said Sunday the assassination attempt on her uncle, Donald Trump, was a “terrible, terrible thing that happened.”
On an episode of her podcast, Mary Trump, an outspoken critic of her uncle, said it had been a “surreal 24 hours” since Saturday’s shooting at the former president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I did want to start with the very critically important disparity between responses in the wake of what was a horrific tragedy in Pennsylvania,” she said. “Because let’s remember, not only was this an assassination attempt, one person actually lost his life, and two others are critically injured.”
She criticized those who had pushed inflammatory messages casting blame in the aftermath of the attack. Law enforcement have not yet shared information on the motives of the shooter, who was a registered Republican.
Specifically, she called out Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a top contender to join Trump’s ticket, and extremist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Mary Trump contrasted those types of responses with President Joe Biden’s Sunday night address from the Oval Office, in which he condemned the attack and called on Americans to unify to “lower the temperature in our politics.” She noted that other high-ranking Democrats had offered similarly “measured” reactions.
“I think it’s fair to point that out, right? Because that’s part of our problem right now,” she said of the disparate responses.
In response to a listener’s question about what to expect from Donald Trump going forward, Mary Trump said, “I think that he’s pretty predictable, but I think that we need to wait to see what [the Republican National Convention] is going to be like.”
The former president is set to be formally nominated this week at the party convention, which begins Monday.
“Let’s keep our eyes peeled and our ears open, because that’s going to tell us a lot,” she said. “In my view, this is a choice and a potential opportunity, and we’ll just have to see.”
The gunman killed one rally attendee and wounded three others, including the former president, whose ear was bleeding as Secret Service rushed him from the stage.
The FBI has identified the shooter, who was fatally shot by Secret Service agents at the scene, as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
Watch Mary Trump’s hour-long episode below.