Donald Trump revealed how his loved ones reacted to the failed assassination attempt against him during a fundraiser in Beverley Hills on Friday night.
In footage exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, Trump said some of friend’s have had a religious awakening over the shockingly close attempt on his life – adding how one of his son’s made a wild golf analogy.
The former president revealed that he believes the shooting at his July campaign rally was god’s way of saying ‘we want you to help with our country’.
He added: ‘Some of my friends have become religious over this. My son said it was like dropping a one foot putt.
‘It would be the equivalent from that distance, and then [the shooter] was taken out by a sharpshooter.’
Footage obtained by DailyMail.com of the former president speaking at a fundraiser in Beverley Hills on Friday night
Trump said he believes the assassination attempt was god’s way of saying ‘we want you to help with our country’
The 78-year-old added: ‘I have to say this about the Secret Service they were very brave because I was down and they were all on top of me within seconds, they were in the line of fire.’
He also went on to mention the hospital he was taken to and its staff, saying they loved him.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired eight bullets which struck Trump’s ear and hit three rally attendees, one fatally, on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, at a rally.
Trump recovered from his wounds and appeared at the Republican National Convention two days later, while Crooks was gunned down at the scene.
Crooks had parked his vehicle near the rally site in Butler before he scaled the roof of a nearby industrial manufacturing building.
From his elevated vantage point, almost as close to the president as the secret service snipers there to protect him, Crooks had a clear and unimpaired line of fire and, armed with his father’s AR-15 rifle, he took his shot.
A chance turn of Trump’s head, not the swift response of those snipers, is what made the difference between a grazing glance of the bullet Crooks fired and a fatal shot.
Crooks was spotted wandering through merch stalls less than two hours before he wounded the ex-president
Trump, seen here being swarmed by Secret Service agents, recovered from his wounds and appeared at the Republican National Convention two days later
An internal investigation report by the Secret Service has since confirmed multiple catastrophic security breakdowns took place ahead of the shooting.
Officials called the entire operation to protect the former president ‘alarmingly slipshod’ and its communications system having ‘significant weaknesses’.
Much has already been revealed about the haphazard communication between local police but the investigation uncovered that the Secret Service had no access to real-time updates by local police.
When nearby authorities were contacted about a suspicious man showing up at the rally it was not heard on Secret Service Radio, which is used by the service instead of the Military-supported systems used to protect the president and vice president.
The counter-snipers who eventually took Crooks out were initially told to send photos via text message to just a single official with the Secret Service, meaning an all points bulletin could not have been sent out.
This lax activity despite the fact that the police had seen Crooks carrying a range finder and said he was behaving strangely.
Officials called the entire operation to protect the former president ‘alarmingly slipshod’ and its communications system having ‘significant weaknesses’
No one with the Secret Service was then able to hear about the authorities attempt to find Crooks after he was spotted when Trump started his speech and never secured the roof of the AGR building he used to fire away.
The investigation allegedly went beyond the shooting, however, with the revelation that Secret Service dragged its feet on increasing security for Trump during the campaign, despite an Iranian plot to kill American political candidates.
American leaders like Senator Richard Blumenthal, who is on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, have said that they expect a bombshell from the investigation’s findings.
‘I think the American people are going to be shocked, astonished, and appalled by what we will report to them about the failures by the Secret Service in this assassination attempt on the former president,’ he said Thursday.
Already, heads have begun to role within the organization after disgraced Director Kim Cheadle resigned following the shooting.
The Secret Service confirmed Assistant director of the Office of Protective Operations Mike Plati resigned ahead of the report’s release Friday, while senior executive John Buckley and a senior, unidentified Pittsburgh-based agent are set to retire.