The MAGA influencer who was a front-row witness to the July 13 attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, told RedState in an exclusive interview at the Republican National Convention why he released his own videos from the shooting at the rally.
“I knew I had it,” the influencer known as Brick Suit said. “I hadn’t looked at it since I shot it.”
The MAGA influencer said he always knew that there could be an attempt to take down the president.
“At some point, you realize this is always a possibility. I didn’t think I would witness it,” he said. “It just turned the page to that chapter where it’s an actuality. I know that the political forces that are arrayed against President Trump are widespread, varied, and some of them are unconventional and would do just about anything to avoid him becoming president again.”
“President Trump’s Butler PA rally, what I filmed from the front row immediately after the attempt on President Trump’s life,” he tweeted out. “Wasn’t ready to post this until today.”
President Trump’s Butler PA rally, what I filmed from the front row immediately after the attempt on President Trump’s life.
Wasn’t ready to post this until today. pic.twitter.com/9CUFwOvY1s— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) July 17, 2024
The video is harrowing for capturing the madness after the president was shot with the screams in the stands and the practiced choreography of the Secret Service agents exerting their bodies to shield Trump without any concern for their own lives.
Please check out my RedState interview with Brick Suit about his own experience at the Butler Trump rally less than 30 minutes after the shooting stopped:
Exclusive: Brick Suit Gives Front Row Account of Trump Shooting
Less than 20 minutes into Trump’s remarks from a stage set up in front of three bleachers at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds, Thomas Matthew Crooks is reported to have fired eight shots from his AR-15 military-style long gun.
One of the bullets pierced the president’s right ear, causing a gush of blood and for Trump to hit the deck—only for him to emerge with a pumping fist as Secret Service agents bundled him into his black SUV for the ride to the local hospital.
Brick Suit, who wears a suit and tie with a brick wall pattern, said he put it all aside until he saw that someone posted a video of Trump arriving at the hospital emergency room, he felt that it would be OK to share with people what he had.
“I didn’t want to go back and look at that yet,” said the veteran of roughly 40 Trump rallies. “I saw a clip that was taken by someone in a hospital emergency room as the president’s motorcade rolled up.”
The influencer, who Trump often namechecks at rallies and calls on stage, said the anguished voice heard at the hospital echoed what people were feeling at the rally.
“You could hear the concern in people’s voices when somebody had been told he’d been shot in the head, and they weren’t knowing what to expect and the relief when they saw him walking,” he said. “After I saw that clip, I figured to myself, OK, if I can handle that, I can look at my footage and see what I actually have on my camera.”
Brick Suit, who traveled to the convention from his California home, was not sure what his video added to his understanding of what happened, but it was better to have more information out there.
“I don’t think it reveals anything, any details that haven’t been seen,” he said. “It’s not particularly newsworthy because there are other cameras that covered the same material, but my vantage point is unique and then I was so close, it may be worth posting for that.”
When media outlets asked him for permission to use the video, he declined, and at one point, he X-posted: “Dear news services offering me money for this video, Kindly p*ss off.”
This X-post shows some of his exchange with CBS News journalist Finn Gomez:
Dear news services offering me money for this video,
Kindly piss off. pic.twitter.com/GCsVaV2ZEa— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) July 18, 2024
“I just wanted to get it out there because now the footage is out there, and I don’t have to worry about when I’m going to look at it,” Brick Suit said. “I think it’s a positive for me moving beyond that experience that I can actually deal with that now.”
A week later, posting his video does not bring him full closure, he said. “We’re getting there.”
Brick Suit said he is also struggling to understand how witnessing an attempt on Trump’s life changed his view of politics.
“I don’t think politics were never a game for me to begin with, although it may seem that I’m sort of comical about it—you can’t judge this brick by its cover.”
