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  5. The widow of the Trump supporter who died during the assassination attempt reportedly says she talked to Trump on Tuesday

The widow of the Trump supporter who died during the assassination attempt reportedly says she talked to Trump on Tuesday

Kelsey Vlamis   

The widow of the Trump supporter who died during the assassination attempt reportedly says she talked to Trump on Tuesday
Politics3 min read
  • Donald Trump appears to have called the wife of his supporter who was killed at Saturday’s rally.
  • The supporter, Corey Comperatore, was said to have died shielding his family during an assassination attempt on Trump.
  • In an interview published Monday, Helen Comperatore said Joe Biden had called her but Trump had not.
Former President Donald Trump appears to have called the widow of the man who was killed in the attempt to assassinate him.

Helen Comperatore said in a social-media post on Tuesday that she had talked to Trump earlier that day, according to The New York Times. On Monday, the New York Post published an interview in which she said President Joe Biden had called her but Trump had not.

Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief from Pennsylvania, was a supporter of Trump and attended the rally with his wife and daughters. His family said he was shot while shielding them from the gunfire.

In an interview with The New York Post that was published Monday at 4:44 p.m. ET, his wife, Helen Comperatore, said her husband was her "hero" and that the last thing he said to them was "get down!"

Helen Comperatore told the outlet that, at that point, she had not heard from Trump. The former president said he was shot during the rally; two others were shot and critically wounded.

Representatives for the Trump campaign, the White House, and the Biden campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. BI attempted to reach Helen Comperatore through email.

"He was very kind and said he would continue to call me in the days and weeks ahead," she said of Trump on social media, according to The Times. BI was unable to verify Comperatore’s comments; her Facebook profile was most recently set to private.

In his first statement after the shooting on Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured."

In another post on Sunday, Trump added, "Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed."

Trump's team has also shared a link to a GoFundMe that was "authorized" by the former president and is raising funds that will go towards the victims' families. The page had accrued more than $4.5 million in donations as of Monday evening.

On Sunday, Trump arrived in Milwaukee for the Republican National Committee convention, which kicked off on Monday. Trump was formally nominated as the GOP candidate for president and announced he had selected Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his vice presidential running mate.

Comperatore told the Post her family did receive a call from Biden but that she did not speak with him.

"I didn't talk to Biden. I didn't want to talk to him," she said. "My husband was a devout Republican, and he would not have wanted me to talk to him."

While some Republicans, including Vance, blamed Biden's rhetoric for the attempted assassination of Trump, the FBI has not identified a motive for the shooting.

Comperatore said she did not think Biden was responsible for her husband's death. She told the Post she planned to vote for Trump but was not very involved in politics.

"I don't have any ill-will towards Joe Biden," she said, adding, "He didn't do anything to my husband. A 20-year-old despicable kid did."

July 16, 2024: This story was updated to include reporting by The New York Times that Helen Comperatore said she had talked to Donald Trump on Tuesday and that Corey Comperatore's sister said the family had also spoken with representatives of the Trump campaign on Monday night.

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