Christopher A. Wray
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Butler, Pennsylvania
July 14, 2024

Director Wray's Remarks at Press Briefing on Butler, Pennsylvania, Assassination Attempt

Remarks as delivered

Thank you, Attorney General Garland.

What we witnessed yesterday was nothing short of an attack on democracy and our democratic process.

An attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate can only be described as absolutely despicable and will not be tolerated in this country.  

I want to start by offering my deepest condolences to all the victims of yesterday’s shooting and their families.

Our hearts go out to the family of the individual who was killed, the two others who were critically wounded, and, of course, former President Trump and his family.

I want to make sure they know—and the American people know—that the men and women of the FBI are working tirelessly to get to the bottom of what happened.

The shooter may be deceased, but the investigation is very much ongoing. And, because of that, we are limited in what we say at this point.

But, what I can say is that we have committed the full force of the FBI to this investigation:

  • Both criminal and national security resources
  • Tactical support
  • Evidence response teams to help process the crime scene
  • Victim services specialists
  • The FBI Lab and our Operational Technology Division to process the physical evidence recovered

We also continue to operate our FBI Tip Line and encourage anyone with information to reach out to us as soon as possible.

Both in our FBI field office in Pittsburgh and in our command post at FBI Headquarters, we continue to work closely with our federal, state, and local partners, as we did throughout the night last night to ensure there was no ongoing threat to former President Trump or to the people of Pennsylvania.

The American people can rest assured that we will leave no stone unturned as we work to get to the bottom of what happened yesterday.

Thank you again to all those who are hard at work on this investigation.

And, with that, I’ll go ahead and hand the floor over to FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.