Corey Comperatore's widow sheds new light on final moments with her husband
"He was insanely excited. I was sleeping in, and he comes crawling on top of the bed like a little kid. He's like, 'Honey, we got to get up. We got to get there,'" Helen Comperatore said in the book, "Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland," written by Washington Examiner reporter Salena Zito. An excerpt from the book was published in the Washington Post on Sunday.
"When he got that look, well, he was hard to resist," Helen said.
Helen said her husband woke up for the rally just after 6 a.m. by jumping on the bed and was anxious about arriving late to the venue.
"Oh, not Corey, he wasn't tired at all — he was ready to go, he was already showered and fully dressed and ready to attend our first Trump rally," Helen told Zito.
Zito's book is based off of seven phone conversations she had with Trump the day following his near-death at the hands of an assassin in Butler, along with interviews with Helen and others.
At the rally, lone gunman Thomas Crooks, 20, opened fire on Trump, killing Corey and wounding two others in the crowd. The 50-year-old father of two died while using his body to shield his wife and daughter from the gunfire raining down on the crowd. Crooks' bullet grazed Trump's ear the moment after the now-President turned his head. Trump attributed his survival, in which a sniper had come within a fraction of an inch of taking his life, to divine providence.
"Why did I look away, Salena?... Divine intervention?... The hand of God… It was the hand of God," Trump told Zito.
"I've had people that were not religious become religious over that moment because they said it was a miracle," he said.
Trump returned to Butler in Oct. 2024 to pay tribute to the fallen fire chief. His boots and jacket were displayed onstage and "Ave Maria" was played.
"I just want to do right by Corey… It's hard, it's tough," Trump told Zito.
Helen, who last saw Trump at his March address before a joint session of Congress, said she was touched by Trump's tribute to her fallen husband, and said that the president had treated them as if they were his own family.
"The president did the most meaningful thing in that moment. I thought it was beautiful," she said.
"I just felt really comfortable with him. Just gave us a hug. And just like we were as family, he just really embraced us like we were a family. I mean, for a minute there, you forget you're talking to the President of the United States," she said.
Helen said she finds the strength to go on from her husband's memory and from the president's immediate reaction to getting shot, in which he rallied the crowd to "fight, fight, fight."
"He wants me to fight, to be strong, like the president said, 'fight, fight, fight,' we all need to be strong."
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