'The chart that saved my life': Trump shares the immigration graphic during RNC speech
In his acceptance speech Thursday night, former President Donald Trump shared the chart he was trying to see right before his assassination attempt on Saturday at a Pennsylvania rally.
The presidential candidate said he would only talk about the incident once during his final speech of the Republican National Convention because "it’s too painful to tell." He explained that before the shooting he turned to his right so he could see a chart detailing his administration's impact on immigration at the southern border.
"Behind me, and to the right, was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership," Trump said. "The numbers were so amazing. In order to see the chart, I started to like this turn to my right. And was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I'm very lucky I didn't do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard, on my right ear. I said to myself, 'Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.'"
He added that if it wasn't for that chart the he would not have survived the gunman's bullet that grazed his right ear.
"The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved in my head at that very last instance, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark," Trump continued.
The gunman, identified Sunday by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by law enforcement officials moments after he opened fire. Crooks killed former fire chief Corey Comperatore and critically injured two other spectators who are recovering.
Ron Johnson said he showed Trump the immigration chart
In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said he initially showed a chart on illegal immigration to Trump on a plane ride to a rally in Green Bay.
Johnson said that Trump liked the chart, and his team took it, tweaked it and used it at the Saturday rally.
Later in his speech, Trump brought the chart itself on the screen behind him as he talked about immigration.
"Last time I put up that chart, I never really got to look at it," Trump said of the chart, to laughter.
Trump said he is very proud of the chart that saved his life
Trump said that he was not able to see the chart on Saturday but is proud to see it now.
"If you look at the arrow at the bottom, that's the lowest level one of the bottom heavy red arrow. That's the lowest level of illegal immigrants ever to come into our country," Trump said. "You can see on the chart that saved my life. That was the chart that saved my life."
During his speech, the former president also promised to close the southern border and finish the wall, which he specified "most of which I’ve already built.”
Under his administration 458 miles of barriers were added to the U.S.-Mexico border, with most of the construction occurring in areas with barriers already in place, according to U.S. News.
However, the southern border stretches' 1,933 miles long meaning the a current wall only accounts for a fraction of that expanse. USA TODAY’s interactive border wall map shows there are vast swaths of land on the border with no barrier of any sort.
Contributing: Brad Sylvester
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump shares the immigration chart he says saved him from shooting
