Eric Trump calls failures that led to attempted assassination of his father “infuriating”

Former President Donald Trump’s second son, Eric Trump, spoke with “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell on Tuesday about his father’s recovery after an assassination attempt, security going forward and the future of the campaign.

After his father was officially nominated for a third time to be the Republican presidential candidate on Monday, Eric Trump said the former president was dealing with “the greatest earache in the history of earaches” after a bullet fired by a would-be assassin grazed Trump’s ear while he was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

“You see the picture, right? The famous New York Times picture now where you literally see the vapor trail of the bullet coming out of the backside of his ear. It’s hard to believe it could’ve been so much different. I can’t even imagine what that would’ve meant for this country,” Eric Trump said.

Eric Trump said the former president’s hearing is fine and that he is “in great spirits.”

Asked about the recent revelation that U.S. intelligence had also detected an Iranian plot against his father, Eric Trump did not seem surprised.

“We’ve been hearing this from Iran, including from the leaders directly,  for years at this point,” he said. Eric Trump cited the assassinations of Qassem Soleimani, the former leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds forces, and former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as reasons why Iran would want retribution against the former president.

Eric Trump didn’t provide any details about security changes since the assassination attempt, but he did praise the response by Secret Service agents who protected his father on stage Saturday. Still, he wants accountability for the failures that led to the shooting.

“The men and women on that stage in that moment are the greatest people in the world,” Eric Trump said. “I know many of them personally and they’re phenomenal, phenomenal individuals. And I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of it, but there’d better be real accountability. You can’t have ex-presidents taking bullets through the ear.”

He said the fact that snipers and rally attendees spotted the shooter as early as 26 minutes before the first shots were fired is “infuriating.”

“I grew up competing in the shooting sports. I know that world very, very well, and a rifle shot at 130 yards is like a four-inch punt, right? You don’t, you don’t miss it if you’re competent,” he said, adding, “I’m not an overly mushy person … but, you know, somebody was watching down on him because it could have gone very, very differently.”

Eric Trump said it was “hard to believe” the Secret Service would overlook a building as large as the one the gunman used to gain his vantage point. 

“A big building that size, 130 yards away from a podium, from an elevated position — you don’t need to be a security expert to realize that you might want to have somebody up there.”

In the interview, Eric Trump also expressed enthusiasm about his father’s vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance, of  Ohio. He said he was excited to see Vance take on Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming vice presidential debate, which will be hosted by CBS News.

“I think JD Vance will be putting a bag of popcorn in the microwave and, you know, he is ready to go,” Eric Trump said. “Believe me, he’s not gonna be backing away from that debate. That much I can tell you.”