CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane claims he had PTSD because Trump supporters wanted to ‘kill’ media after Butler, PA assassination attempt

On "The Chuck Toddcast" podcast, Macfarlane said that had Trump not jumped up triumphantly after getting shot in his right ear, the crowd would have murdered members of the media who were covering the rally, claiming that Trump supporters blamed the press for the assassination attempt and were looking to "kill" reporters.

"For those of us there, it was such a horror because you saw an emerging America. And it wasn't the shooting, Chuck. I got diagnosed with PTSD within 48 hours," MacFarlane said. "I got put on trauma leave. Not because, I think, of the shooting, but because you could—you saw it in the eyes, the reaction of the people. They were coming for us. If he didn't jump up with his fist, they were going to come kill us!"

MacFarlane said other members of the media who were present that day shared the same sentiment.

"Many of us on press row, as we talked about this on our text chains for weeks after, were quite confident we'd be dead if he didn't get back up," said MacFarlane, according to the Daily Caller. "There was a subset—not everybody—there's dozens of people in the crowd who started coming for us, saying, 'You did this. This is your fault. You caused this. You killed him.' And they're going to beat us with their hands."

"I mean, they were going to, they were going to kill us. And, respectively, the Secret Service had bigger issues than protecting us. When he jumped up triumphantly, it saved us," he continued. "But that's the thing. I can't eliminate from my mind's eye the look in their faces. That's what America is right now. It's not rational. It's an irrational thought to think the media shot somebody from atop a building."

On July 13, 2024, President Trump was shot in the left ear by now-deceased gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper. Crooks was killed after opening fire from the roof of a building roughly 400 feet from where Trump was delivering his presidential campaign speech. Corey Comperatore, a retired fire chief, was killed in the shooting while shielding his wife and daughter from the gunfire.