Former President Donald Trump could have been killed on his rally stage last weekend, and it's a "national scandal" that the Secret Service or other officials have not yet been held accountable, Dr. Drew Pinsky said on Newsmax Saturday.
"Even if he hadn't moved [his head] as much as he did, his skull could have been fractured," Pinsky, the chief patient officer for the Wellness Company and host of "Ask Dr. Drew" on Rumble, told Newsmax's Lidia Curanaj, "There could have been bleeding under the skull or inside the brain."
And if Trump had kept his head facing forward, the bullet could have gone "right through his brain matter, essentially going the other direction, but essentially the same sort of injury that happened to President John F. Kennedy," Pinsky added.
But the actions and decisions of the Secret Service, including having women guarding Trump who were several inches shorter than he, must be evaluated, said Pinsky.
But in President Joe Biden's administration, "where there are no firings, it's pretty hard to hold somebody accountable when there's no accountability," said Pinsky. "To say, The buck stops with me, is not accountability. It's just describing where the buck stops, and then there are consequences."
He pointed out that when comparing the reaction to Trump's shooting to that of former President Ronald Reagan in 1981, it took less than a 10th of a second to whisk Reagan away.
"In the case of Mr. Trump, it went quite a bit differently," he said. "Now, the question is, Now that he is the candidate, will he have adequate or more supervision ? ... Someone did lose his life and another presidential candidate nearly did. This is a national scandal, and it should be taken accordingly."
Meanwhile, Pinsky acknowledged it's true, as Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN this weekend, that Trump's ear wound appeared superficial.
But still, an ear that is nearly severed from a scalp does not necessarily require a lot of stitches, but does require stabilization.
"When I'm working in an ER and when people are sent home after an ear wound, you're wrapping the wound or the gauze around the head," said Pinsky. "My bet is he asked for that not to be done so he could put the minimal-size bandage on there. That is the minimal size for somebody with a significant injury to the ear."
Trump's wound also had to remain covered to prevent infection, said Pinsky.
"If this thing doesn't heal, his actual pinna, then this part of the ear can dissolve if it gets infected, so it has to be covered," he added.
Trump also jumped up, pumped a fist and yelled "fight, fight, fight," and Pinsky said that is one of the former president's "strange characteristics," to keep moving forward.
The doctor added that Trump's actions assuaged the crowd's anxiety, but he does think the assassination attempt has changed him.
"We've all seen a changed man," he said. "We've all seen a changed family. Is that change just because of the circumstances, that everything has changed, or are they really psychologically changed by this near-death experience?"
Such experience can change people in one or two ways, he added.
"They can become more cautious, ro they can become more heedless," said Pinsky. "We'll have to see."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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