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Footage from the annual event showed Pearlman standing with a piece of paper behind the three VIPs, who were all seated at a table on an elevated stage at the Washington Hilton hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The timing of it was just so crazy because I was right in the midst of performing for the first lady, and for the president and for the press secretary\u2026 guessing the name \u2013 the press secretary is having a baby soon,” Pearlman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he was trying to guess how many letters were in the baby’s name, and as he ripped off a piece of paper and showed the name, he heard the gunshots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, he thought “there was about to be a bomb because of the way they [secret service agents] were all going towards one table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It didn’t feel like they were looking for a shooter. It felt like they were looking to stop something from happening.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pearlman said he then “went down very quickly”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was facing stage left. And just by chance they [agents] tackled him [Trump], right next to me facing stage right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And I’m turned to the left looking directly into his eyes – for ‘One Mississippi, Two Mississippi’ – pretty much thinking that I hope I’m not about to die.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pearlman said about “two seconds later” the agents got Trump out of the room, while he himself and two other people nearby eventually “crawled out” to safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump said he “wasn’t worried” during the ordeal. “I understand life. We live in a crazy world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked about his recollection of “going down” as he was led from the room by security agents, he recalled how he “started walking with them [the security team]. I turned, I started walking, and they said, ‘Please go down. Please go down on the floor.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So I went down and the first lady went down also.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A suspected gunman was arrested at the venue following the firing of gunshots, and was named by law enforcement officials as Cole Tomas Allen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police said the 31-year-old exchanged fire with security agents on the floor above the room where Trump had gathered with other attendees for the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After he was detained, Allen told officials he wanted to shoot officials in the Trump administration, two sources told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allen, from California, will be formally charged at a hearing in Washington later on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Oz Pearlman – a self-described “mentalist” performing mind tricks – told the BBC he was talking to Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,26,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bbc","category-donald-trump","category-trump"],"yoast_head":"\n