The speech below was from the Election Night gala held at Liberty University by Turning Point. They asked me to be a guest speaker to share my firsthand experience being at President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when there was an attempt to end his life. I sat around 12 rows from the podium, but a seat change saved my life. God has given me this story for a reason, and I want to give the glory back to him. I pray this story encourages you to be bold for sharing the gospel but to recognize the short life we live and how to steward it.
Hi everyone! Some of you may know me and some of you may not. My name is Shannon Sauders, and I am junior here at Liberty studying Strategic Communications with a minor in Apologetics. If you would have told me last semester I would be speaking at a Turning Point USA event at Liberty, I would have been excited because I actually love public speaking and Turning Point, but if you would have told me the event that is the reason I am standing before you all and giving this speech was one of the worst experiences I have ever went through, I would have been in disbelief.
On July 13th at Butler, Pennsylvania, me and my two friends, Olivia, and Kaylee, attended our first Trump rally. We woke up bright and early and wanted to be one of the first to get in line. We were about the first 150 people to get in line out of the thousands of people that attended the rally. We got in line at 8 AM when the gates opened and waited 4 hours before being checked in by the secret service. I remember vividly thinking to myself as I am walking through the metal detectors, “This is going to be the safest event I will be at because the Secret Service are here and have looked over everything.” From there we walked to our seats to where the rally was held. When we were picking our seats, there were more people in the area than were in line at the time, so we ended up sitting around 12 rows in front of the podium. In that timeframe of choosing our seats, we were debating about having a unique seat in the bleachers maybe to be on TV or to have a cool view from the side, but decided that it was getting too crowded, and we didn’t want to lose our current seats. It was one of the hottest days of the summer and we ended up waiting 10 hours to see Donald Trump. You can imagine how that ended for me as a redhead baking in the sun. Leading up to Trump speaking, the environment was incredible. People were excited, patriotic, and anticipating what was to come. We sat in front of the cameras and on some big news station livestreams, you can see me doing the YMCA before he takes the stage. It was around 6 PM when Trump took the stage. The crowd was roaring with excitement as everyone put their phone’s up in the air to take a photo or video of him. From there exactly 9 minutes was the last normal part of the rally. As Trump started to settle into talking about his policies, he brought out a chart about illegal immigration and displayed on the screens on the side. Trump compared the statistics of when he was in office to present day and the numbers really did speak volumes of how well he did when he was in office.
As he is speaking about the chart, I hear a gunshot to my left. I immediacy see Trump put his hand to the side of his face and go down. My mind within that split second ran a million miles per hour. From the crowds’ reaction in that split second, to him dropping, I knew I was witnessing an assassination attempt. The row I was sitting in fell like a domino and my friend, Olivia, fell on top of me. The gunshots continued as I heard intense screaming around me. I was convinced the shooter was in the audience because the gunshots sounded in close proximity to me. As my mind is racing there are two main thoughts in my head: The first was the realization that I am in a shooting and what if this is the day that I would die, and the second was what I said over and over until it was done which was “Jesus save me”. It crossed my mind if there was more than one shooter and that we were under attack. The shooting lasted close to minute but felt like an eternity on the ground. When the crowd was slowly rising, I peeked over the chairs to look at Trump to see if he was even alive. He was still on the ground, but the secret service was all around him while heavy armed men took the stage and came into the crowd. I thought he was gone for a second or two as the crowd held its breath. I see that the secret service is getting Trump up and I see he looks ok, but I see blood on him. I knew there was no way he was going to come back on stage after that. As they tried to escort him off, something happened that I will never forget. He turns to the audience and puts his fist in the air and says “Fight, fight, fight”. The crowd was already incredible, but the cheering in that moment was one of the most powerful reactions I have ever witnessed. There is a lot to be said about a person’s character in the moment of a trial or going in a fire, and Donald Trump got shot and was still passionate enough to let the world know that he was still not going to give up on the American people. As he is being escorted off the stage, it was like time stopped. Everything in my head got silent. I looked at my friends in absolute shock and everyone around me who was crying or shaking. I looked up in the stands and saw distress among the people sitting there. I remember thinking “I am in a movie right now; this can’t be real.” I ended up calling my parents on someone else’s phone because there was no service and none of my texts were going through at the absolute worst time. My parents recall the phone call feeling like 9/11 and were glued to the TV to see if I would even come home that night.
The seats that me and my friends were thinking about switching to as I said earlier, were the exact seats that someone got shot in. I don’t think me, or my friends would be here today if we changed our seats. I will not go into detail, but because I saw someone’s life end, my perspective on life has changed. I remember feeling extremely ill. Not at what I saw, but the evil behind it. As I walked back to the car unable to think straight through all the chaos and helicopters, I felt this peace indescribable that can only come from God that He wanted me to see that event, so I could be more on fire than ever about sharing the Gospel.
Life can end so quickly and so abruptly. Trump was a quarter of an inch away from meeting Jesus and for a few seconds, everyone there had the same possibility. We live in a sinful world where shootings, car accidents, natural disasters and more can take your life away in a second. One of the most important questions you can ask yourself is “do I know where I am going when I die?” You cannot earn your way to Heaven, nor do you get into Heaven by being a good person. You get to Heaven through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Because we live in a sinful world and mankind chose to disobey God, we are now eternally separated from God and our punishment is hell. We are all sinners in desperate need of a Savior, including Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. But there is hope that saves us from our eternal destination, and that is Jesus who is the Lord and Savior. Jesus paid our debt on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave. As John 3:16-17 states, “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” I hope the biggest point you can take away from this speech is that God’s love for you is so strong that he thought you were worth dying for. Let his love for you drive you towards Him. You may be sitting here and thinking I don’t know why God would want anything to do with me and want I have done. Well, get in line. It’s called grace and none of us deserve it. There is nothing too far gone for Him. He wants to meet you in your uttermost and pull you out because He loves you. Repent from your sins, flee from worldly desires, and follow Jesus. Romans 10:9 states, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord, ‘and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Put your faith and trust in Him today. Jesus has already won by conquering death, and He is coming back soon.
Because it is election night, I want to end with encouragement. It can be easy to feel like we have little control in the result of who is president and the scary times we are living in, but God already knows who is going to be elected and He remains the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus is still on the throne and will be forever. As Christians, our loyalty does not belong to a political party but to God. Until Jesus returns, it is our job to uphold righteousness for what aligns with God’s word, and that can be reflected by who we vote for. Both parties are flawed, but always choose the candidate who aligns the most with biblical principles. If you are for God, then do not vote for things that God is against. We will all go before Jesus and give a personal account of our lives to him.
In the meantime if we want to make America great again, share the Gospel more with others. Be bold about Jesus and not silent. Love those around you, even if they hate you. Pray for our leaders and country to turn to God. Read the Bible and pray. Do not live in fear, but live in freedom knowing Christ has overcome the world and there is nothing that is going to change that. As Jesus says in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
God bless you. God bless America and keep your eyes on Jesus and have no fear. Thank you!
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