BEAUMONT, Texas — Vanessa Broussard, a Southeast Texas Journalist, says she was only 30 yards away from the the podium when shots first rang out at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania Saturday evening.
Broussard said before, she always felt secure while covering political events .
"To know that someone went to that extreme to try to assassinate President Trump, and that I witnessed it first hand too. How do you prepare for it?" said Broussard.
After witnessing the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Broussard crawled to her microphone to inform viewers about what was happening.
"We got breaking news, we got breaking news coming in shots fired. Seems to be shots fired at the Trump Rally," Broussard broadcasted amidst the chaos.
Broussard said getting to the microphone was simply a reflex that was honed in her many years as a reporter.
"I didn't even think about it I just grabbed my phone to call my loved ones, and then grabbed then grabbed the mic to tell the people at home who were watching live this is what's going on, it was just a natural reaction to report," said Broussard.
Broussard has been covering Trump rallies for over two years now and says she always feels safe.
"The secret service and the law enforcement, they do such a wonderful job in keeping the crowd, the media, everyone safe. And that was the same case yesterday," said Broussard.
So she was shocked to hear gunshots at the rally on Saturday.
"All of a sudden I hear pop, pop, pop, pop, pop and everything just gets quite, and President Trump falls to the ground," Broussard said.
While taking cover she saw Secret Service swarm Trump.
"Secret service is on top of him, I'm hunkered down, and I never took my eyes off of him because I didn't know if he was hit," Broussard recalled.
Broussard says that those brief seconds felt like half an hour, until Trump stood back up.
"When he gave that fist pump the crowd stood up cheered, and all I could say was, 'thank God, thank God'. And it was just immediately after that nobody knew at the time, was there still going to be gunfire?" said Broussard.
Broussard explained her interpretation of the fist pumps.
"Is their going to be another assassination attempt? If so, what he's telling us to do if something happens to me I want you all to continue to fight." said Broussard.
Broussard believes that this shooting is the beginning of stricter security measures at the upcoming presidential campaign events.