Trump hints he has devastating blackmail on top Republican who voted down his signature bill despite 'life or death favor'
Trump made the bizarre comment onstage at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he addressed the first annual Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, organized by freshman Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick.
Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro was also on hand, but departed before Trump's mid-afternoon appearance.
The president wanted to credit the Pennsylvania U.S. House members who had voted for BBB, with McCormick whispering to him 'they all stayed in Washington,' as the House is in session.
'They're in Washington working on our next bill!' the president exclaimed. 'Good, they shouldn't be here, now I don't have to mention their names,' he laughed.
The president then noted how 'we only had two negative votes.'
'I didn't invite those two guys to anything,' he continued. 'We had a guy named "Rand Paul Jr." He's known as "Rand Paul Jr." in the House,' Trump said, a nickname he's given to libertarian-leaning GOP Rep. Thomas Massie.
'And we had somebody else, I did him a big favor,' the president said. s
The only other no vote was Fitzpatrick, who Trump didn't name, but said he thought might come around and be a yes vote, despite being from a swing district where supporting the bill could endanger his chances of being reelected in 2026.
'And I said, "no he's going to vote," because I did him a very big, big favor, a very personal favor, as big as you can get - having to do with death and life,' Trump teased.
Trump didn't give any details about the favor beyond that.
Neither the White House nor Fitzpatrick's office responded to Daily Mail's requests for comment.
'"Don't worry about it," I said,' the president continued.
'Sure as hell he voted against us,' Trump said. 'And I said, "another great move by Trump." So much for favors.'
'Welcome to the world of politics, right David?' he told McCormick who was seated to his side at a large roundtable discussion that ended Tuesday's summit focused on artificial intelligence and energy policy.
During the president's appearance, he also credited himself with potentially saving McCormick from an assassin's bullet, as the then-GOP Senate nominee was in the audience at Trump's fateful Butler, Pennsylvania rally.
'I actually looked down to the right, before the - that thing - happened. And I said, "oh there's David McCormick he's running for the Senate. David come on up,"' Trump recalled. 'There were so many people, there was a little problem he had coming. I said, "just do it later."'
'And then about a minute later,' the president continued.
The president was shot at by Thomas Matthew Crooks, but a bullet just grazed his ear.
The anniversary of the assassination attempt happened on Sunday.
An audience member, volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed shielding members of his family.
'If you would have come up, I don't know what the hell would have happened right?' Trump said to McCormick. 'It worked out better this way, right?'
'I don't know if he'd be around,' Trump added. 'I want to take full credit for that.'
McCormick, who replaced Pennsylvania's longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, was sworn-in in January and brought together Trump administration members and tech and energy leaders for the Pittsburgh event.
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