Trump shooting

A citizen describes his efforts to warn the police about the Trump shooter

Project 2025 Takedown - Ironically, Republicans, including Trump, want to butcher the same federal law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the ATF, that are investigating the assassination attempt against him.House Republicans are playing out their dangerous anti-accountability agenda, voting to cut funding for federal prosecutors, anti-terrorism agents, and other federal police.They voted to defund the FBI by $368 million, which will force the ouster of thousands of workers. The bill, in total, would eliminate nearly $1 billion in funding from the Department of Justice, and force huge reductions in federal prosecutors and other personnel who fight violent crime. This makes all of our communities less safe.Others have called to completely shut down the agencies.

Portland Press Herald -  The FBI named 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., as the suspected shooter in what it described as an assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday. The Secret Service said its agents “neutralized” the shooter, who is now dead. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” One spectator was killed, and two others were critically injured... Crooks was 20 years old and from Bethel Park, Pa. – about 40 miles south of Butler, the location of Saturday night’s Trump rally, the FBI said. A Thomas Crooks is named in a local media outlet’s list of graduates of Bethel Park High School in 2022 and as one of 20 students to have received a $500 prize for math and science from the school that year...

Reuters - State voter records show that Crooks was a registered Republican. The upcoming Nov. 5 election in which Trump is challenging President Joe Biden would have been the first time Crooks had been old enough to vote in a presidential race. When Crooks was 17, he made a $15 donation to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing. The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project, a national group that rallies Democrats to vote.

NY Times - An AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle was recovered by law enforcement at the scene of the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump at his rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday.The AR-15 rifle, billed as “America’s rifle” by the National Rifle Association, has been commonly used by mass shooters and is one of the most ubiquitous weapons in the United States.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA):    Joe Biden sent the orders. The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.

Axios -  Despite swift condemnation by Biden and other top Democrats, the assassination attempt will turbocharge the persecution narrative Trump has placed at the center of his campaign. "In the end, they're not coming after me. They're coming after you — and I'm just standing in their way," Trump told supporters after his first federal indictment last summer. The quote is the main headline on his campaign homepage and is plastered on a wall of Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum, the GOP convention's main hall.

Politico -  By sundown, and without concrete reporting about the deceased shooter’s identity, Republicans were openly faulting their political opponents for the incident.“We will not tolerate this attack from the left,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who was present at the rally. The accusation was as raw as it was remarkable. It evoked the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which many Democrats immediately ascribed to the right-wing hostilities the then-president confronted in Dallas.

In the always online and deeply polarized world of 2024, though, the claims came quick, no matter the lack of information about motive.  One of Trump’s potential running mates, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), said, “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist must be stopped at all costs,” adding: “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

NBC News -  Steve Nottingham, a former SWAT commander in Long Beach, California, called Saturday’s shooting “a fundamental security failure.” He has worked security details for visiting world leaders, including presidents, and now trains officers on how to respond to critical incidents. He pointed at likely breakdowns in the pre-event scouting and real-time monitoring of places a gunman could shoot from. “They were behind the curve, because they should have had those places covered ahead of time,” Nottingham said.

Jim Cavanaugh, a retired special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who has been on Secret Service details, said he was surprised that the shooter was able to occupy an elevated position within rifle range of the rally site. “Whenever I’ve been with them, every single high ground is taken by them or the local SWAT police,” Cavanaugh said. “There’s nobody allowed walking on rooftops. They command the high ground.” He said a high-powered rifle like an AR-15 can hit targets 200 yards away. Trump was about 148 yards from the rooftop where the shooter was found dead, NBC News found, based on an analysis of Google Earth images.  Cavanaugh added: “Having been on Secret Service details, it’s amazing to me that somebody was on an elevated position that they didn’t know about.”

Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens defended the Secret Service at a news conference after the shooting.“It is incredibly difficult to have a venue open to the public and to secure that against any possible threat against a very determined attacker,” Bivens said. “That’s a huge lift.”...

Last month, as the presidential campaign heated up, the Secret Service said it was increasing the size of the detail assigned to Trump. The protection was bulked up “to ensure the highest level of security for not only the event sites but the travel in between events,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said at the time.

NBC News -   The FBI said the shooter, who is dead, was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive was not clear...Pennsylvania voter records listed a Thomas Matthew Crooks with the same address and birth date as a registered Republican, though it was not clear from the records when that was put in place.

Guardian - Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when shots rang out at around 6.13pm ET. The former president was rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents and taken for a medical check-up. As agents tried to move Trump off the stage at the rally, he said: “Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes.” Agents can be heard telling the former president: “I got you. Hold on. Your head is bloody. We’ve got to move.” Trump replied: “Wait, wait.” He then pumped his fist, mouthed the words: “Fight, fight, fight.” And the crowd at the rally responded with cries of: “USA! USA! USA!”