Tag: assassinations

7 Things We Know About The Man That Shot Trump

I am still in shock.  When I first learned that Donald Trump had been shot, I literally had difficulty processing the information.  I watched footage of the shooting over and over, and honestly I am still trying to put the pieces together.  The Secret Service is supposed to be far better at protecting our leaders than this.

If Trump had not shifted his head at the last moment, he would have almost certainly been killed.  Sadly, firefighter Corey Comperatore was not so fortunate.  He was killed by one of the bullets that the shooter fired.  Trump was hit in the ear, but we are being told that he is doing just fine.  But how long will it be before someone else tries again?

What we just witnessed is truly, truly horrible.  No matter how you plan to vote, we should all be united in denouncing political violence.

For years, many of our political leaders and many in the mainstream media have been using extremely inflammatory language to denounce Donald Trump, and this has caused emotions to run extremely high.

It was only a matter of time before all of that inflammatory language inspired someone to commit an act of great violence.

The following are 8 things that we know about the man that shot Trump…

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A Failure of Secret Service Security So Astounding the Conspiracy Theories Write Themselves

As everyone knows, Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for the 2024 Presidential election, was nearly assassinated yesterday at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Many people – including many of my readers – have predicted that something like this would happen for a very long time.

A 20-year-old sniper named Thomas Matthew Crooks fired as many as eight shots in Trump’s direction, nine minutes after he began speaking. Crooks was perched on the roof of a building just north of Trump’s podium, and he succeeded only in wounding the former President in his right ear; two other spectators were critically injured and another was killed. The Secret Service Counter Assault Team brought the attack to an end with a fatal shot to Crooks’s head (here is a graphic image of the aftermath). Trump, meanwhile, ducked to the ground while agents shielded him with their bodies. Half a minute later he stood up, demanded that his protectors allow him to get his shoes, and raised a defiant fist to the audience, shouting “Fight, fight, fight”.

Almost anything I say about these events will be superseded by media reporting within hours, so I’ll limit myself to three points:

1) The failed assassination represents a security failure by United States Secret Service that is so astounding, it will rightly inspire conspiracy theories for years to come. Kevin Rojek, who heads the Pittsburg field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acknowledged that it was “surprising” that Crooks was able to take so many shots unchallenged. And I can think of no reason why Trump’s detail should’ve drawn their security perimeter to exclude a prominent, elevated firing position a mere 130 metres away from Trump’s podium. Finally, there is the fact that Crooks and his rifle were visible to spectators for minutes before he opened fire; multiple rally attendees tried to alert police, fruitlessly. There is even a screen grab of drone footage circulating on social media, showing Crooks climbing onto the building.

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Veteran Whose Team Holds World Record for Long-Range Sniper Shots Claims Thomas Matthew Crooks May Have Had Inside Help

Dallas Alexander, a veteran sniper whose team holds the world record for the longest confirmed sniper kill, has suggested that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday night, may have had inside help.

Alexander, who spent 14 years in a sniper team for the Canadian military providing close protection for major world leaders including the Canadian Prime Minister, shared his views in an Instagram post.

“I’m a retired sniper so because I’ve been asked so many times here’s my opinion on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” he began, before delving into his analysis of the assassination attempt.

Having served in a tier one special operations unit called JTF2, Alexander is no stranger to high-stakes security scenarios. His experience includes providing security for VIPs in dangerous countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I spent just about 17 years in the military, 14 of which, just about 14 of which we’re at a tier one special operations unit called JTF2. Our sniper team has the world record for the longest confirmed sniper kill. A huge part of our job while I was there and while I was a sniper was doing close protection for VIPs up to and including the Prime Minister, when he would go to dangerous countries like Iraq or Afghanistan, we would be in charge of that security,” said Alexander.

This background gives him unique insights into the layout and security measures typically involved in protecting high-profile individuals such as former President Trump.

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Alleged Trump shooter spotted by law enforcement nearly 30 minutes before shots fired, sources say

 Channel 11 News uncovered dramatic new details Monday in the moments leading up to the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. According to multiple law enforcement sources, Thomas Crooks was spotted by law enforcement on a roof nearly 30 minutes before shots were fired that injured Trump, killed a former fire chief and injured two others in the crowd.

Channel 11′s Nicole Ford confirmed that Beaver County’s ESU team had eight members at the rally, including snipers and spotters. According to Ford’s sources, one of them noticed a suspicious man on a roof near the rally at 5:45 p.m., called it in and took a picture of the person. We have learned from our sources the person in that picture is Thomas Crooks. We’re told it’s not clear if Crooks had a gun with him at that point.

According to multiple sources, a law enforcement officer had also previously seen Crooks on the ground and called him in as a suspicious person with a picture prior to 5:45 p.m. Our sources tell us an officer checked the grounds for Crooks at that point, but did not see him where the first picture was taken.

26 minutes after the second picture of Crooks was taken by law enforcement and the information called in, shots were fired from the roof of the American Glass Research building. Seconds later, a Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed Crooks.

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Five unanswered questions over assassination attempt on Donald Trump including why was rooftop unsecured despite being identified as a security risk, how Matthew Crooks got on the roof and why it took so long for snipers to take him out

Questions surrounding how would-be political assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to get into a position just 100 feet from Donald Trump was speaking, take aim with a rifle and fire off at least eight shots, remain. 

Crooks, 20, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper moments after he opened fire at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The presumptive Republican nominee was wounded in the ear while supporter Corey Comperatore tragically lost his life.

In the aftermath of a seismic day in US politics, it now appears that it was sheer luck that Trump was not killed by Crooks’ gunfire which the ex-president’s ear and did not cause major injury. 

The Secret Service is coming in for the most scrutiny of their handling of the event. The building that Crooks’ fired from was identified as a security risk but the shooter was still able to establish a position and fire off multiple shots.  

New videos appear to confirm witnesses accounts that attendees at the rally notified law enforcement about Crooks’ presence after seeing him bear crawling and armed atop the building. 

After witnesses alerted cops when they saw Crooks bear crawling, an officer was hoisted by another officer on to the rooftop. 

Once there, Crooks trained his gun on the officer, forcing him to duck for cover. Moments later, shots rang out, terrifying the crowd. 

Trump was said to be in ‘great spirits’ on Sunday while telling the Washington Examiner that he has rewritten the speech he will deliver at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden spoke for about five minutes from the Oval Office and noted that the Republican National Convention was opening in Milwaukee on Monday, while he himself would be traveling the country to campaign for reelection.

He said passions would run high on both sides and that the stakes of the election were enormous.

But the president added, ‘it’s time to cool it down’ and noted not just the weekend attack on Trump but also the possibility of election-year violence on multiple fronts.

Here, the MailOnline looks at five of the key unanswered questions surrounding the first assassination attempt in 43 years and the security lapses around it.

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Feds question Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ parents, neighbors as they scramble to figure out motive

Federal agents are still searching for a motive on Monday — two days after Thomas Matthew Crooks shot and wounded former President Donald Trump in an assassination attempt.

Agents wearing shirts emblazoned with “Pittsburgh Bureau of Federal Investigation” have spent the morning speaking to the Crookses and their neighbors, brandishing their badges at the front door.

“They asked questions I didn’t really have answers to. I’m not really one to go around talking to my neighbors,” said Kelly Little, 38, who has lived across the street from the Crookses’ modest one-story brick house since 2018.

Law enforcement sources told The Post that investigators are waiting for details from Crooks’ phone and computer to help them determine why he fired on Trump at Saturday’s rally on Saturday.

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10 Burning Questions That Every American Should Be Asking About The Trump Shooting

The people that guard our leaders are supposed to be the most highly trained security personnel in the world.  So how could something like this have happened?  As I mentioned in a previous article, I have been trying to put the pieces together.  To me, it appears that we either just witnessed incompetence on an epic scale or something more insidious was going on out there.  The American people deserve answers, and hopefully we will get them.  But I think that one thing is clear.  I don’t see any possible way that the head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, can be allowed to keep her job.  There is no way that this shooting would have happened the way that it did if competent people were running the show.

I have been digging into what many of the experts have been saying about this incident, and there is so much that just doesn’t make sense.

So I have compiled a list of 10 burning questions that every American should be asking about the Trump shooting…

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Secret Service blames local police, says they were tasked with securing properties surrounding Trump’s Pa. rally

The Secret Service blamed local police for failing to secure the rooftop from which gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, insisting it was outside the perimeter the federal agency was tasked with protecting.

Instead, securing and patrolling the factory grounds of AGR International Inc. — located about 130 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking Saturday — was the responsibility of local Pennsylvania police, Secret Service representative Anthony Gugliemi said, according to the New York Times.

The Secret Service was only tasked with covering the grounds where Trump’s rally took place, with local police being recruited to assist with those efforts and secure the area outside the rally.

But neighbors living near Butler Farm Show Grounds told The Post they were never visited by any law enforcement agencies — local or federal — in the days before or during the rally.

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Secret Service faces serious questions about security footprint and rooftop access at Trump event

In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, there are widespread concerns and questions about how a sniper was able to obtain rooftop access roughly 150 meters from the former president’s position at the podium at an outdoor rally.

Sources have described the shooting as coming from the “three o’clock” position of Trump’s podium location, with shots coming from his right side. Seconds after gunfire rang out, Secret Service counter-assault snipers began shooting the suspect who was found on top of a roof.

Notably, the shooter’s location was outside the security perimeter, raising questions about both the size of the perimeter and efforts to sweep and secure the American Glass Research building, and how the shooter was able to obtain rooftop access.

President Joe Biden said Sunday he has directed US Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle “to review all security measures – all security measures – for the Republican National Convention.”

“I’ve directed an independent review of the national security at yesterday’s rally to assess exactly what happened. And I’ll share the results of that independent review with the American people,” Biden said.

Law enforcement sources say that part of the aftermath will include a review of whether the Secret Service had enough assets to protect Trump days ahead of officially becoming the Republican presidential nominee and whether procedures were followed to conduct security sweeps of the building that offered a vantage point for the alleged shooter.

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Major Media Outlets Refuse To Call Attack On Trump’s Life An Assassination Attempt

Following the leftist media’s initial pathetically biased reactions to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Sunday headlines continue to roll out with the same misleading propaganda.

While video, photo, and eyewitness accounts all point to the same conclusion — that this was an attempted assassination — several large corporate media outlets have peddled a joint narrative that characterizes the events at Saturday’s Pennsylvania rally as a “shooting” or an “attack” and not an assassination.

While it is true that shootings are frightening situations for anyone to experience, the choice to describe the events as a “shooting” or an “attack” compared to an “attempted assassination” is telling. Only four presidents have been assassinated, and, including Trump, three former or sitting presidents have been injured in assassination attempts. Any assassination of a president, attempted or fatal, is a nation-shaking event with potentially dire consequences, and the media’s tactic to minimize or breeze over the brutal assault on Trump’s life is purposeful.

The recent cover of Time Magazine included the instantly iconic picture of Trump pumping his fist in the air with the American flag flying behind him. The headline reads, “Attack on Trump” with no mention of an attempted assassination. Below the headline, it says, “Former president survives shooting with nation on edge.”

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