An open-air Shabbos afternoon Trump campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds in rural Pennsylvania, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh, was to be Donald Trump’s last campaign stop before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he was formally nominated as the GOP’s presidential candidate this week.
About six minutes into Trump’s speech to the large, enthusiastic crowd at the rally, it was cut short by gunfire from a sniper with a high-powered rifle shooting at the former president from the rooftop of an office building owned by a company known as American Glass Research, less than 150 yards away.
Providentially, Trump had just turned his head to his right, to point at an immigration chart displaying the number of illegal border crossings during his administration and Biden’s. By turning his head, Trump reduced the sniper’s target just enough to cause a bullet which was aimed for his brain to miss Trump’s skull by less than an inch, and hit his outer right ear instead, splattering blood on his forehead and cheek.
Trump winced, grabbed at his ear, and then ducked down out of the line of fire as three members of his Secret Service detail sprang into action to shield him with their bodies. They then rushed him off the podium to the safety of a nearby armored limousine as Trump was signaling to the crowd that he was all right by pumping his raised fist and shouting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Less than two minutes after the first shots were fired, Trump’s limousine was carrying him away from the rally site.
DRAMATIC PICTURES OF THE ATTACK
Along the way, an Associate Press photographer Evan Vucci caught the powerful image of a defiant Trump, face bloodied but fist raised, while surrounded by Secret Service agents and standing below a giant American flag. The picture appeared on the front pages of newspapers and web news sites around the country and the world, widely circulated on social media, and was instantly recognized as one of the most iconic images in modern American history, such as the classic black and white photo of the raising of the American flag by U.S. Marines on Mt. Suribachi, marking the conquest of Iwo Jima from the Japanese in 1945, towards the end of World War II.
New York Times photographer Doug Mills, who was also covering the rally and was close to Trump when the shooting started, captured another remarkable image that appears to show the faint vapor trail left by the bullet just after it punctured Trump’s right ear.
Initially, after the first shots were fired, the crowd was totally silent. Then, when they saw Trump go down, others followed suit seeking cover by crouching between the rows of folding chairs. Then the screaming began.
Meanwhile, one of four counter-sniper teams stationed by the Secret Service near the podium, opened fire, killing the shooter, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, about 42 miles from the site of the shooting.
HEROIC RALLY PARTICIPANT SHOT AND KILLED
But the would-be presidential assassin was able to get off 8 shots. They killed one of the Trump supporters in the audience, Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old volunteer fire chief, a father of two, and a longtime Trump supporter.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said, “Corey died a hero. Corey dove on his family to protect them [from the bullets] at this rally. Corey was the very best of us. May his memory be a blessing.”
Joseph Meyn, a 51-year-old doctor who was at the rally, said that he was about 10 yards away from Comperatore when he was hit. When he jumped over a barrier to come closer to see if he could help, he quickly realized that Comperatore was mortally wounded by the rifle bullet that had hit him in the head.
Dr. James Sweetland, a retired hospital emergency room physician said that when he heard that someone was shot, “I just went into muscle memory,” and started to apply CPR to Comperatore, but gave up after a few moments when he realized that the man had no pulse.
Two other members of the rally audience, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were also seriously wounded, but are expected to fully recover.
Dr. Meyn, who is an avid gun owner, immediately recognized the sound of gunfire. “I heard seven rapid-fire shots,” he told a Washington Post reporter. “It wasn’t fully automatic fire, but it was fast. I am a huge gun aficionado, so I know what it sounds like. … I knew we were under attack.” A second later, Meyn heard the counterfire from Secret Service snipers. “Rounds were going one way and then immediately rounds were going the other way,” he said.
INITIAL CROWD DISBELIEF FOLLOWED BY HORROR AND HYSTERIA
Rally attendees described feeling frozen in disbelief after hearing the first gunshots. Erin Autenreith, said, “my heart stopped when [Trump] went down. I really didn’t know if he was ever going to stand up again.”
Paul Kosko, a 63-year-old retired computer operations manager and an ardent Trump supporter recalled that “When I saw the blood on the side of the face, everybody in the crowd was like, ‘Oh my G-d, they got Trump. They were starting to cry. They fell down, and they were absolutely going hysterical.”
But Trump was not seriously injured. After his Secret Service detail got him into the SUV and rushed him to a nearby medical facility, he was examined and released after being treated for his wounded ear. At 8:42 p.m., less than 3 hours after being shot, Trump issued his first post-attack statement on Trump Social. He said that he was fine, and then said, “I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response.” He offered condolences to the Comperatore family and the two others who were wounded, noting that, “it is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country.”
Trump continued, “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. G-D BLESS AMERICA!”
TRUMP SAYS HE WAS SAVED BY G-D
The next day, Trump told the followers of his Truth Social account, “Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was G-d alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed. In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win. I truly love our Country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin. . .”
Trump also wrote, “Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and the Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.”
In the immediate wake of the shooting, both Republicans and Democrats, including Joe Biden, Liz Cheney, and Bernie Sanders, felt compelled to publicly denounce the violence and offer their best wishes and prayers for Trump’s recovery. However, Biden’s refusal in his initial statement to recognize the obvious, that the shooting was an attempted assassination, was another indication that, as president, he is somewhat out of touch with reality and not in full control of the situation.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the shooting “despicable.” North Dakota’s Republican Governor Doug Burgum said in a tweet on X, “We all know President Trump is stronger than his enemies, and today he showed it,” while sharing a photo of a bloodied Trump raising his fist after the shooting.
THE NEED TO “TURN THE RHETORIC DOWN”
While House Speaker Mike Johnson promised that Congress would investigate any lapses by the Secret Service in security at the Trump rally in Butler, that allowed the attack. He declared in an NBC News interview that, “in the meantime, we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down,” especially against Trump, who has “been so vilified and really persecuted by media, Hollywood elites, political figures, even the legal system.”
Johnson also noted Biden’s recent promise to his campaign donors to stop apologizing for himself and put Trump in a “bull’s eye,” but added that he knows that Biden “didn’t mean what is being implied there, but that kind of language on either side should be called out.”
The Republican House majority leader, Steve Scalise, who was shot during a congressional baseball game in 2017 by a supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders, noted that “For weeks, Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America.” Referring to that 2017 attack in which he was seriously injured, Scalise said, “Clearly, we’ve seen far-left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop.”
Ron Kaufman, a Republican National Committee delegate from Massachusetts, said in a text message, “There’s a feeling that the Democrats’ constant pounding on President Trump as ‘a threat to democracy’ leads to this.”
Pennsylvania’s Senator John Fetterman told Americans to “focus on the tragedy of what happened [at the Trump rally]” and avoid making it about politics. “And we just have to turn down … the temperature on this,” Fetterman said in a CNN interview.
FIRST POST-ATTACK INTERVIEW
In his first media interview following the assassination attempt, conducted in his Boeing 757 jet while flying him from his club in Bedminster, New Jersey to Milwaukee, Trump said, “By luck or by G-d, many people are saying it’s by G-d I’m still here.”
“I’m supposed to be dead, I’m not supposed to be here,” he said. “The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn [my head] but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount. . .
“If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [the skull] . . .
“I had to be at the exact right angle,” Trump said at another point in the interview, with the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin. “Because the [bullet] was [just] an eighth of an inch away. . .
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle.”
Trump said the same thing in a phone conversation a few hours after the shooting with his former White House doctor, now Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson, “That [border patrol immigration] chart that I was going over saved my life,” Jackson said Trump told him, “‘If I hadn’t pointed at that chart and turned my head to look at it, that bullet would have hit me right in the head.’”
Dr. Jackson then flew from Texas to Trump’s club in Bedminster, New Jersey to check on his former patient after his close brush with death and found the former president to be “determined” and “not the least bit flustered,” but very grateful to have escaped safely from the attempted assassination.
TRUMP ANTICIPATED THE JUDGMENT OF HISTORY
Trump also explained to reporter Byron York from the Washington Examiner why he was inspired to get up just after he was shot to reassure his supporters at the rally. “The energy coming from the people there at that moment, they just stood there. It’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK. And that America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong.”
In the interview conducted on his plane, Trump also explained why, after getting shot, he insisted on getting up and walking off the stage under his own power. “I said, I’ve got to walk out,” Trump continued. “I did not want to be carried out. I’ve seen people being carried out, and it’s not good. And I had no problem with walking.”
The former president praised the marksmanship of the Secret Service counter-snipers. “They took [the shooter] out with one shot right between the eyes,” Trump said as he pointed to the bridge of his nose.
“They did a fantastic job,” he added. “It’s surreal for all of us.”
Trump also commented on the famous photo of him raising his fist and saying “Fight” three times as Secret Service agents were trying to get him into the armored SUV.
“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” Trump said. “They’re right, and I didn’t die. Usually, you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
TRUMP ADOPTING A UNITY THEME
Trump told reporter Saleno Zito that the attempted assassination had convinced him to revise the “humdinger” of a speech attacking Biden he was planning to give to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week.
“Had [the attack] not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches.
“I had all prepared an extremely tough speech, really good, all about the corrupt, horrible administration,” he said, and then suddenly added: “But I threw it away.
“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now. It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance.”
And then he added, “But I don’t know if that’s possible. People are very divided.”
Trump also expressed his appreciation for the conciliatory phone call he received from President Biden just after he was shot, calling it “fine.” He said that Biden was “very nice,” and suggested, that it might lead to the campaign between them becoming more civil from now on.
A Biden White House official also characterized the Biden-Trump phone call as “good, short and respectful.”
TRUMP’S FAMILY WORRIES FROM AFAR
Trump was not accompanied by his wife and three eldest children to the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, who followed reports of the attempted assassination from afar. His wife, Milania, who was in the New York area at the time, issued a statement saying, “When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and [our son] Barron’s life, were on the brink of devastating change.” She would later rejoin her husband at his Bedminster club.
After speaking with his father by phone a few hours after the shooting, Donald Trump Jr. said, “He is in great spirits. He will never stop fighting to save America.”
Trump’s middle son, Eric posted on X, “This is the fighter America needs!”
Ivanka Trump, his older daughter, wrote that she believed her late mother was watching over her father during the assassination attempt.
ANTICIPATING THE POLITICAL IMPACT
The shock of the attempt on Trump’s life interrupted the momentum of the effort by Democrats to pressure Biden to end his campaign in the wake of his disastrous June 27 debate performance. They are concerned about the subsequent polls showing Trump extending his lead both in the popular vote, most of the traditional battleground states, and in states such as Virginia, Minnesota, and New Hampshire which Democrats have carried in recent presidential elections, but in which Trump is now competitive.
The assassination attempt is expected to make it much more difficult for Biden and his fellow Democrat candidates to continue pushing their main campaign theme, which depicts Trump as a would-be dictator and convicted felon (subject to appeal), and his so-called “MAGA” followers as violent racists who pose an insurrectionist threat to American democracy.
History suggests that Trump’s courageous reaction to the attempt on his life will earn him another boost in the polls against Biden, at least temporarily. For example, Ronald Reagan’s popularity, which had been flagging before the attempt on his life in March 1981, increased by 11 points in the days that followed.
Reagan’s ability to remain cool under fire, joking with his doctors shortly before he underwent surgery, and apologizing to his wife, telling her, “Honey, I forgot to duck,” reinforced the public’s impression that he was a strong leader, and Trump’s ability to bounce back so soon after being shot will do the same for him.
Trump’s insistence, immediately after being shot, to let his followers know that he was OK, may not have been a good move concerning his personal security, but he understood that the risk had to be taken because of the importance of that act of courage to his political image as a fearless leader.
ADDING TO BIDEN’S POLITICAL PROBLEMS
Meanwhile, following his debate meltdown, there could hardly be a worse moment for Biden to be compelled to jettison his main campaign strategy, the claim that Trump is a threat to American democracy. It will only serve to deepen Democrat concerns about Biden’s frailty and advanced age, and their fears that he is leading the party to disaster on Election Day in November.
Democrats had planned to run a week of political programming to counteract the impact of this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, but they felt compelled by the strong public reaction to the attempted assassination of Trump to shelve the initiative and suspend a $50 million ad blitz. Meanwhile, Congress has increased the federal grant for the Republican convention’s security from $60 million to $75 million.
The polls already suggest that Biden has a narrowing path to reelection against Trump, and his poor performance on Election Day could also jeopardize the Democrat party’s chances of holding on to its Senate majority, regaining control of the House, and setting up the possibility of a Trump restoration putting him and his Republicans in control of all three federal government centers of power in Washington.
In the wake of the assassination attempt, business and investment leaders like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman formally endorsed Trump for president. Musk also announced the formation of a new Trump-supporting Super PAC, along with several other wealthy Trump supporters. Musk is personally committing around $45 million a month to the America PAC in order to fund Republican “get out the vote campaigns” across the country. This cash injection will further add to Trump’s newly achieved financial advantage over Biden for the rest of the current presidential campaign.
BIDEN’S REACTION TO THE SHOOTING
Meanwhile, in brief remarks the day after the assassination attempt, President Biden called the assassination attempt “contrary to everything we stand for us as a nation.”
He said that he had demanded a national security review and promised to share its results with the American people. He also said he had directed the Secret Service to review its security arrangements for the Republican convention and pledged to provide Trump “every resource capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety.”
Later that evening, President Biden, in only the third such televised speech from the Oval Office of his presidency, spoke about the need to “lower the temperature in our politics” in order to eliminate attacks like the one that nearly killed Trump.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence ever, period, no exceptions,” Biden read from his teleprompter.
“We can’t allow this violence to be normalized. The political record in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down, and we all have a responsibility to do that. . .”
RESTORING DEBATE AND DISAGREEMENT WITHOUT VIOLENCE
“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It’s part of human nature, but politics must never be a literal battlefield or G-d forbid, a killing field. . .
“All of us now face a time of testing as the election approaches and the higher the stakes, the more fervent the passions become. . .
“We debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, and the vision for America. But in America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box. . . not with bullets. . .
“We must be an American democracy where arguments are made in good faith, an American democracy where the rule of law is respected. . .
“Here in America, everyone must be treated with dignity and respect and hate must have no safe harbor. Here in America, we need to get out of our silos where we only listen to those with whom we agree, where misinformation is rampant, and where foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape the outcomes consistent with their interests, not ours. . .
“We can do this. You know, from the beginning, our founders understood the power of passion and so they created a democracy that gave reason and balance a chance to prevail over brute force.
“That’s the America we must be, an American democracy where arguments are made in good faith, an American democracy where the rule of law is respected, an American democracy where decency, dignity, fair play, aren’t just quaint notions but living, breathing realities.”
BIDEN WASN’T PRACTICING WHAT HE PREACHED
But unfortunately, President Biden has not been practicing the restraint in partisan political rhetoric that he is now preaching. Instead, he has been at the forefront of promoting the Democrat and liberal rhetoric of rage. In 2022, Biden delivered a speech at historic Independence Hall in Philadelphia which depicted former president Trump and his followers as enemies of the American people. Biden has also warned that if Trump won this November, it could be America’s last democratic election.
Biden was also silent as liberal media commentators such as MSNBC news anchor Rachel Maddow warned that Trump was responsible for the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, whose recent decision establishing a limited presidential immunity will green-light Trump’s desire to institute “death squads.” Biden also did not object when the once respected liberal New Republic magazine published a cover story depicting Trump as a modern-day Hitler, complete with mustache, and Democrats routinely condemned him as a “fascist” and would-be “dictator” in league with dangerous right-wing “domestic terrorists.”
More explicitly, the Washington Free Beacon reported that at a campaign rally on June 28, the day after their debate, Biden told his followers: “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He is a threat to our freedom. He is a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat for everything America stands for.”
Last week, Biden said on a conference call with some of his major donors that, “I have one job and that’s to beat Donald Trump. We’re done talking about the [June 27] debate. It’s time to put Trump in the bull’s eye.” The violent implications of that colloquial phrase instantly became politically unacceptable in the wake of the attempt on Trump’s life, and Biden was harshly criticized by several prominent Republicans for using it. Similarly, in the same phone conversation, Biden described his new strategy to defeat Trump as “attack, attack, attack.”
As recently as last Friday, the day before the attempted assassination, Biden again defiantly declared that he would not step aside as a candidate for re-election in response to more calls for him to do so by Democrat donors, senior party leaders, and elected officials, and called Trump “a threat to this nation.” Biden referred to the remaining, politically inspired criminal charges against the former president, and Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol by his supporters.
Biden also tried to associate Trump with the conservative Project 2025 policy agenda developed, by the Heritage Foundation, which seeks to restore the central role of the American family, dismantle the administrative state, defend the nation’s borders, and secure “G-d-given individual rights to live freely.” In response to the criticism of Project 2025, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts recently conceded that “We are in the process of the second American revolution,” but promised that it “will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be.”
TRUMP VP CHOICE VANCE CONNECTS BIDEN’S RHETORIC TO THE ATTACK
Republicans are now blaming the overheated political rhetoric from Biden and other Democrats for inciting acts of political violence. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who was named by Trump as his vice-presidential running mate on Monday, wrote immediately after the shooting in Butler, “Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
The deadly attack on Trump was reminiscent of some of the darkest days in modern American political history. These include the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, by sniper Lee Harvey Oswald, firing from an upper floor of the Texas Book Depository at the passing presidential motorcade; the 1968 assassination of JFK’s younger brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, by Palestinian refugee Sirhan Sirhan in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen, just minutes after RFK had been declared the winner of the California Democrat presidential primary; and the 1981 assassination attempt by John Hinckley, Jr. in which President Ronald Reagan was seriously wounded as he was getting into his limousine in Washington, D.C.
The Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting also bore eerie similarities to the February 1933 assassination attempt in Miami, Florida, against President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, carried out by an unemployed bricklayer, Guiseppe Zangara. FDR escaped unharmed, but the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who was also riding in the president’s limousine, was fatally wounded.
SCRUTINIZING THE SECRET SERVICE FAILURE
While Trump survived the assassination attempt with only a minor wound, there was harsh criticism of the Secret Service for having failed to secure the rooftop used by the shooter, which posed a clear threat to anyone standing at the podium and should have been under constant security observation.
According to former Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, when a presidential campaign event is announced, the Secret Service is responsible for creating and executing a security plan, in close cooperation with local law enforcement agencies. According to Pierson, the Secret Service routinely considers any sniper vantage point within 1,000 yards of the target to be a threat.
The failure of the Secret Service to prevent the attack on Trump has raised significant concerns about the integrity and effectiveness of the agency and the erosion of its ability to carry out its core mission of providing protection for the president and leading presidential candidates.
Republican Congressman James Comer, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability said it would investigate the security arrangements at the Trump rally in Butler and ask Kimberly A. Cheatle, the Biden-appointed director of the Secret Service, to testify on July 22.
She will undoubtedly be asked to explain why the Secret Service plan did not include the sniper’s perch on the roof of an office building within 130 yards of the speaker’s podium, well within ordinary rifle range, in the event’s inner security perimeter, or at least arrange for its constant surveillance during the rally by law enforcement officers. She will also probably be asked why no helicopters or reconnaissance drones were deployed at the Trump rally in Butler to provide aerial surveillance, which would have alerted Secret Service agents on the scene to the presence of a person with a rifle on a nearby rooftop immediately.
As Secret Service director, Cheadle has also been criticized for prioritizing DEI initiatives and the hiring of more female Secret Service agents at the expense of the agency’s operational readiness and security priorities. More specifically, while Secret Service counter-snipers responded quickly once the firing started at the Trump rally in Butler, their delay in identifying and neutralizing the shooter resulted in the death of one innocent rally participant, and the wounding of two others, and nearly cost Trump his life.
Popular conservative commentator Don Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, has been vocal in accusing the agency of allowing partisan political considerations to take priority over its mission of protecting former presidents. He recently stated, “I want to repeat, and can absolutely confirm, the USSS Director Kim Cheatle has repeatedly turned down requests for a larger security footprint around President Trump, despite knowing the threat level is catastrophic.”
On Tuesday afternoon, CNN reported that U.S. Authorities had received information over the past couple weeks that Iran was plotting to assassinate Trump. Supposedly that led to increased security around Trump, something that any observer of the assassination attempt on Shabbos, can easily deny.
Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement on Sunday that the agency “added protective resources and capabilities to the former President’s security detail.”
Also on Tuesday, Secret Service Director Cheatle provided a bizarre explanation for why that roof with a direct line of sight to the president, was left exposed. She told ABC, “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.” It is a ridiculous response which aroused even more questions as people got the feeling that she was not being truthful.
OLD PROBLEMS WERE NEVER CORRECTED
Complaints about Secret Service are not new. The Secret Service has been criticized for years for inadequate training and discipline, and its response to potential insider threats. As indicated by its failure to prevent the attack on Trump, these internal issues and the agency’s politicization appear to have seriously compromised the Secret Service’s ability to perform its protective duties effectively.
Restoring the public’s confidence in the Secret Service requires a new commitment to integrity, professionalism, and non-partisanship. In addition, any allegations of cover-ups and politically motivated decisions must be thoroughly investigated, and those found responsible must be held accountable.
Republican Congressman Mark Green, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking questions about the shooting and demanding information about Trump’s Secret Service protection, including the report that the Secret Service rejected requests from the Trump campaign for additional security, and which a Secret Service spokesman said was “absolutely false.”
Additionally, in April, eight congressional Democrats, led by Bennie Thompson, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, proposed legislation named “DISGRACED,” that, if passed, would have automatically stripped Trump of his Secret Service protection immediately upon his controversial felony convictions in a New York court.
WARNINGS FROM TRUMP RALLY PARTICIPANTS WERE IGNORED
There were also troubling videos of the attack taken by members of the rally audience in the vicinity of the American Glass Research building. The videos show the shooter, carrying a rifle while moving from roof to roof to get into the shooting position, and their efforts to alert local police to his presence, but despite their warnings, there was no organized effort launched by law enforcement to prevent the shooter from opening fire.
One such member of the audience was Greg Smith, who told BBC reporter Gary O’Donoghue that while he and his friends were standing in a field listening to the start of Trump’s speech to the rally, “we noticed the guy bear-crawling army-style up the roof of the building. . . fifty feet away from us. . . We could clearly see him with a rifle.”
Smith and his friends tried to alert a Secret Service agent who eventually saw them pointing at the man on the roof. But according to Smith, the police “were running around on the ground. . . like they didn’t know what was going on.
“The next thing, I’m thinking to myself, why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage?” Smith said. “I’m standing there pointing at [the shooter] on the roof for two or three minutes [as] the Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. . .
“He was there for at least 3 to 4 minutes. . . The Secret Service was looking at us [the whole time] from the top of the barn. . . They used binoculars. . . And next thing you know, five shots rang out.”
Several other witnesses from the rally audience have also come forward to supply testimony or put videos on social media showing the presence of an armed man on a roof before the shooting started.
Rally attendants claimed that Cook was first seen about 30 minutes before the attack acting suspiciously in the general area of the magnetometers used to screen the audience members entering the rally site for weapons. Security people were alerted but did nothing.
SECRET SERVICE DENIES RESPONSIBILITY
According to a Secret Service spokesman, because the building from which the gunman fired was outside of the rally’s designated security perimeter, its security was the responsibility of state and local law enforcement officers. Local cops were alerted by members of the audience to the threat from the shooter carrying the rifle said they gave chase, but lost sight of him when he started climbing the roof.
According to an interview of Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe by a reporter from Pittsburgh TV channel KDKA, one of his deputies climbed up the side of the American Glass Research building to confront the shooter on the roof, but he was forced to duck for cover when he peered above the edge of the roof and the killer turned the gun on him. “The officer had [to use] both hands to get up onto the roof, [and] never made it because the shooter had turned towards the officer [with his gun.] Rightfully and smartly, the officer let go,” and fell to the ground, Sheriff Slupe said.
LINGERING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SHOOTER
Even though Crooks was killed at the scene of the attack, his identification as the shooter was delayed for several hours by the fact that no identifying documents were found on his body. Crooks was eventually identified by tracing the registration records of the AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle he used to its owner, who was Crook’s father, followed by a definitive DNA and biometrics match. Authorities also found crude explosive devices in Crooks’ car, which was parked near the Trump rally.
During his high school years, according to his fellow students, Crooks was a quiet loner who was frequently the target of bullying. He graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County two months ago, earning an associate degree in engineering science.
He lived with his parents and worked as a dietary aide at a nursing home less than a mile from his parents’ house. Dean Sierka, a Crooks family neighbor, who saw the boy at least once a week as he walked to work, told a reporter for USA Today, “You wouldn’t have expected this. The parents and the family are all really nice people. It’s crazy.”
Crooks had no prior police record or history of mental illness. He also did not leave behind much of a political or social media trail that would reveal by whom and how he was inspired to become an assassin, or what he thought killing Trump might accomplish that would be worth sacrificing his own life. That is why the FBI, at least initially, believes that Crooks had no accomplices and acted alone.
TRUMP’S NARROW ESCAPE IS A NEW OPPORTUNITY TO LEAD
A Wall Street Journal editorial called the assassination attempt, “a horrific moment for America that could have been much worse. But we can’t say it comes as a complete surprise. Political hostility and hateful rhetoric have been rising to a decibel level that far too often in the American past has led to violence and attempted murder. Some of us still remember 1968 all too well.
“It’s nothing short of miraculous that Mr. Trump avoided death by a literal inch. The former President can’t help but think that Providence played some role in sparing him, as Ronald Reagan is said to have thought after he was shot and survived in 1981.”
The editorial also noted that “The photo of Mr. Trump raising his fist as he was led off stage by the Secret Service with a bloody face was a show of personal fortitude that will echo through the campaign. No one doubts his willingness to fight, and his initial statements. . . were notable and encouraging shows of restraint and gratitude.
“His opportunity now is to present himself as someone who can rise above the attack on his life and unite the country. . .
“The near assassination of Donald Trump could be. . . a redemptive moment that leads to introspection and political debate that is fierce but not cast as Armageddon. . . This is a chance to pull [the country] out of a partisan death spiral. That is the leadership Americans are desperate to see.”
