Mother Jones; Zuma
Within two weeks or more Since a gunman opened fire at Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, some details have emerged about the catastrophic security failure. The 20-year-old attacker, who injured the former president and three people in the crowd, killing one, was on authorities’ radar for more than 90 minutes before attacking. He evaded law enforcement officers at the rally site, eventually reaching an unsecured rooftop about 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. He fired at least eight rounds from an AR-15 before being killed by a Secret Service counter-shooter.
Major questions remain on the disaster as three federal investigations move forward. Meanwhile, Trump’s allies continue to attempt to politically exploit the assassination attempt, whether by spouting unfounded conspiracy theories about the Biden administration or attacking FBI leaders, such as Trump himself. long did.
Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana, a former Interior secretary under Trump, suggested Monday on Fox News that the security failure could be the result of some sort of government conspiracy. “We know there was incompetence” he said“but was this incompetence voluntary and conscious? Did you intentionally and knowingly put the President in a position by undermining security and allowing this to happen? Zinke offered no evidence, but speculated emphatically: “This brings the assassination attempt into the realm of a conspiracy – big difference between an attempt and a conspiracy.”
Appearing on Fox News on Sunday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blasted the FBI for its investigation into the shooting. Fox host Maria Bartiromo tricked him by insisting that FBI Director Christopher Wray ‘tried to sow doubt’ that Trump was shot when Wray testified before Congress last week that investigators were still determining whether the ex-president had been struck in the ear by a bullet or shrapnel. (The FBI soon clarified that it was either a bullet or a bullet fragment.)
“I think these agencies have lost the trust of the American people,” DeSantis replied. “Back to the Las Vegas shooter: we never learned anything about him. » (Hundreds of pages of FBI documents and a long investigation report on the case are publicly available.) He continued: “Now the FBI director is casting doubt on what we saw on live television, that President Trump was shot in the ear. These agencies do not respect the American people. They lack credibility.
Conspiracy theories, both from the right and the left, have spread since the horrific July 13 shootings. But while some Democratic voters have baselessly speculated that the violence was somehow staged to Trump’s benefit, few, if any, left-wing leaders went. (The closest was an aide to major Democratic donor Reid Hoffman who later apologized.)
However, many of Trump’s high-profile allies immediately began accusing Democrats — without any evidence — of orchestrating the shooting. They Understood Congressmen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike Collins of Georgia, as well as Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric. Bartiromo also welcomed Eric Trump when he asserted that Democrats would “stop at absolutely nothing” and that they intended to do so. have his father murdered: “I’ve said before on this show that I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried something even worse, hinting at exactly what happened, and I was right.” (And it was on former Fox host Megyn Kelly’s radio show, where Don Jr. said Trump’s political enemies were now “trying to kill him.” “)
At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which opened just two days after the shooting, various speakers used Trump’s brush with death to declare his survival and his candidacy simply a divine miracle. The expansive visual backdrop of Trump’s acceptance speech played on the theme of martyrdom, showcasing the iconic photo of Trump bloodied and defiant in the moments following the attack.
Threat assessment and law enforcement officials told me after the assassination attempt that partisan exploitation of the bloodshed would fuel political violence — already a serious concern before the election — by exacerbating political violence. “a very big plot point” for extremist groups.
On Monday, the FBI announced that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, began purchasing gun-related items and bomb-making materials more than a year before the attack. He took firearms training classes and did online research on mass shootings, assassination attempts and various potential targets. He planned carefully and “went to great lengths to conceal his activities,” said Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh.
According to THE Wall Street JournalFBI investigators interviewed more than 450 people, including dozens of Crooks’ colleagues, family members and former classmates. The FBI reiterated that it found no evidence indicating he was motivated by partisanship or political ideology. As I reported five days after the attack, barring an extraordinary revelation to come, Crooks is more likely to fit a different, darker motive. shared by many of his predecessors.
Top image: Clockwise from top: Donald Trump, Jr., Ron DeSantis, Ryan Zinke, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Eric Trump, Maria Bartiromo and Mike Collins. Credits: illustration from Mother Jones; James Manning/PA Wire/Zuma; Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/Zuma; Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Zuma (3); Pat A. Robinson/Zuma; Prensa International/Zuma