July 15, 2024 |
Photo – Trump with Secret Service after assassination attempt – Courtesy BBC website
Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Saturday evening.
The rooftop assassin, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, a leafy suburb south of Pittsburgh, was shot and killed by sharpshooters. The assassin had climbed to a position on a building top 330 yards outside the park where the rally was held.
After the initial shots rang out, President Trump grabbed his ear and dove behind the podium. Within two seconds, secret service agents dove on top of the former president to provide cover.
After agents received word that the rooftop shooter had been killed, they surrounded Trump and led him off the stage. Bleeding from above his right ear, the former president pumped his clenched fist and yelled “Fight! Fight! Fight!” The crowd responded, chanting, “USA! USA! USA!”
As Trump was seen being hustled into a waiting limousine, Several crowd attendees could be seen holding up their middle fingers in angry defiance at television news cameras.
Wyoming leaders were quick to respond in separate emails to the attempted assassination. Senator John Barrasso said, “Today, the nation witnessed a horrifying assassination attempt on President Trump. America is grateful to the quick action of the Secret Service and local law enforcement. I’m praying for the victims and their families. Donald Trump is a warrior and will not be intimidated by this cowardly attack.”
Senator Cynthia Lummis said she was “horrified,” adding that, “political violence has no place in this country”
Governor Mark Gordon responded, saying, “President Trump and the families of the victims of today’s shooting are in our prayers. This is truly a sad day for our Republic and should serve as a wake-up call for all Americans to express disagreement without resorting to violence.”
In Butler, Pennsylvania, residents who were attending a private party outside the venue at a local business expressed alarm that police and Secret Service did not respond to their eyewitness report of a shooter climbing to a perch on a building across from the presidential venue.
Eyewitness video in the moments before shots were fired show the assassin, laid out on the roof, taking aim from a perch 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. A few seconds after five shots rang out, Secret service marksman killed the shooter where he was perched.
The shooter was clearly visible. Media reports say some rally-goers, with apparently sharper eyes than the president’s security detail, captured video of the assassination attempt. Several noticed the gunman climb to his perch with a rifle three to four minutes prior to the shooting.
Secret Service Director Kimberely Cheatle was sworn into the office on September 17, 2022, by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
In a tweet Saturday night following the assassination attempt on Trump, Elon Musk mocked Cheatle saying that before being put in charge of protecting the president, Cheatle “was guarding bags of Cheetos.”
An apparent DEI hire by Biden Administration, Cheatle said in an interview last year with CBS that her goal is to increase female recruits to the Secret Service by 30%.
FBI officials said the shooter was identified using DNA because he was not carrying any identification. 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, according to Reuters. Crook was registered as a Republican.
In a statement Sunday morning on Truth Social, Trump said “God alone spared him.” One of the assassin’s bullets pierced the upper part of Trump’s right ear.
The shooter killed one spectator and “critically, injured” two others, according to the Secret Service. Minutes before the assassination attempt President Joe Biden’s social media account referred to Trump as a “dictator.” The post was still up Sunday morning.
In a post Sunday morning, Trump remained strong, saying, “We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness.”
