BREAKING NEWS: Shots Fired at Donald Trump During Pennsylvania Rally — I Have Questions…
Saturday, July 13, 2024: A day that will go down in American history as the date that took us to what many believe was the very brink of a second civil war; an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. While standing on stage giving remarks at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, shots rang out in rapid succession. Donald Trump flinched and grabbed his right ear, then immediately ducked down below the bullet-proof barrier that is set up in front of the podium as a protective shield at every event. Secret Service personnel immediately dove on top of the President while more shots were fired.
The crowd was visibly confused, and there was clearly no consensus within the crowd about what to do. Some people dove to the ground, others crouched down with quizzical looks on their faces, while still others stood upright looking around, mouths agape, trying to process what was happening.
Was it fireworks? Was the sound system malfunctioning? Or was it what many of us who are familiar with the sound of gunshots immediately thought — an assassination attempt on Donald Trump?
Thankfully, after only a few moments of breathless waiting, Trump stood up with his Diversity-Equity-Inclusion security detail (more on that later), the top of his ear mangled and bloody, more blood strung across his right cheek, and while pumping his fist in the air, he mouthed “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT” to his supporters, reassuring them that he was okay and that he was still very much in the fight. That image will be burned into the American psyche for decades to come. The picture should and will win a Pulitzer Prize. It is fantastic!
As we learned in the ensuing hours, it was without question an attempt on Donald Trump’s life. Anyone paying even a little attention to the political discourse that has dominated the atmosphere over the last seven and a half years was simultaneously totally unsurprised, yet completely shocked. It’s been clear to the world that his opposition has wanted him out of the picture since the day his election was certified in 2017. They have tried every trick they have in their political playbook, and to their disappointment, none have landed a blow hard enough make him go away. He is, in fact, stronger than he’s ever been. That has to burn their chaps.
By now, I can’t imagine that there is a human being living on the planet that hasn’t been watching all of this unfold. The press narratives (being what they always are) are all over the map. The mainstream press is spinning their narrative, and the conservative press is spinning theirs. And most of us have already come to our own conclusions with regard to the narrative.
I have been reading the comments on X (formerly Twitter), and have seen comments ranging from, “This is all just a Trump hoax” to, “This is WAR!!!"
My intention here isn’t to try and sway anyone’s opinion about the narrative. People are going to believe what they want to believe. For the record, I believe it was clearly an assassination attempt, but the details of this have only seemed to become stranger and stranger as details come out.
My initial thought was that some crazed idiot, one who has been gorging themselves on a steady CNN & MSNBC diet of “Orange Man Bad, and Trump is Hitler; he will end voting forever and install himself as a dictator.” Somehow this useful idiot had smuggled a handgun into the event and took several shots at Trump. That seemed to make the most sense to me in the minutes and hours following the event. But as the evening faded into night, and more details started trickling in, it seemed like there were more questions cropping up than there were answers.
The shooter, as we learned, was NOT a crazed idiot inside of the event — he was a crazed idiot OUTSIDE of the event who had crawled onto the roof of a private business a mere 130 yards away from the event, and fired, not a handgun, but an AR-15 at the president. Now that was strange, I thought! The Secret Service had to have known about that spot and covered it. Surely!! No way someone could’ve pulled that off — NO WAY. How could someone have known they ever had a shot in hell of climbing into that position, that there wouldn’t be anyone there guarding it, and that they’d have ANY chance of pulling the trigger once, much less multiple times? How??
Then I started pulling up online maps of the fairground and started piecing together eyewitness testimony with what the scene looked like. Everything was hard to imagine with the limited views that we were shown by the news cameras. I also started seeing user-created maps on X, being put together with visuals, distances and other aids. Where the Secret Service snipers were positioned, where and what they were looking at, etc. What the AGR complex looks like and its orientation with the fairground. The actual building the shooter had climbed up on. What line-of-sight he had from that elevated position, and so on.
Then Sunday morning, I awoke to the fact that the authorities had released the name of the shooter: 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. Wait, what?
It was at this moment that I realized something was way, way off. A 20-year-old kid got this close to taking out an ex-president. By himself? At a presidential election rally? From an unguarded rooftop? 130 yards away from the podium? With a wide-open line of sight? Wait — did they really say he was 20 years old? No way! That cannot happen! I was livid. I have a 20-year-old son that I still have to tell to take out the garbage. This just cannot be real!
Then they start feeding us the details on Mr. Crooks. Strange, fantastical things! We’re told that he registered as a Republican when he was 18, as if that matters at all. The kid tried to kill the Republican nominee for President, it’s hard to make the case for him being a Republican. That he donated to the Progressive Turnout Project, a left-leaning turn-out-the-vote organization that benefits the Democratic party — you know, the sort of thing that all card-carrying Republicans do. He’s never written a SINGLE thing about what he thinks about the world on any social media site — ever. You know, the sort of thing(s) all gen-Z’rs do. Right. Where’s my sarcasm GIF?
So I sat down and started writing down all of these questions that I kept asking the television on my wall. All of the information that we are being given was saying something. Something certainly no one else was, at that point, bringing up…
I’ve Got Questions that Demand Answers
Why was a rooftop 130 yards away from the podium, with a line of sight to the podium, left unguarded?
How did a 20-year-old kid, by himself, figure out where/how to position himself with a perfect vantage point to take that shot? How did he know there wasn’t going to be an agent on that roof to greet his murderous butt? I don’t care who you are, the unknowns in this scenario would amply dissuade 99.9999999% of anyone who might imagine trying such a thing. But this outcast and bullied kid just figured it was so crazy, it just might work? The thought of it belies all logic and wonder.
How did he manage to get himself on that roof in the first place? Climbing onto the roof of a private company isn’t something one can typically just do without help from someone else. It’s not like companies install external ladder access on their buildings so anyone can gain access to the top of their buildings whenever they see fit. That’s a massive security risk for the company. So then — did he bring his own ladder? How would he have known to bring a 12’ ladder with him? Did he then carry that ladder AND his rifle across an open parking lot (completely unnoticed by all of those people), set up the ladder, and then climb up onto the roof, all by himself?? Only to be seen once he was army-crawling his way to his sniper perch? Does anyone know a 20-year-old kid with this level of skill and planning? I don’t even think that’s what happened, because supposedly 2 police officers were looking for a ladder, and one allegedly climbed up on the other’s shoulders to get a look at what he was doing up there. If that’s true, I have no idea how the kid got up there. I guess he flew.
**On a side note, I also have to say — I have 4 highly intelligent kids, all in their 20s. I don’t think all four of them could have executed this caper if they planned it for a month, much less my 20-year-old on his own.
Did the Secret Service even take note of this obvious elevated firing position in the days leading up to the event? No one looked over at that building and thought, “Huh — That would be a great sniper nest! Maybe we should secure that area!”
Why was there a Secret Service sniper already aiming his weapon at that roof in advance of the shooting, as if he was ready to return fire? This would seem to answer question 4. Was that the contingency plan for covering that spot? A 130 yard shot to cover a possible 130 yard shot? That would be really stupid!
Why, when witnesses alerted the police and Secret Service about a gunman army-crawling his way into position, did someone not think to immediately end the event and rush Trump out of there?
Is it true that, as reported, there were federal and local law enforcement officials physically inside of the very building Crooks was climbing on? Is it also true that this presence was the manner in which the Secret Service had chosen to “cover” these buildings?
Why did the Secret Service allow the gunman to take 3 shots before returning fire? That would’ve saved at least one life for sure.
Why is every single person on TV praising the Secret Service? This is clearly either a massive security failure or something else.
Bonus Question:
Why are there female hobbits on Trump’s Secret Service security detail? The protected should never be a foot and a half taller than their protector. I am not particularly afraid to say that women have no business on any battlefield or on any protection detail. I wouldn’t want a 5’-3” woman guarding me. I’m sorry! It’s not that I have a problem with strong women; I just question the existence of a woman that is strong enough to handle this kind of job. And based on the behavior of these women in the heat of the moment, my opinion appears to be founded in at least some truth.
I find it difficult to believe that the Secret Service was unaware of an obviously elevated shooting position 130 yards away from where they knew Trump would be standing. This could only be either the grossest of incompetence, or it was wholly deliberate. I just don’t buy incompetence. Honestly, neither option is acceptable to me, nor should it be to anyone! But, if it turns out to be incompetence — heads need to roll (figuratively speaking of course). And I mean multiple heads. If this is the level of competence the current leadership of the Secret Service is able to provide, if I were Joseph Biden (or any other person who relies on their protection), I would lock myself in the nearest basement and dead bolt the door. Every one of those people are at grave risk until the leadership of the USSS is fired and replaced.
Personally, I think they knew about that shooting position. I think it was supposed to be unguarded (call me unhinged if you will). Someone very high up knew it was there and that it would be a perfect spot for a sniper perch. Close enough for a novice shooter to have a GOOD chance of hitting his target, because none of the planners were stupid enough to cap Donald Trump themselves. I believe someone prepped Crooks, then allowed him the chance to get himself into position to “shoot his shot,” and the plan (which I’m sure they left out of his operational briefing), was for one of the counter snipers on that red-roof barn to take him out immediately after Trump was neutralized. Because — dead boys tell no tales. I just don’t think they anticipated anyone seeing the guy moving himself into position. They likely figured people would be looking toward Trump, not at back at those buildings. And why do I think he was a sacrificial lamb? Well — he is deader than Caesar. Now the official narrative, and every motivation going through Crooks’ head can be crafted by the FBI, and all of the barking seals in the media will gladly clap and bark the official narrative like the good little puppets they are.
It was a pretty good plan as D.E.I. plans go. Sometimes it’s hard to anticipate every scenario. Planning is hard. But that’s what they get for sending a kid to do a contract killer’s job. I know I sound cynical, but this has been hard to live through. I can’t help but deduce this was the plan. The only part that failed was that Trump turned his head, and by the grace of God, lived to fight on.
And at the end of the day, this galactic failure not only failed to take out Trump, but it also succeeded in killing a totally innocent man and wounding two others. The incompetence of this bungle exists on multiple levels.
We ardently pray for the families that have been affected by this horrible event, especially for the family of Corey Comperatore, the father who threw himself on top of his daughters to protect them and was shot in the head for his trouble. That, to me, is the biggest tragedy that came out of this. It was despicable that they tried to kill Donald Trump. That this man senselessly lost his life on a day that was supposed to be a safe and fun outing with his family — I can barely hold back the tears thinking about it. I was so happy to learn that he was a man of faith, and that he is most certainly waiting for his family in heaven. It still burns me to my core he had to die so a few selfish and evil politicians had a chance to clear their opposition from the game-board so they could more easily retain their grip on power.
To those who think I am a conspiracy theorist, please don’t forget one fact. The government has already shown its willingness to take out Trump in every other way imaginable… why would resorting to assassination be a bridge too far for these psychopaths? They want him gone. And they’re very clearly willing to pay ANY price to do it.
This won’t be their final move, either…