Shots fired
Better to get a foreign take, so the BBC reports:
Secret Service agents have rushed former President Donald Trump off stage after what sounded like gunshots erupted at a rally in Pennsylvania. Footage showed him grimace and raise a hand to his right ear, before ducking as sharp cracks – apparently shots – broke out.
He was quickly swarmed by secret service agents and rushed off stage to a waiting vehicle. He raised a fist as he was bundled into the car. In a statement Trump’s campaign said he was “fine” and was being “checked out” at a local medical facility.
And now he’ll be able to make hay off it.
Trump’s Vice-President Mike Pence said he and his wife were praying for his former ally, adding that he urged “every American to join us”.
Pence’s former ally who tried to get him killed by the insurrectionists. “Hang Mike Pence,” he said.
Everything will get worse. We’re doomed.
Gunman dead; one spectator dead; two spectators critically injured; Trump took a bullet through his ear.
JFC
I am now seeing reports (apparently not yet confirmed) that Trump was actually injured by flying glass from a shattered teleprompter, not a bullet.
Oh fuck off. God didn’t protect the spectator who was killed, or the two who were injured.
Got to admit though, fabulous optics, visible blood, pumping fist, if Biden wasn’t toast before he is now:(
And of course now Trumps previous claims that the Dems are out to kill him (I think I read that he has implied that) are “confirmed”!
It’s more likely to be some contractor that Trump stiffed in the past than the Biden campaign.
Bernie bro-ish nutter, most likely, though I wouldn’t put it past them doing it to themselves (don’t really credit it though). I’m also assuming a pistol was involved due to the low number of casualties.
…and while damn near all the Dems would deplore the violence of this sort of thing inflicted on Trump you only have to consult Mr. Pelosi on how they’d treat Biden getting his ear nicked.
The US police have named the Trump shooting suspect as Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was shot dead by a US Secret Service sniper after firing at Trump.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1d31jeyzlo
So far, we don’t know what Crooks’ motivation was.
BBC Reporter Gary O’Donoghue was at the rally when it was fired upon. After the shooting, O’Donoghue heard a Trump supporter nearby say:
“They fired first. This is fucking war.”
https://x.com/nailheadparty/status/1812256871300161748#m
So things are going to get even worse now.
More violence is almost certain now.
Reichstag fire…
Indeed.
The shooter was a registered Republican, but had made a $15 donation to the Democrats. He belonged to a gun club.
In at least some aspects, this guy is one of them, not one of us. He only has a $15 connection with us.
This is beginning to look to me more like a Columbine situation instead of Dallas in 1963. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence of extreme ideology, and the only red flag that I’ve seen so far is a history of being bullied. The explosive materials found seem to point to a plan for general mayhem instead of a targeted assassination. I find it plausible that this young man was reaching the breaking point and had started collecting explosives when he heard the President was going to be nearby, at which point he switched to a brand new Plan B (having already had considerable practice with shooting and access to his father’s gun) and had the incredible luck (at least from his point of view) to put it into practice at an event where security had not anticipated the lines of fire from nearby buildings. That in turn may be due to the stands being custom built for the event, for the stands do not appear in the Google map satellite views of the location.
I had originally thought this might be a false flag operation, but I don’t think even Trump and his associates would be so ruthless as to carry out a plan that would end up in the death of a rally attendee. I had also considered the possibility that this was a Russian disruption tactic, but the shooter was too young and too far off the beaten path to make sense that he was cultivated as a Russian operative.