So I'm surfing the web and am shocked to see reports of shots fired at a Trump rally in the far western reaches of my state.
I wanted this to be fireworks or something instead of gunshots, because in this day and age, we don't need that kind of stuff. However the latest news reports are that the shooter is dead along with at least one audience member.
The potential assassin had stationed his sniper's nest on a rooftop outside the Trump rally. The conditions involved my be the reason Trump survived the shooting, with the shooter being downed by law enforcement.
No matter what you think about Donald Trump and his policies, a candidate should be defeated by ballots instead of bullets.
America went through a wave of political assassinations in the 1960s of left-wing politicians, and I don't want to see my country go through that again. Malcom X, JFK, Medgar Evers, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy, were all cut down for what they believed in.
As I've said before, I live in an area like a donut, with the hole representing our very liberal city and nearby suburbs surrounded by a vast ring of 'Trump Country' that fills most of our county. The city might be progressive, but once you enter the exurbs, its a whole nother story.
If something were to happen to Trump in the run-up to the election, I worry how his heavily-armed cohort might react.
Damn, this has me worried.
Can you imagine how MAGA would have reacted if Trump had been killed?
My state will be one of about six states that will decide the outcome of the presidential race, and it's looking like it will swing to Trump as things currently stand. He shocked everyone and won our state back in 2016, as many people aren't always truthful about who they're voting for.
So when I saw Clinton supposedly being six points ahead, it didn't jibe with the hard-core MAGA crowds that I saw attending his events, vs the polite applause of smaller and quieter crowds that greeted Clinton.
I have some friends that are MAGA, and this is not going to go over well with them. The latest reports say that Trump is fine, and the last thing America needs is to return to the political violence that I thought we'd grown out of.
Could a civil war happen here if something happened to him? I don't want to find out, and I hope to never see anything like that in this country that I love so much.
The BBC reports in the video below, that a witness saw the shooter climbing up to the roof of the building BEFORE he shot Trump:
Update: Shooter ID'd
The shooter was ID'd as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, PA. He is listed as a registered Republican, and made an ActBlue donation on the day that President Biden was inaugurated in 2021.
You can bet that the authorities will be going over all of his social media accounts and tracing anyone and anything that he was connected to. Online sleuths have already indentified the t-shirt that he was wearing when he was killed by Secret Service agents.
The company that sells this shirt is not going to want to be associated with this at all. But at the moment I write this, the shirt is still available for purchase online (after its exposure on social media, I wouildn't be surprised if they pulled it).
The FBI and Secret Service will be looking into anybody that had a significant connection to Thomas Matthew Crooks, and I wouldn't be surprised if their social media accounts aren't being wiped at this moment.
In the following video, you can see the perch where Crooks setup his shooting position, and hid himself behind an obstruction on the roof. This would have made it hard for agents on the ground to notice him before it was too late.
You can also see the ladder resting on a connecting hallway between buildings that he used to climb up to the roof. A witness saw him ascending that ladder, and reported it to law enforcement before the shooting started. There was a complete lapse in security planning that this rooftop was not secured, and someone will have to answer as to why.
Below, you can view a remarkable image taken by a member of the White House Press Corps, and actually see the bullet (circled), whizzing past Trump's ear:
The FBI has set up a special website where anyone can submit tips, videos or photos related to the shooting or has any information that might help the investigation:
The shooting may end up having the opposite effect intended, With images of a defiant Donald Trump saying "Fight! fight! fight!" Such an event will fire up MAGA voters even more, while eliciting sympathy for him among undecided voters.
Lets get through the conventions, and then head to the ballot box in November to cast our vote. After all, that's the American way.
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