Columns, Criminal law, Media, Politics

The Attempted Assassination of Trump is Not Nearly as Surprising as it Should Be

Below is my Hill column on the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump. We all watched as the horrific scene unfolded on television. It was a traumatic moment for the entire country, but it was hardly surprising given this age of rage. We are still learning about the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He was able to use a roof top 130 yards away from the rally for the assassination attempt. He is being described as a registered Republican but donated to a Democratic political organization.

Here is the column:

The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump left a nation stunned. But the most shocking aspect was that it was not nearly as surprising as it should have been. For months, politicians, the press and pundits have escalated reckless rhetoric in this campaign on both sides. That includes claims that Trump was set to kill democracy, unleash “death squads” and make homosexuals and reporters “disappear.”

President Biden has stoked this rage rhetoric. In 2022, Biden held his controversial speech before Independence Hall where he denounced Trump supporters as enemies of the people. Biden recently referenced the speech and has embraced the claims that this could be our last democratic election.

I discuss this rage rhetoric in my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.” We are living through an age of rage. It is not our first, but it may be the most dangerous such period in our history.

Some of us have been objecting for years that this rage rhetoric is a dangerous political pitch for the nation. While most people reject the hyperbolic claims, others take it as true. They believe that homosexuals are going to be “disappeared” as claimed on ABC’s “The View” or that the Trump “death squads” are now green lighted by a conservative Supreme Court, as claimed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

Rage is addictive and contagious. It is also liberating. It allows people a sense of license to take actions that would ordinarily be viewed as repulsive.

As soon as Trump was elected, unhinged rage became the norm as with Kathy Griffin featuring herself holding the bloody severed head of Trump.

Just recently, another celebrity, actress Lea DeLaria, begged Biden to “blow [Trump] up” after the recent presidential immunity decision. DeLaria explained that “this is a **** war. This is a war now, and we are fighting for our **** country. And these a**holes are going to take it away. They’re going to take it away.”

For months, people have heard politicians and press call Trump “Hitler” and the GOP a Nazi movement. Some compared stopping Trump to stopping Hitler in 1933. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) declared Trump “is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy and he has to be eliminated.” He later apologized.

Others say that Trump “will destroy the world” unless he is stopped.

I do not believe that the politicians or pundits engaging in what my book calls “rage rhetoric” want actual violence. But they have knowingly created conditions for extremist views and, yes, extremist actions.

The media has been quick to denounce reckless rhetoric from the right while largely ignoring the same language on the left. That included threats against conservative Supreme Court justices before the assassination plot against Brett Kavanaugh.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) went to the steps of the Supreme Court and called out Kavanaugh by name: “I want to tell you, (Justice Neil) Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

Again, I do not believe that Schumer wanted Nicholas Roske to go to the home of Justice Kavanaugh to kill him. However, these politicians also know that some citizens will hear this rhetoric as a justification for violent conduct.

Thus, when the president is claiming that the election may end democracy in the nation, it can be heard as much as a license as a warning, particularly when he adds “we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”

We still do not know about the shooter in this assassination attempt. However, we know all too well how unhinged people can find justification in the incendiary rhetoric of our politics. This moment did not occur in a vacuum; it occurred in a time when our leaders long abandoned reason for rage.

We have come full circle to where we began as a Republic. In the 1800 election, Federalists and Jeffersonians engaged in similar rage rhetoric.

Federalists told citizens that, if Jefferson were elected, “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes.”

Jeffersonians warned that, if Adams were reelected, “chains, dungeons, transportation, and perhaps the gibbet” awaited citizens and they “would instantaneously be put to death.”

Both sides stoked the anger and fears of the public, and violence was seen across the nation.

In our current age of rage, politicians have sought to use the same anger and fear to rally support at any cost.

This is the cost.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster, June 18, 2024).

516 thoughts on “The Attempted Assassination of Trump is Not Nearly as Surprising as it Should Be”

  1. The Dems, including Biden and Obama, induced this with their rhetoric. Dem commentators like Kieth Olberman have publicly wished for Trump to be assassinated. They all have blood on their hands, including the blood of the bystander who was killed yesterday.

  2. Some discussion has gone sideways into speculating that this was a planned false flag operation, a CIA conspiracy, etc.

    I am going to have to see a whole bunch of unexplainable evidence to buy into that.

    However after being one of the military trained to do close protection overseas of dignitaries, foreign leaders, celebrities doing visits Afghanistan, Iran, and American facilities in adversarial nations, at this point I don’t see any acceptable explanation for how this could happen in America under the Secret Service’s watch. Were they short-staffed because they had agents attempting to do tasks like trying to get a gun shop owner to hand over a fraudulent form The Crackhead Kid used to buy a firearm. While other agents were doing similar tasks like demanding a computer store owner turn over copies of the Biden Bribery Laptop?

    I have heard justifications that the Secret Service was simply handicapped due to not enough staff to provide the protection they would like to give to everybody under their protection (not including JFK Jr. of course). I’ve heard that the counter-snipers may have been distracted. And I’ve heard “You’ve never done work like this, it’s complicated…”.

    Military close protection is not the same as the Secret Service, but the job is pretty much the same thing.

    Part of that package is that the most dangerous close protection threats are those directly in the presence of the person you are protecting i.e. when they are walking a rope line of spectators wanting to shake hands or take a picture. The further the distance from the subject, the less the threat i.e. the potential for a competent marksman to murder the subject from a thousand yards away.

    As a result, the majority of risk mitigation and elimination planning and assets go into the immediate area of the subject and increasingly diminish in focus the further away from the subject you get. At 130 yards, that is the immediate danger area for a subject – a half assed hunter with John Wayne’s Winchester Model 94 with far more killing power than the usual AR15 round could make a killing shot on the president with iron sights.

    With that in mind, I wonder how the Secret Service (and local law enforcement they partnered with) overlooked securing that rooftop and access to that rooftop. Rooftops in the immediate area would have an attached person borrowed from other forces in the area on the rooftop. At the very least, easy access to that rooftop would be temporarily removed or chained off. We designated one team member running a drone to do aerial overwatch of the areas within a few hundred yards of a static event like this – the Secret Service doesn’t have and use the same capability?

    I have no reason to believe a government, deep state, “Globalist”, false flag conspiracy theory at this point.

    But I do have tremendous suspicions about what looks like third world protection for a past president that is currently projected to win the election – the Soviet Democrats greatest fear of being a threat to the Soviet Democrat plan for the future of America.

    What rational justification can they offer for ignoring/overlooking the vulnerabilities that allowed this to happen?

    Same level for their justification of repeated events where Obama’s Attorney Generals and FBI Directors repeatedly perjured themselves to FISA courts to get spy warrants – with none being called out or now having felony convictions for perjury? Maybe a few minor members get fired?

    1. Like I was telling someone last night, there was NOT a resource problem if they were using police help, as they were. If I am not mistaken, it looked like police snipers shot the assassin anyway, not the Secret Service. Two more policemen could have easily been placed on that other rooftop. Particularly, if you had a defilade situation because of the roof slope.

      1. It makes absolutely no sense that a SS sniper was not physically on this roof.
        Aside from preventing an assassin access to the roof, Just as the assassin picked this roof as a perfect place to snipe at Trump,
        it is also a perfect place for an over watch sniper to protect the president.

        2. It makes sense. Trump is NOT the president. He’s a private citizen. His secret service detail is not the same as the president’s full force security bubble.

          He does not get the full comprehensive security a president gets.

          It didn’t help that Trump has been holding rallies in open forums more often because he’s too cheap to spend in indoor venues.

          The shooter wounds have gotten a lot of attention because of the nature of some Trump supporters to open carry and legally allowed to have weapons outside the security zone.

          Trump is against gun-free zones. Perhaps he will change his mind.

          1. No, Trump says he believes in confiscating guns first and asking questions later.

    2. First, thank you for serving our nation in the military.
      I mean absolutely no disrespect, but the evidence that this assassination attempt is a conspiracy is already out there for all to see. You pointed out one pretty solid piece of evidence yourself – a rooftop 130 yards away from President Trump wasn’t guarded, one of only a few rooftops anywhere nearby. This is an absolute absurdity. I have none of the experience you have, but I’ve done a little shooting, and failing to have that rooftop well-covered is so inexcusable as to be a lightning rod for those looking for conspiracy. Additionally, an amateur video is now available on a Revolver News article which clearly shows a secret service agent, located directly behind the podium where President Trump was standing, escorting certain individuals away from a specific location, and he himself crouching, immediately BEFORE the shooting started. And then there is the video of eye witnesses who alerted police and called attention to the shooter on the roof MINUTES before the shooting started. Oh yeah, and then there’s the little detail that the SS had a sniper on the rooftop closest Trump who’s job it was to spot such a threat – on the very few rooftops anywhere in sight! And by the way, that same sniper who managed to let the shooter get off enough shots to shoot DJT, kill one attendee and seriously injure others, made sure that the shooter didn’t live to talk.
      Add to that the well-documented requests of Trump’s SS detail’s repeated requests for additional manpower which were all rejected by the diversity hire SS director, who is under the direct control of the bald headed, glassy-eyed Cuban communist, and you would have to be brain dead to not be virtually convinced that this was orchestrated, most likely by the outfit who we all know has experience at killing presidents of this country and others.
      Kindest Regards,
      John Underwood
      Tyler, TX

      1. All circumstantial and liable to misconstruction; but it sure looks that way to me. And what does this sound like if not a signal?–Biden’s comment a few days ago: “So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” Not that Biden is smart enough to devise this himself these days but he says what they tell him to say.

    3. Another question or two…
      It needs explaining why security personnel seemed to not listen to warnings of a person (and possibly more than one person was trying to give a warning) with a rifle on a nearby roof. And the warnings were reportedly 2 to 3 minutes in duration. Giving the security personnel the benefit of doubt that they heeded the warnings and subsequently located the person with a rifle, then why on earth did they allow the shooter to shoot first? This sure stinks of something!
      It may not be evidence of a conspiracy but it certainly needs a thorough explanation.

    4. OAD ; I concur to a point. Bu tyou have to consider a few oddities. The current head of the USSS is a DEI adherent named Kimberly cheatle. She has pushed to make the USSS “more diverse” which is certainly at a cost of agent quality…. such things ALWAYS ARE ( detrimental) . Look how many female agents were working this rally for example. That this event was badly vetted by the USSS in every imaginable way it leads to be a complete failure due to incompetence , DEI poison and potentially intentional lethargy here. We can not discount the deep swamp from doing this as they did it to JFK & RFK . These two past politicians demise by the slight of govt hand is undeniable. The swamp is poised to be checked again by Trump and to think they would not pull out the stops is simply ludicrous. The veil of DEI failure is an easy scapegoat to cover this operation. I put nothing past our corrupted govt at this point and time.

    5. Outstanding comment. Now, throwing this out here. Biden’s comment a few days ago: “So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” Kinda sounds like a signal to me.

  3. Professor Turley’s accuracy about rage mob legal hate speech is badly diluted by his attempts at moral equivalency with “both sides are doing it”.

    Does Professor Turley believe that the majority of readers here won’t believe their lying eyes? The lying eyes telling them that the massive majority of the worst of free hate speech is coming from Soviet Democrat politicians, the Mainstream Media that are the propaganda arm of the Soviet Democrats, the entertainment industry, and their fellow travelers?

    There is no “both sides”, Professor Turley. There is a small amount coming from one side – the overwhelming majority we have been watching do this before Trump entered politics, while he was in office, and accelerating after he left office. Furthermore, it targets people who have nothing to do with Trump: right to life advocates, parents attempting to protect their children from gender blender rapists in their schools, etc.

    You devalue your reputation with these minimizations of rage mob speech, minimizing the malfeasance of your friend Merrick Garland, etc.

    1. You just proved Turkey’s point by calling them Soviet Democrats. While the rage rhetoric is worse on the left, Trump and Republicans have certainly added to the problem.

      Trump and the GOP started calling all Democrats socialists when Trump was in office. Trump has ramped up his rhetoric on migrants by conflating illegal with legal migrants.

      Trump coined the phrase migrant crime. Migrants are people who come to the US legally on visas or green cards. It’s illegal immigrants that have been causing a crime wave. As a first generation American whose parents and grandparents emigrated legally to the US I find this rhetoric repulsive.

      Trump claiming migrants are poisoning the US is disgusting. Trump’s invented story about Venezuela’s crime dropping 72% and the criminals coming to the US is patently false. Venezuela’s crime dropped 23% and it was because the citizens moved to Columbia, Ecuador and Bolivia. The crime that dropped was mostly non violent crimes like people stealing to survive. Trump say down for a 5 hour interview with a Time magazine reporter. The reporter asked where Trump got his Venezuela “fact” from and Trump just said he may have heard it somewhere.

      Trump’s incendiary rhetoric on Truth Social about Bragg, James, Smith, Chutkan, Merchan and Willis is abhorrent. They have all received credible threats and/or had their homes swatted. They all now have security.

      Trump’s false claims about Dominion VP Eric Coomer being at an Antifa meeting telling them he fixed the election caused MAGA crazies to find his home and phone number to send death threats to him and his family. The man had to quit his job and flee his home over this lie Trump tweeted. It’s why Coomer is suing Trump and the Gateway Pundit for defamation over this false story in a Colorado court.

      Trump also tweeted a lie about the Maricopa County Recorder, Steve Richer, regarding him destroying election information. Not only is it false but the man had no access to the information Trump claimed he destroyed. MAGA crazies descended upon him and 7 people have been arrested including a man from Missouri. Kari Lake also jumped on the bandwagon about Richer plus continued it after she lost. She recently finally admitted she knew she was lying in the defamation lawsuit against her by Richer.

      1. Tell us these illegals are not poisoning our culture and body politic !. Please tell us how they are not !!!. The current crop of D branders is decidedly marxist soviet bent. If you can not minimally see this you are part of the issue you crow on about. It’s prove Seth Rich gave info to wiki leaks…but hey you do you with your head in the sand. Dominion – get real !!!, it’s so corrupted and purposely rife with fraud you can not possibly defend that made in china system. For your information Americans have been calling D branders communists , marxists and socialists for some years now. Their actions and own words define them as such…and often they say this out loud proudly. You truly are so partisan you do not see the forest from the trees. PS – remember just a week ago briben said “we must put a bullseye on trump”….. that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the looney left hate speech.

      2. Actually, you yourself have contributed to the spread of false information.
        Trump’s retweets or posting of statements made by others are actionable only if he knows them to be false. The Richer-Lake case is still pending discovery until the end of August, pending various disputes over Richer not providing the receipts for claims he made about security, etc. and his overbroad document discovery requests. The notorious Lefty site, “Snopes” has rated the claims you made about Eric Coomer as “undetermined.” I could go on.

      3. Soviet Democrat DeeInFL posted this false flag defense of Soviet Democrat police state fascism and socialism/Communism Lite:
        You just proved Turkey’s point by calling them Soviet Democrats. While the rage rhetoric is worse on the left, Trump and Republicans have certainly added to the problem. Trump and the GOP started calling all Democrats socialists when Trump was in office.

        Oooohhhh…. BBBUUTTTTT MUH TRUMP! None of this happened before 2016 and Trump! Don’t believe your lying eyes! Trump started it!

        What a pathetic display of false flag moral equivalence. Or abject Marxist Useful Idiot on display. Given how sophomoric this attempt is, perhaps both.

        For starters, long before Trump, I started referring to them as ‘Soviet Democrats’; I didn’t get that from Trump or the GOP. You won’t find any Republican or Republican leaning commentator on any media using that term for Clinton, Obama, Biden and the Soviet Democrats before Trump – and very few now are willing to call them what they are.

        I started referring to these police state fascists as Soviet Democrats after Obama/Biden dispatched Jack Smith from their DoJ to protect their 2012 reelection bid by treating Republicans who threatened their reelection as criminals. To first take out their most feared potential opponent, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell with fraudulent prosecutions while at the same time advising Louis Lerner at the IRS that she could shut down GOP get-out-the-vote groups for the duration of the 2012 campaign for “investigation”. The TWO civil rights investigations of the police officer who shot Michael Brown to death in self defense, even after local police cleared the police officer and black Americans who witnessed the shooting testified Brown attempted to murder the officer. Obama telling Americans that systemic police racism was the threat to the democracy of the day.

        That’s FOUR YEARS before Trump ran for office – you don’t remember that? After being safely reelected, Obama/Biden said “Oops, sorry about that; didn’t know anything about that going on while I was busy being president and campaigning”. You thought that was just normal American campaigning, Republicans do the exact same thing?

        Looks like police state fascism emanating from the Soviet Democrats in the Oval Office and in Congress to me… Want to explain to everyone how that’s “Nobody is above the law TM” as we’re told by today’s Soviet Democrat police state fascists?

        Republicans were indeed calling Obama and Biden socialists from his election onward. EIGHT YEARS before Trump became your false flag excuse. Because they ARE.

        Tell us why you don’t think promising to “redistribute the wealth” isn’t socialism? No stench of socialism detected by you emanating from Obama before Trump ran for office? No stench of socialism detected by you emanating from Biden since moving into the Oval Office?

        Tell us why Obama/Biden and the Soviet Democrat DNC paying to have the “Russia Dossier” written, and then ordering the FBI to take it to FISA courts and perjure themselves it was intelligence agency product and all verified through the mandatory Woods Procedures to get spy warrants isn’t Soviet style police state fascism.

        Tell us why Obama/Biden’s last two Attorney Generals and last two FBI Directors personally taking part in perjuring themselves to FISA courts to get spy warrants in order for the FBI to investigate Trump and everybody working with him when there was no crime isn’t Soviet style like Stalin’s top cop, Lavarentiy Beria: Show me the man and I’ll find you his crimes or create them”?

        Tell us why Commissar Pelosi’s impeachment of Trump wasn’t police state fascism. Initiated on the basis of a fraudulent whistleblower complaint from a Biden employee who prearranged with with Soviet Democrat Adam Schiff, conducted behind closed doors, with media and public excluded, where only Soviet Democrats headed by Adam Schiff could call witnesses, and any questions asked of those witnesses had to be approved by Soviet Democrat Adam Schiff.

        Tell us how Commissar Pelosi’s hand picked members of the J6 Committee, who hid evidence while destroying other evidence was a bipartisan committee, rather than police state fascism.

        Explain to everybody how Commisar Pelosi’s SECOND impeachment of Trump, the FIRST impeachment after a president or judge was no longer in office, wasn’t police state fascism.

        Want more examples?

        Because that should be enough for you to attempt trying to explain away as not being socialist and not police state fascism – it started long before Trump entered politics to use as your fraudulent moral equivalency excuse.

        You need to up your false flag game, son. The “don’t believe your lying eyes” strategy gets weaker by the day.

      4. I never had communication with my sons business partners

        I never discussed my sons business ventures with him

        Hunters laptop is Russian misinformation.

        STFUD

    2. Dog, you nailed that one. Perhaps the professor carries to an extreme the effort to try to appear somewhat neutral. (?). I don’t know. But I do know some things should not be sugar coated, and the undeniable fact that the regime and the ministry of propaganda have been far and away the leaders in stoking hatred, should not be downplayed or understated. Most on this side (called the right) of the political/social spectrum, have in my opinion been amazingly reserved and restrained. Certainly not all, but the vast majority of not just violent rhetoric but violent acts in this country over the past years, have been perpetrated by leftists of one variety or another.
      Peace!
      JDU
      Tyler, TX

    3. Exactly right.
      The both sides admonition is simply code for the conservative side.
      They’ll claim to go after extremists but they’ll all be conservatives.

  4. In the heat of today’s news, let’s all remember some GOOD things about each other, irrespective of political leanings:
    A man rescuing a kitten thrown out of a car window on a freeway;
    A line of cars outside a GoodWill collection center;
    Volunteers forming a human chain moving sandbags along a protective barrier for an upcoming flood threat;
    A person holding open the door for you as you enter a store;
    Laughing at the human follies caught on film for America’s Funniest Home Videos;
    People lined up along the street/road, waiting for a holiday parade, -adults waving flags, talking and laughing with the strangers/persons next to them, children with sticky, melting Popsicles running down their fingers as they wipe their hands on their clothes;
    Customers holding down a violent person until police can arrive;
    Neighbors waving to each other;
    Teenagers dating each other according to how “hot” they are, not what political party their parents belong to;
    Strangers picking up pleasant conversation as they both wait in line at Checkout #4;
    People pulling off the road to offer help when a car breaks down;
    Strangers lining the street and/or saluting as an officer’s/fallen hero’s hearse goes by;

    We don’t know if these people are Democrats, Republicans, or anything else, do we?
    There are good people on both sides.

  5. Turley gives Democrats the benefit of the doubt. He should not Friday night Biden said to the effect that Trump should be put in the “Bullseye”. Schumer would sacrifice his mother for power. Talk about dog whistles. Harris paid for bailing out rioters. They incite violence with purpose They have blood on their hands. They are not decent liberals of the past. They are monsters

  6. Well, If I was an assassin and I wanted to get close to the person I was going to assassinate, then I would join my potential victim’s political party since that would give me plenty of cover as I checked out the security and noted where lapses were apparent that might be good spots for a shot. I would also wear the paraphenalia of the objective’s party so I would not stand out. If anyone thought I was acting suspicious I could just whip out my contribution card or something showing me in good standing in the local party apparatus.
    I suspect if you showed up wearing Biden for President you would likely get a lot of looks and stares from other attendees and maybe even looks from Law Enforcement, possibly looking for people who would try to disrupt the rally or act as agent provocateurs.
    I think you would try be invisible as you stalked your prey. Depends how serious you are and whether you expect to survive the attempt or not.

    1. That idiot was not that smart. He signed up as an R bc his family are Rs. But he supported far organizations.

    2. As I read elsewhere (Zerohedge, maybe), Pennsylvania Democrats had urged their sympathizers to register as Republicans to try to keep Trump from winning in the PA primary. My best guess would be that Crooks was one of those cross-registers. He also reportedly donated to left-wing causes.

      2. So? Biden is allowed to tell the truth. I know that is an odd concept to MAGAs.

        1. That would be an anomaly. Hey Sambo, remember this whopper? “I don’t know anything about my son Hunters business dealings “ How about this one, “I lowered the cost of insulin for seniors “, or “I never had any contact with my sons business partners.”
          Dismissed

        2. The MAGA foundation is the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  

          The foundation of you, the communists, is the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx. 

          Karl Marx was elated when “Crazy Abe” won the war for communism in America, so he sent “Crazy Abe” a letter of commendation and congratulations.  
          __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

          VOILA – THE “RECONSTRUCTION AMENDMENTS” OF KARL MARX

          “They consider…that it fell to…Abraham Lincoln…to lead his country through…the reconstruction of a social world. [B]”

          – Karl Marx Letter to Abraham Lincoln, 1865 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/iwma/documents/1864/lincoln-letter.htm

          1. The MAGA foundation is Trumps d**k. They don’t care one lick about the Constitution. Remember the whole attempted coup thing?

            1. No Sammy I don’t recall an attempted coup, I recall a stolen election. Where precincts were shut down for leaky bathrooms and Democrat ballot harvesters made delivery after delivery of mail in ballots one after another. Just like the Minnesota Coleman steal by Franken. FU we’re done.

        4. Sammy the Soviet Democrat Useful Idiot claimed Bribery Biden told the truth about Trump and MAGA:
          Biden is allowed to tell the truth. I know that is an odd concept to MAGAs.

          Sammy believes Bolshevik Barack and Bribery Biden were defending the foundations of our republic when they paid for one of Putin’s FSB apparatchiks under investigation by the FBI for espionae to write their “Russia Dossier”.

          Sammy claims they were defending the republic with their core values: sending the FBI to lie to FISA judges that the “Dossier” they were presenting as evidence was intelligence agency product, verified as being true as law demanded they do. The counterespionage they got through those serial felonies to spy on every communication of Trump and everywhere near him were patriot and traditional pillars in the foundation of our republic.

          Maybe in the foundations of the collapsed old USSR, Sammy. Not in America, buddy.

          It’s an odd concept that Soviet Democrat Marxist Useful Idiots like Sammy and Bribery Biden tell the truth. Bolshevik Biden, who continues to claim he never met a single one of his customers from the ChiCom and Russian governments during his years in the VP’s office. And Sammy, who Lies Like A Proud Biden with his posts here.

        5. In January 2025 you will learn how big of a lie that is.

          Statements like
          “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic”

          are an IQ test – if you are stupid enough to believe them your real IQ is below 100.

          1. How smart do you have to be to perceive the following and realize that such a person should never be the leader of the free world: 1. Trump is a convicted criminal who has done everything to avoid going to trial and getting sentenced for his 34 criminal convictions; 2. Trump stole classified documents, lied about returning them and lied about declassifying them; 3. Trump is an adjudicated fraudster and sexual assaulter of a woman that he defamed ; 4. Trump is a racist— brown people are “vermin, animals, rapists and murderers”; 5. Trump lies on loan applications and financial statements in order to qualify for larger loans on more favorable terms than if he had not lied; 6. Trump calls military members “suckers and losers “ and called John McCain a “loser “ for refusing to take health insurance away from millions of Americans; 7. Trump was not man enough to accept the fact that he lost the election in 2020 , and instead started an insurrection by lying about nonexistent fraud. He stood by for over 3 hours while the Capitol was attacked by his fans who were hunting Pence and Pelosi, intending to kill them—all while his family and members of his administration begged him to call off the violence.

            Then, there’s the lousy job he did while in office, with presidential historians saying he was the worst president in recent history. When he left office, our economy and public health were in shambles and we were mostly shut down. Over 40 members of his administration do not support his candidacy, including his VP.

            Also, there are the Nobel laureates who say that Trump’s tariffs and tax cuts will damage our economy and push up inflation. Tax cuts for the wealthy will drive up the national debt, and Trump and Republicans have said that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are on the table. Biden intends to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent by requiring the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.

            Don’t forget Project 2025– a plan drafted mostly by former Trump administration officials, calculated to force Christian Nationalist policies on the rest of us, including taking away reproductive freedom, rolling back consumer and environmental protections and doing away with measures to address climate change and the Department of Education. The plot includes measures to make the president more powerful and to require government employees to pledge allegiance to Trump instead of the Constitution. Trump intends to control the FBI and DOJ and to use these assets for revenge against his enemies. He also intends to pardon himself for his federal crimes.

            Biden’s economy is booming and America is the envy of the world. We are energy independent. Biden got more bills passed that benefit the middle class than most presidents in 3 1/2 years and pledges to protect abortion and IVF, bring down the cost of prescription drugs and help with child care costs so that parents can work. He has brought back manufacturing jobs and gotten an infrastructure bill passed. Inflation is coming down, unemployment is at a 50-year low and the stock market keeps settling new records.

            NOW explain to me WHY any sensible person would vote for Trump.

  8. As I watch the Charmin roll out ‘I’m getting a bad feeling’ that we may come to learn that this shooter has a profile similar to so many of the other young mass shooters of the past of that ilk with respect to mindset and personality. Someone who should never had access to a firearm. Not to argue against the 2nd Amendment but rather for the responsibility of a gun owner if it is known that someone in the family has demonstrated psychological ill health and secure the weapon. The shooters in Florida, Connecticut, and Texas, come to mind in that regard. The event will settle out to be a ‘ball dropper’, i.e. the Secret Service failing to complete a thorough site risk assessment so as include and secure the building in question within a tightly controlled perimeter. It will become known as Pennsylvania’s ‘Texas Book Depository’.

    2. zzdoc1 it is virtually impossible to successfully identify the people with mental health issues that should bar them from gun possession.
      Without concurrently barring millions of others.

      Nearly all these people have metnal health issues – the most common being paranoid schizophrenics who are the most prone to violence of all mental health problems. A paranoid schitzophrenic is about twice as likely to violence as the average.
      Blacks are also twice as prone to violence as the average. We can not bar people from gun posession because they are schitzophrenic any more than we can because they are black.

      One of the big problems here is our emptional drive to fix a problem that is actually quite tiny and has no fix.

      1. John Say wrote:
        zzdoc1 it is virtually impossible to successfully identify the people with mental health issues that should bar them from gun possession.

        I believe those demanding and/or making attempts for MORE prohibitions on Americans are kneejerk emotional Useful Idiots or police state fascists whose goal is NO American has access to firearms.

        I hold that opinion as I have yet to hear one asking what is the glaring question: Why are NONE OF THEM demanding that federal prosecutors prosecute felons who violate the statute prohibiting convicted felons from possessing firearms?

        Those convicted felons are the class that commits somewhere around 80% of the firearms murders in the USA. It isn’t people with “mental health issues” whether anorexia or the Tranny political movement. “Fact checkers” eagerly say that’s wrong when you look at the conviction rates – deliberately ignoring the fact that all the convicted felons allowed to go free without being charged with illegally having a firearm aren’t included in the data they prefer, or without that charge being adjudicated as well as the murder charge.

        I believe it is unconstitutional to automatically make convicted felons a class of Americans stripped of their Second Amendment rights for life, even after EOS. I believe that to be constitutional we would have to do it as Canada has been doing for many decades: a prosecutor has the option of requesting that a judge put a prohibition order on that convicted criminal at the time of sentencing. A prohibition request that is made with the person it would apply to present with their legal counsel. And any resulting order can be appealed immediately or at a later date.

        However people view lifetime prohibitions of felons, even if it’s nothing more dangerous than mail fraud by criminals who never even saw their victim, the fact is that is the state of the law right now.

        And the Soviet Democrats do their damnedest to avoid prosecuting the felons who violate this criminal statute that has been in existence for well over 50 years.

        I will not accept a supposed impartial fair discussion on more prohibitions on Americans on the only right the Founders felt worthy of including the words “shall not be infringed” while they put their greatest effort into NOT prosecuting violent felons found in possession of firearms.

  9. Dear Prof Turley,

    Gamblers have an old saying ‘I’d rather be lucky than good’. Donald Trump is LUCKY!

    Trump is a good salesman (“Wait, let me get my shoes” and then to stop/pause for iconic photo ops is beyond the call of duty!), but still a poor judge of character imo. He’s got some *alls, after all, but needs to watch his back .. . and topknot.

    TBH, like you, I’m not that surprised or as shocked as I should be. I think we can rule out the Russians here, but clearly, over 51 top intel officials, and president Biden, will say and do most anything to prevent a peaceful (re-)’transfer of power’ to the “greatest threat in U.S. history”. .. including Hitler and John Adams.

    *of course, the idea that Rachel Maddow will face a firing squad is lizard-eyed crazy.

      1. You are objectively the kind of scumbag that the Democrat party radicalizes with their hateful bigoted rhetoric and fearmongering

      2. Sammy, the Soviet Democrat police state fascist and Marxist Useful Idiot tried channelling v23.2.1:
        For Republicans, every accusation is a confession.

        For Soviet Democrats like Sammy, every post is an abjectly sophomoric attempted defense of the corrupt ChiCom trophy politician currently in the Oval Office

        Doing so by channeling his Bribery Biden corruption and malfeasance on Trump and anyone else who threatens their vision of Amerika ruled by Soviet Democrat oligarchs and kleptocrats like Bribery Biden.

    1. He’s a private citizen. A very wealthy one. If he feels he needs extra protection he can pay for it himself. Remember, he’s not the president. He’s not going to get the same level of protection the president gets. Secret service snipers were already there. That’s more than usual for a former president. Perhaps they have more than they let on. But they certainly don’t provide the full protective umbrella only presidents get.

        1. The morons are the DEI girls running the joint who did not place an asset on that rooftop, every rooftop, for the duration of the event.

      2. Tell that to the Bushes, Obamas, Clintons, and all the rest of the rich politicians (except for Bush, how did they become so rich) who get their security paid for by US??

      3. George, reverting from Confederate constitutional racist to Marxist Useful Idiot, tried this lie of omission:
        He’s a private citizen. A very wealthy one. If he feels he needs extra protection he can pay for it himself.

        He’s also a former president of the United States, Georgie. Why did you CHOOSE to leave that out?

        Should we waste time looking for when you’ve said the same about nouveau Filthy former Soviet Democrat presidents: Rich Bolshevik and Blow Job Clinton?

        I’m slightly impressed you managed to get over your grief that the murder attempt failed and gamely showed up here for work today.

      4. He is an ex president – and by law we provide ex-presidents very nearly the same protection we provide presidents.
        One of the reasons is because the assassination of an expresident is almost as much of a national security issue as that of assassinating a president.

        He is also the leading candidate for president of the United states and the one likely to win. Again by law they get very nearly the same protection of the president – as do the Vice president and speaker of the house.

        Another issue coming to the fore from this is the lack of protection for RFK jr.

        Do we really want another Kennedy Assassination ?

        1. “He is an ex president – and by law we provide ex-presidents very nearly the same protection we provide presidents.”

          No, they don’t. The law only gives them a secret service detail for life. But just enough to fit their purpose, not the full on protective umbrella that covers the president.

          Only when he DOES win the RNC nomination does he get extra protection. Not before and that’s the problem.

          “One of the reasons is because the assassination of an expresident is almost as much of a national security issue as that of assassinating a president.”

          “Almost” is not saying it’s the same. Ex-presidents are not next in line to the president. They don’t get the same level of protection. TBD President, Vice President get.

      5. Then we should rescind the laws that provide leading candidates and so many others with secret service protection.

      6. SS protection for all major candidates since Nov 22, 1963 proves you wrong

    2. The field was indeed open. Have you seen the aerial photos of the scene?

      Trump is a private citizen. He is not afforded the full protection a president gets. If he wants more he can pay for extra security. He can afford it.

      1. Good. Same thing applies to the Clintons, Obama’s and Bushes. Right??

        1. Not quite, Trump is a former president and is the current candidate of the opposition party. He should have additional SS protection but would YOU trust them?!

  11. From what I have seen, the Secret Service was, at the very best, grossly negligent. As soon as I saw an overhead view of the scene, I was like, “Huh??? You didn’t have a team on top of that building, too???” It ain’t like there were hundreds of buildings there.

    The only reason I am not going full-blown conspiracy theory this morning, is that the shooter appears to be an unconnected nobody.

    1. The shooter was a registered Republican, a disillusioned kid who had easy access to a weapon and free rein to walk around with an AR in a state where it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. You CAN walk around carrying a holstered gun outside the security perimeter. Because it was a Trump rally nobody would be alarmed or concerned. That’s why it was easy for the shooter to be where he was. Obviously the secret service is going to make some changes. No more rallies in open fields. Unless Trump insists.

      1. The field was not “open.” It basically had two buildings, and the Secret Service failed to secure one of them, which was in easy shooting distance of where Trump was speaking. That is gross negligence.

        1. He upvotes his own comments, he trolls under scores of sock puppets 25/8, he is a broken, narcissistic, psychopathic, machiavellian, sadist, the typical online troll portrayed in research literature I have posted more than a dozen times, incapable of intimate personal relationships and individual accomplishments in life, e.g. David Brock. He personifies the typical young mass shooter (e.g. the young female in Nashville who identified as Trans Male, who killed 3 children and 3 adults at a christian school) who has a prodigious online footprint because he is such a failure at life. Anonymity, gaming, cosplay and social media mask their void.

          Given that parents today have abdicated their duties to form the conscience of their children, we should not be surprised at George’s feverish attempt to reply to most comments because that.is.what.defines.his.life. Period.

      2. George the state is Pennsylvania – which is a BLUE state – with a democratic governor, a democratic AG, a democratic Supreme Court a democratic Superior court, and two democratic senators.

        Further I personally live in Lancaster County which is REDDER that Bulter County, and has more hunters and 2A supporters.
        In the 66 years I have been alive and living in Lancaster, I have NEVER seen anyone open carrying an AR-15 or any other rifle.
        Frankly open carry of a handgun is pretty rare.

        I have repeatedly popinted out that you are disconnected from reality and engaged in massive mind reading via Ouija board.

        This is a sign of the same kind of mental health problems that likely drove the shooter.

        I can assure you that while in PA and the 22 states that have open carry without a license, that it is very very rare to see someone carrying arround an AR-15 or any other rifle in public. And rare to see someone carrying a holstered handgun in public.

        It is not something that is normal – not anywhere, not at a trump rally.

        Legal open carry STILL justifiably attracts the attention of law enforcement. 2A supporters do NOT open carry “normally” they open carry when they are doing something where there is a high risk of violence and little or no law enforcement presence.

        Open Carry near a presidential campaign rally is an invitation to get detained for hours or worse still possibly accidentally shot.

        But then thinking is not your forte.

        1. “This is a sign of the same kind of mental health problems that likely drove the shooter.”

          It’s always a mental health problem that politicians always use as an excuse without ever funding programs to address it. Paying lip service of course is always preferred. Because it costs nothing.

          “Open Carry near a presidential campaign rally is an invitation to get detained for hours or worse still possibly accidentally shot.”

          No it’s not. Not when open carry laws are in place. People can get detained, but not for several hours. Not at a Trump rally where Trump supporter wouldn’t be alarmed at the sight of someone exercising their constitutional right. Pennsylvania allows open carry without a license.

          Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Pennsylvania has long tradition with hunting and teaching firearm safety in schools. High school seniors with rifles on gun racks in their trucks was/is common.

          People ARE allowed to open carry outside security zones at rallies where it’s legal. People at Trump rallies would think twice about it since it’s just people exercising their constitutional rights. That’s why the shooter wouldn’t be out of place if he was carrying an AR on a sling in that crowd.

      3. Confederate constitutional racist George reverted to Marxist Useful Idiot George with these lies of omission and commission:
        The shooter was a registered Republican, a disillusioned kid who had easy access to a weapon and free rein to walk around with an AR in a state where it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

        You chose to lie by omission by choosing not to mention he was also a Bribery Biden donor through mega Soviet Democrat bundler Act Blue.

        And when called on that lie of omission, you tried to claim a free party registration while in high school three years ago was what mattered – not a choice to donate money to Bribery Biden three years later as an adult.

        You lied by commission that Pennsylvania is an constitutional carry state: it is not. In fact, this murderer wasn’t even the required 21 years of age Pennsylvania requires to apply for a concealed carry permit.

        You lied by commission in claiming that it is ordinary (meaning legal) to walk around in public carrying what you call an Evil Baby Killer Assault Weapon. You lying is as equally incompetent as Bribery Biden’s White House Spokes Liar, Cringe Jean-Pierre:

        “18 Pa.C.S. § 6108: Carrying firearms on public streets or public property in Philadelphia. No person shall carry a firearm, rifle or shotgun at any time upon the public streets or upon any public property in a city “

    2. Floyd: have you seen “The Parallax View”? It’s a film starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss and Hume Cronin.

  12. So the election now is between someone who has survived a head shot and someone with a seriously impaired brain. What this shot has “killed” is any chance that Biden will actually be on the ballot in November.

  13. Free speechi, Jonathan Turley, free speech. it’s all just free speech.

  14. Professor Turley, you seem to take some pains to say that Democrat politicians do not really mean to incite violence despite their inciteful rhetoric.

    There’s are spectrums of acts and intent at work here, and none of us know what really goes on in their minds. I don’t know if they hope to spark violence, but- and it’s just my opinion – at best they are indifferent if they do. To them, if some poor schmuck takes a shot at Trump and loses his life in the process, that’s just collateral damage in furtherance of a good cause. Plus, I’m sure they’re disappointed he missed.

    I’m remembering how AG Merrick Garland gave mealy-mouth excuses not to provide security for Supreme Court Justices. Somewhere in that man’s mind, there was a calculation if one of the conservative justices was assassinated, he’d be ready to mouth all the platitudes about how no, he’d never want anyone to do something like that and how tragic it was. But, in a variation on the “never let a crisis (or tragedy) go to waste” philosophy, he’d also be delighted convert a conservative SC seat to a liberal/progressive one.

  15. The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in ex-change for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune. Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today. Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done.

    Justice Sonia Sotomayor in “TRUMP v. UNITED STATES”
    https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

    Too late. They did play out and one wonders what Sonia knew before the assassination attempt of President Trump other than Biden’s Handlers refusing to provide the resources the Secret Service requested to protect Donald Trump.

    Justice Holmes opinion on eugenics, Buck vs Bell, was the most evil opinion ever written. But then Sonia came along and presciently warned Trump’s team with a willing comatose Joseph Biden and his ANTIFA handlers ready at the trigger. This is on you Sonia

    What was it that Chuck Schumer said of Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch?

  16. And just think, according to three of our oh so wise Supreme Court Justices, if Biden had ordered this hit he would not be prosecuted since according to them this would have been an “official act”, providing him with absolute immunity.
    Not only are they awful jurists, they are worse human beings.

    1. One wonders what Justice Sonia Sotomayor knew before the assassination attempt of President Trump other than Biden’s Handlers refusing to provide the resources the Secret Service requested to protect Donald Trump.

      Justice Holmes opinion on eugenics, Buck vs Bell, was the most evil opinion ever written. But then Sonia came along and presciently warned Trump’s team with a willing comatose Joseph Biden and his ANTIFA handlers ready at the trigger. This is on you Sonia

      The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in ex-change for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune. Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today. Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done.

      Justice Sonia Sotomayor in “TRUMP v. UNITED STATES”
      https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

      What was it that Chuck Schumer said of Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch?

  17. So the wild conspiracy theory and fear mongering reached a fever pitch last night. Now that the shooter has been identified as a registered Republican and a 20 year old seems to not have tamped down the wild accusations and calls for violence by republicans. Violence and revenge seems to be very much on their minds. Even Turley’s views on the shooting are being criticized by commenters because he’s not wholly assuming blame on Democrats.

    As Trump once famously said, “There are nice people on both sides” or something to that effect.

    A Republican trying to assassinate Trump? Must be pretty bad for republicans.

      1. Yes, typical republicans don’t always do what they say because secretly they don’t like what their party advocates for. A whole $15! Shocking. Yet he was still a Republican. He showed that republicans are violent and calls for violence and revenge ARE coming fro republicans, even some legislators like MTG.

        Notice how there aren’t any protests against the attempt on Trump from republicans and his supporters. But there are calls for revenge and violence.

    2. George – at this time you should be using allegedly with regard to almost everything.

      This is allegedly an AR style weapon – I have heard a sniper instructor state that it was a supressed low caliber bullet likely a .22 or .223 but possibly a .308 bu the sound. There is still disagreement over the number of shots and the SS counter snipers responded quickly.

      I beleive the shooters identity has been confirmed by police as Thomas Micheal Crooks who is now dead.
      Crooks fired between 3 and 8 shots.

      There are varying reports of the distance from 100 to 150 yds with most saying 130.

      Two news outlets have reprted that Crooks is a registered republican but he has never voted.
      And that in 2021 he contributed to the democratic party.

      Allegedly he had expolsives in his car.

      It is likely that in the next few days much of this will change.

      We are all hungry for facts., but the reliability of early reports is always poor.

      1. John Say, allegedly he has mental problems. You didn’t say allegedly. He could be a well reasoned Republican who chose to express his opinion in an extreme way.

        But as you said. “We are all hungry for facts”. Like determining if he did have mental problems. Which you already say he does without knowing…the facts.

        A registered Republican is still a Republican. Trump was once a long time registered democrat. Does it make him an alleged Republican even after registering as Republican?

    3. “So the wild conspiracy theory and fear mongering reached a fever pitch last night.”

      Yes a democratic celebrity alleged this was a false flag operation to make Trump into a hero.

      I am unaware of any republican conspiracy theories – and Republicans are not engaged in “fear mongering” – though they are vary angry at democrats for their hypocracy – within the past week Biden “put a bullseye on Trump” and call for for “targeting Trump”
      Sara Palin got lots of crap from the media over targeting democratic house candidates for defeat.

      1. “I am unaware of any republican conspiracy theories – and Republicans are not engaged in “fear mongering” – though they are vary angry at democrats for their hypocracy – within the past week Biden “put a bullseye on Trump” and call for for “targeting Trump”

        You’re saying you’re exercising your denial of reality to arrive at your conclusion that you “unaware”.

        Republicans are engaging in calls for violence and revenge. Even making the assumption that Biden meant literally putting a “bullseye” on Trump. But it’s just rhetoric according to you. So it’s really just the Republican registered shooter’s fault because he chose to believe the rhetoric. It’s not the Democrats fault. They did nothing wrong.

  18. Don’t expect this to be the only attempt. With the vitriolic rhetoric against Trump it is not surprising that this happened.

    1. I wouldn’t be surprised that the Republican shooter will be excused as mentally ill or has some sort of health issue because such a person doesn’t fit the idea of the narrative that was immediately pushed by Trump supporters last nite.

      Blaming the rhetoric on democrats for “motivating” this kid is in such poor taste and irony that it puts Turley’s free speech argument in a very difficult position. Turley is against gag orders because it prevents inflammatory speech from affecting others. If Trump’s wild and inflammatory rhetoric is to be seen as a consequence of free speech then there’s really not much that can be done except to complain.

      1. The Republican shooter indeed has a mental health issue. He’s dead.

        What’s your excuse?

        1. Keep in mind the fact that he’s dead ONLY because he managed to send a bunch of rounds towards Trump first.

          Will Trump rally-goers now carry more guns to thwart future attempts? More good guys with guns is safer than no guns, right? Trump supports gun-free zones. Will he expand these zones around his rallies? Perhaps.

              2. He’s a former president just like Clinton, Bush, and Barry Sotero. He’s also the presidential candidate for the Republican Party making him due additional SS protection. No other former president or candidate has ever been subjected to the outright subversion and seditious acts by an opposition party. Was Trump a dictator in his first term, please enlighten us all how? You better get ready now because he’s going to be elected and the leftist bs will end the day he’s sworn in. I would believed Conservatives will not tolerate anymore of this nonsense.

      2. George – the shooter is Allegedly a registered republican who allegedly contributed to democrats.

        Either, both or none of those may prove true.

        It is near certain that he has mental health issues. ALL the people who do this type of thing do.

        If Crooks does not “fit the narrative” – that really would be unusual – maybe that is the case, but right now we have very little evidence and what little we have “fits the narrative”.

        Blaming Democrats is not in “poor taste” – it is quite reasonable. It is far more reasonable than claiming Trump calling for peaceful protests incited the relatively inconsequential violence at the Capitol on J6 – where the only people killed were protestors and the only firearms were with the police.

        I am sure many republicans would be ecstatic to have a manifesto discovered revealing that Joe Biden had directed him to assassinate Trump.

        We “might” get that – but if we do, it will likely be Joe Biden speaking to Crooks through the crackling in his morning cereal.

        I do not know that Crooks has mental health issues – but I would bet money on it.

        While nearly everyone seems to be toning down the political rhetoric, the worst has always been from democrats.

        But it is still false to claim that THIS type of violence is driven by polticial rhetoric – it is not. Maybe political rhetoric provides target selection – but snipers and mass shooters are nearly always mentally ill and motivated – to the extent that term means anything with a paranoid schitzophrenic. by oddball distortions of actual political rhetoric.

        Political violence like the over 500 defund the police riots in 2020 ARE driven by political rhetoric.

        In US history we have had only one TRULY politically motivated assassination or attempt – and that would be the assasination of lincoln. That was a real conspiracy between people who were not mentally ill.
        While nearlyu every other act or attempt had political overtones, they were carried out by deeply disturbed people and attributing the act to politics is error.

        It is highly unlikely that Crooks will prove different.

        1. “George – the shooter is Allegedly a registered republican who allegedly contributed to democrats.”

          It’s no longer allegedly.

          “Trump calling for peaceful protests incited the relatively inconsequential violence at the Capitol on J6 – where the only people killed were protestors and the only firearms were with the police.”

          You know you have been shown to be wrong about firearms being found on j6 protesters. There’s a whole list of charges from the DOJ.

          He sort of called for peaceful protests. He didn’t stop it when it became violent.

    2. The rally was held at a very open place. It was noted that Trump has been holding rallies on open fields more than in venues because it’s cheaper and because he’s running low on cash. Now he’s certainly going to hold them indoors where the environment can be strictly controlled.

      When there are so many legal open carry and concealed carry states it becomes much more difficult to have rallies on open venues like those in Pennsylvania. Trump was lucky the Republican kid wasn’t a good marksman.

      1. @George: Re: “Trump was lucky the Republican kid wasn’t a good marksman..” Now consider that he was. Say he had Trump sighted in but the line of sight was not true. When Trump turns his head left, he gives full face to the direction of the building which is what the marksman is waiting for, and the rounds are fired. Within that very moment that they are loosed, Trump turns his head to the right such that he is now out of the line, and the round passes to his head’s left and nicks the upper curve of the helix of his ear, rather than striking point in his forehead which, IMHO would have been in the same axial plane of his head as the upper edge of his ear.

      2. Spin Georgie spin, you’re making me dizzy! I wonder if in his two years a Republican he ever voted in a Presidential election, I wonder if he ever held a higher paying job where he was taxed at 30-40%, I wonder if he new what a woman was? Like I said, you’re a moron.

      3. Musk just endorsed Trump and is openly contributing – pretty sure Trump has no cash problems.
        Regardless, post the Manhattan trial fizzle Trump has been out raising Biden almost 2:1

        There was nothing wrong with this venue. The big problem was the failure to secure this particular roof.

        From the arial photos there is no other vantage where anything short of a expert snipper could have gotten Trump.
        The longest sniper kill is over 3000 meters. There are probably less than 100 people in the world who can hit a target at 1000meters
        This shot was from about 150meters and probably could have been made successfully by 50% of rifle owners.

        The secret service can not protect anyone from a 1000m shot – it is just not feasible. It is my understanding that they are ALWAYS supposed to secure ALL 300M vantage points for any scheduled appearance. They do NOT secure all perches for unscheduled events and they do not take predictable roots when traveling and used armored transportation to avoid allowing a sniper to setup.

        1. There are only a handful that can make a successful 1000m kill shot and they would be trained to do so.

      4. You keep this open carry nonsense up.

        If you are so sure you are right – try open carrying an AR-15 within 300meters of the next Trump Rally.

        No one does that. That is just fevered nonsense in your head.

        1. “If you are so sure you are right – try open carrying an AR-15 within 300meters of the next Trump Rally.”

          The crazy thing is, I have. It’s perfectly legal and allowed even within 300 meters. I get stopped and questioned, and that’s it. Nobody has been freaking out and going all crazy about it. Lots of other Trump supporter open carry at rallies outside the security zone. It’s normal where it’s legal and Trump supporters don’t seem to mind as long as they assume you’re being responsible. Even law enforcement is aware and doesn’t remove you unless you do something stupid like upholster or start pointing your weapon randomly at people.

          As long as you’re not acting weird or aggressive people don’t really pay attention. Obviously you haven’t been to multiple Trump rallies. There are all kinds of 2nd amendment supporter expressing their constitutional rights without a problem.

  20. Jonathan: The MAGA crowd on this blog is desperate. Someone posted a comment using my name (7/14@11:19 am). FACT CHECK: It wasn’t me! While I am flattered some crazy would try to be me, my comment was actually @11:47am. Just for the record.

      1. John Say posted: Did the fake Dennis make any more sense than the real one ?

        Or did Dennis ‘Biden’s Baghdad Bob’ McIntyre actually have the good sense after posting his first comment to decide that he’d gone too far?

        And he’d better throw a second, less crazy post up and then claim his first was a fake?

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