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).
This whole thing is absolutely hilarious. Trump almost gets taken out by the model profile mass shooter… pimply nerdy white kid, no record, bullied at school, decides to take people out. Thoughts ‘n’ prayers for Trump, lol.
Real funny, I would think the family who lost their father or husband, or the other families grieving as they struggle to stay alive feel differently.
I’m waiting for the reason the WATER TOWER was not occupied by Secret Service
Because it. was. a. Hit.
This was no rando 20-something shooting up a Trump rally.
It. was. a. Hit.
Any cell phone footage of Crook firing? Why not? Crook was most likely a Crook? Trigger word -bullseye? Brainwashed 1000s out there waiting for trigger words, images, movie, tv program talking to them telling them what to do to destroy democracy?
Most likely
“Sean Davis @seanmdav
As I said repeatedly during the Russia hoax: unless and until everyone involved goes to prison, the behavior will only escalate.
What happened to the Russia hoaxers? Nothing, so they weaponized a virus against their own country. They burned down our cities. They stole an election. And when you committed the crime of noticing, they staged a fake insurrection and tried to jail YOU for calling out their lies.
But that wasn’t enough for them. And why would it be, when they never paid a price for their war on this country?
They raided Trump’s home, guns drawn. And nothing happened. So they arrested him and tried to put him in prison, and nothing happened to them.
And when all their previous failed efforts resulted in ZERO negative consequences for any of the orchestrators, what did they do?
They tried to murder Donald Trump. And then they lied about that and tried to blame YOU for their own eight-year-long operation to get Trump killed.
If you are a member of Congress or a Republican official, I want you to pay very special attention to what I’m about to say: you need to wake the F up.
Seriously. Wake up and pull your heads out of your own backsides. Your incompetence and cowardice are a major reason we find ourselves in this position today. Wake up, sack up, and grow a spine.
Stop sending letters. Stop issuing stern statements written by 22-year-old staffers. Stop all of it and start putting people in prison.
They will not stop escalating. They will not stop trying to kill us. They will not stop destroying the country until they start paying the price for their treason.
Put these people in prison, or lose your country—and maybe even your lives, given what these demons have shown they’re willing to do to gain and maintain power.
Until these people are forced to spend their lives in prison, the insanity will not stop. And your refusal to make that happen doesn’t make you a statesman. It doesn’t make you above it all. It makes you a coward.
So stop with the empty words and start doing your freaking job for once.”
11:15 PM · Jul 14, 2024
Based on your hysteria may I suggest the deep state is being run by Bigfoot at a control center far underground in Montana.
The Deep State is real, doofus.
There was no “Russia hoax”— read the Republican Senate Intelligence Committee report. Trump’s campaign did work with Russian agents.
The only one who tried to steal an election was Trump— with the Big Lie. Hundreds of his followers have pleaded guilty or were found guilty.
Trump stole classified documents and lied about returning them. A judge issued a warrant to search his home when he wasn’t there , and they found dozens of documents that he stole. He was indicted and charged.
No one in the government or Democratic Party had anything to do with the photo op last Friday night. This may well have been staged as a diversion from Biden’s successful NATO summit and speeches, plus the backlash from Project 2025. Trump wasn’t surprised and really wasn’t injured—but he used it as a photo op to portray himself as the “tough guy “, complete with well-rehearsed lip-biting and fist pumping for his fans. If it had been a genuine threat, he wouldn’t have been worried about his shoes and hat or stopping twice to mug for the cameras.
You are taking the talking points that were assigned to me by our bosses at Act Blue. No one is going to believe you are me since I don’t even believe me, but that is irrelevant. All that matters is that they believe its me and you definitely are me, or trying to be me. There is only one me. you have all of the elements of a Russian plot
Natacha ==> Gigi
“Trump’s campaign did work with Russian agents”
No they did not “work” with Russian agents.
But Hillary’s campaign did.
Get your facts straight, Jack. (As scumbag Biden rudely says to voters who dare question HIM as if HE is our ruler and not our civil SERVANT).
Joe Biden is a pathological liar, a plagiarist, a criminal, a truly despicable, evil man.
Joe Biden committed numerous felony crimes by STEALING highly classified documents from his office that he was NEVER entitled to have in his possession. Biden illegally kept stolen documents strewn about his homes and offices for DECADES. Biden should have been charged with FELONIES.
But he was let off because he is DEMENTED.
I don’t have the time right now to keep going but the list of Biden crimes is looooooong.
LOCK up the F’N Treasonous Criminal Joe Biden and throw away the key. Total scum.
That’s the mind blower, Joe Biden has been under investigation for years by the FBI and nothing. Joe Biden steals classified documents and shares them with the author of his book. The SC Hur finds more than ample evidence to prosecute him but declines because he is a kindly old man with a poor memory. Yet he’s okay to elect for a second term?! It’s mind boggling that there is ANYONE in America that would vote for this, yet he still has support. I think Biden will have a severe health episode before the DNC.
4 days later…I scare myself sometimes with my predictions 😵💫
Let’s see if he survives the Chiflu and quits on his own volition 🧐
“If it had been a genuine threat, he wouldn’t have been worried about his shoes and hat or stopping twice to mug for the cameras.”
It was an assassination. One man was shot in the head with his brain matter splattering all over his daughters. Others were critically wounded and injured. Trump missed by centimeters a bullet blowing his brains blown out of his head on national TV. Which is what they wanted to happen.
What YOU commies do not understand, and never will, is that a hit on Trump was a hit on the country.
Trump STOOD and pumped his fist in the air to let the people know he was okay and that we will FIGHT, we will never give up, never give in, never stop fighting for this country we all love and our freedoms.
We know you deranged, America-hating Dem lefties hate this country, hate this flag, hate everything we stand for. So you will never understand the moment. May God help you. You need it.
Tell me one time President Biden has ever closed a speech with the words: May God Bless the United States of America. He has never blessed the country. Not once. FJB to hell and keep him there.
Biden ends every speech with God bless America and God bless our troops— you know-the “suckers and losers “ according to Trump.
What, exactly, are you “fighting” for? Trump is fighting for vindication and to stay out of jail, but what are you “fighting for”—higher inflation, higher costs of goods and services, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, taking health insurance away from millions, a would be oligarch using the FBI and DOJ to punish people who oppose him, sanctioning discrimination against LGBTQ people, banning of abortions and IVF,to help Putin take over Ukraine?—what?
He ends every speech with May God protect our troops. The last speech he said May God Bless America was his inauguration speech. Once, he ended a speech with God Save the Queen, Man.
FJB x a gazillion.
“What, exactly, are you “fighting” for?”
Freedom ain’t free, baby.
YOU commies will never understand the moment.
Peter Navarro is in prison for a misdemeanor for defying Pelosi’s sham J6 subpoena for which he had asserted executive privilege. A valid defense.
Steve Bannon is in prison for a misdemeanor for defying Pelosi’s sham J6 subpoena for which he had his attorney assert executive privilege. A valid defense.
But the Attorney General of the United States has openly, brazenly DEFIED a legitimate CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENA refusing to provide the audio for the transcript they have already released. EP does NOT apply when the transcript has already been released! And yet Biden’s Attorney General simply flips the bird to Congress and defies his subpoena. And nothing happens to HIM. Garland is not in prison. Why not?
The WORLD sees this Democrat corruption.
It will end with Trump 47.
“read the Republican Senate Intelligence Committee report.” This statement shows up repeatedly in the comments by the DNC trolls, under various names. That report had no evidence of collusion between Trump and Putin. If you care to differ with that statement, please describe the evidence with particularity. The months-long Mueller Report explicity stated that it could not find evidence of such collusion. Th fact that the DNC troll farm continues to cultivate this hoax shows how amoral they really are.
OBAMA-Clinton-Soros all srving their global ambitions. They are going to have to pay dearly for their efforts.
And how exactly are they supposed to do that? With what authority? The executive is the only branch of government that can put people in prison, and the constitution vests that authority entirely in the president. Republicans, who control only one house of one branch, cannot do anything but write letters and make statements, hold hearings and call witnesses, put the information before the voters and hope against hope that they’re paying attention and will draw the necessary conclusions. There is nothing else they can do.
Martial law and a military tribunal?
The wind is shifting, there will be whistle blowers a many stepping up with hard evidence as the SS Commie founders. You may even see a few Swamp things start rolling over. It’s like getting laid off, go early before all other jobs are gone.
I agree with your statements 100%. I have been saying the same thing for the past couple of years. People need to go to prison but of course nothing happens. Every effort to eliminate Trump has failed. So now, after they’ve thrown every last pile of s___t against the wall and got nothing to stick, they’ve one last and desperate alternative. And that is to physically eliminate him. For good. Whether that is what was behind Saturday’s tragic episode, well, we will most likely never know. But one thing I’ve learned in the past 8 years is that when it comes to politics in this country things are never what they seem. And you can’t rely on mainstream media for truth.
“He is being described as a registered Republican but donated to a Democratic political organization.”
Pennsylvania is a closed primary state. Democrats had called for their members to reregister as Republicans so that they could vote for Trump’s opponents. This activity took place in other closed primary states such as New Hampshire, so i dont think that Crooks is really a Republican. his donation to the Democratic group is more telling
He donated $15 three years ago.
Let’s see, 20 less three is 17 years old. Oh, I see he donated his lunch money before he could register to vote…
The media has mixed up two Thomas Crooks. The one who made the $15 donation years ago, is 69 years old. The one who the FBI killed and identified is 20 and a registered Republican.
Bill Kristol used to be a registered Republican. Enough said.
He’s dead now so he’s officially registered as a Democrat now
Nearly every High School in America has at least one kid that fits how his classmates are now describing him: a loner, eats alone in the cafeteria, gets bullied – often bullied a lot, pretty nerdy, seems pretty smart in science, does a lot of video at home – alone – no friends to speak of. I’d like to interview his father, then separately his mother, and find out what they thought of their boy
Good Column, but I really don’t get your, what seems to me, reflexive moral equivalency between Democratic and Republican political commentary – “escalated reckless rhetoric in this campaign on both sides.” You cite many examples of Democratic “Trump is Hitler,” “target Trump,” “eliminate Trump,” “Trump’s death squad” rhetoric. I cannot recall such hostile, cynical, directly threatening, assassination inspiring comments coming from Trump or other Republican leaders. There may be some, I don’t know. If there are, please cite a few. I do not believe that there are many such comments from the Republican side that rise anywhere near the level of “equivalency.”
My two cents (which is probably worth just that!) I think you’re only partially correct. There’s plenty of inciting rhetoric on the right. We have binary (me vs you) and apocalyptic language coming from our side. It’s not helpful. When we dehumanize Democrats or Liberals or immigrants or anyone (like they’re all out to willfully destroy the USA), we are unable to hold reality in our hands. An example. I support Israel 100%. They’re doing what they have to do; what they’ve been forced to do (and they’ve made tragic mistakes. War is hell.). They face death as individuals and as a nation. But I in my other hand, I hold that, of course, there ARE innocent Gazans who are suffering. Children may be brainwashed, but I can hardly hold them accountable for the antisemitic ideas they may parrot. Blame is spread around a society, an ideology, the traditions of their ancestors, and even a religion that justify their behavior. I can pray for these tragic circumstances and ask God to come to the aid of the innocent. We have to think critically and never contribute to the rage, dehumanization of the “other”. In fact, it is up to us to be a voice of reason and compassion. i.e. While I see hateful ignorance in the pro-Hamas protests taking place on our campuses and in our streets, I also see brokenness. I see a generation who don’t know any better because of the adults in their lives–from the time they are born until now they have been fed this ideology, robbed of true education and the ability to think. Evil is in charge. Rage feeds itself, metastasizes. And instead of finding the acceptance and love they crave, they are emptied out–mind and heart. I pray for them (which I know they would hate).
“Fight like hell.”
If they did to my family what they have done to Trump, it would be much worse. The Democrats subverted Trump’s ability to govern from before the inauguration. They spied on his campaign, they created false narratives to smear him, lawfare, impeachments. Do you recall that POS Pelosi tearing up the State of the Union address?
Subversion and sedition are a treasonous thing as well as stripping every citizen that voted for him of their President. These people are demented sick twisted fiuks. They have earned the wrath of the Nation. The pendulum is swinging and from where they pushed it, it should take some with it as it passes.
. . . quoting Harry Truman.
“Blaming the rhetoric on democrats for ‘motivating’ this kid is in such poor taste . . .”
And yet blaming Trump’s rhetoric for J6 is in such *good* taste.
Illustrating yet again that the Left is an unprincipled party.
“However, these politicians also know that some citizens will hear this rhetoric as a justification for violent conduct.”
and…”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.”
If this crap was spewed in Europe, it would be censored or those speaking arrested and jailed for “Hate Speech.” I guess these laws and trends don’t apply to liberals and progressives. What an advanced society we have here in America. (NOT)
If this crap was spewed in Europe, it would be censored or those speaking arrested and jailed for “Hate Speech.” I guess these laws and trends don’t apply to liberals and progressives.
No, it’s that these laws don’t apply in America, and thank God for that. That’s what makes America great.
Good Column, but I really don’t get your, what seems to me, reflexive moral equivalency between Democratic and Republican political commentary – “escalated reckless rhetoric in this campaign on both sides.” You cite many examples of Democratic “Trump is Hitler,” “target Trump,” “eliminate Trump,” “Trump’s death squad” rhetoric. I cannot recall such hostile, cynical, directly threatening, assassination inspiring comments coming from Trump or other Republican leaders. There may be some, I don’t know. If there are, please cite a few. I do not believe that there are many such comments from the Republican side that rise anywhere near the level of “equivalency.”
There is no equivalent, Trump uses his pet names like crooked Joe or Sleepy Joe and the left calls him Hitler. He called Rosie O’Donnell a fat pig after she repeatedly attacked him on her show and was immediately labeled a misogynist, an enemy of Queerdom, Hitler reborn..,
They cannot handle being called out for what they are!
Remember when you would be prosecuted for threatening the Presi8den t? Biden should be prosecuted for putting Trump “In the crosshairs”!
You can be prosecuted for actually threatening the president. But not only is Trump not currently the president, Biden did not threaten him at all. A threat means literally saying you are personally going to commit a violent crime against someone, and doing it in a way that a reasonable person hearing you would seriously believe that you were actually going to do it. Biden didn’t say he was going to do anything to Trump, and even if he had said he would, no one would believe that he meant it literally. So that’s not a threat and you can’t be prosecuted for it.
For instance, saying “Someone ought to kill Biden” is not a threat, even if you’re dead serious about it. “Someone ought to” is advocacy, not a threat. And the Supreme Court says that is protected speech, so there can’t be any law against it.
Interesting that when Trump said “standby and stand down” (incidently, both terms mean to take NO action) he was accused of inciting insurrection. Yet, when Biden tells his base to put a bullseye on Trump, a dog whistle to incite violent crime, it’s just a campaign slogan. The shooter answered the dog whistle being the progressive Act Blue cult member that he was. Democrat Representative Dan Goodman stated recently, “It is just unquestionable at this point that that man cannot see public office again. He is not only unfit. He is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be eliminated”.
Calling a man Hitler or a threat to democracy (NYT, Washington Post, MSNBC, etc) are simply horrible. Merrick Garland failed to protect SCOTUS Justices nominated by Trump, and now we see post shooting congressional staff members posting vicious comments, CNN complaining that Trump thrust his fist in the air and said “fight”, NBC anchor complaining trump immediately didn’t call for calm, Joe Biden and Kamala refusing to call it an assassination attempt but rather an “incident”, Nancy Pelosi habitually demonizing him along with her infamous ripping up Trump’s State of the Union speech on live camera, Maxine Waters urging people to confront Trump supporters, Jen Psaki characterizing Trump as the face of white supremacy who now is crying that she is “scared”…phuhk her. She and they all did this to America.
Well said —->>
“I KNOW A HERO WHEN I SEE ONE
The Washington Post names me along with @elonmusk as one of several businessmen who are using their “megaphones” to spread “narratives” about the assassination attempt on President Trump.
I’m not sure what “narratives” they’re referring to, but I know what I saw, and I know what the crowd in Butler witnessed live.
At it turns out, my father-in-law lives in Pennsylvania and he was at the rally on Saturday. When the shots rang out and Trump went down, he said pandemonium broke out around him. Everyone feared the worst.
But then Trump rose. Covered in his own blood, resisting the secret service’s efforts to whisk him away to safety, Trump raised his fist defiantly, and the crowd could see him say: “Fight. Fight. Fight.”
Immediately the fear of the crowd dissipated, the chaotic uncertainty lifted, and it was replaced with steely resolve. The crowd responded back as one: “USA, USA, USA!”
This is not a “narrative.” It is the truth. Trump stood defiant in the face of an assassin’s bullet. There is no way to fake courage like that.
It was more important for Trump to let the crowd know that he was unbowed and unbroken than to be taken to safety.
Donald Trump has already been in the fight of his life for months, as vindictive Democrats seek to imprison him, but on this day he came within inches of losing it. He has risked everything for this country.
It is now up to us, the American people, to show him that he does not stand alone. Let us reject the lies, the hoaxes, the hate and the division that the media has spread about this brave man, and support his resounding victory in November”
David Sacks. @DavidSacks
Great post, David and what made it even better was that it was not interrupted by J Cal.
“…Trump stood defiant in the face of an assassin’s bullet. There is no way to fake courage like that”. That’s assuming it wasn’t staged, which IMHO, it may well have been–a Kodak moment for the masses, a diversion away from Project 2025 and Biden’s success at hosting the NATO summit. I’ve yet to see any physician’s report or interview describing actual injuries or treatment rendered for same. How do we know he didn’t slap a fake blood capsule on the side of his face? Why was he more concerned about his shoes and hat and two lip-biting and fist-pumping photo ops than getting to safety? Why was the alleged shooter a registered Republican? The $15 contribution to a democrat organization 3 years ago is a red herring.
Keep in mind that Trump also “stood defiant” in the face of getting voted out of office, which included refusing to go away quietly like previous electon losers did, and starting an insurrection to try to force himself on the American people. Trump also “stood defiant” in the face of getting convicted of 34 felonies, constantly attacking the witnesses, the judge, the prosecutor and the NY legal system. Trump also “stood defiant” in the face of being adjudicated a fraudster and of sexually assaulting and defaming a woman. Trump also “stood defiant” in the face of being found responsible for falsifying loan applications to obtain a larger loan on more favorable terms than if he had been honest. The Judge called his misrepresentations of his net worth “shocking to the conscience”.
What you and the Trump campaign are trying to spin as “bravery” and “defiance” is the bluster of a malignant narcissist who never was in any real danger, who is scared shi*tless of going to prison for his crimes, whose fragile ego cannot handle rejection, and nothing more. Trump is NO hero and NO patriot. He’s a LOSER, a chronic, habitual liar, racist, misogynist, cheater in business and in his 3 marriages, and an adjudicated fraudster and sexual assaulter of a woman. Friday’s incident does not change those fundamental facts.
Here’s something to be afraid of–J.D. Vance– excerpted from “Vox”, dateline July 15, 2024:
“Vance has said that, had he been vice president in 2020, he would have carried out Trump’s scheme for the vice president to overturn the election results. He has fundraised for January 6 rioters. He once called on the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into a Washington Post columnist who penned a critical piece about Trump. After last week’s assassination attempt on Trump, he attempted to whitewash his radicalism by blaming the shooting on Democrats’ rhetoric about democracy without an iota of evidence.
This worldview translates into a very aggressive agenda for a second Trump presidency. In a podcast interview, Vance said that Trump should “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat” in the US government and “replace them with our people.” If the courts attempt to stop this, Vance says, Trump should simply ignore the law.
“You stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it,” he declares.
The President Jackson quote is likely apocryphal, but the history is real. Vance is referring to an 1832 case, Worcester v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US government needed to respect Native legal rights to land ownership. Jackson ignored the ruling, and continued a policy of allowing whites to take what belonged to Natives. The end result was the ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Natives — an event we now call the Trail of Tears.
For most Americans, this history is a deep source of shame: an authoritarian president trampling on the rule of law to commit atrocities. For Vance, it is a well of inspiration.
J.D. Vance is a man who believes that the current government is so corrupt that radical, even authoritarian steps, are justified in response. He sees himself as the avatar of America’s virtuous people, whose political enemies are interlopers scarcely worthy of respect. He is a man of the law who believes the president is above it.”
I know a MAGAt when I see one. Trump didn’t “stand defiant”— the SS confirmed that Crooks had already been shot dead when he stood up and started the fist pumping and lip biting he rehearsed. It appears more to be an orchestrated photo op to create the illusion of “tough guy”rather than a serious assassination attempt. I’d like to see proof that the red material wasn’t a fake blood capsule he smacked on the side of his head and proof of an actual injury—like an interview with a real doctor. Trump is a showman and is desperate.
Trump never risked anything for anyone because he doesn’t care about anyone else. He is in this campaign to avoid going to prison, to seek vengeance because he couldn’t cheat his way into office a second time and because he craves power, attention and glory. He has promised to use the FBI and DOJ to get revenge on his enemies. The American people don’t want that.
The first place to start rejecting lies is with Trump— when Project 2025 came to light, there was pushback, so he denied that Project 2025 is his agenda, but it was written mostly by former members of his administration, and his name is mentioned dozens of times. He has publicly supported things that are in Project 2025, like the president firing career civil servants and controlling the DOJ and FBI, concentration camps for migrants, eliminating the Department of Education, rolling back consumer and environmental protections, doing away with green energy and promoting the fossil fuel industry, tax cuts for the wealthy, discrimination against LGBTQ , and bans on abortion and IVF, He lies about his record and verbally abuses anyone with whom he disagrees— including prosecutors who are pursuing criminal charges, witnesses in his cases, etc. He is an embarrassment to this country with his bloviating about Hamas and Russia not starting conflicts if he was in office. He is an international joke and publicly admirers murderers like Putin and Kim Jong Un. That is un-American.
You speak of hate—Trump is the poster boy for hate and divisiveness. There isn’t enough space to list all the examples.
“Brave man”—my axx. He’s a fat coward who doesn’t even have the character to accept the fact that he lost a free and fair election. Now he’s scared of going to prison for his crimes. He lied to his fans to get them to attack the Capitol after bullying Pence and trying to get State election officials to rig votes.
Economists say that Trump’s economic agenda will once again raise inflation, and the tax cuts will result in cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The successful economy Biden created will fizzle, but the wealthy will do better. He plans to take health insurance away from millions.
It’s time for Americans to look at Trump, his lack of character, his racism, misogyny, the mess he made of his first term in office , his dangerous policies and once again vote him down. We don’t need a convicted criminal, liar, adjudicated fraudster and sexual assaulter of a woman in our White House , someone who lacks basic understanding of economics, whose agenda will once again wreck our economy, take away health insurance and who wants to help Putin take over Ukraine which could lead to WW III.
Last Friday’s little assassination charade changes nothing. Trump is still the loser he always was, he still has nothing good to offer America and America still would have a lot to lose if he gets in office.
I know a gigi when I see one.
Seems to me an obvious mistake was not to have a SS Sniper on the Water Tower, or at the very least a Remote Camera. Goes to show you that having Drone & Camera surveillance is useless if it just sits in the back of a Van or Storage. How much money did Taxpayers spend on S.S. Equipment last year???
See Photo of Shooter path:
https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/GSdt7NiW4AAG8ZW_80.jpg?itok=EFMOmi6D
I don’t want to fuel any comment war, better to wait and see what results of the investigation are (unless it’s by the same guys still looking for the owner of the WhiteHouse stash). But, it looked to me (I know, not the best vantage point) that the SS Sniper guy was already pointed at the assassin. Shots rang out, the SS sniper raised his head (but did not re-aim his gun) and returned fire. Just seemed odd to me.
I think the sniper was checking to verify what was behind the target before taking the shot, or rule number 4: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
With a high power scope at max power, the field of view can be very small, like around 3ft at 100yrds.
I was wondering what the local police and Secret Service would have done differently if they actually intended for President Trump to be shot and the possible evidence from the shooter liquidated.
It is amazing when they are so bad that you can’t tell whether they were complicit in an assassination attempt or just staggeringly incompetent.
In a related matter I doubt we can get much ‘uncurated’ information from the agency that holds the Seth Rich information, refuses to release the audio of Biden’s deposition, can’t find who left a pile of cocaine in the White House, and sat on the Hunter laptop. ‘Trust us’ they say. Nope. Once did. But nevermore.
Young, less than adequately competent as the Secret Service takes its responsibilities seriously.
However, you just can’t find good help anymore!
Young: Trump is NOT President and by fomenting an insurrection because he’s a sore LOSER and being a convicted criminal, forfeits any claim to an honorary title. Secondly, if there was intent to deliberately shoot your hero, it was likely orchestrated by his campaign to create that special Kodak moment of a fist-pumping, lip-biting “tough guy” calling the faithful to “fight, fight, fight”, who can take a bullet. WHO were the faithful supposed to FIGHT and WHY? Fight to get him back into power so we can go through another recession for the sake of that ego? Fight to help Putin defeat Ukraine, to pay him back for helping Trump in 2016? America is just recovering from the damage he did the first time around. Without the prospect of a second term and wtih the help of the SCOTUS, the potential damage to the America we know is incalculable.
It appears to me that all of this was to capture the weekend news cycle and divert attention away from the Project 2025 PR disaster and Biden’s success in leading the NATO summit and in recent interviews. There was no surprise when the shots came, and the pre-scripted lip biting and fist pumping for the cameras appears planned and choreographed–there were the American flags as a backdrop, the Trump signs and the fawning fans– a made-for-TV campaign moment. This was not a genuine assassination attempt, IMHO, but a pathetic effort by a desperate narcissist to look “brave”, but who is, in fact, a coward–afraid of going to prison for his crimes afraid of losing once again to Joe Biden. Has any actual physician unrelated to the Trump campaign spoken publicly about treating your hero or the nature of his alleged “injuries”? What medical facility was he allegedly taken to? What treatment was rendered? How do we know that he didn’t have one of those fake stage blood capsules that he slapped against his head? Why was he more concerned about his shoes and hat and two fist pumping and lip biting photo ops than getting to safety?
What we DO know is that Trump is a showman–the fake “self-made, boy-wonder billionaire playboy” image he created, that he has no moral compass, that he will do literally anything to “win” at any cost, including starting an insurrection because he isn’t man enough to admit he lost. Unlike previous election losers, he refused to go away–he just couldn’t stay away from those cameras and get on with his life. He won’t back down–but that’s not a sign of strength—it’s a sign of mental illness called “narcissism”. So the public found out his plans if he gets into office, and they are universally unpopular and quite frankly, frightening–taking away many of the hard-fought-for freedoms we have taken for granted–what to do? Get some stooge to take some shots with the stage set for fundraising photos–to create an image of manliness and toughness. Once you understand Trump, you doubt that this was random. The lip biting and fist pumping are just too choreographed.
You want to talk about things that should concern voters–how about the radical Project 2025, Trump’s lying about not knowing the people behind it, most of whom were members of his administration, all of the criminal indictments, and what was that meeting with Viktor Orbhan about anyway? Orbhan is a Putin ally.
“…it was likely orchestrated by his campaign”
What a genius you are to think that Trump would trust anyone, let alone a 20-year old, to graze his head by the slightest of margins from afar. No wonder you also believe the other nonsense you wrote.
I said what I thought was possible based on appearances, the lack of the usual treating physician news conference describing injuries, treatment and prognosis, Trump’s behavior, treating it as a photo op, and the call to “fight, fight, fight “—for what? Have they retrieved the bullet, tied it to Crooks’ weapon, done any forensics as to the trajectory of bullets, and so forth? I’m throwing out a possible explanation based on what I know about Trump being desperate, being a showman, needing to hog the limelight, needing to appear manly, his penchant for using media to create diversion, and the lack of any apparent motive. If forensic evidence proves me wrong, I’ll admit it, but the facts don’t convince me yet.
So you’re saying Trump trusted a 20-year-old rejected from the varsity rifle team to fire at the crowd while he was right there in the middle of it?
And if Crooks wasn’t shooting, what was he doing on the rooftop with a rifle? Sunbathing?
Try to come up with a conspiracy theory that’s less laughable.
@ David Benson
I know you think the New York Times is top of the profession but here is why I don’t agree:
https://twitchy.com/dougp/2024/07/14/compare-the-ny-times-front-page-to-the-ny-posts-for-the-starkest-of-journalism-contrast-n2398359
Young, how unobservant of you and Doug. The 2 photos aree at slightly different angles and possibly slightly different times. In The New York Times photo the lower right hand corner appears in the upper right quadrant.
Stick with the quality journalism of The New York Times. You’ll have the wool-pulled-over-yur-eyes less. Much less.
David B. Benson, Soviet Democrat apparatchik, tried the “Don’t believe you lying eyes” pitch:
Stick with the quality journalism of The New York Times. You’ll have the wool-pulled-over-yur-eyes less. Much less.
Would that by the NYT that assured gullible readers like you FOR YEARS that the “Russia Dossier” commissioned and paid for by Clinton, Obama, and the DNC was US intelligence product – and all of it was verified?
The NYT that assured gullible readers like you FOR YEARS that Trump said that neo-Nazis were very fine people – despite the fact that any normal person who isn’t even the finest of investigative journalists that work for the NYT can read the transcript and see that Trump said the opposite?
Well… how about when The New York Post was being censored while trying to do their best to publish news about what we now know was the Biden Bribery Laptop – and the NYT in a magnificent display of journalistic brotherhood assured their gullible readers that The New York Post was publishing Russian election disinformation?
Soviet Democrat “don’t believe your lying eyes about our lying media” doesn’t work anymore.
And attempting to cosplay as a fair-minded honest Democrat while telling us we must not believe our lying eyes is just another Soviet Democrat Cheap Fake on public display.
@ David,
Good call. The photos are at slightly different times and a breeze may have wafted the flag higher in the photos the Times used. But usually a cameraman’s SLR camera is set to rapidly take several photos. You can hear it in the rapid series of clicks. I think it likely the Times had several photos with the flag present but made an editorial decision to choose one of those without the flag. That would certainly be consistent with their editorial position. On mount Suribachi there were several photos of Marines with the flag. Rosenthal didn’t even know what he had until he developed his film and knew at once that it was vastly superior to any of the other flag photos and maybe superior to anything he had ever done or may ever do again. Half the men in the Rosenthal photo were killed before the fight on Iwo was over. The picture the Post chose with the flag and Trump with blood on his face had some of the magic of the Rosenthal photo but the Times passed on it.
But thanks for the observation. Always a pleasure to probe more deeply.
Worth noting that The Times of India chose to use the photo with the American flag behind a defiant Trump with the headline ‘Donald Trumps Death’.
New York Times made its choice deliberately and consistently with their strong bias. Not a reliable source for information.
Young,
The picture with the American flag behind Trump was very patriotic, bold, strong, very American.
The NYT is not known for any of those things.
@ Upstate
Very true. The NYT is reliably anti-American and can be counted upon to shade its stories and select its photos with that governing hostility. Cognate to that hostility is their disgraceful fondness for authoritarianism. It is funny, though, that the young porcine, pimpled social justice warriors they hired to virtue signal are now at war with management. The trouble with authoritarianism is that different people want so much to be the governing authority.
“In America we resolve our differences at the battle box, at the battle box, that’s how we do it, not with bullets.”
-Joe Biden, 7/14/2024
same pants crapper that has called Trump a ” nazi” and ” hitler” for 8 years ???
Contributor to ActBlue might be a different Thomas Crooks (who had money).
The contribution was $15, suggesting someone who may not have had a lot of money.
Democrats are like weighing 300#s and putting on a size 6 spandex and saying, damn I am hot looking! Then when you figure out you look like a bag of door knobs you blame it on racism.
Democrats are like cutting your dinky off to become a….guy without a dinky!
Democrats are like being married to a bipolar woman. Oh, sorry I forgot they don’t know what a woman is.
Drew Hernandez
@DrewHLive
“All survivors and eye witnesses of the Trump Rally yesterday considering talking with Biden’s FBI or submitting video footage
Make multiple copies, post it on X on a public forum and lawyer up
Do not trust these feds that have been hunting us for the past 4 years
They are not there to get justice for Trump”
This is going to be a coverup operation. No one should trust this FBI or DOJ. Not one bit.