Donald Trump has published his second statement on Truth Social since the Pennsylvania shooting on Saturday. In it, the former Republican president said he looks forward to speaking from Wisconsin where the Republican national convention (RNC) will be held this week.
Trump wrote:
Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.
We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families.
We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.
In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united, and show our true character as Americans, remaining strong and determined, and not allowing evil to win.
I truly love our country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin. DJT
The Republicans’ convention will take place from July 15-18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the Fiserv Forum, home of the Milwaukee Bucks, earmarked to be the main venue.
Wisconsin is one of a handful of battleground states likely to determine this year’s presidential race. It was one of the so-called “blue wall” states that Democrats once relied on, but Trump narrowly won in 2016, paving the way for his victory. Biden flipped the state back in 2020, and both campaigns are targeting it heavily this year.
It’s time to be “a little less partisan,” swing state Democratic congressman says
Greg Landsman, a Democratic congressman running in a competitive, Democratic-leaning district in Ohio, has released a long statement on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, calling for bipartisan cooperation and less partisanship in the days to come.
“We need to lean on one another, and to show more grace and kindness. We need to talk about what we believe in and do so with the greatest amount of thoughtfulness and care,” he wrote, citing scripture and calling for a change in tone across the country.
Just a few days ago, Landsman was making headlines for raising questions about whether Joe Biden should continue as the Democratic nominee for president, saying “it’s becoming increasingly likely that this may be just too high of a hill for him to climb” and that Biden needed to be able to make a clear case against Trump.
It’s not yet fully clear how the Democratic congressional candidates’ views on Biden staying in the race will change as the country reacts to an attempted Trump assassination.
In Fox News call, Trump reportedly praises Biden for check-in call, describes shooting
In what was described as a 15-minute phone call with Fox News’ Brett Baier, Donald Trump reportedly “praised president Biden for the phone call” he made to Trump and called it a “good conversation,” Baier said.
The former president is en route to Milwaukee, Baier said.
Trump told Baier that he had just turned his head to the side to look at an infographic on immigration statistics when he described feeling something like “the biggest mosquito of his lifetime” or “bumblebee that sort of feels like in his ear,” Baier said. Then Trump described looking at his hand and seeing blood, and going down.
Trump said that when he his raised fist to the crowd, he had actually wanted to go back and say a few words to his supporters, but the secret service was hurrying him offstage.
Rally shooting suspect’s family is cooperating with the investigation, FBI says
An FBI official tells the Associated Press that the suspected shooter’s family is cooperating with federal investigators.
Relatives of Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, have not returned multiple messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The suspect’s father, Matthew Crooks, previously told CNN in a phone call late Saturday night that he was trying to understand “what the hell is going on” and would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking further.
The FBI said it believes the AR-style rifle the Trump rally shooter used was legally purchased by the suspect’s father, the Associated Press reported previously, and that it was not clear how the suspect had obtained the weapon.
“These are facts that we’ll flesh out as we conduct interviews,” Kevin Rojek, an FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office, told reporters, the Associated Press reported.
Joe Biden offers condolences to family of Trump supporter killed at campaign rally
“He was a father protecting his family from the bullets being fired,” Joe Biden wrote on his official presidential account, in a tribute to 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, who attended the rally with his family.
Read more about tributes to Comperatore, who has been described by family members as a “hero” who died shielding his daughters from gunfire.
“What my precious girls had to witness is unforgivable,” his wife, Helen Comperatore, wrote on Facebook.
Biden will travel to Las Vegas on Monday for NAACP civil rights address
The White House has confirmed that Joe Biden will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada tomorrow.
The NAACP, a more than century-old civil rights group that advocates for the rights of Black Americans, previously announced that Biden would serve as a keynote speaker for its 115th national convention.
Attorney general calls attack on Trump “ an attack on our democracy itself”
In a press call with reporters, attorney general Merrick Garland said he was “grateful that former President Trump is safe following yesterday’s horrific assassination attempt,” and said that “the violence that we saw yesterday is an attack on our democracy itself.”
More details continue to emerge on the 20-year-old suspect in the rally shooting, Thomas Matthew Crooks, though what has been made public so far still leaves more questions than answers. Read the full story on what we know so far about the young suspect, who was a registered Republican, but had also made a $15 donation to the Progressive Turnout Project in 2021.
The FBI says they believe the “AR-style rifle the Trump rally shooter used was legally purchased by the gunman’s father,” the Associated Press reports. “Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office, told reporters that authorities don’t yet know how the shooter gained access to the weapon, and whether he took it without his father’s knowledge.”
FBI officials “have not yet identified an ideology” for the suspect, “but they are combing through his social media feeds and the shooter’s weapons. So far, they have not found any threatening writing or social media posts,” the Associated Press reports. They currently believe he acted alone.
Discord, the online platform, told reporters that: “We have identified an account that appears to be linked to the suspect; it was rarely utilized and we have found no evidence that it was used to plan this incident or discuss his political views,” the company said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The suspect also had no documentary history of mental health issues, the FBI said, according to the Washington Post.
The Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center has said in statements to media outlets that the suspect was a dietary aide at the facility. “We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement as Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean,” the administrator told CNN.
A high school classmate of Crooks described him as “quiet,” “nice,” and good at math, the Washington Post reported. She said that while he did sometimes wear hunting or camouflage outfits to school, that was typical for the area, and that he was not one of the kids at the school who were perceived as violent.
The Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas has previously reported that the suspect lived in “Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white, generally affluent suburb of Pittsburgh. Public records show he shared a home with parents who were licensed behavioral care counselors. Those same records contain no mention of any criminal or traffic citations – as well as any financial problems such as foreclosures.”
Two classmates of shooting suspect tell ABC News he was rejected from rifle club
ABC News is reporting that two former school classmates say the suspected shooter in the Trump campaign attack, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was rejected from his high school’s rifle club for not being a very good shot.
Two students told ABC News that Crooks was a “bad shot”, with one adding that he wasn’t the right “fit”.
“On the first day of preseason, he basically couldn’t even hit the target,” classmate Jameson Myers told ABC News.
It’s worth noting that these comments were not immediately confirmed by the school rifle team’s coach, who declined to comment, and a spokesman for the school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment, ABC News reported.
Pennsylvania state police release names of two men injured in Trump rally shooting
The names of two injured men who were shot in the Trump campaign rally attack were made public by state police. They are:
57-year-old David Dutch, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, who is currently listed in stable condition.
74-year-old James Copenhaver, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania. He is also listed in stable condition.
Officials previously released the name of Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania, who was shot and killed in the attack. The Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, called Comperatore a “hero” and said he was a former fire chief who “dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally” and was killed while protecting them.
Associated Press: Local officer encountered gunman just before he shot towards Trump at rally
This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live news coverage. Amid intense questions over security outside the rally, the Associated Press is reporting that two law enforcement sources say that a local police officer encountered the suspected shooter before he opened fire:
Not long before shots rang out, rallygoers noticed a man climbing to the roof of a nearby building and warned local police, according to two law enforcement officials.
One local police officer climbed to the roof and encountered Thomas Matthew Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer. The officer retreated down the ladder, and Crooks quickly took a shot toward Trump, and that’s when Secret Service snipers shot him, said the officials, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The Washington Post, citing an interview with the Butler county sheriff, Michael T Slupe, reports: “Just before the gunman opened fire, he faced a municipal police officer who wasn’t able to neutralize him.”
Here’s a look at where things stand:
Donald Trump will continue with his schedule and fly to Milwaukee, Wisconsin today, at 3.30pm ahead of the Republican national convention. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday afternoon, Trump wrote: “Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.”
Joe Biden said that he had spoken with Donald Trump following the assassination attempt on the ex-president. “We had a short but good conversation. Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. He was a father, he was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired,” Biden added.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, or any violence,” said Biden. The president is to address the nation tonight at 8pm from the Oval Office, the White House confirmed.
Joe Biden is rescheduling his trip to Texas following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, according to White House pool reports. The trip was originally planned for Monday 15 July. Biden was expected to deliver a keynote address at the Lyndon B Johnson library in Austin to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, said that the victim – Corey Comperatore, a 50-year old former fire chief – who was killed in yesterday’s Donald Trump rally shooting “died a hero”. “We lost a fellow Pennsylvanian last night. Corey Comperatore,” said Shapiro, adding: “Corey was a girl dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community. And most especially, Corey loved his family.”
Bomb-making materials were discovered in the home of the suspect involved in yesterday’s shooting, according to law enforcement officials speaking anonymously to the Associated Press. Bomb-making materials were also reportedly found in the suspect’s car near the rally site.
Mark Green, the Republican chairman of the House committee on homeland security, has issued a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, demanding the secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, turn over the security plans of yesterday’s event site. In the letter, Green wrote: “The seriousness of this security failure and chilling moment in our nation’s history cannot be understated.”
Melania Trump has issued a statement calling for political unity after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump yesterday in Butler, Pennsylvania. In her statement released on Sunday, she wrote: “America, the fabric of our gentle nation is tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one.” She went on to call the suspect a “monster” who saw her husband as an “inhuman political machine”.
Authorities handling security at the rally at the Butler Park Showgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, have dismissed claims that Donald Trump was denied a request for additional security. The US Secret Service has called the claim “absolutely false”.
The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said “we shouldn’t be targeting people” as he urged Americans to treat one another with dignity and respect in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. He said there has been no figure in modern American history – besides perhaps Abraham Lincoln – who has been so “vilified” by the media and the legal system as he says Trump has.
Donald Trump will continue with his schedule and fly to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today at 3.30pm ahead of the Republican national convention.
In a post on Truth Social on Sunday afternoon, Trump wrote:
Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else. Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee, as scheduled, at 3:30 P.M. TODAY. Thank you!
As the US comes to grips with Donald Trump’s assassination attempt, Jonathan Freedland and Sidney Blumenthal discuss what this tragedy means for the former president’s image with less than five months until the election:
Joe Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office at 8pm tonight, the White House confirms.
Biden’s remarks will follow the assassination attempt on Donald Trump yesterday during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In a brief address on Sunday afternoon from the Roosevelt Room, Biden condemned the attack, saying, “There is no place in America for this kind of violence.”
“Mr Trump, as a former president and nominee of the Republican party, already received a heightened level of security and I’ve been consistent in my direction of the Secret Service to provide him with every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety,” Joe Biden said.
“Second, I’ve directed the head of the Secret Service to review all security measures for … the Republican national convention, which is scheduled to start tomorrow.
“And third, I’ve directed an independent review of national security at yesterday’s rally to assess exactly what happened, and we’ll share the results of that independent review with the American people as well,” Biden said.
“We don’t yet have any information about the motive of the shooter. We know who he is. I urge everyone, everyone, please don’t make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations,” said Joe Biden.
“Let the FBI do their job, and their partner agencies do their job. I’ve instructed that this investigation be thorough and swift, and the investigators will have every resource they need to get this done,” he added.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, or any violence,” said Joe Biden.
“For that matter, an assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation, everything. It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not America, and we cannot allow this to happen. Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that,” he added.
Joe Biden said that he had spoken with Donald Trump following the assassination attempt on the ex-president.
“We had a short but good conversation. Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. He was a father, he was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired,” Biden added.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
