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      Did Donald Trump just win the election? | Arwa Mahdawi

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      You’ve almost certainly seen the pictures by now. You’ve probably seen them a hundred times. A fist in the air, blood dripping from his ear, an American flag above him, a defiant expression on his face. Trump quickly jumping up from an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally and appearing to mouth the words: “Fight! Fight! Fight!” If you fed “all-American tough guy president” into an AI image generator, it wouldn’t spit out anything half as powerful. Obviously, there’s nothing remotely positive about a terrible act of political violence that left an innocent bystander and the shooter dead. But in terms of optics for Trump’s presidential campaign? Well, as Trump himself told The New York Post on Sunday: “A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen”. He added: “They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”There’s still a lot we don’t know about what happened on Saturday. We know who the suspected shooter is – the FBI has identified him as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks – but we don’t know why he did it. Crooks was a registered Republican but records show that when he was 17 he made a $15 donation to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for Democratic politicians. With the information we have right now, it’s hard to paint Crook as an extreme leftwinger.That won’t stop Republicans, though, who are already blaming Joe Biden and the Democrats for the shooting. Again, there’s still a lot we don’t know about what exactly happened, but the one thing we can definitively say is that Trump’s allies will wring every possible drop of political capital out of the shooting.“This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse,” Senator Tim Scott tweeted on Saturday, for example.“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” the Ohio Senator JD Vance similarly tweeted. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”View image in fullscreenVance is right on the first point. The central premise of Biden’s campaign is that Trump is an existential threat to democracy. That phrase has been repeated again and again. “There is one existential threat: it’s Donald Trump,” Biden said at a fundraiser in February. “Trump poses an existential threat to abortion rights in Pennsylvania,” the Democratic US representative Mary Gay Scanlon said at a press conference in April. The Democratic congressman Gregory Meeks called Trump an “existential threat to democracy” this month on MSNBC.All of that is still true. But now that there’s been a dramatic threat to Trump’s very existence, that talking point loses its potency. Every time a Democrat raises it, Republicans can claim they are putting Trump’s life at risk again. Expect that phrase to start fizzling out. The assassination attempt on Trump has made it a lot harder for Democrats to emphasize how dangerous his policies would be. Instead they’ll spend the next couple of weeks talking about civility and denouncing violence. (And, of course, violence of any type should always be roundly condemned. It’s just a shame the same politicians denouncing political violence right now have no problem raining hell down on kids in Gaza. Violence, it seems, is only condemned when it affects certain people.)Another big Democratic talking point is January 6. Biden has been blistering about Trump’s election “big lie” that incited the breach of the Capitol by his supporters by a “violent mob”. Biden has asked people to recall the violent scenes and reflect on how “democracy was attacked” that day. Again, all that remains true, but that particular narrative also loses its potency when Trump has been attacked; when the democratic process has been attacked. If January 6 is mentioned again, Republicans can simply point their fingers at Democrats and accuse them of inciting violence on 13 July.While the Democrats’ key talking points have been weakened, Trump’s characterization of himself as a brave martyr has been strengthened. From the very beginning of his political career, Trump has painted himself as an outsider, taking on the elites. He’s repeatedly characterized his many legal battles as a politically motivated “witch-hunt”. DC insiders and the deep state, he keeps saying, are out to get him. He’s claimed that his enemies have tried to lock him up and have tried to steal the election. Now he can claim they’ve tried to kill him. Trump already has a cult-like base. After his brush with death, they will be even more devoted to their hero.All of this could not come at a worse time for Biden. His campaign, I don’t need to tell you, is in complete disarray. Day after day there has been headline after headline about the president being too frail and feeble for office. Biden already looked like a weak old man compared to Trump (who is only three years younger than him). Now that contrast has been extraordinarily heightened. Trump is the guy who jumps straight up after being fired at by an assassin; Biden is the guy who stumbles up the stairs. If you’re an undecided voter swayed by which candidate looks more presidential, your mind just got made up.

      Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist More

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      Biden embraces role as healer – but Trump remains king of the spectacle

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      Donald Trump has the stagecraft but Joe Biden still commands the biggest stage.A day after the former US president displayed his preternatural genius for spectacle – forcing the Secret Service to pause so he could show bloody defiance after a near-death experience – the spotlight turned back to his beleaguered election opponent.On Sunday, Biden delivered an Oval Office address for only the third time in his presidency, having previously done so when a deal was reached to avoid a breach of the debt ceiling and to comment on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.The set piece allowed him to demonstrate the power of incumbency, sending a message to Democratic rebels who want the 81-year-old to step aside amid concerns he lacks the mental agility to beat Trump.The familiar trappings of the Resolute Desk against a backdrop of family photos, window, flags and curtains also sought to project the image of Biden as president rather than candidate, an elder statesman rising above the fray to call for national unity after a traumatic moment.It was a solemn duty that came with relative ease to a man who, during 36 years in the Senate, made bipartisanship a cornerstone of his political identity.There is a need to “lower the temperature in our politics”, said Biden, his voice more solid and less throaty than during a recent debate and press conference. “And to remember: while we may disagree, we are not enemies.”The president urged everyone to take a “step back” and recognise the chilling pattern of the January 6 insurrection, the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, the intimidation of election officials, the kidnapping plot against Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and the assassination attempt against Trump.“We cannot allow this violence to be normalised. The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do this.”Biden, embracing his role as repairer of the breach, made a plea: “In America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box – you know that’s how we do it, at the ballot box, not with bullets. The power to change American should should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin.”Biden nodded towards a return to politics as usual soon, noting that the Republican convention starts on Monday and highlighting his own campaign efforts.But some of the old glitches did not disappear. While Biden showed his generous spirit by saying he had called his opponent and prayed for him, he referred to “former Trump” instead of “former President Trump”.The cold, dispassionate reality is that the failed assassination of Trump has strengthened the hand of both presidential candidates. Biden had been desperate to change the post-debate narrative and that happened in a way he would not have wished.Democrats have privately admitted that this is not the time to mount a challenge to his leadership, when they are concerned about the safety of their staff. But in the mind of the electorate, the perception of Biden as doddery and declining is likely to persist.For Trump, the gain is greater. What happened on Saturday turned the old maxim – what does not kill him makes stronger – literal. The circus master’s presence of mind, raising a fist and shouting “Fight!” to his supporters, produced a photograph for the ages and guaranteed his status as both messiah and martyr.This week the spotlight will turn firmly back in his direction. Come Thursday, instead of the august setting of the Oval Office, there will be the kitsch theatrics of a primetime speech at the Republican convention.Trump could do something truly historic by echoing Biden’s address, insisting that violence has no place in politics, accepting that his own narrow escape is a cathartic moment and now America must pull back from the brink. The rest of the election campaign could be one of decency and grace.Commentators would gush that Trump had become “presidential” and of course it wouldn’t last. Biden might have the bully pulpit but Trump remains the bully to beat. More

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      Donald Trump shooting: authorities attempt to determine motive as suspect’s devices seized

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      FBI officials said on Sunday they were assessing the shooting of Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday as a possible domestic terrorism attack and assassination attempt, as federal investigators executed a flurry of warrants in trying to determine a motive.The officials said there was no evidence that the 20-year-old suspected gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was operating as part of a larger group. But his reasons for scaling the roof of a building overlooking the rally to shoot at Trump remained unclear.By Sunday evening, dozens of federal investigators with the FBI, the ATF and all three US attorney’s offices in Pennsylvania were involved in an expanding investigation that had seized several of Crooks’ devices and started to piece together some of his communications before the rally.The other major development was the discovery of potential explosive devices in Crooks’ car. Former prosecutors suggested that those could indicate Crooks expected to survive the shooting.The devices and the AR-15-style rifle, which officials said was bought legally, were sent to the bureau’s lab in Quantico, Virginia.The ATF identified the owner of the gun through its national tracing center and using business records from a gun dealer. The results of the trace were provided to the FBI within 30 minutes, the agency’s spokesperson Katrina Mastropasqua said.The shooting at the campaign rally has raised the stakes and the significance of Trump’s appearance at the Republican national convention starting Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he will formally accept the GOP nomination for president and will unveil his running-mate.It also cast the 2024 presidential race into uncertainty. The campaigns for both Trump and Joe Biden pulled back on political functions over the weekend, as they moved to grapple with the immediate fallout of the situation.View image in fullscreenIn Washington, Biden spoke with Trump on a call described by a source familiar as “brief and very respectful” before receiving a briefing from top US officials including the attorney general, Merrick Garland, the FBI director Christopher Wray, the Secretary for Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.In brief remarks to the nation from the White House, Biden called the assassination attempt “contrary to everything we stand for us as a nation, everything. It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not American. And we cannot allow this to happen”.Biden said he had demanded a national security review that he would share publicly, and that he had directed the US secret service to review security arrangements for the Republican convention.Later, in a primetime address, the president called for unity. The shooting “calls on all of us to take a step back,” Biden said. “We stand for an America of decency and grace … politics must never be a killing field.”Trump, for his part, huddled with senior advisers at his Bedminster club in New Jersey, keeping to his planned schedule as he prepared for the Republican convention, The Guardian previously reported. Trump’s next appearance is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday in Milwaukee, where he arrived on Sunday evening.“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 a potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” Trump wrote.The assassination attempt placed the secret service under intense scrutiny, with lawmakers from both parties moving to open investigations into the security arrangements and calling for the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, to account for the decisions.At issue remains how a single man with a semi-automatic rifle managed to access a roof 140 yards away from the stage where Trump was speaking at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.The House homeland security committee ordered the secret service’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to produce documents and communications related to the security apparatus for the rally and whether any requests for more resources had been rebuffed. More

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      Trump rally shooting: what we know about the suspected gunman

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      The early portrait that has emerged of the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who authorities say tried to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in the state on Saturday before secret service agents shot him to death is a complicated and so far sparse one.Thomas Matthew Crooks resided 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.Actions that Crooks took late in his time as a student at Bethel Park high school offered virtually no hint of his political leanings. He was a junior at the school, and it was the first day of Joe Biden’s presidency, when Crooks donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a political action committee aligned with the president’s Democratic party. Public records show his father is a registered Republican and his mother a registered Democrat.Yet eight months later, early in his senior year, Crooks registered to vote as a member of the Republican party, led by Trump since 2016. And he had left his affiliation unchanged when he voted in the November 2022 midterm elections, which took place months after he graduated from Bethel Park high, where he was among a group of students to receive a $500 National Math and Science Initiative “star award”.A former classmate of Crooks’ said he had not shown any particular interest in politics in high school, but they would discuss computers and games. “He was super smart. That’s what really kind of threw me off was, this was, like, a really, really smart kid, like he excelled,” the classmate told Reuters. “Nothing crazy ever came up in any conversation.”Another young man who described himself as a former schoolmate of Crooks at Bethel Park high school spoke with reporters Sunday, recalling how his ex-companion “was bullied almost every day” on campus.The man told NBC News and other outlets that Crooks’ penchant for wearing “hunting” and “military” clothes – and eating alone at lunch – drew derision from his peers, who considered him a “loner” and an “outcast”.“You know how kids are these days – they’re going to see someone like that and they’re going to target him because they think it’s funny or whatever,” the man said to journalists.While the man made clear he wasn’t saying any of those experiences fueled Saturday’s assassination attempt, he added: “It’s honestly kind of sad … He was bullied so much.”ABC News reported that two former classmates of Crooks told the outlet that he was rejected from their school’s rifle club because he wasn’t a very skilled shot. School officials had not immediately confirmed those recollections.Crooks reportedly had an account on Discord, an online chat app that began as a space for gamers but gained notoriety in part because the white supremacist who fatally shot 10 people at grocery in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo posted on the platform about his plans to attack the store.Discord told the gaming news outlet Kotaku that the account that appeared to be linked to Crooks “was rarely utilized”.“We have no evidence that it was used to plan this incident or discuss his political views,” said the company’s statement to Kotaku. In addition to pledging to cooperate with law enforcement, the statement continued: “Discord strongly condemns violence of any kind, including political violence.”Crooks thrust himself into the center of the political world on Saturday when he went about an hour north of Bethel Park and got atop the roof of a bottle manufacturing plant in Butler county, Pennsylvania. Nearby, the former US president was speaking at a supporters’ rally as he pursues a return to the White House in November.Multiple people who were listening to Trump’s speech outside the rally venue said they spotted Crooks as he brought an AR-style rifle to the plant rooftop and took aim in the direction of the former president. But they said officers did not immediately react to their warnings – assertions that prompted the local district attorney, Richard Goldinger, to tell CNN that it was urgent for investigators to figure out how Crooks “would’ve gotten to the location where he was”.Crooks ultimately managed to fire several shots toward the stage where Trump was speaking, which was less than 500ft away (152.4 meters) away. One spectator was killed, and two others were critically wounded. Trump reported that a bullet “pierced the upper part” of his right ear, which was visibly bloodied – but he was otherwise “fine”, he said after Secret Service agents whisked him away from the scene.Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Secret Service said, agents returned fire at Crooks and killed him.View image in fullscreenABC News cited multiple law enforcement sources who told the outlet that the rifle the gunman fired on Saturday had been purchased legally by the suspect’s father, Matthew Crooks. Investigators arrived at that conclusion after the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms conducted an urgent trace on the weapon, according to the network.Separately, the Associated Press reported that authorities had discovered bomb-making materials in Crooks’ home and car, which was parked near the site of Saturday’s Trump rally.The Wall Street Journal added that police received multiple reports of suspicious packages near where Crooks was, prompting officials to dispatch bomb technicians.Graphic pictures of the scene circulating on social media showed Crooks had been clad in a T-shirt branded with the name of a YouTube channel dedicated to providing content on guns and demolition.Late Saturday, the channel’s host reposted a picture on Instagram of law enforcement officers standing over Crooks’ body – with part of the T-shirt’s wording visible – and wrote: “What the hell”.The FBI identified Crooks as Trump’s would-be assassin late on Saturday. On Sunday, the bureau said all available information suggested Crooks “acted alone” and there were no immediate “public safety concerns” about a larger plot.The FBI said it had not yet uncovered a motive for the apparent assassination attempt, or whether Crooks adhered to any specific ideologies. Crooks’ social media profile does not contain threatening language, authorities said on Sunday. Investigators have not found evidence of mental health issues.FBI officials told the AP that Crooks’ family was cooperating with their investigation – part of which also hoped to determine how he took the rifle he fired Saturday.Bethel Park skilled nursing and rehabilitation center, where Crooks was employed as a dietary aide, said it was “shocked and saddened” to hear he was responsible for Saturday’s shooting.“His background check was clean,” said a statement from the facility, which also condemned “all acts of violence”. More

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      Trump rally shooting: Biden says ‘there is no place in America for this kind of violence’; attendee who was killed is identified – latest updates

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      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 saysGreg 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 shootingIn 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 saysAn 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 addressThe 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 clubABC 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 shootingThe 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 rallyThis 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. More

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      Trump to keep schedule for Republican convention after rally shooting

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      Donald Trump huddled with his senior advisers at his Bedminster club in New Jersey a day after surviving what federal investigators called an assassination attempt, preparing for the Republican national convention, which kicks off on Monday.Trump was keeping the same schedule as originally planned, according to sources familiar with the situation. His next public appearance is tentatively set for Tuesday at the convention though the sources cautioned that could change.The assassination attempt has raised the stakes and the national significance of the convention, where Trump is set to deliver a speech and watch the announcement of his running mater in perhaps one of the most politically charged elections in the nation’s history.Trump spoke to Joe Biden on Sunday in a phone call described by one of the sources as “brief and very respectful”, but otherwise stuck with his schedule of meetings and convention planning in part to stave off the shock that came with the shooting.The shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, used an AK-style semi-automatic rifle to fire multiple rounds at Trump roughly 10 minutes into his campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Crooks was shot dead by US secret service counter-snipers at the rally.The assassination investigation is being led by the FBI and the ATF. Federal investigators executed a number of search warrants on Sunday to try and establish motive for the shooting, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter.Trump was rushed off stage after the shooting and treated at a local medical facility for injuries to his right ear. He then travelled to Bedminster on his plane and landed shortly after midnight, one of the sources said.The number of staffers with Trump at the rally was limited, with some of his advance staff already in Milwaukee for the convention. The staffers with Trump included his campaign chief Susie Wiles, his spokesperson Steven Cheung and deputy communications director Margo Martin.From Bedminster, Trump said in a Truth Social post he intended to travel to the convention, as planned, on Sunday afternoon.“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 a potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” Trump wrote.In an earlier internal memo to staffers, reviewed by the Guardian, the Trump campaign’s leadership said that their plans for the convention also remained unchanged.“In moments of tragedy and horror, we must be resolute in our mission to re-elect President Trump. It is our fervent hope that this horrendous act will bring our team, and indeed the nation together in unity and we must renew our commitment to safety and peace for our country.”“The RNC Convention will continue as planned in Milwaukee, where we will nominate our President to be the brave and fearless nominee of the our Party. We appreciate your dedication and perseverance and are thankful for each and every one of you,” it read. More

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      Biden says he spoke with Trump after rally shooting: ‘No place in America for this kind of violence’

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      Joe Biden said that that there was “no place in America” for the sort of political violence that saw a gunman open fire on Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania and plunge America’s already fractious election campaign into new levels of fears over political unrest.“There is no place in America for this kind of violence or any violence for that matter. An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation,” Biden said. “Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that right now. Unity. We’ll debate and disagree, that’s not going to change, but we’re not going to lose sight of who we are as Americans.”Biden delivered the remarks at a White House press conference and described how he spoke with his bitter political rival who survived the assassination attempt with a head injury. One rally goer was also killed and two others injured.“Last night I spoke with Donald Trump,” said Biden, who noted the conversation was brief. “Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers.”He also mentioned the victim who was killed in the shooting, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore.Biden continued that he has supported providing Trump’s campaign with the necessary secret service and security resources and directed the head of the US Secret Service to review all security measures for this week’s Republican National Convention in Milkwaukee, Wisconsin. The convention will nominate Trump as Biden’s opponent in November’s presidential election.Biden has been in the midst of pushing back against calls to step aside as the Democratic nominee by some Democratic elected officials and wealthy campaign donors, including actor George Clooney, following his poor performance during the first presidential election debate against Trump. More

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      Pennsylvania town reckons with Trump rally shooting: ‘The rhetoric has to stop’

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      Amid tight security and blocked-off roads, the small town of Butler, Pennsylvania, was attempting to come to terms with becoming the site of a major attempted US political assassination on Sunday.Many went to church to make sense of events. At one, Father Kevin Fazio called on the congregation packed into pews to “pray for our nation”, but most of his flock seemed subdued by the violence that had come to town.Less than a quarter of a mile away, the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds remains a crime scene, the gantries that hang massive stars and stripes and concert-sized speakers over Donald Trump’s rallies still erect, and the roof of AGR Industries, from where a gunman took aim at the former president, was clearly visible.Many inhabitants of Butler said they were deeply shaken. A farming town 20 miles north of Pittsburgh is typical of rural Trump country. Farms are being sold off for new housing developments, but the roads into town are still dotted with farm stands and signs urging Christian values: “In a world where you can be anything – be kind,” read one.But Butler is now a marker of America’s periodic turns to political violence.Trump’s rallies have long been carnivals, part politics and an expression of shared rightwing values and entertainment. That changed on Saturday evening, when shots rang out. The former US president reached to his ear, ducked behind the podium and was engulfed by a scrum of Secret Service agents, only to emerge seconds later, bloodied, with his fist in the air and mouthing: “Fight! Fight!”View image in fullscreenOutside a Sunoco gas station near the fairgrounds, an older man come for coffee and a breakfast sandwich and said he believed his son-in-law Greg Smith – the man who described seeing the shooter doing a bear-crawl along the rooftop, rifle in hand, to the BBC – had saved Trump’s life.“He was yelling at the shooter, causing him to fire sooner and miss his mark while the police were doing nothing,” he said, recounting his experience as a deer hunter, where presence of mind was required to aim and fire accurately.Another man at the store, who had been at the rally, said it was not the shooting itself that caused panic in the crowds, as many believed the gunshots were merely fire-crackers going off. But panic began to take hold when a section of the crowd, unaware of the shooting, pushed back on those at the front trying to flee.“People were falling on top of each other,” he said. “The elders who fell couldn’t get up, the kids were screaming. My family is all shook up.”Another man, Randy, said but it was a blessing that a summer heatwave had many kept people away from the fair and there hadn’t been a stampede. But the political temperature in the country, he said, had made it almost inevitable that “you’re going to get a crazy doing something crazy”.“The rhetoric in this country is sad, it’s terrible. It has to stop,” he said.The Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, travelled to Butler to express condolences for the family of Corey Comperatore, former fire-chief a nearby township, who was killed in the shooting as he tried to protect his daughters from the gunfire.Shapiro called on Americans to “be firm” and to “advocate for” their beliefs but peacefully. “Every day when I’m out in Pennsylvania, I see the best of Pennsylvanians,” he said. “Those who love their neighbors even if they have differences.”Richard Goldinger, district attorney of Butler county, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that “it’s embarrassing that this would happen here. This hasn’t happened in more than 40 years – to have an attempt on a president’s life.”View image in fullscreenOthers pointed to the security failings ahead of Trump’s appearance on stage. Evan, a young man who said he was not a Trump supporter, said security at the fairgrounds had been talked about in the town for days before the event – particularly the vulnerability of the surrounding buildings.“The Secret Service dropped the ball big time,” he said.Bobbie Barbary, passing though from South Bend, Indiana, had another perspective: “America has a disease – resentment, hatred and racism,” he said.Butler may mark an end to the freewheeling Trump roadshow and his campaign rallies will need to be reined in for his safety and that of others. But that’s not how it looked 12 hours earlier, when the Butler Eagle newspaper predicted Trump’s campaign stop was “an opportunity to put a small town on the map in a contentious presidential election”.By coming to Butler, the paper said, the rally – two days before the Republican convention kicks off in Milwaukee – would be a return to a different, older style of campaigning of going to where the voters are, in this case a farm show, that focused on increasing support among undecided people that Trump needs to carry the state in November.But for some in the wake of the shooting, Saturday’s events were now a sign that some aspects of modern American political life were better kept at a distance. The suspected shooter, from an affluent neighborhood just 30 miles (48km) away, had brought not only a rifle to kill Trump but explosives too were found in his car and his home.Yet an exact motive remains a mystery. Crooks was both a registered Republican and a very minor donor to a progressive cause. His social media footprint was negligible and betrayed little of his beliefs.“It’s America,” said a checkout worker at the town farmers’ market. “All kinds of crazy people out there.” More