On Saturday 13th July at 6.10pm, an attempted assassin fired five shots at a Donald Trump rally in Butler Pennsylvania, leaving one spectator dead, two others critically injured. The former (and likely future) President survived by a matter of inches after a bullet hit his ear, and the shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, was eventually killed by Secret Service agents. Here are five things you need to know about this:
1 - The Secret Service Utterly Failed
This was a huge failure on the part of the Secret Service. A shooter was somehow allowed to climb onto a roof 150 yards away from the former President armed with a rifle. This should never happen.
Furthermore in a stunning interview, one of the attendees and his friends saw the gunman climing up with a weapon, alerted police and were standing pointing at him for several minutes to direct the Secret Service snipers’ attention to the wannabe assassin’s presence. The fact that there was no Secret Service on all the roofs in the area is bad enough, but the fact that nothing was done when they were alerted to this reeks of gross incompetence, and perhaps, according to Elon Musk at least, may even have been deliberate.
There are multiple other issues here, including the fact that the Trump campaign have repeatedly been denied further Secret Service resources for weeks by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. And notably that, for some reason, the agent who ended up in front of Trump protecting his vital organs was not a hulking 6’6” behemoth, but a tiny woman.
This should be investigated.
2 - The Democrats’ Rhetoric Is Part Of This Story
For years, Donald Trump has been depicted as akin to Hitler, including by the sitting President Joe Biden, who also runs the administration currently trying to put Trump in jail.
Now since the attempted assassination, Biden and various other leading Dems have changed their tone, offering various sympathies and denouncements. Which I suppose is the least you can expect.
However, it seems like if Trump truly is a Hitlerian figure guilty of leading an insurrection, then his assassination would be a good thing. After all, when people make the proverbial joke about traveling back in time to kill Hitler, the premise is that doing so is morally justifiable. So is Trump really Hitler, or is rhetoric like this the kind of thing that lays the groundwork for assassination attempts?
For that matter, here’s 2 mins 30 seconds of Democrats calling for political violence.
And here’s Joe Biden calling Trump a threat to the nation literally the day before this happened.
3 - The Mainstream Media Are A Joke
There’s an adage on the right: ‘You don’t hate the media enough.’ Here are some examples as to exactly why that’s an understandable sentiment.
AP
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NBC News
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CNN
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ABC News
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4 - Russell Moore Et Al Are Also A Joke, But Less Funny
If you hadn’t noticed from things his cameo in our promo video, Seth Gruber’s mention of him in his (huge hit) article for us, or Jamie Bambrick’s mention in his article on The Gospel Coalition, we’re not exactly Russell Moore fans here. That’s because he keeps doing stuff like this:
It’s weird that he keeps this very nebulous, and can’t even bring himself to mention Donald Trump’s name, right? Especially seeing as he has been so quick to mention his name other times.
Or how about this, erm, interesting take from ‘Ameen’ of the Southside Rabbi podcast:
Doesn’t exactly seem like the Trump extremists are the problem here.
Expect more waffly vague denouncements, ‘evils on both sides’ takes, and attempts to blame Republicans because of the second ammendment.
“For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
5 - Trump Will Be Boosted By This
It seems like Trump turned his head at the very last second, causing the bullet to merely injure his ear as opposed to kill him. After being surrounded by Secret Service agents, a bloodied Trump raised his fist and appeared to shout the words, ‘Fight. Fight.’
Shortly after the attack he posted the following on TruthSocial.
Truth Social
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We can expect a fuller response from the Trump campaign in the near future, but it’s hard to see how this does anything other than further boost his favorability.
If he can survive until November, his chances of winning just went up.
