A detailed time line was used for Trump’s close call
WIRED Politics Lab: Watching Donald Trump Shooting, Conspiracies, and Calls for War: The Case of the Ohio Senator J.D. Vance
Right after former president Donald Trump was shot at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania, conspiracy theories exploded online. On today’s WIRED Politics Lab, we discuss the calls for violence and civil war after the incident, and the way militias are recruiting after it. Plus, we report from the Republican National Convention on the reaction to Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio.
The person is called@LeahFeiger. David Gilbert is @DaithaiGilbert. Makena Kelly is @kellymakena. Call us at [email protected]. You can receive the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter here.
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Source: The Trump Shooting, Conspiracies, and Calls for War
The FBI’s View of the attempted assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump: A WIRED story about the case of Thomas Matthew Crooks
[Archival audio]: If you’re just joining us right now, as if this campaign couldn’t get more historic and unprecedented, what law enforcement officials are now investigating as a possible assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.
[Archival audio]: Secret Service rushing towards a former president, jumping on him and forming sort of a human shield as other law enforcement officers jump on the stage, the former president pumping his fist as the crowd started cheering when they saw that he was okay
July 13, 6:57 p.m. ET: Less than an hour after the shooting, Republican and Democratic lawmakers started posting statements, with some mentioning the X that may have been used in the attack. One of the first is from Mike Collins, who wants Biden to be charged for inciting an assassination.
Feiger was a person. Joining me to talk about everything that happened is WIRED reporter David Gilbert, and after we’ll hear from WIRED senior reporter Makena Kelly, who is currently at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. You have been busy since Saturday.
The July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump has stunned the country as it approaches Election Day on Nov. 5. The shooting that wounded Donald Trump at a political rally in Pennsylvania has a lot of events surrounding it.
Over several months prior to the July 13 attack on former President Donald Trump, the man ultimately identified as the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, receives multiple packages at his Bethel Park, Pa., home that are marked “hazardous material,” according to The New York Times, citing a federal law enforcement memo.
The time is 4:52 p.m. The Secret Service knew about a threat in advance of President Trump walking on stage.
July 12th The Clairton Sportsmen’s Club is where he is a member. It’s close to his home in the south of the area, where a Trump rally is to be held. A federal intelligence briefing reports that a man practices on a rifle range.
July 13 is when crooks searches for a local gun store to purchase 50 rounds of ammo for his father’s rifle. The rally is taking place outside the confines of the farm show grounds.
The Shooting of a First-Principles Speaker at a National Rally: The Case of President Biden and his White House
July 13, 6:05 p.m. ET: Trump begins addressing the rally, acknowledging that “this is a big, big, beautiful crowd.” In the first few moments of the speech the focus is on President Biden’s record.
A man is on a rooftop 450 feet away from the stage where Trump is speaking just two minutes before shots are fired. In a video posted to social media, the attendees are heard trying to alert law enforcement. A man is on top of the roof in a video. Look!” A woman yells, “He’s on the roof. … It is right there. A flat on the roof.
The news release says that there was no one found in a subsequent search and that an assisting officer had tried to get onto the roof. The officer was pulling himself up to the roof when he saw a person pointing a rifle at him.
A news release issued days after Trump arrived, states that police officers were called to the scene of a suspicious male near the building because of traffic problems.
The news release states that the officer was in a defenseless position and could not engage the actor while holding onto the roof edge. Moments later, the individual commenced firing.”
A former fire chief is hit by one or more of the attacker’s bullets. Two other rally-goers were seriously wounded. Comperatore is later declared dead.
Members of the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team return fire, fatally wounding Crooks with a shot to the head. About 42 seconds after the first shot is fired, an agent says, “Shooter down.”
Doug Mills is working for the New York Times and he caught the picture that shows the precise moment the bullet hit Trump. Mills says he doesn’t know the loud pops are gunshots when he first hears them. Then he sees that Trump is bleeding. “I kept taking pictures, and then I realized that he had grimaced and then he grabbed his ear and then he took his hand off his ear and there was blood on his ear and then he went down,” Mills says. I was so shocked that he’s been shot.
July 13, 6:13 p.m. ET: The former president was helped by the agents. He said that he wanted to get his shoes. There was blood on his ear and cheek. After looking at the crowd, Trump said “fight” three times while standing on the dais.
July 13, about 6:50 p.m. ET: A spokesperson for Trump says the former president “is fine” after the attack. Trump is evaluated and treated at nearby Butler Memorial Hospital, according to CBS.
July 13, 7:05 p.m. ET: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., posts on X: “I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe. The place of political violence is not in our country.
July 13, 7:31 p.m. In a post on X, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., refers to the 2022 attack on her husband, writing, “As one whose family has been the victim of political violence, I know firsthand that political violence of any kind has no place in our society. I thank God that former President Trump is safe.”
Source: Trump’s close call: A detailed time line
The FBI Knows Who the Shooter Targeted: A Secret Service Investigation of a Trump Shooting at the First Night of the Republican National Convention
July 15: Trump, with his right ear bandaged, appears alongside his newly announced vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, on the first night of the Republican National Convention.
July 13, 8:49 pm. The chief of communications for the Secret Service is posting on X, which describes how the shooter fired multiple shots at the stage. US Secret Service personnel neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased.”
July 17, 4:30 p.m. ET: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a post on X, calls the assassination attempt “a grave attack on American democracy,” adding that the country “deserves answers and accountability.”
July 13 was the day that a search of Crooks’ car and home after the shooting found bombs in two of his cars.
July 14 is a Sunday. We’re going to do it: The FBI knows who the shooter is. A search of Pennsylvania voter registration data shows he is a registered Republican and also gave money to ActBlue.
In a Sunday briefing with reporters, FBI investigators say Crooks used his father’s rifle in the attack, describing the weapon as an AR-style rifle that was purchased legally. “We do not know specifically how he accessed the weapon and whether he took it without his father’s knowledge,” Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office, says.
Source: Trump’s close call: A detailed time line
The Day after the 9/11 Explosion, President Biden insisted that God alone had the upper hand and that he had no intention of going after him
July 14 at 7 p.m. It is the hour. Posting on Truth Social, Trump says of the attempt on his life, “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
July 14, 2:05 p.m. ET: In the White House press room, Biden said he spoke with Trump the previous night and that he was grateful that he was doing well. He expresses condolences to Comperatore’s family and wishes for the recovery of the two injured men, Dutch and Copenhaver. He cautions: “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.”
July 14, 8:02 p.m. In an address to the nation, Biden encourages Americans to “remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies.” He says that we need to lower the temperature in politics.
Source: Trump’s close call: A detailed time line
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the FBI, and James Crumbley: What’s going on in the Senate? Axios, Nevek, Sawl, and the Secret Service
The FBI says that its technical specialists gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone and they are analyzing his electronic devices. NPR has also confirmed that Crooks’ phone had a saved photo of James Crumbley, the Michigan man who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter over his teenage son’s mass shooting at a Michigan high school.
Biden admits in an interview with NBC that he made a mistake when he said that it was time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye.
July 17: The Secret Service briefs House and Senate lawmakers about the July 13 shooting, acknowledging that it knew of reports of a suspicious person nine minutes ahead of Trump taking the stage, according to Axios.
July 17: Local police officers who worked the rally tell NPR they’re fielding a barrage of hostile calls from people, some of whom have bought into conspiracy theories. They call us and want to call us ‘cowards’ for not doing our job. Sergeant says that they did their job. Tony Sawl is a deputy at the sheriff’s office. If there were mistakes being made, then hopefully we can learn from that.
“Not supposed to be here. … I thank you, but I’m not, and I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God,” he says.
