Assassination Attempt at PA Rally

Wow to say that the news over the weekend was horrific is an understatement. 

For the one person who may not have heard, former president Trump suffered a gunshot wound at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Thankfully, he is okay. A bullet grazed his ear, but he had no other injuries.

Sadly Corey Comperatore, a firefighter, was killed while trying to protect his family when the shots were fired. He was a long-time Trump supporter and was attending the rally in support of the current campaign. Two other people were injured and are now in stable condition. Pennsylvania State Police identified the injured as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and 74-year-old James Copenhaver from Moon Township, Pennsylvania.

Authorities have identified the gunman in Saturday’s attack as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by Secret Service agents at the scene after the shooting. The FBI is investigating the attack as an assassination attempt.

President Biden spoke on Sunday, condemning the attack, as well as appealing for an end to divisiveness. “There is no place in America for this kind violence, or any violence 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 as important as that right now: Unity,” Biden said.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was quick to weigh in on Sunday, also asking for an end to political violence, “Last night was shocking for this community and for this commonwealth and this country. Political disagreements can never, ever be addressed through violence. Disagreements are okay, but we need to use a peaceful political process to settle those differences. This is a moment where all leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity, where all leaders need to take down the temperature and rise above the hateful rhetoric that exists and search for a better, brighter future for this nation.”

Before I go any further, I just want to say that no matter what my political thoughts are – and you who read my blog regularly know what they are – there’s no way that I condone what happened. I would never with for a person to be killed for any reason, and as Biden and Shapiro said, political violence serves no purpose. It just fuels more conspiracy theories and more hateful and inciteful rhetoric that leads to more violence.

And it just goes on and on, like some horrific tumbleweed that is so out of control nothing can stop it.

In trying to wrap my head around what happened, I’m extremely alarmed and concerned about the long-term aftermath and fallout. 

The immediate fallout has been all over the place.

Just hours after the news broke. Maybe not even hours. Just minutes after the news broke, social media was blowing up with all kinds of reactions. 

Some people were swiftly calling for retribution, blaming what they refer to as the liberal left or some plot masterminded by the Democratic party for the shooting.

Others posted pictures and comments suggesting the whole thing was staged by the Trump campaign for publicity. While I have trouble entertaining the thought that someone would actually do that – put himself and others in danger for a photo op, I wonder.

Trumps behavior since the 2020 election has been anything but rational. So many of his conspiracy theories put the recent one of a “deep state” involvement in Saturday’s shooting to shame.

This is a copy of the post sent to the MAGA folks an hour before the rally on Saturday. Then the fist-pump was replicated after Trump was shot, and he called out something that some folks say is “Fight!” The fist pumps were picked up by a few people in the crowd who clearly yelled, “Fight.”

After reviewing a lot of what has been said on social media as well as in news coming from reputable journalists and reporters, I’m not endorsing the theory that Trump arranged the shooting as a way to gain sympathy. Nor am I endorsing the theory that this was an attempt on his life via some dastardly plan from the “Democratic party, “deep state,” or the White House.

As it turns out the shooter was a Republican. Not that party affiliation means a whole lot to me, but maybe it does to some people who are still trying to look at this through a rational lens.

One of the more disgusting things, among many, that’s come out of this is merchandise already available that features the picture of Trump raising his fist on the front of T-shirts. And that particular image posted next to one of the flag being raised at Iwo Jima is an insult to all the men and women who have put their lives on the line to protect our country and our freedoms.

Somebody worked hard and quickly to manipulate a photo taken as SS agents were trying to get the man off the stage, and he paused for the fist pump. In the original shot, there’s no flag fluttering in a blue sky behind him. That was added to create the picture that has some folks wild with excitement.

NOTE: I wrote this post on Sunday and today, Monday morning, I listened to The Daily Podcast from the New York Times, and learned the photo was taken by Doug Mills, a Times photographer standing just a few feet from the stage in front of Trump. My apologies to Mills for my mistake. The only perspective I had on Sunday was from looking at the video of the shooting that didn’t have the flag positioned like it was in that memorable photograph that was not manipulated in any way.
The original statement will remain here for two reasons.
First, it’s imperative that we are able to admit our mistakes and apologize to anyone who may have been hurt by them
Second, walking back any hint of misinformation is part of being totally honest with ourselves and others.

Some folks are calling Trump a martyr, saying he took one for God and the country. Others are saying that he is blessed and that God intervened to save him so he could lead the country. A perfect response to that thinking came from Pastor Zach W. Lambert on Twitter: “If you believe God intervened to save former President Trump, but didn’t intervene to save the kids in Uvalde or Parkland or Santa Fe or Sandy Hook, then you are worshipping partisan politics, not Jesus.”

And Brandt Robinson, a history teacher in Florida shared this on TikTok:

Donald Trump is NOT a martyr because he survived an assassination attempt. He is the same person who tried to overturn the results of our presidential election. Hopefully he will realize how lucky he is to be alive and consider making changes to his way of being. ✊🏾🇺🇸🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/lWf7YfbaEb

— Brandt Robinson (@BrandtRobinson) July 14, 2024

I agree with some of what Robinson says and always appreciate how reasoned and civil he is in his videos. No name-calling. No ranting. Never trying to stir anything other than a few brain cells so people will think before they speak and act.

And listen.

Really listen to what the other person is saying before responding. By late Sunday I had several people respond to a Tweet I’d posted early on Sunday when information about the shooting was scant. But there were posts already saying it was staged, as well as others offering other opinions. One thing about Twitter is there are millions of people there with millions of opinions.

Anyway, this was my post: So already there are Tweets from DJT about the #assasination attempt. If that’s what it really was. So many shots could be heard but nobody else was hurt around him. If it was real, I’m disgusted & if it was #staged I’m disgusted. (This was before I knew of the others who’d been shot and I do regret my impulsiveness.)

People responded without reading the last sentence in my post, calling me a dumbass, a conspiracy nut, and more.

I wasn’t promoting a conspiracy. I was questioning what looked like a very odd sequence of events from the time Trump was shot until he was finally off the stage and in the car to be taken away. There are things that just looked very strange in that first video released, including the time it took to get him off the stage and the amount of time he was still exposed to danger. Not to mention the infamous fist-bump.

Thinking about it more by late Sunday, I realize that it probably took the SS more time to get him moved, because he was holding back. But that also seemed odd. A person who was just shot at would want to get out of there as fast as he could. Right?

Keep in mind that I’m just throwing that out there for you to think about. I’m not promoting a conspiracy theory.

UPDATE: On Wednesday I read an article put out by The Associated Press that counters some of the myths being propagated on social media. Well worth the read. A Look at False Claims Around the Attempted Assassination.

UPDATE #2: On Thursday the medical report from the hospital in PA where Trump was taken was released:

Hopefully, as more is revealed about the shooter and possible motive, the extreme theories on both sides will loose some of their wind.

That won’t come soon enough, and truthfully. I just wish there were no sides, and people would stop stirring up trouble where there isn’t any.

On that note, I’ll leave you on this fine Monday morning and get back to work on editing my book. Have a wonderful week. Be safe. Be happy. And I’ll add, be kind to your family and friends and neighbors. We need kindness now more than ever.