Category Archives: Donald Trump Pennsylvania rally shooting

Democrats campaign carefully after apparent Trump assassination plot

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The party has been quick to condemn political violence – and is focusing its criticism on Trump’s unpopular policies

In comments to Fox News Digital on Monday, Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the repeated attempts on his life. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country and they are the ones that are destroying the country – both from the inside and out,” he said.

Also on Monday, the former president released a list of quotes that the campaign described as incendiary. At the top of that list was a quote from Kamala Harris saying: “Trump is a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.”

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Far-right conspiracies abound after second apparent Trump assassination attempt

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Baseless theories about suspect Ryan Wesley Routh and his alleged ties to US military spread online after his arrest

After a man who appears to be obsessive about the war in Ukraine was arrested for allegedly attempting to assassinate Donald Trump on Sunday, rumors and conspiracy theories have spread online attempting to tie Democrats to the two assassination attempts on the former president this election.

Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect charged with gun-related crimes on Monday, previously conducted media interviews about his efforts to recruit volunteer fighters, particularly from Afghanistan, to help Ukraine in its war against Russia. Routh also apparently self-published an e-book on Ukraine in which he said that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump as well as me”, according to media reports.

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Violence and instability have become a feature, not a bug, of US political life

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Another apparent Trump assassination attempt happened – as we brace for what has been dubbed ‘a tinderbox election’

It has happened again. Another serene and sunny weekend. Another lone suspect wielding a rifle. Another apparent bid to assassinate Donald Trump. And a nation hurtling into uncharted territory 50 days from a presidential election.

On Sunday, Secret Service agents opened fire after seeing a man with a rifle near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club in Florida while the Republican candidate was playing. The suspect fled in an SUV and was later apprehended by local law enforcement.

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Melania Trump boosts conspiracy theory online about rally shooting

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In a video promoting her memoir, she declares ‘we need to uncover the truth’ about assassination attempt on Trump

Former first lady Melania Trump has raised questions around the law enforcement response to the attempted assassination of her husband, in a video she published on Tuesday to promote her new book.

In the 34-second video posted to her X account, Melania begins by describing the attempted assassination on her husband as a “horrible, distressing experience”. And now, she says in the video, which is overlayed with dramatic instrumental music, “the silence around it feels heavy”.

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Gunman at Trump’s rally saw it as ‘target of opportunity’, FBI official says

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The shooter had done extensive research and had also searched online for events and targets

New details have come to light in the FBI’s investigation into the assassination attempt of Donald Trump, including how the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, researched and planned the attack.

In a call with journalists on Wednesday, a senior FBI official shared that the gunman had searched online for events of both the former president and Joe Biden and saw the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity.”

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‘I told them’: police body-cam reveals warning days before Trump shooting

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Local police said they told Secret Service the building the 20-year-old opened fire from needed to be secured

In the chaotic aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last month, a local police officer told a fellow officer he had warned the Secret Service days earlier that the building where the 20-year-old gunman opened fire needed to be secured.

“I [bleep] told them they needed to post guys [bleep] over here,” the officer said in police body-camera footage released by the Butler township police department, with expletives bleeped out. “I told them that [bleeped expletive] Tuesday.”

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Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran charged in foiled plot to kill US leaders

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Asif Merchant, 46, tried to recruit people for scheme to assassinate figures including Donald Trump, says FBI

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged over a foiled conspiracy to carry out political assassinations on US soil, the justice department said on Tuesday as it disclosed what officials say is the latest murder-for-hire plot to target US public figures.

Asif Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the US killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani, in 2020, according to a criminal complaint.

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Secret Service accepts ‘full responsibility’ for Trump shooting security failures

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Acting director Ronald Rowe says ‘this was a failure’ and admits errors in communications and surveillance

The US Secret Service takes “full responsibility” for the events that led up to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last month, the acting director of the agency said on Friday.

In a press conference in Washington, Ronald Rowe, who replaced Kimberly Cheatle after she stood down from her position as director of the service after Trump was shot, said: “This was a failure.”

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Swat team says it had no contact with Secret Service before Trump rally shooting

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‘We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing … and that never happened,’ says lead sharpshooter on local Swat team

Local police officers on a special tactical team who were assigned to help protect Donald Trump on the day the former president was wounded during a 13 July assassination attempt in Butler county, Pennsylvania, have said they had no contact with Secret Service agents before the gunman opened fire.

“We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service members whenever they arrived, and that never happened,” Jason Woods, lead sharpshooter on the Swat team in nearby Beaver county, Pennsylvania, told ABC News.

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House to form taskforce to investigate Trump assassination attempt

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Bill passes 416-0 in favor of bipartisan group to look at security failings surrounding Pennsylvania rally shooting

The House voted on Wednesday to form a taskforce to investigate the security failures surrounding the assassination attempt against Donald Trump earlier this month.

The vote underscores the bipartisan outrage over the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump came within inches of losing his life. One rally-goer was killed and two others severely injured. Lawmakers have responded quickly with hearings and widespread calls for accountability.

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Gunman at Trump rally flew drone over fairgrounds earlier on day of shootings

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Latest disclosure about security lapses comes as larger picture of Thomas Matthew Crooks’ preparations emerges

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump a week ago, was able to fly a camera-equipped drone over the fairgrounds near Butler, Pennsylvania, shortly before the former president was set to speak there, according to news reports.

The latest disclosure about security lapses that preceded the shooting comes as a more complete picture of Crooks’ preparations is emerging, though it still lacks any definitive motive for the 20-year-old’s actions that led to Trump being grazed by a bullet, the shooting death of former fire chief Corey Comperatore and the critical wounding of two rally-goers.

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Man who tried to assassinate Reagan says ‘violence is not the way to go’

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John Hinckley Jr tweets ‘give peace a chance’ in wake of Trump assassination attempt – drawing bemused responses

John Hinckley Jr, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981, has waded into the discourse around the recent attempted assassination of Donald Trump in a social media post seemingly disavowing his own past actions.

“Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance,” Hinckley wrote on X on Wednesday, sentiments that drew a welter of bemused and often ironic responses.

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Cellphone and detonator found on rooftop near suspected Trump shooter

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Items seen in picture obtained by Pittsburgh-area TV station while motives remain unclear

A picture obtained by a Pittsburgh-area TV station shows a cellphone and detonator carried by the gunman who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at the Butler county show grounds in western Pennsylvania last Saturday.

The items were shown on the rooftop from which Thomas Matthew Crooks used an AR-15-style rifle to fire on the former president and Republican presidential nominee.

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Trump picks JD Vance as his running mate – live

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Donald Trump has announced that Ohio senator JD Vance will be his running mate

President Joe Biden has postponed a planned trip to Texas today, where he was to speak on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B Johnson presidential library.

An NBC News interview between Biden and anchor Lester Holt will now occur at the White House, instead of in Texas, as initially planned, Associated Press reports.

There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for 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.

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Former classmate describes Trump rally gunman as ‘definitely conservative’

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Another schoolmate tells Inquirer the suspect wasn’t ‘harshly bullied’, while 20-year-old’s motive remains unclear

As mystery continues surrounding the possible motivations of the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man accused of trying to kill Donald Trump at a campaign rally, one former classmate of his has come forward to describe him as being “definitely conservative” while they were in school together.

“It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate,” Max R Smith told the Philadelphia Inquirer of the shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks.

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Trump shooting shows conspiracy theories not confined to right wing

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Hashtags such as #staged and #fakeassassination viewed millions of times as sceptics question mainstream narrative

Soon after a bullet grazed Donald Trump’s ear, the conspiracy theory hashtags started appearing. Social media discourse on the shooting was immediately punctuated by #staged, #fakeassassination and #stagedshooting as a familiar refrain took hold: don’t trust what they tell you.

In a sign of how unstoppable these narratives become, the focus of distrust this time was Donald Trump, one of the arch-proponents of the argument that mainstream media and the establishment in general cannot be trusted.

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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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Suspect, named as Thomas Matthew Crooks, also killed in shooting at Pennsylvania rally; former first lady echoes husband’s call for unity

Before Saturday’s attempt on Donald Trump’s life, there have been multiple assassinations of US presidents.

Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated, shot by John Wilkes Booth on 14 April 1865, as he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, attended a special performance of the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, the AP writes.

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Trump to keep schedule for Republican convention after rally shooting

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Next public appearance is tentatively set for Tuesday at the convention but sources caution that could still change

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.

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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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US president decries assassination attempt and urges Americans to unite during White House press conference

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.”

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‘No place in our societies’: UK political figures condemn Trump shooting

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Starmer phones ex-president, as Johnson, Farage and others express shock at Pennsylvania assassination attempt

British politicians including Keir Starmer, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson have condemned the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, as several expressed fears about rising political violence and hate speech.

A phone call with Trump on Sunday afternoon, the UK prime minister condemned the attack at the campaign rally in Pennsylvania, expressed condolences for the victims and their families, and wished the former president and others who were injured a swift recovery.

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