People rally in support of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump in Huntington Beach, Calif., July 14. AP-Yonhap
Donald Trump traveled on Sunday to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Republicans will formally nominate him as their presidential candidate this week after he survived an assassination attempt that further inflamed an already bitter U.S. political divide.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, ordered a review of how a 20-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle got close enough to shoot at Trump from a rooftop on Saturday. As a former president Trump has lifetime protection by the U.S. Secret Service.
Trump, 78, was holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — a key state in the Nov. 5 election — when shots rang out, hitting his right ear and streaking his face with blood. His campaign said he was doing well.
One person in the crowd was killed and two others wounded. Secret Service agents fatally shot the suspect, the agency said.
Trump is due to receive his party’s formal nomination at the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Milwaukee on Monday. The FBI said there were no known threats to the convention or anyone attending, while the Secret Service said they do not anticipate any changes to the security plan.
“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site on Sunday.
The convention will feature televised speeches by rising Republican stars and Trump’s choice for a yet-to-be-announced vice presidential running mate, while highlighting the party’s stance on such topics as abortion, immigration and the economy.
Suspect nursing home aide
The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect and said the shooting was being investigated as an attempted assassination.
FBI officials said on Sunday that the shooter acted alone. The agency said it had yet to identify an ideology linked to the suspect or any indications of mental health issues or found any threatening language on the suspect’s social media accounts.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said at the White House. “I urge everyone, everyone please don’t make assumptions about his motive or affiliations.”
Trump and Biden are locked in a close election rematch, according to most opinion polls including by Reuters/Ipsos.
The shooting whipsawed discussion around the presidential campaign, which had been focused on whether Biden, 81, should drop out following a halting June 27 debate performance.
The Biden campaign had been seeking to reset its message, depicting Trump as a danger to democracy for his persistent false claims about election fraud but said on Saturday it was suspending its political advertising for now.
Crooks was a registered Republican, according to state voter records, and donated $15 to a Democratic political action committee when he was 17. At the time of the shooting he was employed as a dietary aide at a nursing home. The Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean.”
The gun — an AR-style 556 rifle — had been legally bought, FBI officials said, adding that they believed it had been purchased by the suspect’s father. The officials said “a suspicious device” was found in the suspect’s vehicle, which was inspected by bomb technicians and rendered safe.
People rally in support of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump in Huntington Beach, Calif., July 14. AP-Yonhap
Spectator killed protecting family
The rally attendee killed on Saturday was identified by authorities as Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania. He died trying to protect his family from the hail of bullets, said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
“Corey was an avid supporter of the former president, and was so excited to be there,” Shapiro said, adding, “Political disagreements can never, ever be addressed through violence.”
Two people wounded in the shooting were in a stable condition on Sunday. Pennsylvania State identified them as David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
The Secret Service denied accusations by some Trump supporters that it had rejected a campaign request for more security, saying that it recently “added protective resources and capabilities to the former President’s security detail.”
The shots on Saturday appeared to come from outside the area secured by the Secret Service, the agency said.
Residents of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, where the suspected shooter lived, expressed shock at the news on Sunday.
“It’s a little crazy to think that somebody that did an assassination attempt is that close, but it just kind of shows the political dynamic that we’re in right now with the craziness on each side,” said resident Wes Morgan, 42, describing Bethnel Park as “a pretty blue-collar type of area.”
Political violence fears
While mass shootings at schools, nightclubs and other public places are common in the United States, the attack was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party presidential candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Americans fear rising political violence, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with two out of three respondents to a May survey saying they worried violence could follow the election.
After Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a deadly riot fueled by Trump’s false claims that his loss was the result of widespread fraud.
Hours after the assassination attempt on Saturday, the Oversight Committee in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives summoned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22. (Reuters)