12mo ago

MEGA THREAD - Trump shot but safe, 2 others killed at PA rally

WHAT

Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump was shot at a rally in PA.

TRUMPS STATEMENT

“I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW SO FAR

gunman is dead
Trump "is fine"
one attendee is dead
another attendee is in critical condition

News Sources

CNN - Trump rushed off stage after shooting at Pennsylvania rally
AP News - Live updates: Shooting at Trump rally is being investigated as assassination attempt, AP sources say
The Hill - George W. Bush condemns ‘cowardly attack’ at Trump rally
Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) on Xitter - video interview with witness who tried to warn police before shooting happened
Sky News - Gunshots reportedly fired at Donald Trump rally - as former president rushed off stage (Article confirms one rally attendee dead)
Reuters - Biden says he is grateful to hear Trump is safe, has been briefed on shooting
OAlexanderDK on Xitter - The shooter was on a roof approximately 125m or 400ft from where Trump was standing.
JakeMRosen on Xitter - An emergency room doctor I spoke with tried to save someone’s life in the crowd

581 comments

Do not advocate or celebrate violence, please. Comments advocating violence will be deleted and bans will be issued.
Also, please avoid promoting conspiracies. Discussing current events is fine but suggesting things like “it’s a false flag” without evidence is spreading a conspiracy.
- A reminder, he incited people Jan 6th which resulted in deaths.
  
  That's the wild thing.
  This is a "Oh no what will Cheeto say to start a riot?"
  
  Or all the domestic violence
  
  And his cult still defends the insurrectionists.
  
  This shit was never here before because it's likely CYA mode for Lemmy because feds could come sniffing here if copycat incidents occur.
  
  Two wrongs do not make a right though.
  
  That's not a justification for more violence, two wrongs don't make a right. He was wrong for doing what he did and this is wrong as well. This is because political violence in it's entirety is wrong. Jesus, do people not have principles anymore? Seeing all the supposedly moral people turn into Q anon level conspiracy theorists who condone violence is depressing.
  
  How many deaths did it result in? Cause there is only one death on Jan 6 that has ever been attributed to Jan 6.
  I don't disagree that he incited the insurrection, but making false claims doesn't help show that the left is the party of honesty.
- I know you have to say this, but holy shit do I disagree.
  This person advocated significant violence and contributed to the deaths and loss of human rights of thousands. A good whack of the world would turn up hungover to work tomorrow after celebrating only a few inches over.
  
  No better fuel for an extremist ideology then having a martyr. Trump isn't the problem, it's the millions who listen to him.
  
  They don't have to say that.
- Why not? Isnt that what americans claim the second amendment is for?Prevent fascism?
  
  Sic semper tyrannis.
  
  Communism, not Fascism, or to protect workers' rights if you go back far enough. We only got involved in fighting fascism because we were drawn into the war, otherwise it's never been that big of an issue to Americans and many schools aren't even allowed to teach about it anymore because "kids shouldn't have to feel bad about something like that" or whatever excuses the far right is currently using to prevent their schools from teaching about Anne Frank, concentration camps, slavery, anything else they want to implement themselves.
- Lemmy users when they can’t advocate violence:
  young_guy_straining.jpg
  
  Advocating for violence to prevent a fascist from abolishing the democracy is the only acceptable violence. Sometimes a democracy has to be protected violently if it is too weak to protect itself. Trump allies always say its why they have the second amendment. Now that it is used against them they cry about it.
- spreading a conspiracy
  I know this is off-topic, but can we please go back to saying "conspiracy theory"? Conspiracy and conspiracy theories are not the same. There are actual conspiracies (a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful) , and there are theories of conspiracies. They should not be confused.
  
  Surprised you're not already banned just for the c-word. I mean, if someone crashes their car through a storefront, I could speculate without evidence that the driver was excessively old, young, drunk, or just plain stupid and it's left up to the reader to take my comment with a grain of salt, but if I so much as entertain the possibility of this shooting being anything besides what is being reported by official channels, I must be silenced.
- How do the people get justice for a convicted criminal that's above the law? Is there a reason why the constitution has an amendment for guns? Why are so many platforms against the constitution and against the need for correct course when apt?
  Stop acting like corpo reddit admins and mods.
  
  "Convicted criminal" who is "above the law?"
  Seems like he was convicted, thus not above the law.
  You keep him from being president by getting enough people to vote against him, or you accept the will of the people.
  The 2nd Amendment was originally to make sure militias weren't disarmed, in a time when militias were more relevant. Has nothing to do with political assassination.
- "no actual discussion allowed" got it
  
  If the only way you can discuss an assassination is by advocating for additional violence and pushing lies, then I guess not?
- How do you spread a conspiracy? I think you mean speculation.
- Was it wrong when Trump triggered Jan 6 with his calls for violence?
  If yes, why do you get to call for violence?
  If no, you should read more about the ramifications of Jan 6
  
  This sub has some crazy censorship. I’m pretty sure it’s all right-wing mods.
- Didn't know this was the "othe r/ place" now...but.. Okay.
  
  This community can be whatever it wants to be. If you want to advocate for violence you are free to do that elsewhere in the fediverse. Just not here.
Alright, let's get it out ahead of time, since I'm already seeing this:
It's probably not staged. Trump reacts quickly - the fuck kind of timing you think that bloated potato has? To lift his hand to his ear just as the gunshot rings out? And the idea that the shooter grazed him on purpose is, likewise, absurd. The kind of risk that would entail, to just nick his ear?
Whether the shooter was insane or politically motivated, this is a real event.
- Plus, the rally attendee being confirmed dead. Someone shot at him, 100%.
  
  Do we know yet whether the would-be assassin or Secret Service hit the bystander? I was driving when it happened and am still getting up to speed
  Edit/update: It seems the gunman was on a rooftop, not in the crowd, so, no idea what happened. I have a few theories, but I'm not gonna risk starting rumors.
  
  Thanks. Added your link and context to the mega thread
- I said this in another one of these threads- it is not at all outlandish to think that someone unhinged with a gun would see the threat of a fascist dictator and decide to do something about it.
  
  Yeah, I remember my grandfather telling the story of how Hitler held a speech at a Stadium that was visible from his attic window, and his biggest regret was, that he did not have a machinegun to take him and the other Nazi officials with him out. The US has enough guns and desperation for someone to attempt this, definitely.
  
  I'm not sure it would even take someone unhinged.
  
  The right has been agitating for stochastic terrorism for about sixteen god damn years. Well, they got it.
  It's likely a good thing the guy missed. Trump being assassinated might just kick off the open violence that has been brewing. Still might, but it'll depend on the next couple of days. If that dude turns out to be a left-winger, and Trump makes no attempt to stop it, I could see things getting very, very ugly.
  
  it happens a lot more than you would think throughout american history, sometimes with guns, sometimes without. Obama had 8 attempts throughout his terms in office. Biden has had one so far, trump has had a few, nothing more significant than obama though, except for maybe being shot, just barely.
- I don’t doubt the shooter was genuinely trying to kill him. But I also think there are an unprecedented number of Republicans and Democrats who would be secretly relieved if their own party’s candidate were assassinated.
- It's a very common gut reaction to assume something like this has to be "staged", I said it in the other thread in some discussions: It's understandable to have it as this feeling. But everyone who feels that way: take a breath, remember the world is much more chaotic and much less controlled than you think, you don't have to think of yourself as stupid for thinking it, but wait for more information to come out and be ready to give it up then.
  Reacting properly to this new reality is much more important, than trying to adjust reality to fit an emotion. It's human to do that, react instinctively in a first gut reaction, but it is also human to be able to let go of that.
  
  In the spirit of not promoting violence, I'd like to promote the alternative of the Alex Jones treatment. Gaslight the fucker and set a conspiracy in motion to hound him the rest of his days.
  
  I agree. We're all just processing this and should probably take a break and come back when there is more info and we can think critically. That said, this is very scary, like, I feel like my physical safety is at risk because of this. So, not knowing what others are going through, I'm going to have some compassion for any initial reactions. People are having these same discussions face to face right now but not everyone can do that and may need to.
  
  the way i like to look at it, is that it doesn't matter whether it was staged or not, it still happened. People still died, people still evacuated, trump still got shot, none of that changes.
  If it does, you're doing a conspiracy theory, and you should stop.
- Thank you. And fuck the idiots spouting off with the "staged" nonsense. The time to believe something is staged is when you have evidence that it was.
  
  People are obviously on high alert, considering how far Trump is willing to go given Jan 6th. From the Reichstag fire to the Russian apartment bombings, such events manufactured or actual have profound impact on public perception and action. Naomi Klein's (not to be confused with the nut job Naomi Wolf) The Shock Doctrine details this well.
  No sign this was a false flag, but holy fuck does it have terrible implications.
  
  Trump's entire persona is built on lies, it shouldn't be a surprise that it's many people's first thought.
  
  Oh, it's all tongue-in-cheek, and yet: quid pro quo.
  
  i mean honestly, it's scary, but it's also not a good time to be an american right now, from the immunity rulling to the jan 6th delays, and all the other bullshit going on, things seem to be getting vastly more interesting now than they were just a few months ago.
- Yeah, a 120 meter shot to graze does not exist. One inch to the right and he's dead. With wind variables and stuff, the shooter who can reliably pull that off in one shot or volley does not exist.
  
  Everyone keeps saying it can't be staged because it was so close.
  I just wanted to point out it can be both staged and a successful assassination if the end goal is to point the finger at the left and martyr a polarizing figure.
  
  With a better rifle and a spotter maybe.
  Edit. Just want to say I don’t think it’s a false flag in anyway. Just speculating lol
- It’s probably not staged. Trump reacts quickly - the fuck kind of timing you think that bloated potato has?
  it's absolutely what you would expect the reaction to be. Much like burning your hand on a stove where your brain deals with the situation a lot quicker than you can logically process it, these kinds of injuries can do the same thing. It's more than likely the people surrounding him that clued him in on it quicker than anything. That's the one thing you would be prepared to expect.
- Yeah, if you’re going to stage a fake assassination, you don’t fire a bullet a couple inches away from a kill shot. It’s crazy how close this was to a successful attempt.
- If it was staged, the only feasible way would be that he wasn't shot at all and all we saw was fake blood. Regardless, I don't think it was actually staged
- It seems far more likely that Trump has some sort of quantum immortality than this being staged. Truly an insane shot to miss so narrowly while still grazing. I get why it makes people scratch their head. It will be interesting to see what happens.
- If it was staged then they are playing a very risky game. It doesn’t take much error to make a bullet that grazes your ear dome you. It’s basically certain that this wasn’t staged.
- First I'm hearing about the 13 year old.
- Genuinely infurating that the moment anything happens, NeoLibs will just start copying right-wing talking points.
  
  Will or they did? Any examples?
Did you guys hear Richard Simmons died? So sad.
- And Dr. Ruth :(
  
  They noped out of wherever the fuck this chapter of America is headed.
  
  Sadly was more surprised she was still alive. Thought she had already passed :(
  
  No way! Oh man! I feel like the teenage late night radio listening part of my heart just died.
  
  And Shannon Doherty
- I think Death has some explaining to do.
  
  Clearly, God needed a little help getting in shape.
What peeves me is that the right are all clutching their pearls about anyone who says anything other than blind Trump sympathy. Don't get me wrong, political violence is wrong. But, remember this:
When Paul Pelosi got his face bashed in with a hammer, the right made fun of it. Mocked him. Idk, man.
- This is what is so frustrating.
  Conservatives call for violence; Call for rising up; Literally calling themselves DOMESTIC TERRORISTS: Absolutely a nothing burger. Just a bunch of locker room talk. Relax that's normal conservative speech.
  Liberals blinking aggressively: WHY ARENT YOU MORE TOLERANT BE BETTER.
- That shit was amazingly disgusting. And yeah, Trump gets no sympathy from me. But I won't call for his death, either. I want him to live a very long time. In prison.
  
  What about half way.
  Permanent disability, less ability to look after himself, a lifetime in pain.
  
  There are people on the right, that would call you out on even that. They're gaslighting anyone left of Mussolini on what are the rules they should be following.
  
  He can still incite violence and rally his base from prison.
- Have we considered that the gunman might be a jilted lover? /s
  
  Maybe it was the father of one of the children trump raped.
- Or how about when he said that if he lost to Clinton:
  “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”
- Omigod I didn't know about this.
Fuck. This is probably not going to lead to good things.
- Agreed. It's going to further inflame chaos and tensions in the country, it's going to further radicalize Trump himself into an even nastier man, and it's going to motivate his base. Even if Trump were to pass away, that base still remains, and we have the risk of a much more intelligent and gifted speaker taking up its leadership.
  
  people gathering around him ready to pounce and abuse power are more dangerous than he is
  
  If it were anyone else, almost getting shot should be a wake-up call. "What have I become that this happens? Maybe I need to change how I act, and what I do." But , no.
- The people are so divided, and this makes it worse.
- True, it was always never going to lead to good things. But this will keep it on track to not changing.
  I just hope Trump pusses out when he realizes he and a bunch of supreme court justices are foing to get this for nearly every public appearance for four years if he manages to eek out a win lol. It was said above already.
  Violence demands self defense. Today was an act to try and save everyone.
If you're planning to take out an aspiring despot, you better be damn sure of your shot
- I don't think your advocating for or celebrating violence, but this comment is probably going to be taken that way and deleted. I totally agree with your point though, a failed assassination attempt is probably the worst thing you can do to a guy who wants to destroy democracy.
  
  All things being equal, I am glad that the assassin failed. I am no fan of Trump by any measure. I wish, every day, that Trump would just go away and stay out of politics.
  I feel that assassinating someone like Trump would only intensify the right-wing’s rhetoric and make things worse in the long run. I also feel that whomever would replace Trump would be far much worse than Trump himself. It’s a lose-lose either way.
  No, the appropriate thing to do is to vote these bastards out of office. I fear the worst, that maybe we’re going to fail doing that; we’re what, 4 months away from the election and we’re talking about replacing Biden, but NOBODY has said with whom? Yeah that’s confidence inspiring.
  My doomer mentality aside, I do still hope I’m wrong, and that democracy and justice will prevail. But dammit if the “good guys” aren’t bending over backwards to make that hard to believe.
- "If you come for the throne you best not miss" or something like that
The great recession, a global pandemic, and now a second American civil war. I want off this train.
- Don't forget the climate change!
- *bullet train
  
  They don't have those in the US. They went with mega highways instead
  
  Daaaamn
- And not a single of those things will matter or be remembered after the great climate collapse.
Guy tries to overthrow the country, and people are worried that someone tried to kill him. What is wrong with this world. If people aren't trying to kill him we have something to worried about.
The justice system failed to arrest and detain the suspect and keep him imprisoned until charged properly. This isn't a failure of the people, it is a failure of the government.
- We're worried because of what will happen in retaliation.
  
  I'm sure he will spin it into some grand conspiracy with very little evidence behind it. But his lunatic supporters don't really need evidence of conspiracies so I'm not sure it'll change anything very much.
  Now if the bullet had hit him that would be a very different thing.
  
  True, unlike the packed supreme court, literal attempt at insurrection, already #1 terrorists in the USA according to the DHS and FBI...
- Some countries deserve to have the government overthrown
I can’t wait for Trump to turn pro-gun control.
- Trump's gun control: if white and conservative, you can own any firearm, if not, good luck
  
  LOL, Trump's shooter was unironically white and registered Republican.
- Wouldn't be the first time. Conservatives are conservative up until the moment someone uses freedom from government oversight in a way that hurts or inconveniences them. Then they're all, "There oughta be a law against blah blah blah" without an iota of self-awareness.
  
  I like it when they say it's not about guns, it's about mental health and then you say okay, let's have universal healthcare and they say, "no, not like that!"
- He literally said "take the guns, then do process [sic]" years ago
  
  then do process
  Heads up, it's due process because it's the process you're due (the process you're entitled to or that's proper, expected, etc), not the process you're doing.
  
  https://twitter.com/i/status/1756101980307771782
- The bump stock ban overturned by the Supreme Court was put in place by Trump. He is not pro-gun.
  
  He's not pro-gun. Neither is he anti-gun.
  He's pro-Trump. He'll say anything if he thinks he'll get more money (and now, enough votes to escape his crimes). You won't find a single issue he hasn't flip-flopped on except "How can this make Trump richer?"
- Man, I would love to watch his supporters work through the dissonance on that one. On one hand, they already chose Trump over their god... On the other hand, "come and take it" culture is right up there with evangelicalism as far as being really ingrained.
  
  Sure Trump wants to take some of our guns, but Biden wants to take them all!
- Trump was harder on guns than Obama was.
- Nah, they'll just say they need more guns.
- But he's always been pro gun control?
  
  https://twitter.com/i/status/1756101980307771782
I didn't need this fucking stress on top of everything else. I only hope that the poll bump he'll get for this is short-lived.
- He is going to win. We've already been over this. Maybe now you can start the process of coming to terms with what that actually means.
  
  You are not psychic.
  
  This event just shows that anything can happen at any moment. Nothing is a sure thing. Not a Trump win, not a Biden win, and not a win for any other candidate who may run.
  
  You're being down voted but you're right. This is the absolute nail in the coffin to seal his win. his culties are going to be mobilised more than ever now.
Biden added: "Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it,"
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-says-he-is-grateful-hear-trump-is-safe-has-been-briefed-shooting-2024-07-14/
- Must the Democrats champion good manners ALL the time? Jesus Christ he's a fascist! Fuck good sportsmanship!
  Who the fuck are you trying to impress? Who's going to consider this the moment they vote for Biden over Trump?
  "Violence has no place in America."
  Cops killing citizens. Native genocide. Genocide in Palestine. Protesters being beaten. People using their "rights" being arrested and killed. Slow socially accepted murder caused by poverty. Rights for Queer youth being taken away, which leads to self harm.
  Why do they just give "thoughts and prayers" to Hitler 2.0? Trump isn't going to be kind with this, he'll start saying every Democrat is responsible for this. Fuck the "higher moral ground".
  
  Don't forget allowing abortion bans so teen and child rape victims are forced to give birth to their rapists' babies. And Tuskegee. And lack of healthcare access which kinda eugenics disabled people. And the CIA. Guantanamo. The government's response to the AIDs epidemic.
  
  Capitalism literally doesn't exist without violence and the constant threat of it
- I added that to the mega thread. Thanks!
I mean this is the world he wants, you can't dog whistle people to take up arms against tyranny without a comfortable acceptance of the irony pool you are filling. Everyone will try to spin this to their political advantage but the truth is this is the level of political discourse the right has been driving towards.
- Trump's rhetoric almost lead to Pelosi getting killed. Trump's rhetoric got people killed on Jan 6th. Republicans have been posting images with crosshairs of their opponents for years, and now they are surprised that shit is turning violent...
- It's full one leopardsatemyface levels of karma. Nearly everyone I know left or right was like damnit, they misse lol.
So, I am fearing this will not only rally all Trump supporters to really vote for and support him extra hard, and get some undecideds to his side for his martyr status, but it might also spark a wave of stochastic terrorism and shootings by some right-wingers acting out, who will want to deliver justice to whatever group they will blame.
There is definitely some danger of this potentially spiraling, not guaranteed, but that will depend on some more potentially chaotic weeks ahead. Stay safe, stay prepared, stay organised.
- It's better that it starts before trump takes office
- Have you seen the photo? You couldn't have staged a better one. It makes me sick
I bet Trump is perversely happy he got shot. He can be a Real Brave Man, now. How much attention it gets him. How much more clout he believes he will get because he will weasel some political capital out of it. Heaven help us if the shooter was liberal, this man is fine with dog whistling violence and more than a few of his followers are itching to engage in it. It won't matter one whit how many people have been killed or hurt by right wingers.
- When 9 11 happened, people had different reactions: sadness, fear, shock... people like Dick Cheney immediate reaction was: what can I gain from this.
  I'm pretty sure Trump runs on that exact mentality.
  
  When 9/11 happened, Trump bragged about having the tallest tower in the city even though he did not.
- They even managed to get a triumphant picture out of it. The Secret Service is surrounding him, he's bloody but holding his fist high, and the American flag is perfectly framed in the background. This shit is going to pump his polling numbers. All he has to do is put whatever fake nationalist bullshit he wants over that picture for 30 seconds and it's an instant ad in battleground states.
- "I got shot and it wasn't so bad, why do we need legislation to prevent unsafe access to guns?"
  
  He should allow guns in his rallies then 😜
  It’s a constitutional right and all, or is he scared?
I bet there will be a retaliatory attack on his Biden
- at least. and Kamala just because she's a black woman.
- I mean, the right is already committing violence against its enemies, the media just fails to report it as what it is. Instead it's "lone wolves" and "mental health problems". Rittenhouse literally shot people on camera and got away with it "because skateboard".
  
  Daniel Perry murdered someone after driving his car into a crowd and was pardoned because Abbott agreed with his politics.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Garrett_Foster
  The right is perfectly fine with violence that supports them.
- I doubt it. Something like this already happened before in 2017. A deranged Bernie supporter went to a congressional baseball game and tried to shoot as many Republicans as he could. He ended up killing 6 people. However, despite that, there were no reactionary shootings. It was an isolated incident. I think this will be the same, or at least I hope.
  
  You do realize the Las Vegas shooting was literally like 3 months later, right?
- Why take a chance on Biden getting replaced with a good candidate?
I was excited at first, then sad. Trump's death would be the only way american people get justice as he's clearly above the law. Can't believe all the news hasn't called him felon trump, instead calling him president trump, dropping the former.
Gotta love how people are instantly pulling a QAnon deal of “ITS A FALSE FLAG, FAKE NEWS, NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A GRAND CABAL!”
Somehow Trump is a mastermind of this. The dude who can’t hide stolen files properly, can’t lie on his taxes properly, and loses money on a casino, somehow has the ability to rig a false flag assassination attempt.
Are NeoLibs that so far into the Kool-Aid that Dipshit Trump is also a grandmaster 5D chess player of this, while not being able to string words together? It’s not like he’s ever been a good actor.
"Now Trump's gonna say Biden tried to kill him."
He already said that.
"Now Trump's gonna call for repression of the left."
He already did that.
"Now they're gonna say Trump is a martyr."
They already say that.
"Now the right is gonna get violent with their political opponents."
They already do that.
"Now the fash are gonna push for an enabling act."
They already are doing that.
It's equally frustrating and vindicating that people are waking up to the alarms minorities have been sounding for... decades? Even during 9/11, people were saying this is the start of the end for any form of freedom. Then we had economic crash after crash. Then more rights removed. More drone strikes. More illegal wars.
Then we tried to warn about Trump. No one cared. He won. The people who said he would hurt did get hurt. People acted shocked.
Biden came in. Ignored the people in jail cells, ignored COVID for better polling, refusing the new powers given to him to do anything better for the country at large, and slowly turning into a walking skeleton.
And every single time people have said "Hey this is bad for any form of democracy" people said it was overblown, nothing bad would happen. Then it got worse and worse. Voting didn't solve most of the issues. Protesting did. And then both parties clamped harder on protestors and increased funding to the militarized police.
Welcome to Weimar Germany, America. People have only warned you for decades. If this doesn't wake anyone up, then you'll sleepwalk as you claim ignorance on why you're "just following orders".
- First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out --- Because I was MLK's white moderate.
  I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate,
  who is more devoted to "order" than to justice;
  who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;
  who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action";
  who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
  Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
- Welcome to Weimar Germany, America.
  I've been armed 24/7 since 01/06. Women, POC and LGBT folks are the largest gun purchasing demographic. They too got the memo. So no, I'm not giving up my AR-15 or anything other gun.
  It's like liberals skipped history class. We're months away from "red hats" grouping up and patrolling neighborhoods for "undesirables".
  
  Like did anyone see what the cops did to us during the George floydd protests? Plus warren VS district of Columbia Supreme Court ruling says cops aren't there to protect us.
  We're on our own. I wish we lived in a good place, but that's not where we are. Or ever will be. Because we are here, and we live LIKE THIS.
- You realize Trump was already previously part of a conspiracy to overthrow the election and was convicted of this, right? It's not like he's new to this kind of organizational crime. No one thinks he's a mastermind; they think he's a con artist and they just don't trust him. And I'm not saying it was a false flag, I'm just pointing out that people are basing this on past evidence of his behaviors.
  This is also not a qanon level of a conspiracy, it's quite mild.
  Here's what right wing conspiracies have to say so far about the shooting (I highly recommend monitoring them to gauge how they will react the next few days):
  https://kansascitydefender.com/national/trump-shooting-antifa-conspiracies/
  Right-Wing Accounts Launch Mark Violets Antifa Conspiracy in Light of Trump “Assassination Attempt
  Please note this has been DEBUNKED.
- Not advocating for the theory, but it's borderline unbelivable that the man gets shot in the ear, and is more concerned about his shoes than his life, then stops to do a fist pump. This is the same man who dodged the draft.
- Are NeoLibs
  Dude...wild misattribution here
Reddit's megathread on this is already broken. Just goes to show how terrible it is, you'd think after all this time they'd figure out how to run a website...
- What does it look like? Ive finally deleted my account there and I'm trying not to keep browsing despite that lol
- My guess: Spez team broke it when the monetizattion algo collided with the censorship algo.
I’m so over politics in America. This shit is terrifying. People trying to overthrow elections, seniors that are too old to lead, voter suppression, people stuck in disinformation bubbles, and now assassins. Meanwhile, the rich just get richer, and “middle class” life just gets harder and harder.
I have dual citizenship with an EU nation from birth, and this week had made me start to dust off those childhood documents and look into the details of relocating.
- Ooo, which one of us you looking at joining?
  
  Doesn't matter, we're not a bunch of tribalistic, bickering children
  Anywhere is fine
  
  Every time I've read someone shitting on America, and then they mention something like not being American, if you ask where, the question is always avoided.
- Good for you. Bye.
  
  Promise you'll leave too?
I was looking for other angles, but haven't found any yet. There's clearly lots of people recording in the video broadcast by CNN. I did find the following though.
The shooter was on a roof approximately 125m or 400ft from where Trump was standing.
An emergency room doctor I spoke with tried to save someone’s life in the crowd
They got the guy. Footage of Trumps potential shooter being dragged out of the rally by police
The Shooter at the Trump Rally in Pennsylvania can be seen Dead on the Roof of a nearby Building, after being Killed by U.S. Secret Service Agents
this BBC interview with a guy outside the security perimeter who claims he saw the shooter before he fired is absolutely wild
- this BBC interview with a guy outside the security perimeter who claims he saw the shooter before he fired is absolutely wild
  Wow, you weren't kidding
  
  Sounds like it was pretty amateur hour with the police and security. Nuts he was there for minutes and they didn't do anything.
- I added some of yours to the mega thread - the ones not directly depicting death.
- That BBC interview is insane
- You're Jake Rosen?
  
  No, I was just quoting/linking to the sources. I don't follow or know what type of content they normally create.
Trump shouts 'fight'
Yeah. The man advocates violence again.
Mehdi Hassan lays out the irony of Republicans saying they don't condone violence and want to pin this on Biden:
https://zeteo.com/p/did-donald-trump-just-win-the-election?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2325511&post_id=146588566&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=43tetm&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
If the gunman is dead, and Richard Simmons is dead... Was it him?
The WSJ:
Biden’s Rhetoric Grew Heated in Recent Days
A few days ago the WSJ said Biden was old and ineffectual. Now Biden is a power master.
Pick a fucking lane, WSJ
https://kansascitydefender.com/national/trump-shooting-antifa-conspiracies/
Right-Wing Accounts Launch Mark Violets Antifa Conspiracy in Light of Trump “Assassination Attempt
Please note this is a DEBUNKED conspiracy per the link above, the shooter's identity is unknown at this time
- Shooter appears to be a white male, aged 20s or early 30s by the look of it. The t-shirt he was wearing is allegedly marked with branding for a firearms-related YouTube channel.
  https://x.com/Shadi_Alkasim/status/1812315218258833590
  Edit: Possible suspects are either Maxwell Yearick, previously arrested while demonstrating against Trump in Pittsburgh on a previous occasion, or a Thomas Matthew Crooks, according to the NY Post.
  Hasn't been officially ID'd yet though, so still speculation.
  
  Looks like Thomas Matthews Crooks is ~~not~~ the right guy
  Edit 2: but there are a lot of images/videos of the wrong guy going around.
  He posted a video saying "you've got the wrong guy" but looks like he's been talking to lawyers and decided to make his whole account private now".
  http://youtube.com/shorts/DM9SVbojbl4
  https//x.com/ValorMG/status/1812357749784936512
  Edit: Maybe? It could be that the name is correct, but the guy you see in the video is definitely not him.
- To be fair, I would label anyone trying to kill Hitler as an anti fascist. Unless it's someone trying to take over in his place, at least.
  
  Many of the people trying to kill Hitler were fellow fascists.
Got him in the ear, huh?
- “Friends, Americans, and countrymen; lend me your ears!”
- Nobody is a good enough shot to risk grazing someone in the head without injuring them.
  Someone almost certainly tried assassinating Trump and failed. It's shocking that it was possible, and the Secret Service has a lot to answer for if it's true that someone was able to get on a rooftop with line of sight of a former President delivering a speech. It's hard to express how good they are at preventing opportunities for snipers these days.
  If the counter-sniper team is the group who killed the assassin, it was the first time they've ever had to fire their weapons outside of training.
“Much bleeding took place”
- I actually loled when I got to that part
The person killed by the shooter, Corey Comperatore, was a 50 year old volunteer firefighter shielding his family from the gunshots.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-rally-shooting-victim-identified-50-year-old-man-2024-07-14/
- He was also, it seems, a scumbag
- Who attended a Trump rally, knowing full well the violence that maga stands for.
I did some cyberstalking (someone actually built a whole ass family tree on Ancestry already, which was my source to look up the other info). Just a reminder, please don’t dox or post any publicly identifiable info on here.
The alleged shooter did donate to a liberal group in 2021, age 17, before he was registered to vote. Rumors of this being another person are likely inaccurate, as the donor has the correct name and zip code listed.
The alleged shooter is a registered Republican. Some have theorized he did this as a “stop Trump” sort of thing to vote in PA’s closed primaries. His father is a registered libertarian and his mother is a registered democrat. His sister is a registered libertarian.
I imagine we will have more info on his background and motivation in the coming days and weeks. It’s possible that he could have any kind of political alignment. A lot of young men can get radicalized between 17 and 20.
- It's just as possible he started having major depression and hearing voices with that age range.
  
  Very true, it's a pretty typical age for schizophrenia to develop in men
This quote from a supporter is very rich indeed
The witness said she wasn't surprised a shooting occurred because of the current political climate.
It’s a great opportunity to open a conversation about gun control.
Trump was not involved in the writing of that statement.
- Trump was not involved in the writing of anything in his entire life ever
  FTFY. Pretty sure he's functionally illiterate.
  
  You think someone else wrote Covefe?
Dark times (including a now virtually guaranteed Trump presidency) ahead.
RIP to the USA.
- Care to explain where your certainty is coming from?
  
  Biden's poor polling combined with the tendency of those with assassination attempts against them being seen as martyrs.
  On the contrary, I'm hoping that this is what it takes to make the polls look ugly enough to Biden that he finally steps down.
  
  It makes him a martyr. Biden was already an extremely weak leader with a massive public perception problem. Trump surviving an assassination attempt while defiantly pumping his fist in the air is the clarion call for Amerikan Fascism.
  Biden was already losing in every single swing state. I believe his existing chances before this event for winning reelection were somewhere around 10% at best. This obliterated those chances entirely. The average person is dumb as fuck, and they will vote for strong man leadership. It is a generational mind virus that rises up over and over again in the human psyche. This generation will be no different.
  
  Something happened with Reagan. Dip shits will see him as a martyr and rally hard behind him.
  
  History....?
What a historically crazy day.
Thoughts and prayers 🙏
After thinking about this...offing him will do nothing to stop the creep of facism. You have an entire party now aligned with the idealogices that the 3rd Reich had. And it's the entire party. MAGA killed the GOP after they got rid of Cheney. You cut one head off and 3 more will pop up identical to him...with vindication. Its going to be a yearly struggle and I fear we won't be able to hold the line forever
- Offing him would be a pretty stark warning that tyranny comes at a price. As the kids say, “fuck around and find out”.
  
  A federal execution would be, maybe.
  Good luck seeing that happen.
  If he had died today he’d be a martyr. We don’t need a martyr… and he’s gonna ham it up as he if he were.
  This was an incredibly stupid thing to do.
  
  Nah they wouldn't be scared. Just more emboldened. They have an entire political party now that feels the same way they do
Gun traced to suspect's dad, was legally purchased
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/donald-trump-rally-shooting-assassination-attempt/?id=111916828
- In that case I guess he should just “get over it and move on.”
All of the Trump rally photos that I have ever seen have an audience behind him. If they did the same here, then any missed shots would go into the audience.
I was hoping for a post game interview ngl.
I like Presidents who DON'T Fail their Assassinations!
Any word on how the attendees got shot? Can't see anything in articles
- Well there were ~~four~~ five to seven gunshots shot from a rooftop. Going to guess two of those hit a couple attendees.
  
  Hit a couple attending, or hit a couple of attendees?
We'll see now this just wouldn't have happened if they let the attendees bring their guns now would it?
Lol no, that statement is way too comprehensible for Trump.
Don't forget it's not over after November. There are more elections and more chances to turn this around and save our country.
- Are there? He's made it clear he wants to do away with anything resembling democracy. What elections do you think are going to survive white christofascism
  
  We still got mid terms. If not, then we still got violence.
Chris Hedges' tweet...
My thoughts on the assassination attempt on former President Trump:
The assassination of Trump would not remove the yearning of tens of millions of people, many conditioned by the Christian right, for a cult leader. Most of the leaders of the Christian right have built cult followings of their own. These Christian fascists embraced magical thinking, attacked their enemies as agents of Satan and denounced reality-based science and journalism long before Trump did. Cults are a product of social decay and despair, and our decay and despair are expanding, soon to explode in another financial crisis.
The efforts by the Democratic Party and much of the press, including CNN and The New York Times, to discredit Trump, as if our problems are embodied in him, are futile. The smug, self-righteousness of this crusade against Trump only contributes to the national reality television show that has replaced journalism and politics. This crusade attempts to reduce a social, economic and political crisis to the personality of Trump. It is accompanied by a refusal to confront and name the corporate forces responsible for our failed democracy. This collusion with the forces of corporate oppression, which have impoverished the working class, fostered endless war, militarized our police, created the largest prison system in the world, licensed corporations to exploit the most vulnerable and transferred wealth upwards into the hands of a billionaire class, neuters the press, Trump's critics and the Democratic Party.
Our only hope is to organize the overthrow of the corporate state that vomited up Trump. Our democratic institutions, including the legislative bodies, the courts and the media, are hostage to corporate power. They are no longer democratic. We must, like resistance movements of the past, engage in acts of sustained mass civil disobedience, especially strikes, and non-cooperation. By turning our ire on the corporate state, rather than Trump, we name the true sources of power and abuse. We expose the absurdity of blaming our demise on demonized groups such as undocumented workers, Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos, liberals, feminists, gays and others. We give people an alternative to a bankrupt Democratic Party -- whose presidential candidate is in clear cognitive decline -- that is a full partner in corporate oppression and cannot be rehabilitated. We make possible the restoration of an open society. If we fail to embrace this militancy, which alone has the ability to destroy cult leaders, we will continue the march toward tyranny.
source: https://x.com/ChrisLynnHedges/status/1812526737982726267
- Civil disobedience may not be the best way forward. A better approach I think is voting more progressive thinkers into congress and other places of power and authority.
  Remember: countries where the Nordic model is used for social welfare and economic development/growth are thriving, consistently voted high in the happiness index, and also have been rejecting the far right extremism seen else where in Europe
  He’s super point on here
  … The smug, self-righteousness of this crusade against Trump only contributes to the national reality television show that has replaced journalism and politics.
  It is accompanied by a refusal to confront and name the corporate forces responsible for our failed democracy.
  This collusion with the forces of corporate oppression, which have impoverished the working class, fostered endless war, militarized our police, created the largest prison system in the world, licensed corporations to exploit the most vulnerable and transferred wealth upwards into the hands of a billionaire class, neuters the press, Trump’s critics and the Democratic Party.
  
  A better approach I think is voting more progressive thinkers into congress and other places of power and authority.
  It feels like a long con. The years of eroding the educational budget have finally paid off. It's going to be an upward battle to bring back logical thinking and media literacy.
  
  A better approach I think is voting more progressive thinkers into congress and other places of power and authority.
  And as we have seen, true progressives have been repeatedly pushed from the ticket in favor of establishment-friendly centrists time and time again. The two-party duopoly won't allow it.
I just man... ya know like.. don't fucking care anymore, I just dont
I hope this act is not replicated.
Welp, seems like that’s it boys. Trump’s got this all locked up.
- Eh, the people who will see this as a reason to vote for him were planning to do so already.
  
  I don't think it changes anyone's mind, but it could affect who shows up to vote.
  
  I could see someone saying "well I don't really agree with Trump's extremism but at least Trump supporters haven't tried to kill Biden so maybe the left is the problem". It's not as easy to wave his fearmongering ravings about the left off as conspiracy theories--someone on the left (I assume) actually tried to kill him. He's a martyr now.
  I really truly want to hope that you're right but damn if this doesn't make me super pessimistic about Biden's already shaky support.
- God, but I wish I could say this won't help him, but I'd be an idiot if I did.
  
  I think it's worse than that.
  It's going to motivate even more movement in house/senate races. I think this is a guarantee that the legislative branch turns total trump.
- So that's the song the trolls will sing for the coming weeks?
  
  Anyone with two brain cells to rub together should be worried about this helping him.
- Why do you think this event makes it so?
  
  I have no reason to suspect this was staged but,I mean, it's a pretty compelling fit to the current narrative... Trump strong, Biden old and feeble. Plus, all that coverage of Project 2025, "Trump’s big weakness," just died with that first gunshot. Evangelicals will eat this up with their "he's Chosen" LARP. I can already imagine the "bulletproof" NFT trading card series...
  As long as Trump doesn't die of a heart attack, this is only going to help him.
I look forward to finding out what the shooters motivations are. I don't personally expect it to be a left-wing partisan but something else, though I'll refrain from speculating here. Let's just say that there current Republican party tends to infight - to try and eat itself any time it senses weakness or deviance from the cult's marching orders.
Once law enforcement announced the shooter's identity and the world gets to dig into his social media and communications data... Well I guess we shall see.
- It's a 20 year old white guy who was a registered Republican according to the NY Post. But he also gave $15 to The Progressive Turnout Project. According to reports, his dad bought him the rifle a few weeks ago.
  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/07/14/thomas-crooks-trump-rally-shooter/74397935007/
  
  Yep. Not exactly what I was expecting, but pretty damn close. I had suspected an unstable, disillusioned red hat, and I was not disappointed.
- You thinking the secret service would conspire with Trump to stage an assassination attempt is absurd.
  The rest is very simply answered with people under shock do not act rationally
  
  Reading is fundamental: https://www.vox.com/23274533/secret-service-text-messages-january-6
  And trained secret service agents are not "people under shock" they are deliberately trained solely to activate and thrive in these exact moments.
- This is the dumbest shit and we need to fucking grow up a bit. These "questions" are asinine and not that hard to explain.
  Not denying the incident was reported, but there's a heavy insinuation here that this was set up or manufactured. If so... They needed an entire Secret Service detail, local event police and everyone standing by to be in on it. A couple hundred people are going to be involved and no one leaks it?
  "Supposed" gunman. I like how you pivot from "this is probably set up" to "ok even if it was real Trump is capable of worse"
  Again, the insinuation of an inside job here. We're going to involve a hundred or more people and no one thought it would be a problem to kill a bystander? Or the gunman was so good he killed a specific plant? And they had a 100% success rate... No one heard the plan and thought "oh this is a bad idea" and spoke out about it?
  Big difference between deleting text messages and MURDERING AN AMERICAN to further a political agenda.
  Yes. Things happen all the time. Trump people are saying this is to distract from Biden being inept. There's always a convenient time.
  Yes you dumbshit he was concerned about his hat because they already had the all clear. The shooter got taken out in seconds. They wouldn't have moved Trump. And they all were saying it was all clear. Also have you ever seen people in an absolute panic? Not the most rational state. Same thing with his shoes. That's ALSO why he took the photo op. They all dove on top of him. They figured out the shooter's location and took him down before Trump even got up.
  There's pictures of the fucking bullet in flight. So either that was ALSO manufactured (a member of the press willingly heard the plan ahead of time and doctored a photo or they actually shot a bullet inches away from Trumps head AND captured it). But no let's just get Trump, a bumbly ass fuck to orchestrate this perfectly. I'm sure he had it a planned to go down, and everyone covered him and he pulled out a razor blade, cut his ear, and put it away, all perfectly executed and no one caught anything on camera from any of the dozens of angles.
  This shit is so fucking stupid and I'm so sick of hearing about it. These points all rely on the most ass backwards way of thinking where dozens of people are in on this conspiracy and relies on all of them bring cool with killing someone to make it good for Trump.
  Get this shit outta here. This doesn't deserve the pixels on the screen used to illuminate this nonsense. Be a fucking grown up. We're going to have to figure out a real way to beat Trump, not pretend this was some false flag bullshit. Accept reality. Be a goddamn adult.
  I'm not even saying you're wrong for questioning, but I am saying you are wrong because the sheer volume of things that would need to occur for this theory to be even remotely possible is so ridiculous, I would consider aliens an equally plausible situation.
- Wow you are so calm and level-headed. I would be tempted for twice at least for a good measure. What if they missed it?
There is something seriously wrong with American politics. Trump is evil - not a word I throw around lightly - but this shooting has all but guaranteed a win for him in November.
He's clinched it. He's going to be King.
- Nobody is changing their vote over this... Like, the Democrats have been entrenched in "Not Trump" since the word GO, blue out numbers red and they know what's at stake.
  
  Saying this will change nothing is just as myopic as saying this'll guarantee a Trump victory
  
  The election is won or lost in the middle, not red or blue. It is the undecided and the ones considering voting who really matters.
  We tend to be the engaged voters who know what we are going to do with certainty. But, you can judge the polls by looking in the mirror.
  
  You say that as if all registered voters cast a vote for every election.
  This will, at least, energize the R party to vote in numbers we have yet to see. Meanwhile, you’ve got apathetic D voters who really don’t want Biden to be president. It’s not about changing voters’ votes - our elections are never about that - t’s about the number of people who cast a vote.
  Until now, I’ve been very much in the camp of promoting all the things Biden has done to convince voters he’s still worth supporting. Yesterday’s event changes that. The DNC needs to combat this pending influx of voters with an invigorating candidate.
Was the shooter name Johann Georg Elser by any chance?
I've been wondering where the crazies were on the left, and now i know
- every family has crazies. With that said, we don't know who it was, their reasoning, or their political leaning.
- Or one of the many many people he defrauded. Or someone or a relative of one of his rape victims. Rapey Donald sure loves rapin
  
  Don’t forget committing felonies. A convicted felon and rapist was shot at today.
- Still a lot of disinformation going around, but it appears that the shooter was a registered Republican and was wearing a demolition ranch t-shirt.
  It's all very bizarre.
  
  it appears that the shooter was a registered Republican
  "Ah, a leftist who was so crazy that he voted R"
  – toiletobserver, probably

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