Trump Vows Return To Butler Assassination Attempt Area
Former President Donald Trump dropped new details Monday night about his plans to return to the place where he nearly died last month.
During an interview with Elon Musk on X, Trump vowed to return to Butler for a rally in October. He said he will finish his July 13 address that was cut short because of the assassination attempt at the Butler Farm Show grounds.
Trump did not provide a specific date for the rally or divulge its location.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, suffered a wounded ear in the incident in which three spectators were shot, one fatally.
The Biden administration is setting up more areas for Mexicans to apply online to become the latest spate of illegal aliens using an illegal loophole through America’s asylum program. That program was designed to allow people under existential political threat at their home country to apply for asylum in America, not to make it easy for the government to allow economic refugees to flood into the country.
The Biden administration will expand areas where migrants can apply online for appointments to enter the United States to a large swath of southern Mexico, officials said Saturday, potentially easing strains on the Mexican government and lessening dangers for people trying to reach the U.S. border to claim asylum.
Migrants will be able to schedule appointments on the CBP One app from the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, extending the zone from northern and central Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. The move satisfies a request of Mexico, an increasingly close partner of the U.S. in efforts to control extraordinary migration flows.
The change will spare migrants from traveling north through Mexico to get one of 1,450 appointments made available daily, CBP said. The agency said it will happen soon but did not give a date.
“We consistently engage with our partners in the Government of Mexico and work together to adjust policies and practices in response to the latest migration trends and security needs,” CBP said in a statement.
The statement confirmed remarks a day earlier by Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Bárcena, who said closer relations with the United States cut migration sharply from late last year.
U.S. officials have said increased Mexican enforcement is largely responsible for a sharp drop in U.S. arrests for illegal border crossings during the first half of this year. Mexican officials have stepped up their presence at highway checkpoints and on railroads leading to the U.S. border, returning most to southern Mexico.
U.S. hands over the last military base in Niger to the ruling junta
The U.S. handed over its last military base in Niger – one of two crucial hubs for American counterterrorism operations in the country – to local authorities, the U.S. Department of Defense and Niger’s Ministry of Defense announced in a joint statement on Monday.
The handing over of Airbase 201 in the city of Agadez came after the U.S. troops withdrew earlier this month from Airbase 101, a small drone base in Niger’s capital of Niamey.
U.S. troops have until Sept. 15 to leave the Sahel country following an agreement with Nigerien authorities.
There are about two dozen American soldiers who remain in Niger, largely for administrative duties related to the withdrawal, according to Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon spokeswoman. They are located at the U.S. embassy.
In March, Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement that allowed U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. A few months later, officials of the two countries announced in a joint statement that U.S. troops would complete their withdrawal by the middle of September.
Was it Hunter with the cocaine in the cabinet room? Ashley with the cocaine in the Oval Office? Or was it a stranger with access to the White House reference library? The mystery of the cocaine found in the White House over the July 4, 2023, holiday was closed for lack of evidence almost as soon as it began. But now there are revelations of a cover-up in the case.
A new report finds that former director Kim Cheatle, forced to resign over the disastrous near-assassination of Donald Trump, wanted the evidence destroyed, the substance not tested, and the case closed quickly. This was despite the high profile nature of the story — the evacuation of the entire White House, including the media, due to fears that the white powder, which a uniformed Secret Service agent discovered, was ricin or anthrax.
Having been on the Biden’s Secret Service detail, Cheatle probably knew what it was.
The story exploded into the media as gowned-up people in hazmat bunny suits combed the White House.
The White House was briefly evacuated Sunday evening while Biden was at Camp David after the Secret Service discovered a suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing.
On July 2, 2023, the U.S. Secret Service discovered a small amount of cocaine at the White House. The substance was found in a cubby area inside a vestibule used for storing electronic devices at the West Executive Avenue entrance, a location that sees a lot of traffic from staff and visitors. Tests by the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services later confirmed the presence of cocaine.
Despite extensive forensic efforts, including fingerprint and DNA analysis by the FBI, no conclusive evidence was found to identify a suspect. The area where the cocaine was discovered is accessible to hundreds of people, and the lack of surveillance footage capturing the act made it impossible to pinpoint who might have brought the substance into the White House. As a result, the Secret Service closed the investigation due to insufficient evidence to proceed further.
According to three sources in the Secret Service community who spoke to RealClearPolitics, there was a significant rift among top leaders over how to handle the illicit substance. Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, along with other senior figures, reportedly pushed to destroy the cocaine. However, the suggestion was met with firm resistance from both the Secret Service Forensics Services Division and the Uniformed Division, who insisted on preserving the evidence.
The Secret Service has denied a report that former Director Kimberly Cheatle and other agency leaders wanted to destroy cocaine found in the White House.
“This is false. The US Secret Service takes its investigative and protective responsibilities very seriously,” agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. “There are retention policies for criminal investigations and the Secret Service adhered to those requirements during this case.”
A story in RealClearPolitics cited three anonymous sources within the Secret Service who claimed that Cheatle, who recently resigned in the fallout from the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, reassigned an officer who wanted to follow a specific crime scene investigative protocol after the discovery. Guglielmi’s statement did not address that aspect of the report.
Aside from the novelty of illicit drugs being found inside the executive mansion, troubled first son Hunter Biden was staying in the White House in the days before the cocaine was discovered on July 2 and then publicly reported on July 4, sparking questions about the source of the drugs.
The initial discovery triggered a brief evacuation of the White House grounds as the substance was tested to rule out the possibility it was anthrax or another deadly powder. Because the evacuation included members of the press, it became impossible to keep the discovery hidden from the public.
Local law enforcement alerted the U.S. Secret Service about a suspicious person before the shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, according to the chief of the Pennsylvania State Police.
During questioning at the House Homeland Security hearing on Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris disclosed new details about the security lapse that led to the assassination attempt on former President Trump. The incident resulted in one death and two injuries.
Col. Christopher Paris stated that the Butler County Emergency Services Unit had a text thread discussing the suspected gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and had reported him as a suspicious person before the incident.
“At some point when he utilized the range-finder, the suspicion was heightened,” Col. Paris said of Crooks. He said that State Police got a call and a text from the emergency services unit about the suspected gunman’s activity and told the Secret Service.
State Police officials had “verbally turned right around and gave it to the Secret Service” at a local command post for security, Col. Paris said, adding, “My understanding was that he was milling about and he stood out to them because he never made his way to a point of ingress to the venue.”
The police chief also testified that two local law enforcement officers stationed in the building complex left to search for the suspect before the shooting. He added that he didn’t know if the officers would have seen Crooks climbing onto the roof of a nearby building had they stayed by the window.
This is a special section of our Global Outlook Report covering the historic attempted assassination of former President and 2024 Presidential nominee Donald J Trump. These are the headlines and links to the stories revealing how the assassination attempt was initially reported, as well as the immediate consequence of the assassination attempt, and up-to-date links on the fallout, including the end of the Biden campaign and the beginning of the Kamala campaign.
ED.NOTE: We will be providing an in-depth report on the Trump assassination attempt and the Biden drop-out in the SEPTEMBER 2024 Issue. The October 2024 Issue will be a special election-focused issue.
THE INITIAL COVERAGE – On Sunday, July 14, 2024, a 20-year-old man named Thomas Cooke managed to get in a choice sniper position to be able to open fire on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, PA. Trump’s head movement appears to have saved him from certain death as the bullet ripped through his ear. One participant was killed, and two others were critically (now stable) wounded.
Since that moment, President Joe Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 race, Kamala Harris was coronated the new nominee without a primary, and the media appears desperate to bury this historic story altogether, lest Trump become too human to the American people.
RFK Jr.’s Secret Service protection ends after suspended campaign
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his third-party presidential bid last week and endorsed former President Donald Trump, has lost his Secret Service protection following the decision to leave the race, his campaign said.
“Mr. Kennedy no longer has USSS,” Stefanie Spear, Kennedy’s press secretary, told CBS News.
In remarks in Phoenix on Friday, Kennedy said he was backing Trump because he could see no viable path to the White House. And although he said he wasn’t “terminating” his campaign — remaining on the ballot in some noncompetitive states — he pledged to remove his name from states where he could be a spoiler. Kennedy was on the ballot in more than 20 states when he suspended his White House bid.
President Biden directed the Secret Service to afford protection to Kennedy after the assassination attempt against Trump in July. Kennedy’s campaign had long requested the protection for the independent presidential candidate — an issue that was especially acute for Kennedy, whose father and uncle were assassinated in the 1960s.
First outdoor Trump rally since assassination attempt: Why Asheboro?
The Republican ticket sees North Carolina as pivotal for the election, according to local political analysts.
The state as a whole is already important: The UVA Center recently moved the state from Republican to a toss-up this week. It now joins a list of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada: states that will “almost certainly” decide who wins the race, experts said.
In 2020, Trump won Randolph County by 78%.
Watch our interview with Wake Forest University professor John Dinan above to learn more.
Also at the rally, our team noted portable storage and moving vans blocking off the event. There were several law enforcement officers patrolling the area, too.
Video from Trump rally released by Butler Township police available on Eagle’s YouTube channel in its entirety
Body camera and dash camera footage taken by the Butler Township Police Department at the campaign rally for former President Donald Trump on July 13 is now available in its entirety via Butler Eagle’s YouTube channel.
The complete videos, acquired via a right-to-know request earlier this month, were posted Wednesday, Aug. 21 with editing only done to blur graphic scenes and remove foul language in the audio.
The 12 videos were released by the local police department on Aug. 8. Some of the videos were blurred prior to their release to the Eagle.
Washington Post was one of the first to use what became the leftist-approved label of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, calling it a “Trump rally shooting” to subliminally have Trump’s rallies associated with violence. The hope is to trick the willing-to-be-tricked that the political violence witnessed is the fault of the man who was shot, which is comparable to blaming a rape victim for being raped because “she was asking for it.”
Al Jazeera, a representative of an Islamist ideology that seeks to destroy the American republic, echoes the same type of careful language to assure no sympathy is garnered for the enemy they share with the Progmerican left, Donald J Trump.
Mother Jones took two shots at titling the news event, and both times show their allegiance with the shooter, and their blind hatred of the former President.
Trump shooter Thomas Crooks had encrypted messaging accounts in Belgium, Germany, New Zealand
Trump rally gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks used encrypted messaging accounts on various platforms located in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany, according to a member of a congressional task force investigating his assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), one of 13 lawmakers tapped to serve on the House bipartisan task force, told reporters at a Wednesday press conference at the Trump Hotel Chicago that the “overseas accounts” piqued his suspicion immediately regarding the shooter’s motives.”
“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aid need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad – where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into?” asked Waltz.
Attempted Trump assassin Thomas Crooks trained at same gun range used by DHS
Attempted Trump assassin Thomas Crooks practiced shooting at his preferred gun range the day before the Department of Homeland Security conducted a training there — just two months before he opened fire at the former president’s rally.
Crooks, 20, visited the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club in Pennsylvania on May 22 around 3:10 p.m., where he practiced alone at the rifle range, according to a club logbook obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) office.
The very next day, beginning at noon, DHS conducted a “police training” at the range with at least three people, club records show.
Clairton’s rifle range where Crooks would have practiced is 200 yards long — more than enough space for him to practice the 150-yard shot he would take at Trump on July 13, wounding the former president and killing a bystander.
It is unclear whether DHS regularly held trainings there, or if the May 23 visit was an uncommon occurrence.
The plot continues to thicken regarding Thomas Crooks:
Matthew Crooks is interested in guns and has sold firearms to family members in the past, the source told the Mail. “The FBI still very much has questions about how much they knew and how [Thomas Crooks] slipped through the net,” the individual said.
Quinn Logue specializes in both criminal and civil law, including wrongful death and personal injury, according to its website.
Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. The 20-year-old, who shot Trump in the ear, also killed attendee Corey Comperatore and injured two others. Crooks was shot dead by a sniper at the scene.
The FBI is still investigating how Crooks was able to carry out the shooting from a rooftop near the rally stage. The FBI briefed Trump on their investigation earlier this month, revealing that they still don’t have a clear motive, ABC News reported. However, Crooks may have targetted Trump just because he was the next big-name politician to come to Pennsylvania.
Why would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks remains an infuriating enigma weeks after shooting
However, it’s clear from congressional hearings — and the details that have emerged from FBI briefings with lawmakers — that investigators still have no satisfying answers for why Crooks targeted Trump.
The glacial pace of new information coming to light has been frustrating for Crooks’ neighbors, who are still waiting for answers after the shocking discovery that they were living next to a killer who plotted to murder a leading candidate for president.
“I would love to know what really happened and what Thomas’ motivation was,” neighbor Kelly Little, 39, told The Post.
“Domestic terrorism is very real. We deserve to know what happened, but I don’t know if we’re ever going to get a straight answer.”
The FBI seized a laptop, two cellphones and multiple hard drives and flash drives from Crooks’ house.via Chuck Grassley’s Office
Little said their calm suburban street has grown quiet again after being thrust into the center of a media and police firestorm last month.
“It’s been weeks since police were here. There’s nothing happening, no police activity,” she said, noting that although local cops drive by occasionally, there are no officers stationed there long-term.
Crooks’ parents have been keeping to themselves since the shooting, which neighbors said was pretty much par for the course even before the events at the Trump rally in Butler.
Rep. Mike Waltz Who Is Investigating Trump Assassination Attempt Reveals Thomas Crooks Acted With Help From Foreign Entity
Republican Rep. Mike Waltz told the Daily Mail that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old accused of trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump, might not have acted alone.
The Congressional task force’s ongoing investigation has raised significant concerns about possible foreign involvement in the attack.
Rep. Waltz stressed that the motivations behind Crooks’ actions are still uncertain, hinting that a foreign entity or another third party might be involved.
“I don’t understand, and I don’t have any answers yet to help me understand how the [Secret] Service and DHS came out so quickly and said – and I think the FBI as well, but I’ll have to check that – and said, he operated alone,” Waltz told Daily Mail at Trump Tower in Chicago on Wednesday.
Waltz told The Post Wednesday that he does not believe the agencies have been able to dig up enough information on the 20-year-old gunman to determine for certain that he did not have help planning and carrying out the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month.
“We’ve heard both the Secret Service and the FBI kind of phrase it in different ways — that everything they’ve seen he acted alone and that they have yet to find any co-conspirator,” Waltz (R-Fla.) told The Post in an exclusive interview following an FBI briefing Wednesday.
New Thomas Crooks Video Appears to Show Him Hours Before Trump Shooting
In a chilling development, newly uncovered footage appears to show Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump, wandering around the site of the Butler, Pennsylvania rally just hours before his deadly attack on July 13, 2024.
The video, which has surfaced on social media platforms, was reportedly captured by a small business owner selling patriotic hats at the event. The merchant, who has not been identified, made the startling discovery while reviewing their footage from that fateful day.
The TikTok video, which has since gone viral, is captioned with an ominous message: “Terrifying moment… Looking back at my videos from the PA Butler Trump rally on 7/13/24… we were there just trying to sell our patriotic hats…”
The footage then transitions to a slow-motion clip of a man believed to be Crooks, with text overlay stating, “Captured a video of Thomas Matthews Crooks at 4:26pm, before the assassination attempt occurred.”
THE HISTORIC SS FAIL – Here is how the conservative and MSM press covered what appears to be critical security failures that led to the assassination attempt, starting with might be the very symbol of incompetency from FBI Director Christopher Wray, who sought to lessen the dramatic impact of an attempted assassination on a former President.
Trump rally counter-sniper Ben Shaffer gives damning verdict on FBI ‘evidence tampering’ after assassination attempt
A SWAT counter-sniper who was working the Trump rally in Pennsylvania where a gunman opened fire has issued a damning verdict on the FBI‘s alleged evidence tampering.
Washington Regional SWAT counter-sniper Ben Shaffer admitted that it was ‘absolutely’ concerning that the roof of the AGR International building where gunman Thomas Matthew Crook, 20, was cleaned quickly after the July 13 assassination attempt.
Shaffer then went on to acknowledge that Crooks should have been elevated from a ‘person of interest’ to someone ‘who would have warranted some type of investigatory detention’ by agents because he was using a range finder.
BOMBSHELL: Secret Service Headquarters Ordered Agents NOT to Request Additional Manpower for Trump Rally
As more details emerge about the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the situation is looking increasingly troubling for the Secret Service.
On Friday, Senator Josh Hawley revealed troubling new information from a Secret Service whistleblower, indicating that agency headquarters had explicitly instructed agents not to request additional personnel for the event, knowing such requests would be immediately denied.
It’s almost as if the Secret Service senior staffers wanted President Trump dead and buried. How can he place any trust in the agency going forward?
Forgotten radios and missed warnings: New details emerge about communication failures before Trump rally shooting
The day before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, a tactical team of local police officers set aside radios for their Secret Service partners so the two agencies could communicate during the former president’s July 13 campaign rally.
But those radios were never picked up….
Standing over the gunman’s dead body minutes later, a local police officer who responded to the initial warning expressed frustration that his own radio calls about a man on the roof seemed to go unheeded by the other officers.
“That’s what I was f**king calling out bro, f**king ‘On top of the roof,’” the officer said, according to body camera footage. “We’re not – we on the same frequency?”…
Details about the forgotten radios were included in a recent report from Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican member of the congressional task force investigating the events of that day. Higgins claims that a county emergency services commander had “personally reminded” Secret Service counter-sniper teams to pick up their assigned radios at a command post located at the Butler County Fairgrounds. “It didn’t happen,” according to Higgins’ report.
That detail was confirmed to CNN by Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger.
“I can confirm that the Butler County ESU team made radios available to the Secret Service and that they were not utilized by the Secret Service,” Goldinger said in a statement. While it’s unclear if Secret Service would have gotten the warning about a man on the roof had they picked up the radios, Goldinger said, “It is safe to assume that if a holder of an ESU radio was paying attention, they would have received the call.”
Sen Johnson: FBI ‘Dragging Feet’ on Trump Assassination Probe
The Secret Service and FBI are “basically dragging their feet” on the Senate bipartisan probe into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Sen. Ron Johnson told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
The Wisconsin Republican, who is part of the bipartisan investigation, said the agencies are “stonewalling us.”
“We have gotten some transcribed interviews, but the documents we request are heavily redacted [and] they’re delivered the day of the interview,” he said, explaining that this means that they can’t really even “be used to conduct the interviews effectively.”
Trump assassination attempt sparks investigation of Secret Service DEI policies: ‘Compromised its mission’
A non-profit group has launched an investigation into the Secret Service’s Diversity Equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Trump last month.
Mountain States Legal Foundation, (MSLF) a Colorado-based organization, says it is looking into how the controversial policy may have led to security being dangerously lax at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to scale the roof of a nearby building and fire off eight shots with one bullet grazing the right ear of the former commander-in-chief. One attendee, Corey Comperatore, was fatally struck, while two others were also hit and suffered serious injuries in an event that could have plunged the nation into a political crisis.
MSLF says its investigation is examining how DEI impacted the elite agency’s hiring, retention, and promotion. Critics of DEI say the policy elevates those of a certain sex or ethnicity over those who may be more qualified, thus the best person for a particular job may not get the role, thereby lowering standards overall.
Secret Service Records Reveal DEI Is Prioritized for All Agency Employees in ‘Every Action, Every Day’
Judicial Watch announced today it received 311 pagesof U.S. Secret Service (USSS) records that show the Secret Service has made it a top priority that “diversity and inclusion is not just ‘talked about’ – but demonstrated by all employees through ‘Every Action, Every Day.’” [Emphasis in original]
The records show the Secret Service, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), demands that 12 percent of its workforce be composed of “persons with disabilities,” and that it is the policy of the Secret Service to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to such non-merit factors as “disability (physical or mental).”
Judicial Watch obtained the records in a FOIA lawsuit against DHS for records relating to an incident in April at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland in which a Secret Service agent assigned to protect Vice President Kamala Harris got into a scuffle with colleagues(Judicial Watch v. Department of Homeland Security(No. 1:24-cv-01705)).
According to an April 24 report by the Washington Examiner, a Secret Service agent was removed from her duties after physically attacking the commanding agent in charge and other agents who tried to subdue her.
Holt, Shaffer to Newsmax: Secret Service Failures Go Beyond DEI
Americans deserve a thorough federal investigation into the Secret Service security failures that led up to the shooting of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania last month, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax, Friday.
In an appearance on “The Chris Salcedo Show,” Holt and retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer discussed whether the problems were the result of incompetence related to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies or something more sinister.
Shaffer said Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., attended a Trump rally in Virginia a few weeks before the July 13 assassination attempt, and at that event, “they had layers of overlapping and continuous security-controlled corridors for people to move, and nobody was allowed to wander around. So then, yeah, how is it that even with DEI in mind, they go from an efficient, well-organized, well-wired machine to like, Oh, did we forget to check that building? So, no, this goes beyond DEI.”
US Congressman Clay Higgins has accused the FBI of a potential cover-up related to the attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The accusation centers on the handling of the remains of Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by the Secret Service after opening fire on trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Crooks’ attack resulted in the death of one bystander and injuries to Trump and two other attendees.
Higgins, a Louisiana Republican with a background in law enforcement and a member of the congressional Task Force investigating the shooting, publicly criticized the FBI’s actions. According to Higgins’ report released Thursday, the FBI authorized the release of Crooks’ body for cremation just ten days after the incident, on July 23, without prior notice to local authorities or the county coroner. Higgins asserted that the coroner and other officials were unaware of the body’s release until August 5.
The congressman expressed concerns that the release of the body before the completion of the coroner’s and autopsy reports obstructs further investigation into the incident. Higgins argued that the FBI’s decision to permit the cremation could be seen as an obstruction to a thorough investigative process. He highlighted the lack of available forensic evidence as a significant hindrance to verifying the circumstances surrounding the shooting attempt.
Sen. Ron Johnson: FBI probe into Trump shooting is ‘jaw-dropping’
The ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee told DailyMail.com that the actions of the Justice Department are ‘jaw dropping’ and slammed the agency’s law enforcement arm – the FBI – for thinking they are ‘above the law.’
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year would-be assassin of Trump, was shot dead by Secret Service right after one of his bullets grazed the former president’s right ear during an attack at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on June 13 that left one supporter dead and two others critically injured.
‘I think the FBI, Department of Justice, Secret Service are doing everything exactly wrong,’ Johnson told DailyMail.com at Trump Tower in Chicago on Monday. ‘If you want people to have confidence in the investigation, it needs to be transparent.’
Sen. Ron Johnson (right) told DailyMail.com that ‘the FBI, Department of Justice, Secret Service are doing everything exactly wrong’ in the investigation of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump
‘What we know about the events of July 13 is coming primarily from local law enforcement,’ the furious senator explained.
FBI engaged in ‘major-league cover-up’ of Trump assassination attempt
The FBI and the Biden-Harris administration are engaged in a “major-league cover-up on the near-assassination of former President Trump,” Judicial Watch Inc. asserted Aug. 12.
The accusation came after the FBI denied Judicial Watch’s request for records on the July 13 Pennsylvania rally at which Donald J. Trump was shot by Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI on July 26, seeking documents, emails, presentations, and other data regarding the FBI’s coordination with the U.S. Secret Service in preparation for the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at which Trump was shot in the ear. The request covered the time period from June 15 to present.
The FBI cited FOIA exemption 7A, which allows withholding of information that “would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication.” It did not elaborate or provide context for use of this exemption.
Secret Service denied Butler agents extra manpower ahead of Trump rally shooting: Whistleblower
A Secret Service department that handles manpower requests urged agents not to ask for additional security for the rally where an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump occurred, according to a whistleblower report.
The whistleblower told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that the Secret Service Office of Protective Operations — Manpower essentially denied security assets “through informal means” by encouraging agents not to seek more manpower for the rally, Hawley wrote in a letter…
Trump team irate over Secret Service failing to warn them about Crooks after spotting him with a range finder
Former President Trump took the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, several minutes after the Secret Service first began tracking the former president’s attempted assassin, and Trump’s team was none too happy about it.
Those in Trump’s orbit said the former president’s security detail became enraged after learning they were not told for 30 minutes about a suspicious subject carrying a range finder around the perimeter of Trump’s July 13 rally, according to The Washington Post. That suspicious subject turned out to be Thomas Matthew Crooks, the former president’s 20-year-old attempted assassin.
Trump took the stage in Butler shortly after 6 p.m., according to reports. Meanwhile, local officers had first spotted Crooks between 5:45 p.m. and 5:55 p.m., the Post’s timeline of events indicates. Once spotted, local law enforcement verbally communicated the threat to Secret Service agents, but the threat was reportedly never shared with Trump’s team. Trump’s team was also reportedly never told that local law enforcement counter-snipers lost track of Crooks at one point.
Videos: Trump shooter spotted jumping across roofs before assassination attempt
A new body camera video shows would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks jumping across multiple roofs as he moved into position just minutes before the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at the former president’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
On Monday, Jack Posobiec, a conservative media personality, shared a video of the body camera footage alongside the caption, “Bodycam footage of Thomas Matthew Crooks jumping from roof to roof just minutes before he shot President Trump and the crowd in Butler, PA.”
The video clearly shows an individual jumping across multiple roofs near the former president’s Pennsylvania rally prior to the assassination attempt, which resulted in Trump being shot in the ear, a retired fire chief being killed, and two other rally attendees being seriously injured.
Attempted Trump assassin seen walking around Pennsylvania rally hours before opening fire
Chilling new video has been released showing Thomas Matthew Crooks casually walking through a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, nearly two hours before he opened fire on former President Donald Trump and attendees at a campaign rally.
The short clip, released by the clothing company Iron Clad USA, shows Crooks at 4:26 p.m. dressed in shorts and a “Demolitia” T-shirt walking past a line of vendors selling Trump merchandise ahead of the July 13 rally.
He was wearing the same T-shirt when he opened fire on Trump and is not carrying anything in the eerie video.
“Terrifying moment… looking back on my videos from the PA Butler Trump rally on 7/13/24,” the company’s owner wrote on the TikTok version of the video. “We were there just trying to sell our patriotic hats from my small business.”
Trump assassination attempt in Butler reflects long-standing ‘systemic failures’ in Secret Service protections
Butler Township Police Officer Drew Blasko paced angrily along the AGR building, where just minutes before a gunman had clambered atop the roof, aimed an AR-15-style rifle at Donald Trump and fired, striking the former president.
As Blasko and other officers stood guard near a loading bay behind the building, he recounted a meeting earlier in the week with the Secret Service.
“I told them that fucking Tuesday,” he said. “I told them to post fucking guys over here.”
The Trump rally shooting that day, which killed one man and injured three others, including the former president, has been called the largest security failure in 40 years. It has led to the resignation of the Secret Service director, a congressional investigation and questions from lawmakers about how such a lapse could have occurred.
But an investigation by Spotlight PA, ProPublica and the Butler Eagle has revealed that the weaknesses that led to the assassination attempt were not unique to the July rally, but the inevitable breakdown of an already vulnerable system.
Trump Assassination Attempt Laid Bare Long-standing Vulnerabilities in the Secret Service
Butler Township Police Officer Drew Blasko paced angrily along the AGR building, where just minutes before a gunman had clambered atop the roof, aimed an AR-15-style rifle at Donald Trump and fired, striking the former president.
As Blasko and other officers stood guard near a loading bay behind the building, he recounted a meeting earlier in the week with the Secret Service.
“I told them that fucking Tuesday,” he said. “I told them to post fucking guys over here.”
The Trump rally shooting that day, which killed one man and injured three others, including the former president, has been called the largest security failure in 40 years. It has led to the resignation of the Secret Service director, a congressional investigation and questions from lawmakers about how such a lapse could have occurred.
But an investigation by Spotlight PA, ProPublica and the Butler Eagle has revealed that the weaknesses that led to the assassination attempt were not unique to the July rally, but the inevitable breakdown of an already vulnerable system.
The newsrooms spoke to dozens of officials across all levels of law enforcement and in several states who have provided security for presidents and presidential candidates, as well as local party officials and academic experts in security.
Speaker Mike Johnson Sparks Uproar After Revealing the Seven Republicans Who Will Serve on Task Force Investigating Trump Assassination Attempt
House Speaker Mike Johnson makes an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” (CNBC Television / YouTube screen shot)
House Speaker Mike Johnson today announced the Republicans who will serve on the Bipartisan House Task Force to investigate the Trump assassination attempt and sparked an uproar among conservatives in the process.
Today, I’m announcing the seven Republicans who will serve on the Bipartisan House Task Force to investigate the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. We have the utmost confidence in this group of steady, highly qualified, and capable Members of Congress:
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) July 29, 2024
The seven GOPers listed are as follows:
• Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly
• Tennessee Rep. Mark Green
• Ohio Rep. Dave Joyce
• Florida Rep. Laurel Lee
• Florida Rep. Michael Waltz
• Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins
• Texas Rep. Pat Fallon
THE PRE AND POST VIOLENT RHETORIC OF THE DNC – Immediately after the assassination attempt, the conservative press rightly questioned the role the violent rhetoric by the DNC, including Biden, in inspiring the shooting in the first place. As if to confirm their fears, the violent rhetoric of the Left continued AFTER the assassination attempt:
THE FALL-OUT – Here are some of the immediate consequences of the Trump assassination attempt. As already noted, there will be an in-depth report on the fall-out of the Trump assassination attempt in the September 2024 Issue of MIA. We’ll start with an announcement by President Trump that might be a symbol of what this assassination has come to mean for many, “Fight, fight, fight.”
Secret Service Pittsburgh employees placed on administrative leave: report
Several members of the U.S. Secret Service Pittsburgh Field Office have reportedly been placed on administrative leave following the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Anthony Guglielmi, USSS chief of communications, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the agency’s personnel are held “to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action.”
USSS did not directly confirm any employees placed on leave, but Guglielmi added that given the “personal” nature of the matter, the agency is “not in a position to comment further.”
What we know about why 5 Secret Service agents got new duties after Trump assassination attempt
At least five Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in July, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
They include the special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office and three other agents assigned to that office, which was responsible for the security planning ahead of the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to the law enforcement official who had direct knowledge of the matter. One of the five agents was assigned to Trump’s protective detail, the official said.
The official was not authorized to publicly disclose details of the personnel investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The agents are on administrative leave, meaning they cannot do investigative or protective work.
Fox News reported that a different group of Secret Service agents assigned specifically to Trump’s security detail remains operational. Trump avoided serious injury from the shooting.
But as shocking as it is to see a former Secret Service director need the protection of her own former agency, it’s much less surprising when one considers the overall threat environment facing those whom Trump loyalists perceive as a danger to him — or them. After all, we learned earlier this week that the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s New York hush money trial, and her business partner have each been subjected to death threats and harassment, and that law enforcement has advised the daughter and her family to leave their home for their own safety.
Further, in an interview with my NBC News colleague Ken Dilanian last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland noted that the Justice Department has brought 400 cases over the last two years alone dealing with threats against federal and state judges, federal and state prosecutors, federal and state legislators, and federal, state and local law enforcement officers. Of course, those are just the cases federal law enforcement has brought, not the totality of the threats.
Butler officials are concerned about future Trump rally
Local officialsare worried about former President Trump‘s plans to return to Butler in October, reports Spotlight PA, ProPublica and the Butler Eagle.
Why it matters: Last month’s assassination attempt at an outdoor rally in the rural western Pennsylvania city has been panned as one of the most glaring security lapses in decades, leading to former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle‘s resignation and numerous federal and congressional probes.
Driving the news: Trump said in an interview with billionaire Elon Musk on X earlier this month that he intends to come back to Butler to finish his speech.
Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche shared concerns about how the visit “will place additional stress on law enforcement and the community.”
Local officials are calling for better coordination with the Secret Service should Trump return, including a unified command post, Adams Township Sgt. Ed Lenz told the outlets.
Here’s Who Donald Trump Jr. Holds Responsible For His Father’s Attempted Assassination
The Democratic Party and its allies in the mainstream media have attempted to muddy the waters when it comes to covering the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, offering conflicting narratives regarding the deceased suspect and even seeming to blame Trump himself for the violent act.
But for Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., it is clear where much of the blame lies.
He called the media “truly embarrassing” and a “disgrace” to the country and hypocritical for calling Republicans a threat to democracy while not holding Harris accountable over her record.
“They seem to be able to run roughshod over all of those things, but again, that’s nothing new,” he said. “They called everyone in the world a fascist, and yet, they’re the ones that want to jail their political opposition. They’re the ones that want to censor and silence them. They are the ones that, you know, ultimately caused an assassination attempt of the leading candidate of the opposition party.”
A $208 million grant from the Biden administration to Volvo Holdings that is intended to enable the company to keep 3 American facilities from shutting down is directly benefiting a Chinese Communist Party senior member, auto industry magnate Li Shufu, whose firm holds $2.4 billion worth of stock in the company.
Chinese billionaire and auto industry magnate Li Shufu is a senior Chinese Communist Party member who has explicitly devoted his career to spreading Chinese influence worldwide. According to data reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, he is also set to personally benefit from the Biden-Harris administration’s latest taxpayer-funded initiative to boost electric vehicle manufacturing.
Li’s firm, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, holds a $2.4 billion stake in heavy-duty vehicle manufacturer Volvo Group, making the Chinese firm the company’s second-largest shareholder. The Volvo Group is set to receive a $208.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that will help keep some of the truckmaker’s factories afloat.
Geely’s stake is entirely made up of class-A shares, which are more exclusive and confer much greater voting power. In total, Geely has a 15 percent share of voting power, giving it sway in the Volvo Group’s corporate decisions, such as electing board members or initiating mergers.
The value of that stake has surged 5.3 percent, or $119 million, since the morning of July 11, when the Biden-Harris administration announced the grant, which is designed to support the Volvo Group’s transition to electric truck manufacturing across three facilities in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland.
The Energy Department’s grant was earmarked under a new federal program designed to support “shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing and assembly facilities.” The designation suggests that, without the funding, the Volvo Group’s three facilities may have been forced to close.
In a gesture that’s as important as the location it took place, the two Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah met in the city of Beijing, the capitol of the Chinese Communist Party’s empire, forming an historic peace through a declaration on “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity.”
The gesture puts Fatah in the elevated crosshairs in its rule in the West Bank, the former heart of Judah and Samaria. It also puts China in the power broker role in the Middle East, shifting more influence away from the U.S. and Western allies.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a declaration in Beijing on ending a yearslong rift, the groups said Tuesday, taking a step toward resolving a deep divide which has lingered for years despite repeated attempts at unifying the sides.
The two heavyweights of Palestinian politics signed the Beijing Declaration on “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity,” according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, pledging to form a unity government for the Palestinian territories. But previous such declarations have failed, including a similar deal in 2011, casting doubt over whether the China-sponsored negotiations might actually lead to a resolution.
The declaration comes at a sensitive time, as the war in Gaza rages on into its 10th month and as Israel and Hamas are weighing an internationally backed cease-fire proposal that would wind down the war and free dozens of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
On Sunday, July 21, 2024, at 1:46PM ET, Joe Biden let the world know he was bowing out of the Presidential race for “the good of the country and the good of the party.” He let the world know through X. This followed an announcement earlier that week he was diagnosed with having Covid-19.
Within two days of the announcement being made, Democrat delegates quickly rallied around Biden’s endorsement, Vice President Kamala Harris, the new presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party. Biden disappeared for four days before emerging Tuesday, July 23, in a video showing him weakly walking across a tar mac and up a small flight of stairs into Air Force One.
Radio blackouts have been reported across Earth after the Sun released powerful flares.
There is a 65% chance of this happening across the planet still and it could impact aviation and satellite communication too.
Blackouts have already been reported over parts of the Pacific Ocean, according to the alert issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Other radio blackouts have been tracked by scientists across the globe over the last several days.
Solar flares are also expected in the weeks to come, NASA told DailyMail.com.
A solar flare happens when there is an emission of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun’s atmosphere called a sunspot.
This means radiation is blasted away from the Sun’s surface and depending on where it erupts from, it can launch towards Earth.
Elon Musk announced on X his intentions to pull his X offices and his SpaceX offices out of California to Texas, where Musk would follow suit. He announced the plan after California passed a law preventing parents from being informed if their children should begin to go through “gender-affirming therapy.”
On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk would be donating $45 million a month – $180 million from July through October – to America PAC, a political action committee dedicated to reelecting former President Donald Trump.
“This is the final straw,” Musk wrote on X, adding that he told California Gov. Gavin Newsom last year that affirming laws like this one would lead to an exodus of families who want to “protect their children.”
To me, none of the mogul’s recent moves are surprising. They will, however, affect how the presidential election plays out – and possibly assist in reelecting Trump. That should concern all of us because of the power owning X gives him and his willingness to wield it.
On Monday, three small Houthi vessels, two of which were crewed and one uncrewed, attacked the Panama-flagged, Israeli-owned MT Bently I off the coast of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, according to British and American authorities.
The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center reported that the MT Bently I conducted self-protection measures, and after 15 minutes the small watercraft aborted the attack.
Later the same day, the MT Chios Lion, a Liberian-flagged, Marshall Islands-owned oil tanker, was attacked by a Houthi drone.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has ruled that the appointment of special council Jack Smith by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was unconstitutional, calling the cases cited by Jack Smith’s office to back up his claim irrelevant to the constitutional issues at hand. This means that the classified documents charges against Trump are necessarily thrown out.
Cannon concluded, “The Framers gave Congress a pivotal role in the appointment of principal and inferior officers. That role cannot be usurped by the Executive Branch or diffused elsewhere — whether in this case or in another case, whether in times of heightened national need or not.”
WASHINGTON — The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case of former President Donald Trump in Florida dismissed the prosecution on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon brings a stunning and abrupt conclusion to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats that the Republican former president confronted. Trump faced dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back.
Defense lawyers filed multiple challenges to the case, including a legally technical one that asserted that special counsel Jack Smith had been illegally appointed under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which governs the appointment of certain government positions, and that his office was improperly funded by the Justice Department.
Donald J Trump chose Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate on the first day of the Republican National Convention, July 15, 2024. Vance was once a virulent critic of Trump but had changed his tune, becoming one of Trump’s staunchest supporters. Vance is 39, a stark contrast to the age of his running mate, Trump, as well as Biden.
MILWAUKEE — Anticipation around former President Donald Trump tapping Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his vice presidential nominee not only concerned the next four months before the 2024 election and the next four years, should he and Vance win in November.
But Trump’s decision on Monday, announced during the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, could also define the GOP for the four or eight years after that should Vance become the party’s prohibitive favorite in 2028.
In tapping Vance, 39, the youngest vice president since eventual President Richard Nixon, Trump has provided his Make America Great Again movement and America First policy platform with an opportunity to continue after his second and last term, instead of picking a more centrist, compromise candidate as an appeal to more establishment Republicans.
Trump, a legacy-minded real estate mogul and marketing expert who rose to national prominence before The Apprentice TV series because of his branded buildings, has anointed an heir apparent in tapping Vance, according to Republican strategist Cesar Conda.
Moments before the former president was shot at, with one bullet grazing his ear, Trump declared to a crowd of rallygoers that his nomination would be a moment of unity for the party.
“The world will see a vibrant Republican Party that is bigger, stronger, more confident, and more united than ever before,” he said in Butler, Pennsylvania.
But Republicans were going into the convention, a four-day affair that begins on Monday in Milwaukee, with lingering divisions over the party’s official platform and a bitter primary that revealed a sizable rift among Republican voters.
The owner of social media site X, Elon Musk, has opened up on his feelings regarding the recent incident which saw former President of the United States, Donald Trump, become the victim of a shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump was attending a presidential rally in Butler when shots were heard coming in from his right hand side. Amidst screams and confusion, the former leader was quickly told to ‘get down’ by Secret Service agents, who piled on top of him in an effort to protect him from the incoming fire.
Former US President Donald Trump has said he is “supposed to be dead” after Saturday night’s assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
In one of his first interviews since the incident, Mr Trump told conservative US media he felt that he had been saved “by luck or by God”.
A spectator was killed in the attack, while two other people were seriously injured. The gunman, who also died, has been named as Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Trump says he’ll ‘bring country together’ at Republican convention after shooting.
Mr Trump described the moment he looked up at the crowd after realising he had been shot.
Speaking as he prepared to board a flight to the upcoming Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he is expected to be confirmed as the party’s candidate for president, Mr Trump said he now had a “chance to bring the country together”.
President Joe Biden addressed Americans for the second time on Sunday evening, instructing voters how to feel and behave in the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on Saturday.
“We’re neighbors, we’re friends, coworkers, citizens,” he told his “fellow Americans,” saying that “we’re not enemies.” He went on to say “we must stand together,” saying it was time to “lower the temperature” and “take a step back.”
“Thankfully,” he said, “former Trump is not injured” [sic], he said, noting again, as he did this morning and last evening in a post, that they spoke on the phone. And he again offered condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, who was killed by the would-be assassin’s bullet. Biden had no update on the investigation, saying that it was ongoing and that was still no information as to what the motivation of Thomas Matthew Cooks, the 20-year-old Pennsylvania gunman, was.
As fans of MSNBC woke up on Monday morning, many no doubt waiting to be delivered the hottest takes from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, they were instead greeted by generic news desk coverage. That’s because executives at the network made the call to pull “Morning Joe” off the air in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The reason why is telling.
According to CNN, which reported the development, this wasn’t a case of routine preemption. After all, “Morning Joe” has been left intact through essentially every other breaking news story since its inception. Instead, the decision came from a much darker place: MSNBC couldn’t trust that Joe, Mika, and its stable of lunatics wouldn’t compare Trump to Hitler again.
It’s a huge day in politics and MSNBC has pulled ‘Morning Joe’ off the air. They’re apparently worried the MJ crew might say something ‘inappropriate’ about the Trump assassination attempt. From CNN: https://t.co/uK3u0ZIoU9pic.twitter.com/AS8E4b5FdQ
A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the decision was made to avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole. Given the breaking news nature of the story, the person said, it made more sense to continue airing rolling breaking news coverage in the fraught political moment.
Alex Berenson, author of the book, “Pandemia”, said the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is the biggest security “failure since 9-11.”
“LOL dummy it was the biggest failure since 9/11. Or maybe the Kennedy assassination,” Berenson posted on X, in response to a post saying the assassination attempt was the biggest security failure since January 6, 2021.
“I am so tired with lefty media pretending Jan. 6 was a near-coup. It sucked, it was horrible and embarrassing, but it was closer to a Capitol tour gone wrong for 98% of the ‘insurrectionists,’” posted Berenson.
lol dummy it was the biggest failure since 9/11
Or maybe the Kennedy assassination
I am so tired with lefty media pretending Jan. 6 was a near-coup. It sucked, it was horrible and embarrassing, but it was closer to a Capitol tour gone wrong for 98% of the “insurrectionists.” pic.twitter.com/SuVwe7BaoP
According to a new report by NBC News, the Secret Service identified the rooftop next to Trump’s event in Butler, Pennsylvania as a security vulnerability just days before the rally.
The agents failed to secure the building, allowing a man with a rifle to climb onto the roof, position his scope, and fire several shots at President Trump.
A bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, while two rally attendees were wounded. One Trump supporter was fatally shot.
Biden’s FBI has announced that they believe the would-be assassin at former President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday acted alone.
The statement comes despite the bureau’s inability to access data from the suspect’s cell phone, which has been sent to Quantico for further examination.
Kevin Rojek, FBI Special Agent in Charge Pittsburgh, said that the information currently available to the bureau suggests that there is no further public safety concern. However, he also noted that the investigation is still in its early stages, according to Fox News.
“We have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation,” Rojek said during a press conference on Sunday.
BETHEL PARK, Pa. — The FBI said Sunday that investigators have not yet identified any ideology fueling the gunman who fired at former president Donald Trump at a packed campaign rally, and they believe he carried out the horrifying assassination attempt on his own.
The gunman was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, a strong math student in high school who was working as a nursing home employee.
Seconds after he opened fire from a rooftop outside the rally’s security perimeter Saturday evening, using an AR-style rifle that was legally purchased by his father,he was fatally shot by the Secret Service, authorities said.
“At this time, the information that we have indicates that the shooter acted alone and that there are currently no public safety concerns,” FBI special agent in charge Kevin Rojek said in a telephone briefing. “At present we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation.”
DNC-controlled media are using statements from unnamed intelligence officials to spread the narrative that the Russians are using social media to “covertly” affect U.S. elections in swing states in an effort to once again get Trump elected President.
One official is quoted with saying, “We are beginning to see Russia target specific voter demographics, promote divisive narratives and denigrate specific politicians. (Russia is) undertaking a whole-of-government approach to influence the election, including the presidential race, Congress and public opinion.”
(CNN) — Russian operatives and propagandists are planning to “covertly use social media” in an attempt to sway public opinion and undermine support for Ukraine in swing states during the 2024 US elections, US intelligence officials said on Tuesday.
“We are beginning to see Russia target specific voter demographics, promote divisive narratives and denigrate specific politicians,” an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters in a call conducted on the condition that the official not be named.
Russia is “undertaking a whole-of-government approach to influence the election, including the presidential race, Congress and public opinion,” the official said, adding that Russia’s preference for US presidential candidates has not changed from previous election cycles.
The official declined to elaborate, but US intelligence previously assessed that in the 2020 US election, Russia conducted a range of influence operations to denigrate Joe Biden’s candidacy and support Donald Trump’s candidacy.
The Chinese military is engaging in war games with its China-Russia axis ally Belarus along the Polish border. The operation has been deemed “Falcon Assault.” It is scheduled to conclude on July 19 of this year. The operation is taking place at a training ground just outside the city of Brest, which lies on the border of Poland.
Major General Vadim Denisenko, chief of Belarusian special operations command, said “Events taking place in the world are alarming, the situation is uneasy, therefore we are going to practice new forms and methods of performing tactical tasks.”
The operation is the first highly visible European-based military exercise involving Chinese troops, sending a signal abroad and at home that China’s military presence is expanding, her reach is getting deeper into the heartlands of the West.
At home, China is dealing with another round of military purges and corruption that cause some to doubt the sustainability of the Chinese military presence under actual fire. It is only a matter of time before China finds itself militarily challenged in one of its expanding colonizing outposts, outposts that now include Belarus.
China and Belarus started joint military exercises on Monday, the Belarusian and Chinese defence ministries said, holding the drills just few miles (km) from the border of NATO-member Poland and kicking them off on the eve of the alliance’s summit.
“Events taking place in the world are alarming, the situation is uneasy, therefore we are going to practice new forms and methods of performing tactical tasks,” Major General Vadim Denisenko, chief of Belarusian special operations command, was cited by the Belarusian defence ministry as saying in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
The manoeuvres, codenamed Falcon Assault, will go until July 19 and are taking place at a training ground near the city of Brest, the ministry said. Brest, in southwest Belarus, lies on the border with Poland.
Leaders of NATO’s 32 member countries meet on Tuesday in Washington for a summit where further military and financial support for Ukraine will be high on the agenda.
In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to military personnel during his visit to Oshmyany District, Grodno region of Belarus on March 26, 2024. A Belarusian human rights group said Thursday, July 4, 2024 that at least 10 political prisoners have been freed since the country’s authoritarian president this week promised to release seriously ill people jailed in connection with massive protests nearly four years ago. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP)
As part of the “anti-terrorist exercises”, military personnel of both countries will work out issues of night landing, overcoming water barriers, and conducting operations in a populated area, the Belarusian defence ministry said in its statement.
The ministry also posted a series of photos on Telegram, showing over the weekend Chinese troops disembarking from a plane and offloading equipment. In Monday posts it showed the troops marching at a training ground. It was not clear how many troops were involved in the drills.
The Chinese defence ministry said in a statement on Monday that Belarus held a “a grand welcome ceremony” for the Chinese troops who arrived in Belarus on July 6, according to a statement published in English on the ministry’s website.
“The joint training aims to enhance the coordination capabilities of the participating troops, and deepen practical cooperation between the two armies,” the ministry said in the statement.
In an unrelated post on Telegram, the Belarusian defence ministry said on Monday that the size of NATO forces on the border with Belarus is rapidly growing, which leads to increased tension in the region.
“Our country is taking all possible measures to prevent escalation. However, if someone crosses our borders, the reaction will be harsh,” it said in the post.
Two bodyguards for the far-left Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor were successful in fending off a car jacking suspect near the judge’s home, shooting him to death. Sotomayor is an anti-2A judge, so the irony of her property being defended by a gun is not lost on Americans.
Two U.S. Marshals for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor shot and injured a carjacking suspect last week outside of Sotomayor’s Washington, D.C. home, the U.S. Marshals Office announced Tuesday. File Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin/UPI
July 9 (UPI) — Two bodyguards for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor shot and injured a suspected carjacker last week outside of her home in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Marshals Office announced Tuesday.
“The Deputy U.S. Marshals involved in the shooting incident were part of the unit protecting the residences of U.S. Supreme Court justices. As a general practice, the U.S. Marshals don’t discuss specifics of protective details,” the U.S. Marshals Office said in a statement.
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The federal agents were parked outside of Sotomayor’s home at around 1:15 a.m. on Friday, when they said Kentrell Flowers walked up to one of their cars and pulled out a gun.
Both agents fired several shots at Flowers, who was hit in the mouth. The 18-year-old was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries and arrested.
Metropolitan Police detectives said they found a semi-automatic handgun at the scene. Flowers was charged with armed carjacking, carrying a pistol without a license and possession of a large capacity magazine.
Authorities have not accused the teen of intentionally targeting Sotomayor or her security. The justice was not at home at the time of the carjacking.
The incident outside of Sotomayor’s home is not the first time federal agents or justices have been targeted.
Last year, following the leaked draft majority opinion on Roe vs. Wade, a man was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh‘s home. Nicholas John Roske, 26, was charged with attempted murder after he was found armed with a gun and a knife, and told officials he wanted to kill the conservative justice.
Last November, Secret Service agents assigned to President Joe Biden‘s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, opened fire on a group of people trying to break into an unmarked Secret Service car parked in her Georgetown neighborhood.
And in January, former Trump administration official Mike Gill was killed by a carjacker as he sat in his car on K Street in northwest Washington, D.C.
Disney could face the largest strike in the US this year after it was announced that thousands of theme park and hotel workers in California will vote on whether to stage a walkout.
Three trade unions representing 14,000 “cast members” at Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Downtown Disney and the Disney hotels announced an unfair labor practice strike vote would be held next week amid negotiations over a new union contract.
In a critical statement, union leaders accused Disney of “unlawful discipline and intimidation and surveillance” of union members. The entertainment giant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Trump’s recent denial that he knows anything about Project 2025, a 900-page proposal by the Heritage Foundation think-tank for a radical reconfiguring of the US federal government to suit hard-line conservatives, has been ridiculed by former adviser to Mike Pence, Olivia Troye, who named ex-Trump administration figures involved and said she sat in on those policy meetings.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced plans to use the Senate to retroactively declare the “official acts” of Donald Trump during the January 6 protests unofficial to circumvent what he implied was a lawless decision by a lawless court to make Donald Trump the next King of America.
The move comes after a post by Donald Trump on Truth Social that made it clear a Donald Trump presidency would include aggressive prosecution of election fraudsters from 2020 and whoever might dare try election fraud in 2024. Trump’s Truth Social post upped the ante significantly on the winner-take-all contest of the presidency, and Schumer countered with another dramatic escalation in the consequence and reward for whichever party might win and which party might lose.
Shumer declared “I will work with my colleagues on legislation classifying Trump’s election subversion acts as unofficial acts not subject to immunity. We’re doing this because we believe that in America no president should be free to overturn an election against the will of the people, no matter what the conservative justices may believe. As we work on this important matter, we will also continue to develop other proposals to reassert Congress’s Article One authority to rein in the abuse of our federal judiciary.”
Schumer took to the Senate floor Monday to whine about the ruling. According to the Hill, he declared the Court was wrong to grant Trump “a breathtaking level of immunity.”
“They incorrectly declared that former President Trump enjoys broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions he took while in office. They incorrectly declared that all future presidents are entitled to a breathtaking level of immunity so long as their conduct is ostensibly carried out in their official capacity as president,” Schumer said.
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