It's been nearly a year and a half since the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, at one of his trademarked rallies. The attempted assassin, one Thomas Crooks, was killed at the scene, but not before firing several rounds, one of which killed firefighter Corey Comperatore. He also wounded two other attendees, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, as well as firing the round that would have killed President Trump were it not for a fortuitous turn of the head at the final moment. The bullet clipped Trump's ear, literally coming within an inch of killing him.
It also gave us the most powerful political image since Ronald Reagan stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate and roared,
We still don't know much about the would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks. On Monday, though, a new report revealed some shocking details.
We are all owed a better explanation from the FBI and Secret Service about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump 16 months ago at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
The president himself remains unsatisfied with the answers he’s been given about the circumstances leading to 20-year-old Thomas Crooks climbing on a rooftop with an AR-15-style rifle and firing eight times at Trump, narrowly missing his head but hitting his ear.
It's those online interactions that are troubling, and they may well raise more questions than they answer.
The online interactions from when Crooks was ages 15 to 17 give us a better understanding of his evolution into an assassin, and invite more questions about what — or who — reversed his ideology.
“The danger Crooks posed was visible for years in public online spaces,” says the source. “His radicalization, violent rhetoric and obsession with political violence were all documented under his real name. The threat wasn’t hidden.”
The official narrative claimed he acted alone and without a clear motive, ideology or digital footprint.
Yet the source found reams of information that shows Crooks “was not simply some unknowable lone actor … He left a digital trail of violent threats, extremist ideology and admiration for mass violence. He spoke openly of political assassination, posted under his real name and was even flagged by other users who mentioned law enforcement in their replies. Despite this, his account remained active for more than five years — and was only removed the day after the shooting.
“None of this online activity was referenced in the final congressional report released in December 2024, making this even more troubling,” the source said.
Crooks seems to have gone from an ardent Trump supporter, albeit one who was clearly unhinged, to a rabid Trump hater, consumed with Trump Derangement Syndrome. He made violent threats online both before and after the baffling switch.
Crooks’ trajectory from pro- to anti-Trump is evident. He referred to Trump as “the literal definition of Patriotism” in a comment at 1:17 a.m. July 20, 2019.
He also issued several targeted threats against the Democratic congressional representatives in “the Squad.”
“I hope a quick painful death to all the deplorable immigrants and anti-trump congresswoman who don’t deserve anything this country [sic] has given them,” he wrote at 8:18 a.m. July 20, 2019.
“MURDER THE DEMOCRATS,” he wrote in all caps on Dec. 12, 2019.
But in early 2020, Crooks’ online behavior flipped 180 degrees and he became very critical of Trump, Fox News and Republican complaints about mail-in voting.
On August 5th, 2020, Crooks made one post that should have drawn immediate attention:
On Aug. 5, 2020, Crooks wrote: “IMO the only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building and set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them."
Then, of course, came July 13, 2024.
Read More: Almost One Year Later, the Question Remains: Why Did Butler Shooter Try to Kill Trump?
Multiple Secret Service Agents Suspended in Connection With Trump Assassination Attempt
Crooks' online life seems to have been a laundry list of neuroses and violent threats. He appears to be into "furries," gender ideology, and described his pronouns as strangely plural, insisting on "they/them." He is now known to have interacted with some pretty questionable people, including one "Willy Tepes," who presumably took the surname from the infamous Romanian princeling Vlad Tepes, generally considered the inspiration for Bram Stoker's character, Dracula. Tepes is apparently a member of a Norwegian new-Nazi group. Crooks is now known to have a host of online accounts under a range of identities.
Thanks to an enterprising source who uncovered Crooks’ hidden digital footprint, we can see that Abbate misled Congress by omission, because he left out an entire section of Crooks’ online interactions from January to August 2020 when he did an ideological backflip and went from rabidly pro-Trump to rabidly anti-Trump and then went dark, never seeming to post again.
Among the 17 accounts uncovered by our source were ones on YouTube, Snapchat, Venmo, Zelle, GroupMe, Discord, Google Play, Quizlet, Chess.com and Quora.
This young punk left a trail of online activity that included weird fetishes, violent threats, and interactions with people who encouraged violence. And none of these interactions were included in the final Congressional report on the matter, which was released in December of 2024.
The American people deserve to know the full story. The revelations here just present more questions. This was an attempt on the life of a former President of the United States and current presidential candidate. Regardless of party affiliation, regardless of the candidate, regardless of any of that, this is an unthinkable action taken by a young nutcase who left a digital trail a mile wide. He was known to be affiliated with online radicals, he made threats of violence routinely, and yet he was still able to plan an assassination attempt that came within a hair's breadth of succeeding. That is inexcusable. We need to know everything. We deserve to know everything. This can't be allowed to happen again.
Back to Butler, PA: Then-candidate Trump returned to Butler for another rally on October 4th, 2024, and in his own inimitable style, opened his remarks on stage with: "As I was saying..."
That right there is panache, and that's for sure and for certain.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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