Gunshots reportedly fired at Donald Trump rally - as former president rushed off stage

return2ozma@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 235 points –
Gunshots reportedly fired at Donald Trump rally - as former president rushed off stage
news.sky.com
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You ever feel like you live in some sort of Murphy's Law parallel universe, where the worst possible outcome of every major event happens?

How can I switch to the GOOD universe?

Turn off the Large Hadron Collider. All this shit started back when they turned it on 😉

But how does the LHC overlap with the Berenstain Bears and Fruit of the Loom cornucopia? ;)

Well, which circle of hell are you currently on? We need to ascertain that before you can formally appeal.

Checks notes on Earth simulation categories

I mean, considering all the fucked up shit that happened before I was even born I'd estimate we were in the 10000000000th circle.

If only Trump had a gun, this wouldn’t have happen-

Oh wait… he’s a felon, so he can’t have a gun- but can run for president. This is America now.

He was surrounded by a lot of highly trained good guys with plenty of guns, the Secret Service, and even they couldn’t stop the bad guy, only respond to him.

(I’m paraphrasing from the second season premiere of The West Wing, but the writers were dead on 24 years ago.)

If they only had a teacher there with a gun, this wouldn't have been a problem at all

Holy shit, he had blood on his ear? If that’s true, he was about a foot away from assassination. That’s wild.

Edit: saw a picture of him and he was def hit in the ear. We won’t hear the end of this for a long time. “Radical democrats are so scared that I’m going to win” etc

Edit 2: let’s do count of “how many push notifications does the news junkie get?” I’m at 3 4 7 so far. Edit: it’s a lot more than 7 but I’m done counting

He put his hand up to his ear before he went down and you can see blood on his face when Secret Service took him away. Whoever it was missed him by that much.

Don't jump to conclusions. Unfortunately, it's often times worse than it seems.

And yet, nobody in the crowd behind him was hit? That's... really hard to believe.

There was blood in the crowd supposedly. Maybe a ricocheted bullet but it’ll be a while until we have reliable info

Edit: 2 dead so far

Oh, we'll never have reliable info. The right-wing noise machine are already spinning up their conspiracies.

..The article was posted on NBC at 6:27, then posted here at 6:28. LESS than 30 minutes later 6:57 you declare, "we'll never have reliable info".

maybe don't listen to the "noise machine".

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I commented this earlier but I would not be surprised if the people behind him are deceptively far away and only look close at this camera angle.

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In the video you can see him lifting the hand to the ear after the first bang

It looks like a chunk of his ear is blown off. Fucking insane!

Nobody in the crowd was hit with anything it seemed, so I don't think he was shot. If anything, the secret service takedown probably did whatever it was. He's never going to stfu about this. Wouldn't be surprised if this was staged.

He was bleeding before secret service got to him. The video is literally linked for you by OP.

I saw it. Didn't see any blood before he ducked, and his head was turned from the side he allegedly got hit in, so I'm not sure how you saw anything.

He wasn't shot. Pure publicity stunt. Same shit as WrestleMania.

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did the attenders draw their guns and stop the assasin?

More likely someone fired at him in celebration in those rallies.

just saw the news at it was kinda wierd. did not seem like anyone behind him got hit and he was hit in the ear and pumped his fist after ward. They said metal detectors are used so sounds like a sniper type thing. I sorta think they likely would figure out the origin. I wonder if they have him or are after them but don't want to update yet.

It seems odd that a bullet might have grazed his ear yet not shot anyone or anything behind him. Also, the picture of his bloodied ear and the splatter make it look like the shot came from behind him.

Apparently one person is dead, another injured. Also, the shooter has been killed by the Secret Service. (According to CBC news).

I wouldn't be surprised if those people sitting behind him are deceptively far away.

Also if it's a sniper whyd he put his head up again?

Alert went out that the shooter was down. SS kept him down until then.

ok so they did get the shooter. Did they way if it was in front or behind?

No word on that yet, just that the shooter is confirmed dead + one other attendee, and a 2nd attendee is severely injured.

Especially at the angle he was standing. Either an amazing accident, or something suspicious. Still not sure if this wasn't staged. The whole thing seems weird as hell.

Did you see the cherry picker gush fluid and fall. I think a hydraulic line popped hit someone and police started shooting in that general direction as is usual.

This is just going to further guarantee his victory. It's fucking over. This country is done.

Shit’s pretty unpredictable. What happens if a MAGAt retaliates and whacks Biden?

this is a terrible tragedy but we need to continue to work towards unity in the country so nothing will be done

I think that is word for word what Johnson said. And he hated Kennedy.

Or Ford in pardoning Nixon. Or Obama not doing investigations into Iraq/Afghanistan/war on terror

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That's my gut reaction too. It's done. That fucking photo where Trump stood up and did the fist pump with the blood on his face and the American flag in the background:

https://i.headtopics.com/images/2024/7/14/timescolonist/trump-rally-shooting-is-being-investigated-as-an-trump-rally-shooting-is-being-investigated-as-an-56235AE0556FFDA67127295A88A54C8B.webp

There's no beating that. That's literally like a movie poster. Whether Biden stays or goes, I really don't think it matters now.

Also as an aside, I don't mean this as a compliment to Trump. I think he's a raging piece of shit and I hope he loses. But it's elections are all about perception and I really don't see Biden doing anything to top this.

You said it better than I could have done myself. It is time to start preparing the resistance now. Civil disobedience is the only way forward.

Absolutely it will. Fuck.

C'mon dude, just post your demoralizing articles and give it a rest - there is no need to further betray your intent with additional words.

American politics is all theater.

Where is that not the case when talking about politics anywhere? Theater and life are coiled up around eachother and writhing, grasping at one another's throats; whether lovers' kisses, enemies' venom is the intent, usually one comes out on top. In your good faith opinion, what will it mean when Trump loses anyway? What is the auteur going for in that scenario?

(In keeping with good faith I'll disclose my personal bias that I would prefer a different candidate to oppose Trump but that I also think almost any of them can get it done after Georgia, Georgia, and... Georgia where the wrong politician was topping everything by every conventional understanding or metric.)

From abroad, for the love of everything please go vote. Everything in the US seems to leak out and global warming is well, global.

My vote is irrelevant. I live in a deep blue stronghold. Nothing I can personally do is going to change what is coming, and the path that we are on. It is time to prepare for the worst.

Never irrelevant! Don't find out the hard way that you may be wrong about that. Keep the stronghold strong

Ah yes, I wanted to vote blue, but now that the felon's ear got shot, I'll vote for the fashists.

This is US politics and it makes sense.

No, it's more like:

"I wasn't going to vote because I don't care about or follow politics. Now I see they are trying to kill this guy so I am going to vote for him because clearly the powers that be want him gone. So, he must be doing something to fight the system like JFK."

Nobody who was going to vote Dem is changing their vote. It's all the people who weren't going to vote that now will because they either think he is badass for surviving an assassination attempt, or because of the web of new conspiracy narratives that are sure to be born from this that further serve to frame Trump as the savior of the common man from the clutches of the evil deep state.

I am going to vote for him because clearly the powers that be want him gone.

A 20 year old kid is "the powers that be"? LOL. Maybe they will think instead "Wow Trump must be a huge dick if people hate him so much they are trying to kill him".

he is badass for surviving an assassination attempt

He didn't look like a badass at all. He looked like someone who had been bloodied because he was so deeply hated.

You are evaluating based on your perspective, and not the perspective of a middle America normie. That's the problem.

You are falling for the lame Treason Trump tactic of "spin every negative as somehow a positive". Loser Trump gets convicted of a crime? That's good! Sex Offender Trump is found guilty of rape? That's good! Treason Trump is so widely hated by Americans that people want to kill him? That's good!. Never get inside a conservative's head if you are going to come out with a loser defeatist attitude.

I'm not falling for shit. I'm evaluating the reality of the average 95 IQ NPC that is going to vote in this election. No offense, but the fact you can't understand that isn't my problem.

I’m evaluating the reality of the average 95 IQ NPC that is going to vote in this election.

No, your falling for Treason Trump's standard propaganda tactic of "pretend a bad thing that happened is a good thing". The average person does not think that people hating you enough to kill you is a good thing.

You are grasping at straws in a failed attempt to strawman my argument. This tactic is not going to work.

You are grasping at straws in a failed attempt to strawman my argument. This tactic is not going to work.

Sounds pretty dramatic. With the new cycle the way it is, it will be forgotten in a month.

You know these are the people who still claim he won in 2020, right?

It's horrifying that our best hope is that a MAGA nutter kills Biden in retaliation and Harris wins in a landslide because of it.

I don't see it, the lines have been firmly drawn for years. The maga crowd will vote for him regardless of anything and the rest of us wouldn't piss on him to put out a fire.

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Damn this is worst case dude is going to be made a maytr for this bs.

If only he were a martyr from this, but he survived. You have to die to be a martyr.

He'll make himself into one if they're not fast enough.

His base will embrace it. The question is will the center. I know I am not, as a centrist. But I only speak for myself.

I think you'll find the polls tomorrow the same as the polls today.

Stop saying "he'll be a martyr."

This gets touted any time any consequence could come to him. Saying this makes it a lose lose situation. Either we let him get away and do whatever or "he's a martyr." No. He reaps whatever consequences come to him for his actions. It shouldn't come as an assassination, but he has to have some consequence for what he does.

I wonder how Trump's public image will change after this event. Will the MAGA crowd radicalise even more? Or will he have to drop out of the presidential race for safety concerns?

Either way, the aftermath will be interesting.

Trump's going to milk him being a victim and come out looking like he's super tough and cheated death. Nothing could have been better for the Trump campaign than a failed assassination attempt in which Trump was hit and survived practically fine. I think things are about to get pretty bad. This is terrible terrible news for the country.

This is worse than terrible. Now Trump gets to play martyr and it rallies up his base, even the ones who were in doubt after his conviction.

And as the chaos ensues, Putin is laughing at his throne.

I love how this is a "heinous act" even though the dipshit in charge of 25 basically said theyd kill the left if they were against them

Grand.

I wonder what the shooter’s politics are.

Liberal: commie assassin

Conservative or other: oh, just mentally ill.

E: shot looked like it came from the left. I wonder if the shooter was outside the rally area at a distance. Anybody else hit?

I saw a video where they panned to the right, and it looked like a hydraulic line on a nearby lift was hit.

This all looks staged to me.

Hit in the ear that's away from the camera.

Falls to the ground obscured from view so someone can do up his makeup.

Bullet just happened to ricochet and hit a hose line for the hydraulic system of some lift to show it's a "real" bullet.

Then Trump gets up raising his first triumphantly.

You couldn't write a better scene for Trump if you tried.

Yeah. A real shooting would have had secret service taking him away. Within minutes, he’d be out of the area.

I feel like people would be panicking and trying to leave the area too, or being evacuated by staff. They all just kinda sit there though. And then they start cheering and chanting "USA, USA" when Trump gets back up, which is not the typical reaction I'd expect in the middle of an active shooter situation. At very least, the whole situation is bizarre.

Maybe having so many guns in this country is a bad thing.

Assassinating problematic politicians that want to be a king is sort of the point of the 2nd amendment.

Yep, dude who did this. Has used the 2nd for the correct purpose.

Yep, dude who did this. Has used the 2nd for the correct purpose.

It that light, the crowd cheering "USA" takes on a different meaning.

I think everyone should probably read The Second Amendment: A Biography by Michael Waldman

Not really. The second amendment is about states protecting themselves from the federal government. That’s why it’s talking about militias, not lone gunmen.

Violence begets violence, and Trump is responsible for no shortage of violence. Is this for the violence of Jan 6, or the violence against the women in his life, or some other time? I want to find out.

Looks like the bullet grazed his ear. He was about to get Kennedy'd.

(I hate the source, F this guy) but here’s him being ushered off the stage after… https://x.com/stillgray/status/1812250467071885730

Edit: his base is going to be insanely fired up now. I’m genuinely scared about what’s going to happen now. I can see it already “the deep state tried to stop him and God saved Trump!” ugh.

The potential for backfire is massive. Of course in our timeline, Trump gets grazed in the ear. Stop teasing us.

I would honestly say the odds it was a failed genuine assassination attempt are slim to none. Doesn’t this feel far too convenient? We obviously know nothing now, but I feel like it’s gotta be the knee jerk assumption.

I agree. I wouldn't be surprised if this was all a ploy for attention so he can look tough, and rile up his base. That is completely on brand.

Edit: Unfortunately, it appears to be a completely genuine, yet failed, assassination attempt...

What the fuck are you two smoking?

Nothing. I'm just examining the situation, and asking who benefits.

Trump is a known coward. If he didn't know this was coming he'd have shit his pants and run offstage. His reaction is entirely unrealistic to the situation and how he is known to act.

For fucks sake he asked for his shoes and waited around for them before leaving the stage. Those are not the actions of a man who is being actively shot at.

We have prior footage of him dippin', dodgin' and duckin' at rallies from noises. You're right the reaction seems off. But he could be delirious due to his aged mental acuity.

I don’t see why Trump would really need to be in on it. Plenty of people stand to gain from a trump presidency, and I’m not sure an “accidentally successful staged assassination” would be that much worse.

Trump is a known coward. If he didn’t know this was coming he’d have shit his pants and run offstage. His reaction is entirely unrealistic to the situation and how he is known to act.

spoken like someone who has never been shot before...

It's not about how I'd react, it's about how he reacts.

yeah, and that's about what i would expect someone to do when getting shot. The adrenaline and people surrounding you can make you do weird things.

This is the absolute most insane take on this. Everything in the world isn't some grand orchestrated plan.

Can't wait for the amped up christian nationalism...

Biden's official statement:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/13/statement-from-president-joe-biden-6/

He's in a video conference now.

"I have been briefed on the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania. 

I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information.

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."

You know what's sad about this?

If the roles were reversed, Trump would be offering the shooter a posthumous pardon and probably a medal. And no, I'm not joking. Trump would never be seen giving someone else the respect he demands from others.

Which is why Trump hasn't answered Bidens call...

NYT photographer got the photo of the bullet, it seems that TMZ's reporting that it was glass from the teleprompter is not correct:

https://x.com/spectatorindex/status/1812293722832318726

Well that certainly blows up any argument it was staged. You don't fake shoot a real bullet past your fake targets head.

That isolated tweet with the pic doesn’t claim to be from NYT or a NYT photographer. I’ve never heard of this “spectator index”. Here is the AP collection of photos from the event.

If I do assume that’s a bullet, let’s test if the size of the streak makes sense. A bullet travels at about 750m/s. That streak (using Trump’s head for scale) is about 50cm long, or 1/2 meter. A 750 m/s bullet travels 1/2 meter in 1/1500 seconds. When you consider projection effects (we might not be looking with a line-of-sight perpendicular to the bullet’s trajectory), we expect the length and time used in my above calculations to be lower bounds, with the true answer probably being within about a factor of 3 of that bound. This means that this image only makes sense as a bullet if the shutter speed is between 1/1500 and 1/500 seconds. That lines up with this website’s recommendation of 1/1000 second exposure time for bright outdoor shots.

Either a very good fake that considered the kinematics, or this is a real image of the bullet.

Thanks! With the information in the article you just linked, I am now very suspicious that this is a picture of the bullet, where I previously thought it was plausible from my low-precision estimate. From the article:

“If the gunman was firing an AR-15-style rifle, the .223-caliber or 5.56-millimeter bullets they use travel at roughly 3,200 feet per second when they leave the weapon’s muzzle,’’ Mr. Harrigan said. “And with a 1/8,000th of a second shutter speed, this would allow the bullet to travel approximately four-tenths of a foot while the shutter is open.”

Same procedure, but an AR-15 shoots a bullet faster than the speed for a generic bullet that I used, and the shutter speed was faster because it was a fancy NYT camera. 3200ft/s is almost exactly 1000m/s. The 1/8000s shutter speed is the fact that seems the most reliable, assuming that the photographer knew what setting their camera was on.

What I disagree with is that that streak is only 0.4 feet long. The average size of a human male head (brow to back of head) is about 20cm, or 8in per this image from Wikipedia. The streak from the bullet in the image is about twice the size of Trump’s head, or 40cm/16in. Due to projection effects, this is a lower bound on the path of the bullet during the 1/8000s exposure. This puts a lower bound on the speed of 3200m/s. This is over three times the velocity of an AR-15, at minimum. Either this was some super-high-powered rifle to fire the bullet that fast, the shutter speed is misquoted (or a misleading representation of the exposure time), or this isn’t picture of the bullet.

Thanks for providing the data to make me suspicious that this is an image of the bullet.

assuming that the photographer knew what setting their camera was on

The photographer would definitely know even if the camera was in a mode that selects the shutter speed automatically because it's embedded in the image file's metadata, which is shown in software used for image processing.

Note publishing and social media platforms usually strip metadata from images.

3200ft/s is muzzle velocity, that's going to drop over the distance.

Plus the velocity depends on how hot the load is. An AR-15 can be as high as 3,200, but it can alao be lower.

https://www.spartanarmorsystems.com/understanding-bullet-speed-how-distance-affects-armor

Right, all more reasons the streak in the image is too fast to be an AR bullet.

What also doesn’t make sense is, if you roughly line up his arm position in the three NYT stills vs going frame by frame in the video/audio playback captured by the various news outlets, he raises his hand to his ear nearly 2/3rds a second after the audio recorded first shot, which, given bullet velocity and distance traveled was probably nearly a full second after the first shot (so a super slow reaction time, which normal nervous system reaction time is .150-.300/sec), since you’ll hear (and audio record) the shot roughly 5 frames after it’s passed by. He starts to lift his hand off the podium at nearly the same time the second shot estimates to be fired, and maybe 3-4 frames before the first posted NYT pic catches the bullet supposedly whizzing by.

drop over the distance

Very true, but it was only 300".

When he yells "fight", what does he mean to fight for? Fight against freedom? I wonder the same thing when it comes to Qbert and Empty-G. Fight? What are they fighting for, exactly? More tax cuts for billionaires? More special privileges for xtians?

I was told today that someone we know is going to vote for donnie - because "economy". What. The. Actual. Fuck. They said that the economy was better under donnie. I just can't even. And this is someone that will be a target under fascist rule.

Their potato chips and beer have gone up a lot in the past few years, therefore we were in the economic golden age under Trump. Life is pretty simple for some people.

Yeah, I see that all the time for people that don't even have to think about being targets - read: xtian white cishet males that are cons...this was someone that would definitely be in the crosshairs of the Project 2025 types. Repeating Bullshit Mountain style propaganda about "the economy".

The economy won't mean shit if you are a political prisoner or made a second class citizen.....or even worse.

The shooter was a Republican

Has me wondering if this was an attempt to start a race war, like a bunch of past mass shootings, attempts to knock out power by shooting transformers, etc.

Who knows. Someone that would take it upon themselves to do something like this could have all kinds of flawed thought processes, as well as mental illness.

I mean, the Republicans have a habit of constantly casting each other out for various forms of apostasy, real or imagined, and declaring the apostate a "RINO". With the way they talk about non-Republicans, that unperson is then a lower lifeform not worthy of empathy...if that's the kind of thing that led to this, it wouldn't be that surprising, I guess. I mean, look at how they view Liz Cheney. Liz. Cheney.

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TMZ is reporting the bullet struck Trump's teleprompter and the shattered glass hit him in the ear.

https://www.tmz.com/2024/07/13/donald-trump-appear-shot-pennsylvania-rally-president-election/

Honestly, this seems more likely than what he's saying. The angle he was standing at didn't seem likely that he would have been hit unless someone was in the stands behind him, which didn't seem like the case from the video.

CNN is confirming gunfire.

Edit CNN is quoting local authorities confirming the shooter + 1 attendee are both dead.

2nd attendee severely injured.

CNN: shooter is dead and one bystander is dead as well.

Yup. CNN interviewed a witness who stated one man was shot in the head and killed instantly while a woman hit in the forearm and hand.

Turns out, calling out for violence over and over again or continuously calling for the blood of your opponents, threatening with imprisonment and a literal dictatorship, will be answered with violence. I am sooooooo shocked!

Get fucked. Hope the next marksman is luckier.

You can’t arbitrate with fascism? Who knew? History. History knows.

I'm eager to hear the motivations of the shooter. It's possible their motivations are highly irrational, and not what we assume.

The guy who shot Reagan was trying to impress Jodie Foster. It wouldn’t be unprecedented if it was motivated by something bizarre.

MSNBC is reporting the shooter is a 20 year old Pennsylvanian.

They are also reporting he had no ID on him.

If he had no ID, how do they know he was from Pennsylvania?

There's a name and photos floating around now of this person on Twitter but it's not confirmed. I won't post it here.

Fingerprint search found him on crime database?

Or military. White Republican with a AR-15 makes the military more likely than being arrested. But it's all on the table at this point.

Have they learned nothing? You need to have a second shooter.

He got shot and he says "let me get my shoes" wtf? Didn't he notice that somebody (supposedly) wanted him dead?

Tbh that's the most characteristic thing about Trump. Saying things so outrageously stupid, so far outside common sense and so detached from reality that people end up thinking about them more than they should.

All the mass casualty events we have to suffer and here we have a psychopath who can't aim. Such a shame.

This should seal the deal on Biden dropping out of the race. His odds of winning already weren’t good, and now he’s completely lost control of the popular narrative.

The assassination attempt will be all everyone’s talking about until something extremely big replaces it. The only possible story that can shift people’s focus is Biden’s deeply patriotic decision to sacrifice his second term for the good of the country.

Devise a framework where negative ads are not allowed, and debates are civil and informative to the public. Find the best candidate the old fashioned way.

seriously, at this point the Democrats have got to do something bold. the combined trajectories of this election and the country are not promising.

edit to say... my bold move would be:

  • biden steps aside (powerful good of the country speech and all that - huge opportunity to remind everyone what a shitbag trump is)
  • kamala sanctions this process by somehow transitioning funds to a diff general account.
  • dems flood the news cycle with a mini primary (flash campaign and debates) all the way up to the convention with a diverse selection of candidates... showcase the big tent and range of ideas.

don't know how they deal with delegate votes for a nominee, but the dems have to take over the news cycle and keep the focus on them with at least the veneer of something vagely democratic and energizing, otherwise I think we get king klepto-fascist.

this is likely a pipe dream and I am going to shut up now.

Exactly. Trump threw out the playbook and won. Biden got by with old politics and won, but it’s not going to happen again. Not after today.

The Democrats need to finally establish a cohesive identity. Introduce someone who can tell you what voting Democrat will deliver for your family.

And maybe please involve James Carville in the process. He consistently has his finger on the pulse of economic issues, which are what actually matter right now for “swing voters.”

Tip of the hat to the US Secret Service who know they have to take a bullet for that moron.

Dammit! So close!

Trump is just a symptom. There's even more deranged people coming up behind him.

Who cares? I'm perfectly fine treating the symptoms until we can develop a proper course of treatment.

A symptom ppl rally behind. Gop will hopefully tear itself apart more if he was out of picture.

That doesn't make it ok. It also is even more of a reason to stop him.

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New York Post is the first to identify the shooter. Not linking it here because, well, New York Post... but it is being floated out there on non-social media.

Edit CNN is speaking to Evan Perez, Senior US Justice Department Correspondant, confirming the information first reported by the New York Post.

Also on Reuters:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-identifies-thomas-matthew-crooks-subject-involved-trump-rally-shooting-2024-07-14

NBC:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rally-shooter-identified-rcna161757

TBF, an earlier version of a New York Post story mentioned it was thought to be a BB gun, so....

Yeah, BB guns don't go 150 yards.

Keep in mind, this was something put up on New York Post very shortly after, so...in addition to being the New York Post, it's also one of those cases where early information is wildly incorrect.

Pinning for visibility, there was another thread I had pinned, then I saw this one was first and has more engagement.

Watching the coverage right now, as the (shots?) rang out, he grabbed his right ear just before the Secret Service took him down and hustled him off.

Official statement:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/secret-service-rushes-trump-stage-shots-fired-pennsylvania-rally-rcna161735

"An incident occurred the evening of July 13 at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has implemented protective measures and the former President is safe. This is now an active Secret Service investigation and further information will be released when available."

Audio reads "shooter is down" and there are reports of someone in custody.

Edit Definitely blood on his right ear. Just got a better look at it, top of his right ear.

Edit TMZ reports the bullet hit the teleprompter and the shattered glass hit Trump in the ear.

https://www.tmz.com/2024/07/13/donald-trump-appear-shot-pennsylvania-rally-president-election/

Trump's statement on Truth Social:

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump

"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!"

There is no way in hell he wrote that statement, it's way too coherent.

I also don't see Trump expressing remorse for anyone else.

It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country.

Is it though? There have already been 290 mass shootings in this country this year, so far. And this shooting does not even count among them.

No it isn't. Trump is a candidate, not a sitting President, so it doesn't count.

All this shit happening is bad enough; can we at least not prematurely crown him?!

He is a former President with the same protections afforded to any former President.

"Afforded protections" is one thing, but that's not the point. The point is that I refuse to let this count as a "Presidential assassination attempt" because he isn't the goddamn President right now; Biden is. And you shouldn't count it as such either -- the only ones who would are MAGA election-denier shitheads.

It depends on where you draw the line for "attempt" - the Secret Service isn't an exactly candid organization (to put it lightly) and the media/public doesn't spend much time focusing on the foiled plots they do learn about (insert your opinion as to the "why?" here). My own assumption is that the threat vectors against those that are granted Secret Service protection are probably numerous and coming from many different directions.

It just feels wrong coming from the person who enacted Jan 6th. He caused something just like this and someone died.

Tecumseh’s curse is coming back.

It stumbled in 1980, as Reagan was shot, but survived. George W Bush wasn’t affected. Now Trump has been shot, but survived.

It’s gonna kill whoever is president in 2040.

Can we all just calm down. Things are getting too crazy. Violence is not the way to go.

You're only allowed to be violent if you're a right winger. If you're a leftie, the voting booths and protest signs are over there.

Good luck.

They get the fucker?

CNN is quoting local authorites saying the shooter +1 attendee are both dead.

+1 other attendee severely injured.

There's an extended video that shows a lift spewing hydraulic fluid with one more gunshot. I'm guessing homie moved and the secret service donated a bit more lead.

Edit. He was firing the left of the stage from our viewpoint, so he probably did hit the poor lift.

Okay, this settles it: Biden is gonna be the nominee. Nobody else on the Dem side is gonna want to be the sacrificial lamb going up against Trump after today.

Would you stop with this shit. There is no scenario where the fact that you are so hated that somebody wants to kill you is a good thing.

aah oldest trick in the book, unfortunately also wildly effective

Are we placing bets on this being entirely staged?

Edit: Clearly, given the evidence now, that's a bet I would have lost.

Yes it's stage. Because we all know. If you going to staged an assassination. You do a head shot. 🤦‍♂️

It's pretty easy to cut your ear and get blood. They do it in wrestling all time.

Lots of people seem keen to jump to this being staged. That makes zero sense: Trump was already winning before this, especially with Biden (his preferred opponent) looking to hang on to the nomination.

Trump was already winning before this

Do you just not understand how elections work? You don't "win" before votes are cast.

Are you being wilfully pedantic, or do you not know that it's possible to tell someone is ahead in a contest?

Polls are worthless now and response rates are too low to matter.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-can-election-2024-polls-really-tell-us/

Or, is this just your gut talking?

Polls have significant predictive power, especially when you poll reportedly and/or aggregate them. Which is why all political campaigns, R or D, spend literally millions running their own polling. Moreover, it's now July, the first convention is literally coming up within days, so the excuse of being "far out from the election" no longer holds.

Totally agree with your last statement. I think I was just saying we'll have to wait and see how this turns out.

conspiracy theorist in me sees several venues where it is Very beneficial to POTUS45 to stage this:

  • finally come out as victim
  • frame Biden/CIA/FBI as villains
  • come out as "defiant" hero and rally support to the point where it's a landslide win, where he would be able to go after anybody and anything he doesn't like.

more wicked stuff comes to mind but I think above is sufficient . Fact that bullet grazed him and nobody around him in a tight setting is kind of strange, with his bravado on display with fist shaking. One can only dream for this election campaign video to be run on repe 24/7 on fox and other outlets, giving him more air time, and now that Biden asked everyone to read project2025 entire nation will be watching nothing but POTUS45. Still could be some morron that didn't get his signature at the rally pulling out his Beretta..

Witness statement was that another attendee was shot in the head and killed and a 2nd in the forearm and hand.

sounds like, indeed bystanders been hit according to latest information. I still believe that POTUS45 would be OK sacrificing any number of people as long as it gets him power. No evidence of his involvement but entire story "smells"

There is no scenario where this helps Treason Trump. Now the entire world knows that Convicted Criminal and Sex Offender Treason Trump is so widely hated that people literally want to kill him. And now Treason Trump knows it too.

A lot of deep haters here in the comments. Trump derangement syndrome is live and well in many coddled minds. I was a Trump fan back then but I realized that Trump was not getting anything done as president that Trump campaigned on during 2016 and ever since then, was no longer a fan and was quite dissapointed. Came to realize Trump was an egomaniac at best.

However I do not wish for voilence. I do not see him as a good option as president in 2024 due to his track record of getting nothing done during his first term. However for lefties to hate Trump because "The TV told me so" and being spoon fed with the opinion that "Trump is the next Hitler" is such mental gymastics. Look lefties, Trump is not a threat to your woke agenda, he did not drain the swamp in 2017, he hired the swamp. I am sure if he wins in 2024, he will hire the swamp in 2025 again and it will just be four years of fuck all nothing.

Chill the fuck out.