Donald Trump rally shooting being probed as assassination attempt: AP sources

floofloof@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 176 points –
Shooting at Trump rally is being investigated as assassination attempt, AP sources say
cp24.com
58

I hate that this photo is everywhere. It makes him look triumphant and heroic, or at least it does to his supporters. I'd rather see him cowering and crying on the ground like a punk.

He was saying "wait wait wait" as SS were trying to escort him off the stage, so he could pose and pump his fist. He knew what he was doing here

The USSS was even ducking below him so he could be up high. All the way to his vehicle. WTF!?

This is the same service whose car Mike Pence wouldn't enter on Jan 6th because he suspected they were Trump loyalists.

Pretty sure each time he says "Wait"... He asks for his shoes.

There is a clip with audio where he says "wait wait wait" in quick succession and turns around to pose. I do know he was asking about his shoes but I think that's separate from what I'm saying

1 more...

at least it does to his supporters.

Yeah, I'm just seeing "Old man yells at cloud" with a hint of Mr. Garrison as Trump, lol

1 more...

This is pretty bad. There are reports that a bystander was killed. It's gross to call the shooter a hero.

He wasted his life and didn't even succeed in his goal, or did he? I know sounds nuts but by the looks this attempt on Trump life has helped him. Look at that goddamm photo op. Bullshit.

It’s not gross.

I'd be pleased if Trump never existed. It's still gross to call the shooter a hero.

I'm not advocating for it. But Trump has, repeatedly. Again and again. I have no fucks to give and I do not find it gross. He advocated for Hillary to be assassinated, wanted to shoot protesters, and still considers Ashli Babbitt a hero.

I don't find it gross when people want pedophiles to get the death penalty, even if I disagree with the government having that sort of power. I'm not going to condemn people who are happy with the shooter, even though I don't support the actions.

We don't know why the shooter tried to shoot Trump. We also know that this will role up his base. And the shooter failed at what he was trying to do.

That doesn't sound like a hero.

Dude was probably messed up in the head. If we call this attempted assassin a hero, that might inspire copycat crimes of people trying to shoot public figures they disagree with. I know there's that second amendment and all, but is that really how you want the country to function?

I already said I don't support the action. And that's exactly why. But I'm not going to dismiss people's feelings on the matter.

In the same way I don't support the death penalty. But I'm not going to deny that people feel catharsis when a pedophile or a murderer is executed.

3 more...

Title: "AP sources"

link: "something else - not AP."

me: "why?"

Will this get the GOP to finally support gun bans?

Nope. Remember when someone shot up a congressional softball game and nothing happened?

Remember when Jan 6 nutters stormed the Capitol with guns and zip ties and nothing happened to the person inciting all of it?

Many GOP events already ban guns at the events, they just dont ban it outside them

Perfectly logical for them, since Republicans aren't the right people to be shooting at.

Weird how a guy whose administration directly and indirectly killed a lot of people, plans to up his body count in a second term, who's committed multiple crimes, including insurrection and espionage, but seems both unlikely to ever see justice and furthermore appears to be likely to be elected back into office would prompt an assassination attempt. It's the small scale of "those who make peaceful revolution impossible" quote. Have a functioning justice system where you can just trust that people who do crimes will be put in prison and a functioning political system where you can just trust that the absolute worst people won't get all the power, and assassinations become the province of the insane rather than an entirely unsurprising outcome.

WashPo reports the shooter was a registered Republican...

PA has closed primaries. If you live in a red district, you register R so you can vote in the only primary that matters. Then in the general you vote for the candidate you actually want.

He was 20 years old. My money is on him being a social outcast and a forchan weirdo. Doesn't necessarily align with the left/right wing spectrum.

Yeah that's weird but CNN reporting this too:

Federal Election Commission records show that a donor listed as Thomas Crooks with the same address gave $15 to a Democratic-aligned political action committee called the Progressive Turnout Project in January 2021.

I love how we haven’t talked about the gun issue once. Not one damn word. We’ve moved on as a nation of killers to argue about what kind of killer he was.

I don’t follow the news for one day, and apparently Richard Simmons took a shot at Trump. Or was it Dr. Ruth?

Dr. Ruth was a trained sniper. No joke.

TIL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Westheimer

Westheimer joined the Haganah Jewish Zionist underground paramilitary organization (later, the Israel Defense Forces) in Jerusalem.[26][27][25][28] Because of her diminutive height of 4 feet 7 inches (140 cm), she was trained as a scout and sniper.[24][28][29] Of this experience, she said, "I never killed anybody, but I know how to throw hand grenades and shoot."[30] She became an ace sniper, and learned to assemble a rifle in the dark.[24][14] When she was 90 years old, she demonstrated that she was still able to put together a Sten gun with her eyes closed.[31]

A sniper for terrorists, specifically

Well, I think at the time the people involved felt differently. But, she left, so maybe she did feel like that.

Bold move, criticizing someone whose parents were killed by Nazis.

After seeing the photoshoot Trump got from this I hope Europe can pull our collective shit together once Trump pulls the US out of NATO and stops helping Ukraine.

The US is NATO. They just use you to stage airplanes somewhere your family will die instead of mine.

Nah, the US is the largest part of NATO but every member contributes and it's more like the only reason Russia hasn't done a "special military operation" here.

The US military is bigger than every other military combined, unless things have changed in the last few years.

We build bases and share planes and tech, they let us and save on defense. Our defense strategies involve using NATO bases to fuck up opposing belligerents.

Not really, NATO as an organizational is made of of the military and equipment of all members. Also NATO and US bases are different, if the US pulls out it's not taking NATO bases with it. Also I'm pretty sure the US doesn't use NATO bases for its military operations but their own bases but I'm too lazy to look that up. Also also NATO countries defence strategy has been more like "If you attack one member you attack everyone" so no one really has.

If you attack a NATO member, the largest military in the world responds. The US has multiple of the largest air forces if you count our military services separately. I would assume Trump pulling us from NATO would affect our forward bases, but we may do better than brexit I guess. I just don't see it as likely. But, my point is that our independent and joint military ventures frees up nations with smaller GDPs to focus less on their own defense (even if they contribute more as a percentage) and it's a situation the US military likes.

I'm not so sure it would. Like, yea, the US has enough military to take on like the other top 5 militaries in the world and win but NATO doesn't really need that. It's mostly about defence and the only country currently invading countries in Europe is Russia which can't seem to beat Ukraine alone. The biggest issue if the US pulls out is supporting Ukraine but defensively NATO is fine without the US I think.

NATO has nuclear second strike capabilities globally even without the US and that's enough against overt military threats.

We need to get better at this hybrid war bullshit bc that's exactly what the US is falling to right now.

Speaking of which we better build a shit-ton of those refueling planes when we get kicked out of Europe in the next 10 years. If we’re not there to protect, we’re just shitty renter that prop up the sex trade.

I guess I am not sure what else it would be considered...

An assassination attempt presumes the goal was to kill the candidate

Yes, but I'm not sure what you're suggesting. If it's that this was a deliberate miss (maybe to give Trump a boost) it seems implausible that anyone would plan to shoot from some distance, aiming so close to the candidate that the bullet clips his ear, but not killing him. If the aim were to miss deliberately then shooting that close to his head would risk the plan backfiring completely.

3 more...
3 more...