Things Just Aren't Adding Up About Trump's Would-Be Assassin
A lot has happened since a gunman tried to assassinate Donald Trump on July 13, 2024. Yet there are still quite a few unanswered questions about the 20-year-old who somehow got close enough to pull that trigger.
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00:00A lot has happened since a gunman tried to assassinate Donald Trump on July 13th, 2024.
00:05Yet there are still quite a few unanswered questions about the 20-year-old who somehow
00:09got close enough to pull that trigger.
00:11People assumed a lot of things about shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks' motivations in the
00:15immediate aftermath of the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania — that he was politically motivated,
00:19that something radicalized him.
00:21But it turned out none of that was provably true.
00:23Nothing that has come out about Crooks shed much light on his actions.
00:26His family was flagged by the Trump campaign in 2016 as potential supporters who would
00:30be particularly receptive to pro-gun messaging.
00:33His father is registered as a libertarian, and his mother as a Democrat — both are
00:37licensed social workers.
00:39Crooks himself made a donation to the Democratic Leaning Progressive Turnout Project in 2021,
00:44before he was old enough to vote.
00:45When he did register to vote, it was as a Republican.
00:48He was also rejected from his high school rifle team, and was described by those who
00:51knew him and his family using generic terms like nice and normal.
00:55You know, I got the perception they were just nice people.
00:59Sociologist Anna Velichkova summarized him to The Washington Post as having,
01:02"...no extremist ideology, no mental health issues, no struggles at school, no family
01:06issues."
01:07He also wasn't involved with extremist groups.
01:10Retired FBI agent Carl Schmay compared Crooks to would-be Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinckley,
01:14Jr., who just wanted to be noticed.
01:16Crooks did online searches for both Trump and President Joe Biden, along with other
01:20key officials prior to the assassination attempt.
01:23U.S. Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana, a member of the task force investigating the
01:27assassination attempt, wanted to have a look at Thomas Matthew Crooks' body, but he didn't
01:31get the chance.
01:32The Daily Mail reports that Higgins learned that the FBI released Crooks' body back to
01:36the shooter's family 10 days after his death, and his remains have since been cremated.
01:40It's not exactly unreasonable that a 20-year-old's family would want their son's remains, nor
01:44is it especially odd to opt for cremation.
01:47And who knows if anything would have come from examining Crooks' body?
01:50He was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
01:52That's pretty much it.
01:54Even so, Higgins called the release of Crooks' remains disturbing, and implied that the FBI
01:58was intentionally trying to interfere with the task force's inquiry.
02:01Others have used the opportunity to raise conspiracies and make accusations of cover-ups.
02:05The FBI, meanwhile, called Higgins' statements inaccurate and unfounded.
02:09Nonetheless, given the importance of the case, one might assume that the FBI would treat
02:12Crooks' body as a piece of evidence while investigations continued.
02:17It's pretty clear that Crooks wanted to shoot Donald Trump, but other elements of his plan
02:21may forever be a mystery.
02:22Case in point?
02:23The homemade detonator that was found on Crooks' body.
02:26The device resembled a cheap gray remote control, and was photographed with what was presumably
02:30a backup 9-volt battery.
02:32The CNN explains, the remote control was connected to a receiver hooked up to explosives in Crooks'
02:36car, which was parked nearby.
02:39The explosives themselves were homemade.
02:41There were also bomb-making materials found at his home.
02:46The detonator definitely raises questions about what else Crooks was looking to do.
02:50Investigators were reportedly floating the idea that Crooks intended to use an explosion
02:53as a distraction at some point during the shooting, perhaps to let him escape if he
02:56thought that was possible.
02:57But that's just one guess, and it's unlikely we'll ever know.
03:01One thing that's very clear is that Crooks being able to take several shots at a major
03:05party's presidential candidate was a massive security failure.
03:08A lone gunman somehow climbed onto an unguarded rooftop 443 feet away from former President
03:13Trump.
03:14How did that happen?
03:16There are a lot of things that are still unknown.
03:18For one, it's still not clear how he physically climbed onto the roof.
03:21The CBC reported Crooks somehow used some unspecified mechanical equipment to climb
03:26up on the roof via pipes.
03:28Some people think he climbed up the external air conditioning equipment.
03:30He's also said to have bought a ladder just before the event.
03:34More importantly, why didn't anyone stop him?
03:37Multiple people in the crowd say they saw Crooks on the roof and pointed him out to
03:40authorities.
03:42Um, a guy beside me looks over and he said, he has a gun, he has a gun.
03:47There's evidence authorities had already seen him on the roof at least 20 minutes before
03:50he took aim at Trump.
03:52In fact, Crooks was deemed a suspicious person as much as an hour before Trump took the stage,
03:56the New York Post reports.
03:58Crooks had even ridden around the rally on his bicycle, casing the place out and flown
04:02a drone around the area for an aerial view.
04:04Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle, who has since resigned, told ABC News that
04:08the area was unmanned because the slope of the roof was too dangerous for agents to be
04:12positioned there.
04:13But security later stood on the roof without any problems.
04:16Just doesn't add up.
04:19According to the FBI, Crooks acted entirely alone.
04:21His former classmate Jason Kohler told the Associated Press that Crooks was indeed a
04:25loner who was, quote, bullied almost every day and sat by himself at lunch.
04:29He was just bullied, like he was bullied so much.
04:33Gina Ligon, head of the National Counterterrorism Innovation Technology and Education Center
04:37at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, told The Washington Post that he fits the lone
04:41wolf profile.
04:43Ligon said that, like the aforementioned John Hinckley Jr., Crooks acted like someone who
04:46wanted to be remembered.
04:48But even with all that, Ligon says that him having no accomplices, or at least confidants,
04:52is hard to believe.
04:54She said,
04:55"'Nobody acts alone, except the Unabomber.'"
04:57Despite Crooks' AR-style rifle belonging to his father, despite the apparent lack of connections
05:02between him and extremist groups, despite his lack of clear ideological motivations,
05:06and despite his explosives being homemade, Ligon and other analysts told The Washington
05:10Post that he came equipped with markers of a wider, quote, ecosystem.
05:14In other words, even if Crooks did organize and plan his attack without a shred of involvement
05:17from anyone else, he at least took influence from elsewhere.