Nearly three days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump, Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have finally gained access to the would-be assassin’s cell phone. “FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices,” the FBI said in a statement, noting that they have also completed searches of the deceased shooter’s home and vehicle.
Despite having had access to the phone since Monday evening, the FBI has yet to release any details regarding the shooter‘s motivations. While a delay in accessing a seized electronic device isn’t unusual, the lack of information regarding the would-be assassin’s life and movements in the day leading up to the attack is raising concerns.
Family, neighbors, and law enforcement officials have offered little public comment on how or why the 20-year-old Pennsylvanian was able to gain access to a roof just 400 feet away from Trump and successfully fire off several shots. One bullet struck Trump in the ear, while another struck and killed Corey Comperatore—a Trump supporter and volunteer fireman who shielded his family from the gunfire with his body. Two other rallygoers were also seriously injured.
According to the FBI, the phone and its data are being analyzed by its laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. Additionally, technicians are pouring through other electronic devices owned by the would-be assassin.
Accessing encrypted electronic devices can be difficult, even for law enforcement. In the instance of Apple products—such as the iPhone—the company has been resistant to allowing backdoor access to law enforcement. They claim doing so would enable governments to access all Apple customers’ phones easily.
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Nearly three days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump, Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have finally gained access to the would-be assassin's cell phone. "FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices," the FBI said in a statement, noting that they have also completed searches of the deceased shooter's home and vehicle.
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Joe Biden finally authorized United States Secret Service (USSS) protection for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on Monday. The announcement was made by the 81-year-old Democrat incumbent’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
“In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.,” Mayorkas said during Monday’s White House press briefing. The announcement comes after a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man attempted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump during a campaign rally on Saturday.
Earlier on Monday, former President Trump had demanded that Kennedy receive USSS protection. “In light of what is going on in the world today, I believe it is imperative that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. receive Secret Service protection — immediately,” he wrote. “Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!”
Trump’s would-be assassin fired several rounds from the roof of a building just 400 feet from the former president. One bullet struck Trump in the ear. Another bullet killed Trump supporter Corey Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter who was shielding his family from the gunfire. Two other rallygoers were badly injured but are now listed as in stable condition.
After announcing his independent bid for the White House, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. requested USSS protection on at least two occasions. His father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated by Palestinian-Jordanian Sirhan Sirhan in 1968. RFK Jr.’s uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963.
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Joe Biden finally authorized United States Secret Service (USSS) protection for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on Monday. The announcement was made by the 81-year-old Democrat incumbent's Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
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Rapper Curtis Jackson, known by his stage name 50 Cent, is reportedly in discussions to address the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jackson recently signaled his respect and potential support for former President Donald J. Trump. Following the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the rapper appeared to double down, tweeting a photo of the former president superimposed on the cover of his first album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
Jackson is known for having been shot nine times just before the release of his intended debut album, Power of the Dollar, in 2000. Subsequently, Columbia Records dropped the rapper from their label. In 2003, a rebounding Jackson released Get Rich or Die Tryin’ to critical acclaim.
In March, Jackson posted on social media that he believes Trump will retake the White House in November. The rapper wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “I think Trumps [sic] gonna be president again, but I’m not gonna say that.” In February, after New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a $53 million program to provide pre-paid debit cards to illegal aliens arriving in the city, Jackson posted in response, “I’m stuck maybe TRUMP is the answer.”
PUSHBACK OVER TRUMP SUPPORT.
The National Pulse previously reported that during a 2020 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, washed-up comedian Chelsea Handler expressed outrage regarding her ex-boyfriend and rapper 50 Cent’s endorsement of Trump.
“He says he doesn’t want to pay 62 percent of taxes—which, by the way, isn’t a plan of Joe Biden‘s, that’s a lie—so he doesn’t want to pay 62 percent of taxes because he doesn’t want to go from being 50 Cent to 20 Cent,” Handler said, rolling her eyes. “And I had to remind him that he was a black person, so he can’t vote for Donald Trump and that he shouldn’t be influencing an entire swath of people who may listen to him because he’s worried about his own personal pocketbook.”
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Rapper Curtis Jackson, known by his stage name 50 Cent, is reportedly in discussions to address the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jackson recently signaled his respect and potential support for former President Donald J. Trump. Following the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the rapper appeared to double down, tweeting a photo of the former president superimposed on the cover of his first album, Get Rich or Die Tryin'.show more
Teamsters Union president Sean O’Brien praised former PresidentDonald J. Trump‘s decision to pick U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his vice presidential running mate on Monday. Speaking with Neil Cavuto, O’Brien stressed that his union would not be making an official endorsement in the race for the White House until next month.
“J.D. Vance, the short time we’ve worked together, I mean—he’s been great on Teamster issues,” O’Brien said. “He’s supported and cosponsored an airline manufacturer bill that addresses outsourcing critical airlinemaintenance to China.”
“He’s also supported paid sick leave for our railroad workers. You remember that situation a couple of years ago where they weren’t getting sick time? He stepped right up,” O’Brien said, adding: “[Vance] has also been supportive of holding employers accountable who try and skirt their obligation under the independent contractor model known as DSP.”
“So he’s been right there on all of our issues… and look, this day and age, there’s nothing better than having a U.S. Marine represented as a vice president candidate,” O’Brien concluded.
The National Pulse has covered O’Brien and the Teamsters Union’s openness to backing former President Trump previously. In addition to his comments on Vance, O’Brien highlighted that he has not been invited by Joe Biden and the Democrats to address their nominating convention next month—appearing visibly irate that this has not happened.
He emphasized that no endorsements will be made until next month after a final straw poll of the union‘s 1.3 million members. O’Brien insinuated the Teamsters—who have not backed a Republican candidate since George H.W. Bush—are still considering backing Trump and Vance.
They may decide not to endorse in the race at all.
WATCH:
Wow. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is praising Vance
Teamsters Union president Sean O'Brien praised former President Donald J. Trump's decision to pick U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his vice presidential running mate on Monday. Speaking with Neil Cavuto, O'Brien stressed that his union would not be making an official endorsement in the race for the White House until next month.
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Former President Donald J. Trump, the 2024 presidential front-runner, has named U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) his vice-presidential pick. The 39-year-old Vance was elected to the Senate during the 2022 mid-term elections and has quickly become a populist firebrand in the upper legislative chamber. While the Ohio Senator was once a critic of Trump—prior to his election in 2016—Vance has emerged recently as one of the former president’s fiercest defenders.
A HILLBILLY VENTURE CAPITALIST.
Before his run for office, Sen. Vance was best known as a venture capitalist in the tech industry and an author, publishing a moving retrospective on his upbringing in Appalachian Ohio entitled: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. The memoir was later made into a 2020 film directed by Ron Howard, starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.
Born in 1984 in Middletown, Ohio—nestled between Cincinnati and Dayton—Vance is a graduate of Yale Law School and a former principal with Peter Thiel‘s venture capital firm, Mithril Capital. While Vance initially considered a run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio against the Democrat incumbent Sherrod Brown during the 2018 midterm elections, the Ohio Republican decided to wait until 2022. That year, Vance defeated former Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) in a close and hard-fought race for the U.S. Senate.
THE POPULIST PICK.
Earlier this year, The National Pulse held a straw poll of our readership to determine who Trump should name as his running mate. Vance was, by and large, the runaway favorite, securing 32 percent support. This was more than double the support of the runner-ups, Ben Carson and Vivek Ramaswamy, who both polled at 14 percent.
A critic of the unconditional support of the Biden government for Ukraine, Vance has noted that the country suffers a lack of manpower. By throwing billions of dollars in weapons and equipment into Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, the Western nations—including the United States—are only prolonging the war’s death and suffering.
VANCE ON UKRAINE.
“Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more matériel than the United States can provide,” Vance wrote in The New York Times, refuting Joe Biden’s allegations that the only obstacle to Ukrainian victory is conservatives’ reluctance to authorize open-ended U.S. taxpayer funding for the war.
“Biden has failed to articulate even basic facts about what Ukraine needs and how this aid will change the reality on the ground,” Vance noted, adding, “$60 billion is a fraction of what it would take to turn the tide in Ukraine’s favor.”
TAKING ON HIGHER ED.
The Ohio Republican has also called for tighter controls on U.S. universities receiving taxpayer dollars—noting that the far-left capture of academic institutions has resulted in poor education and the waste of American taxpayer dollars. Additionally, Vance’s opposition to a Congressional ban on bump stocks—a modification that can be made to firearms to increase stability and aim—drew an unhinged response from the New York Times in late June.
In choosing Vance as his vice presidential nominee, former President Trump is laying the groundwork for the future of the Republican Party and the national populist movement. A formidable ticket with working-class appeal, Trump-Vance promises to put the very best of American populism against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November’s election.
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Former President Donald J. Trump, the 2024 presidential front-runner, has named U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) his vice-presidential pick. The 39-year-old Vance was elected to the Senate during the 2022 mid-term elections and has quickly become a populist firebrand in the upper legislative chamber. While the Ohio Senator was once a critic of Trump—prior to his election in 2016—Vance has emerged recently as one of the former president's fiercest defenders.
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The United States Secret Service (USSS)—as well as Pennsylvania local and state law enforcement—suffered what can only be described as a catastrophic failure at Saturday’s campaign rally when a 20-year-old with a rifle was able to get within 400 feet of former President Donald J. Trump and fire several rounds—nearly killing him. A matter of centimeters separated Trump from life and death, but video evidence from the thousands of rally attendees concerningly suggests the USSS and local law enforcement had several minutes to respond to the threat but failed to do so.
TWO MINUTES TO RESPOND.
According to witness descriptions and video, attendees of the Trump rally—outside the security perimeter—pointed out that an individual armed with a rifle had climbed onto the roof of a manufacturing plant just over 400 feet north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where former President Trump was speaking. Footage taken by those present shows a lapse of nearly one minute in which the would-be assassin was visible on the edge of the roof and when he opened fire on Trump, speaking just over 150 yards away.
Additionally, eyewitness testimony indicates that law enforcement was alerted even before this point to a suspicious individual who was seen scaling a ladder onto the manufacturing plant and then moving across the building’s rooftop. This suggests lawenforcement had at least several minutes to identify and respond to the threat.
In several moments captured on camera by audience attendees, what appears to be a USSS tactical officer walks behind the rally grandstands and peers across the open field toward the manufacturing plant and then abruptly turns around and heads back towards the agency’s command center behind the central risers. The same video shows a local, uniformed law enforcement officer in the background—within feet of the manufacturing plant—walking towards the shooter only to duck when the first shots ring out. That officer then can be clearly seen running away from the shooter and gunfire.
KNOWN VULNERABILITY.
The video evidence of rally attendees desperately trying to alert and draw the attention of law enforcement to the would-be assassin and the reaction of local police and the USSS suggests an inexcusable and utterly disastrous breakdown in communications occurred. Reports that a local lawenforcement officer had climbed the ladder and tried to confront the gunman—only to retreat after the rifle was then pointed at them—begs the question of why there was not a USSS agent or police officer stationed on the roof to begin with. After all, according to multiple news reports, the USSS had identified the roof as a high-priority point of vulnerability.
Answers may come next week. USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle is expected to appear before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on July 22 in what promises to be a historic hearing on Capitol Hill following the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
WATCH:
This combined footage is astonishing. The shooter was up on the roof for 2 minutes. People were literally pointing and shouting at him.
The United States Secret Service (USSS)—as well as Pennsylvania local and state law enforcement—suffered what can only be described as a catastrophic failure at Saturday's campaign rally when a 20-year-old with a rifle was able to get within 400 feet of former President Donald J. Trump and fire several rounds—nearly killing him. A matter of centimeters separated Trump from life and death, but video evidence from the thousands of rally attendees concerningly suggests the USSS and local law enforcement had several minutes to respond to the threat but failed to do so.
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Liberal celebrities, journalists, and politicians, up to and including the sitting president, had been steadily intensifying incitement against Donald Trump prior to the assassination attempt against him on Saturday.
CELEBRITIES.
Hollywood liberals have been threatening violence or wishing violence upon Trump for years. Among others, Robert De Niro called Trump a “dog” and a “pig” in 2016, seething about wanting to “punch him in the face.”
The alleged comedienne Kathy Griffin infamously posed with a bloody model of Trump’s severed head in 2017. She claimed to be remorseful after receiving backlash—and a drop in job offers—but repeated the stunt in 2023.
Theater director Oskar Eustis put on a version of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar portraying the Roman leader as Trump, complete with a bloody assassination, the same year.
While in the United Kingdom in 2017, Johnny Depp asked a festival audience, “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? … [I]t’s been a while and maybe it’s time”—referencing the murder of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth.
Previously, Madonna had said she “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House” at the 2017 Women’s March.
Mickey Rourke, like De Niro, spoke of his desire to give Trump a “left hook from hell” on multiple occasions, most recently in 2019.
JOURNALISTS.
The corporate media has been inciting the public against Trump for many years, ramping up its efforts with particular intensity in recent weeks as he rises in the polls.
Earlier this month, The New Republic ran a cover portraying Trump as Adolf Hitler, complete with mustache, under the strapline ‘American fascism,’ insisting he is “damn close enough, and we’d better fight.”
In December, Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post ran an article titled, ‘Yes, it’s OK to compare Trump to Hitler.’
On July 2, The Huffington Post website ran an article on the Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents have a presumption of immunity from prosecution—if not impeachment—for official acts with the headline, ‘Supreme Court Gives Joe Biden The Legal OK To Assassinate Donald Trump.’
Similarly, BBC presenter David Aaronovitch responded to the ruling with a “satirical” social media post recommending that Biden should “hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America’s security.”
Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Morning Joe issued an unhinged rant in November warning Trump was “running to end American democracy” and would exile, imprison, and even “execute” his opponents once reelected.
POLITICIANS.
Politicians have also played a prominent role in stirring up fear and hatred against Trump, largely by scaremongering about him becoming a dictator.
“It’s just unquestionable at this point that that man cannot see public office again. He is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be eliminated,” Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman recently told former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki, in a clip that has been widely recirculated following Saturday’s assassination attempt.
Robert Kagan, the war hawk neoconservative husband of war hawk former Biden official Victoria Nuland, wrote a 6,000-word essay declaring that a “Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable,” adding: “When a marauder is crashing through your house, you throw everything you can at him—pots, pans, candlesticks—in the hope of slowing him down and tripping him up.”
In April, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, actually put forward legislation to strip anyone sentenced to a year or more in prison for a federal or state felony of Secret Service protection, in anticipation of a possible prison sentence for Trump in Manhattan. This was widely interpreted as a move to make it easier for someone to kill him.
In 2017, Democratic state senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal of Missouri posted, “I hope Trump is assassinated!” on Facebook. Congressman Maxine Waters said she wanted to “go and take Trump out” the same year.
As long ago as 2015, Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson said the “GOP donor class” was “going to have to go out and put a bullet in” then-candidate Trump.
BIDEN.
Perhaps no politician has done as much to incite the public against Trump as Joe Biden. The incumbent, up to the day of the assassination attempt, was posting on social media that Trump means to become a dictator.
On July 5, referencing the aforementioned immunity ruling, he claimed the former president “really could” become a dictator if reelected.
“Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy,” he said on June 28, adding: “He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.”
It is a theme he has been playing on for years: “Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are a threat to the very soulofthis country,” he posted in 2022.
Biden uses similarly inflammatory rhetoric in private, telling donors in a July 8 call reported by the press: “It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”
NEW from @thenatpulse: EXC: Steve Bannon Reacts to 45 Assassination Attempt: 'Trump Wears the Armor of God.'
Liberal celebrities, journalists, and politicians, up to and including the sitting president, had been steadily intensifying incitement against Donald Trump prior to the assassination attempt against him on Saturday.
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U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed Jack Smith‘s prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Cannon ruled that Smith’s appointment as special counsel by Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) Attorney General Merrick Garland was unconstitutional.
In Cannon’s ruling, she determines that the naming of Smith violates the Appropriations and Appointments clauses.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued in his concurring opinion in Trump v. United States that the appointment likely violated the Constitution.
“In this case, the Attorney General purported to appoint a private citizen as Special Counsel to prosecute a former President on behalf of the United States,” Justice Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion. He continued: “But, I am not sure that any office for the Special Counsel has been ‘established by Law,’ as the Constitution requires.”
“By requiring that Congress create federal offices ‘by Law,’ the Constitution imposes an important check against the President—he cannot create offices at his pleasure,” the justice wrote, adding: ” If there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution. A private citizen cannot criminally prosecute anyone, let alone a former President.”
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BIG NEWS – Judge Cannon dismisses classified docs case —> says Jack Smith appointment is unconstitutional pic.twitter.com/kA4fCaHTPp
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed Jack Smith's prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Cannon ruled that Smith's appointment as special counsel by Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) Attorney General Merrick Garland was unconstitutional.
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MSNBC’s flagship Morning Joe show is not airing on Monday. Executives at NBCUniversal News Group are fearful the hosts or their regular guests could say something “inappropriate” about the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
CNN reports a source “familiar with the matter” told them 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.”
NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde, MSNBC president Rashida Jones, and Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski supposedly made the decision jointly.
The husband-and-wife duo have been amongst the most hyperbolic Trump critics in recent months. In November, Scarborough claimed Trump “is running to end American democracy as we know it” and suggested only the judiciary stopped him from governing in the style of Adolf Hitler in his first term.
“Just because he hasn’t done it yet doesn’t mean he won’t do it when he gets a chance to do it, and if he is voted into office… he will imprison, he will execute, whoever he’s allowed to imprison, execute, uh, uh, uh, uh, drive from the country,” Scarborough ranted.
Senior Republicans such as J.D. Vance have suggested rhetoric like this, from both the corporate media and the Democrats, inspired the assassination attempt against Trump.
MORNING JOE: “In a 2nd term, Trump will imprison, he will execute whoever he is allowed to imprison, execute, drive from the country. Just look at his past. It’s not really hard to read” pic.twitter.com/3bs2YnC82K
MSNBC's flagship Morning Joe show is not airing on Monday. Executives at NBCUniversal News Group are fearful the hosts or their regular guests could say something "inappropriate" about the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
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Corey Comperatore, the volunteer firefighter who was killed shielding his family from a sniper’s bullets during the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is being celebrated as a selfless family man and community member.
Comperatore, 50, died Saturday night while protecting his wife and family from gunfire. A sniper had managed to sneak onto a roof and open fire on former President Trump. He only struck the president’s ear, but three bystanders were more seriously wounded.
Eileen Shamanski, whose children grew up with Comperatore’s daughters, described his actions as characteristic of his selfless nature. “It’s just so typical of him, protecting his wife and daughter by throwing himself on top of them when the shooting started,” Shamanski said.
The Christian family man’s friends and relations have been left devastated by the incident. Shamanski noted that despite Comperatore’s demanding schedule as an engineer and volunteer firefighter, he never missed his daughters’ soccer events. She expressed disbelief upon hearing the news from her daughters, who called her in tears.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called Comperatore a hero, saying he “dove on his family to protect them.” Allyson Comperatore, one of his daughters, shared a heartfelt tribute to her father, describing him as “the best dad a girl could ask for.”
“He loved his family. He truly loved us enough to take a bullet for us,” she said.
“Corey put everyone and everything first before himself. It showed in his leadership as Fire Chief, Husband, Father, and Son. He died a hero because he was a hero. Putting others first,” concurred Mark Lauer, former president of the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association.
A fundraiser for Comperatore’s family had raised around $850,000 as of the time of publication.
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Corey Comperatore, the volunteer firefighter who was killed shielding his family from a sniper's bullets during the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is being celebrated as a selfless family man and community member.
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