1y ago

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

news.sky.com Trump rally shooting: Ex-president injured in assassination attempt at rally that leaves spectator and gunman dead

The former president ducked to the floor as shots rang out and was mobbed by Secret Service agents, while the sniper, who was killed by security forces, has been named as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Video clip: https://x.com/Acyn/status/1812249329203286464

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Whatever damn fool did this has just made the situation about a million times worse. I don’t give a shit who did this, it was the worst move you could have made at the worst time you could have made it.
And those of you jumping to immediate conspiracy theories need to stop and think about how much we tend to make fun of Republicans for doing literally the exact same thing. Us spending the next 3 days circlejerking each other off our own bullshit conspiracy theories isn’t gonna help the situation, its just gonna make us all look like a bunch of hypocrites. Wait a few days, get whatever info they are willing to give us, and then try to figure out what happened. If it still looks fake or like a false flag or whatever the fuck after that point, whatever. but for gods sake use some critical thinking to get there instead of jumping to conclusions with no info.
For what its worth, I am extremely anti-trump, I am scared shitless of what will happen should he win a second term. But dear god, please think about the way you all are acting, when you act like the same kind of psychopaths you claim to stand against it is not a good look. please consider that before you post.
- The Boogaloo crowd just got handed exactly what they needed to, in their minds, justify basically anything.
  
  They were going to do that anyway, but nevertheless.
  
  This has immense rhetorical power in terms of amping up support. It makes it easier to recruit, justify, pursue goals, etc.
  Put in in Hoi4 terms. If 'political capital' can be reasonably simplified into a score, a currency, this is 'bank error in your favor, have a buttload of free points.'
  ...with which you can more easily pursue a wide variety of actions or policies.
  
  Nah, he's still a fascist and when anyone reads up on Project 2025 is not going to change their mind about him over this.
  
  It's not those who care about it that are an issue here
  
  Sure, but awareness is spreading like wildfire. People underestimate Americans. Once a critical mass of Americans start pushing in one way, it's next to impossible to stop them.
  
  Oh, I sure hope you are right, and since there's contradictory hearsay I will only know when it happens anyway
  
  You're absolutely right. However, they were going to find a reason regardless, since violence was always their end goal.
  If it wasn't this idiot it would have been something else: Trump losing the election is any easy one. The "Boogaloo crowd" resorting to violence was inevitable -- the only thing that has changed is we can no longer pretend it's tomorrow's problem.
  
  It is the match being held to the fuse of the powder keg.
  Today is going to be a chapter in the future textbook entitled, “The Fall of the American Empire.”
  
  You’re absolutely right. However, they were going to find a reason regardless, since violence was always their end goal.
  Any excuse will serve a tyrant - Aesop
  
  I agree, its just that this makes it ludicrously easy for them to do that.
- If insurrections are no big deal I don't see how assassination attempts are something to get upset about.
  
  Seriously. The last 8 years have shown us that 99% of people are pretty rock solid of who they are voting for. Attempting to overthrow the government moves the needle 0.1%
  
  I'll give you a federated upvote, as I am a Canadian and don't mind FBI scrutiny
- I could not agree more. Aren’t we supposed to be the ones who care about democracy, about humanity, and about logic and reason?
  Some innocent bystander died, and their family is going to sleep tonight without their loved one alive for the first time. Others are waiting anxiously in hospitals while their innocent loved ones are in critical condition. Fuck Trump, but no one deserves to have been killed or maimed for being at one of his rallies.
  
  Exactly, we all need to be together on this. This is fucking crazy.
- Yeah the conspiracies in this thread are cringe. Is it really such a stretch to think that a very hated individual was the target of a botched assassination? No, can't be! Must be a false flag!
  Everyone needs to calm the fuck down. This was quite clearly real and not staged.
  
  I don't believe it was a false flag for the sole reason that I don't believe any of them would be competent enough for that level of precision.
- I'm no conspiracy guy... But goddam they sure did take their pick of pictures to release showing a bloody trump with fist up in front of a flag that just happened to be waving there. If nothing else, GOP and FOX will say the libs tried to kill Trump, not ' the assassin' tried, but the libs tried. And let the fundraising begin for the GOP
  
  It was a political rally. Those are always done with flags. It was a political rally, there were a bunch of cameras running. Many of which were taking dozens if pictures every second; there wasn't even anything to release there, the media was the ones taking the video. Of course the most striking image would be the one to catch on, and from watching a video of it, that seems like the obvious moment to take.
  It was some fast thinking and good political instinct (although bad survival instinct) to make a photo perfect pose while getting escorted out by secret service.
  
  It was some fast thinking and good political instinct (although bad survival instinct) to make a photo perfect pose while getting escorted out by secret service.
  I’ve heard reporting say that he was informed that the shooter was already taken out by the time he fist-pumped.
  
  He was at one of his rallies, which are usually thick with flags. The more likely conclusion is likely the correct one.
- Should we continually be tolerant of the intolerance that wishes to do violence to us and/or destroy our democracy? I’m not advocating for assassination of anyone, but when something like this happens I’m not surprised, nor do I feel much sympathy for a rapist, fraudster, wife beater, advocate of overturning a legitimate election, child beater, person who dog whistles violence against people who don’t support him…etc.
  Yeah, the worst thing is that he’s going to capitalize on this. He will make every effort to use it for his personal gain, and being as reactionary as he is I wouldn’t be surprised if he dog whistled his followers into some violence. I bet he’s glad he got shot. He’s going to milk it for everything it’s worth.
  But one thing I am in complete agreement with is making everything a conspiracy. Damn it’s getting old. Epstein, Boeing, this… ridiculous.
- Time to get out of this shit hole country?
  
  It's been time. For a long time.
  
  I've never been to the US but these goings on concern all of us. Like it or not the US has a lot of influence. It's position on China, Russia, Climate Change, et cetera, will set the standard for half the globe.
  
  But if they end up in a civil war its influence will be much lower.
  
  Well, it's lack of influence would be significant.
  No opposition to Russia & China...
  
  Russia can be a problem. China has a different way of doing business. And if what they do in Africa can be used as a blueprint, it's not a bad prospect. Becoming a business partner instead of making coups.
  I don't like the way China rules in China but with other countries it behaves much better than the US or the EU.
  
  That might be true presently but would that remain the case if there were no one to oppose them?
  I don't think for a moment that the US is a well-behaved global citizen, but China is absolutely ideologically opposed. Their behavior in the south china sea in recent years is not at all that of a business partner. They have however invested heavily in the region to develop strategic locations.
  
  You are opposing a certainty (US's behavior) with a uncertain possibility (China's behavior if it wasn't there the US).
  Now think how many coups have the seal of the US or the USSR and how many have the seal of China.
- Logic and reason? In my social media feed?
  
  This is now my quote of the year.
  Thank you, wise stranger.
  
  Hey I am here you know
- Thank you for an actually educated take.
- Most people are treating this like Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King shooting, but it's not. These people were liked and generally seen as good.
  This shooting is more akin to a Hitler shooting, which he had survived many, and was not liked. This is not a martyr situation and most are not going to change their feels for trump.
  
  Trump is definitely liked, there are tons of people who like him. Half the country likes him.
  
  MLK and Lincoln stood against something that was objectively evil. And not half the country likes him, he will still lose the popular vote.
  
  Some people even liken him to Jesus.
  
  The religious zealots do, for sure
  
  Yeah I'd go further than that to say that (bizarrely) the religious heart of America thinks that he is "good".
- It fucking blows my mind people jump straight into, "well what if it's staged." What does that fucking solve? Questions about answering questions and those people act like they know something or they are more aware than the rest of the world when the big fucking picture is being missed and it is right in front of their fucking face. This only fuels repubs saying, "it was an assassination attempt by the left wing."
  Trump might be the future dictator of the US but this is just far more ammunition for the very guns that just tried to kill him and this is lighter fluid.
  This shit is fucking nuts and none of it is good for anyone stop fucking trying to pull the video apart and going, "see see, it's fake." It doesn't fucking matter because the damage is done.
  I always like to say to conspiracy theorists. If COVID was started by China prove to me it wasn't started by the U.S.
  
  Also, two people are dead; one of which is the potential shooter. If it were staged, the shooter got a pretty bad deal.
  
  "Hey if you go do this your family will never have to worry about finances again"
  Would make anyone think twice
  
  Anyone? I think you might be projecting. Also, the dude was 20. I don't think he has a family of his own. And it is kind of hard to keep that a secret of his entire family were suddenly insanely rich. Trump could not even keep a $100k payment to a porn star secret.
- Yup. As much as I hate the GOP and Trump, this is a pretty big Occam's razor moment.
- It was a republican.
- We'll only act as psychopaths on day one.
- I don't think this will change a thing. Nobody is changing their vote over this.
  It's just an attempt to incite violence.
  
  That's just not true. Lots of people on the fence will vote for him now.
  
  Doubtful, these last few political years have been too divisive.
  Let's also take note here that your account reads like a smurf/bot account. I miss RES tagged so I could tag bad faith actors.
  
  What's a Smurf? And what's bad faith about what I say?
  
  Look, I don't mean to be an ass but if you genuinely don't think this changes a thing you are a part of the problem.
  
  It doesn't for Democrat voters. They're only voting against Trump. This doesn't change who DT is, his viewpoints, or his past actions. This doesn't change him being a Felon and a suspected pedophile. All this is an attempt to incite more violence.
  
  Let me present an situation to you:
  Trump and his party: "a crazy left wing fucker tried to kill me. Let's take them Dems down vote repub" and lots of other pushing agendas and statements about Dems being killers.
  If you don't feel like this isn't more fuel for that then again you are missing the point. This will absolutely shift votes.
  
  How is this going to "shift votes"? How exactly? From who? Who's really on the fence between the "Old man" and the convicted felon suspected to be a pedophile attempting to become king? No sane person is shifting vote over this and the insane are already vehemently R.
- Watch the video. This is a false flag and a lazy one at that. Dude stabbed himself in the ear with a pin, got a group hug on stage and started FIST PUMPING from inside a ring of special service. Head out, fist up, like "HERE I AM. IM NO COWARD". You know who does that? Actors. Who know the script and have rehearsed the scene.
  
  Moon landing is fake.
  Earth is flat.
  9/11 was CGI.
  My wife cheating on me was gen AI.
  The blood on Trump's ear was an Instagram filter.
  Nothing's real anymore.
  God, you're so smart. You're just the smartest person, you know that? Everyone likes you for how smart you are. I'd like to start an applause for this hero, if everyone doesn't mind.
  clap
- The amount of folks in here that seem to be okay with someone being assassinated is disgusting. This is not how sane people get things accomplished. Shameful.
  I loathe Trump, but man, the hypocrisy in the air is stifling.
  
  Sanity is a rare resource these days.
  
  Ehh. On one hand, of course, and it’s not good for your psyche to revel in the idea of death.
  Buuut, when the context of the discussion is global politics, human lives are put through the wood chipper by the thousands because of what does or doesn’t happen. So the scale of severity we’re working with is just different.
  
  It's only going to get worse
  
  Tell it to shinzo Abe.
  Wait
- Wrong.

549 comments