National political reporter Neil W. McCabe said after two assassination attempts of former President Donald Trump, it appears as if the personnel assigned to protect the former president “don’t seem all that motivated” to wholeheartedly carry out the job.
McCabe said earlier this year, he spoke with “a few people in Trump world” who said that the former president was “aware” at the time “that he is going to be targeted with an assassination attempt.”
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Phill Kline, former Kansas Attorney General and current law professor at Liberty University School of Law, described the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of a hand-written letter by Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Trump on September 15, as “deeply concerning.”
In the letter, which the DOJ publicly released on Monday, Routh confirmed his intent to assassinate the former president and offered a $150,000 bounty to whoever could “complete the job.”
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The Biden-Harris White House has yet to issue a response after Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said former President Donald Trump should be “extinguished for good” during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program known to be a favorite of President Joe Biden.
Raimondo told “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski that Trump should be “extinguished” after he promised to protect women if elected in November in remarks made after the network clarified the commerce secretary appeared in her personal capacity.
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Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker Robby Starbuck said Attorney General Merrick Garland should be “removed immediately” following the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of a hand-written letter by Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Trump on September 15.
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A note purportedly written by Ryan Wesley Routh, who is accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump on September 15, was released on Monday by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a public court filing.
According to the court filing, Routh asked an associate to keep a box of his belongings. After the attack, the associate opened the box and discovered the letter, wherein prosecutors claim Routh confirmed his intent to assassinate Trump and offered a $150,000 bounty should someone prove successful.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, is raising multiple questions about Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspected assassin in the second foiled attempt to end former President Donald Trump’s life.
On Sunday, Secret Service spotted a barrel of a gun poking out of the shrubbery at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, where the former president was playing that afternoon.
After shooting in the direction of the spotted gun, Routh is reported to have fled the scene in a stolen vehicle.
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A new political action committee (PAC) in support of former President Donald Trump was launched this week by the CEO of Sticker Mule, Anthony Constantino, in an effort to “stop anti-Trump hate.”
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Rachel Vindman, the sister-in-law of Democratic U.S. House candidate Eugene Vindman, twice donated to the VoteVets political organization that is advised by her husband, Alexander Vindman.
News of her donations to VoteVets, which supports the campaign of Eugene Vindman, surfaces after Rachel Vindman apologized for social media posts minimizing the second attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
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The sister-in-law of Eugene Vindman, the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s 7th Congressional district, deleted a series of controversial posts to the social media platform X, all of which referenced the second attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
Rachel Vindman on Sunday wrote at least three posts referencing the assassination attempt, which occurred at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach.
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Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Monday released a whistleblower report containing new allegations involving negligence and incompetence on behalf of the U.S. Secret Service during the July 13 attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Hawley wrote in a post to the social media platform X that his decision to release the platform follows “the latest assassination attempt on [Trump],” which the FBI confirmed occurred on Sunday at the former president’s golf course in West Palm Beach.
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On Wednesday, an FBI spokesman declared that while the FBI has put together a “clear idea” of the thought process behind actions of the 20-year-old man who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump, the agency still cannot officially determine what his motive was.
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A counter sniper with Pennsylvania law enforcement told members of the U.S. House on Monday that the U.S. Secret Service declined the encrypted radios offered by local law enforcement ahead of the July 13 rally where former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt.
The claim was made during a J13 Forum attended by U.S. Representatives Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), Eli Crane (R-AZ-02), Cory Mills (R-FL-07), Chip Roy (R-TX-21) and streamed to social media by Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01).
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Tom Pappert, reporter at The Pennsylvania Daily Star, is raising concerns about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) handling of the investigation into the would-be assassin who attempted to take former President Donald Trump’s life during a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on July 13.
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The FBI confirmed in a statement to The Pennsylvania Daily Star it released the body of Thomas Crooks, the 22-year-old who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump on July 13, which it stated is “keeping with normal procedures.”
A spokesman for the agency often accused of being politicized by the Biden-Harris administration told The Star, “Any suggestion the FBI is interfering with congressional efforts to look into the attempted assassination which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, is inaccurate and unfounded.”
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The Butler Township Police Department (BTPD) told The Pennsylvania Daily Star on Monday it has no records of written communications between the U.S. Secret Service and Thomas Crooks, who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump on July 13.
The department confirmed it had no records of written communications between the Secret Service and its officer on Monday, just under one month after he encountered Crooks while being hoisted onto the roof of the AGR International building the would-be assassin used to gain his vantage point on the rally.
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The Butler Township Police Department (BTPD) on Friday declined to provide The Pennsylvania Daily Star with the name of the police officer who claimed to warn the U.S. Secret Service about the possibility of an assassination attempt in a June 13 bodycam video released by the department Thursday.
The spokesman similarly declined to comment to The Star regarding the videos released by the department, citing ongoing federal investigations into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
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Newly acquired police body cam video includes audio in which a local police officer moments after the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally complains about the Secret Service not having cover the rooftop from which the sniper shot.
“I f—ing told them that they needed to post guys f—ing over here,” says a Butler Township officer in the audio of tape obtained by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday under a public records request. “I told them that f—ing Tuesday,” said a in audio captured on his body-worn camera. “I talked to the Secret Service guys. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem. We’re going to post guys over here.’”
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The Metro Nashville Council voted to pass a resolution condemning the July 13 assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump and all political violence during its Tuesday meeting.
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The last two weeks are arguably unprecedented in American history. Fresh off a debate where he showed the sitting President to be the senile octogenarian we all knew he was, the presumptive Republican nominee was shot at a rally, only to stand up immediately, pump his fist, tell the crowd to “fight,” and, within a few days, formally accept the GOP nomination and continue to rally.
A few days later, Donald Trump’s Democrat opponent, Joe Biden, knowing he couldn’t possibly compete with that, dropped out of the race rather than face an expected landslide loss to the former President.
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Thousands of people began lining up outside the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Wednesday to witness former President Donald Trump speak at his first campaign rally in the state since surviving an assassination attempt less than three weeks ago in Butler County.
Supporters began lining up outside of the venue at approximately 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday – more than 12 hours until doors to the venue were scheduled to open at 2:00 p.m. – according to the local news outlet ABC 27.
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U.S. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe confirmed the authenticity of an email sent by a Secret Service counter sniper criticizing leadership in the agency while under questioning by Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) during a Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell condemned former President Donald Trump on Saturday as a “threat to democracy,” then humorously asserted the Bitcoin 2024 conference, where the former president spoke, was “secured” and the “threat” gone.
O’Connell made the remarks at the annual Three Star Fundraiser held by the Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP), which the party titled, “For Our Democracy, For Our Freedom.”
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, was appointed by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) to serve on the bipartisan House task force responsible for investigating the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
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Neither the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nor the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) was willing to confirm whether they are investigating a Nashville woman who threatened to kill former President Trump at while he gave a keynote speech at Bitcoin 2024, the largest Bitcoin conference in the world.
The conference was held over the weekend in Nashville.
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Eight members of the Tennessee congressional delegation reacted to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation on Tuesday, agreeing that her decision to step down was in the agency’s best interest.
Cheatle’s resignation came 10 days after former President Donald Trump was grazed by a single bullet in his upper right ear in what is formally being investigated as a failed assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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Police bodycam released by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Tuesday shows Beaver County, Pennsylvania police officers tell a U.S. Secret Service agent a Butler County Police Department (BCPD) sniper was perched with a direct line-of-sight view of Thomas Michael Crooks as the 20-year-old attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump on July 13.
According to Grassley, the dialogue confirms the sniper, identified as Greg in the video, captured photographs of the shooter and shared them with Secret Service, and was tracking him visually but lost sight prior to the shooting.
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The last few weeks sharply remind us of the old adage – “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” In less than 30 days, the American political world has been upended by a series of shocking events most people are still trying to fully comprehend. From a remarkably disastrous debate for President Joe Biden against former president Donald Trump, to the attempted assassination of Trump a short 16 days later, then two days after that the start of a well-organized and produced Republican convention with an injured but unbowed Trump, to the withdrawal of Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, it’s safe to say none of us knows what happens next.
One thing we do know – the divisive and hateful rhetoric employed by the left against Trump and his supporters is what has fed both the unraveling of the Democratic Party and the awakening of Americans to the reality of the lies and manipulation we’ve endured since Biden took office.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) defended her call for both President Joe Biden and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign from their posts during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-In-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on Monday.
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U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the security failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life.
On July 13, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Several bullets passed within millimeters of Trumps head, at least one grazing his ear. Two rallygoers were hurt, and Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief, was tragically killed by stray bullets while shielding his wife and daughter.
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Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) claimed on Saturday that the U.S. Secret Service did not attend a law enforcement meeting in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, the date former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks at a campaign rally.
Johnson told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that his team learned the apparent lack of attendance by the Secret Service from local law enforcement.
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Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) revealed on Friday that U.S. Secret Service whistleblowers approached his office to inform him the agency assigned Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel who were not part of the Secret Service to protect former President Donald Trump during the Pennsylvania rally where he suffered an assassination attempt.
In addition to the claim about questionable staffing, Hawley wrote in his Friday letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that whistleblowers with “direct knowledge of the event” told his office the agency also treated Trump’s rally as “loose” security.
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In the days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Commercial Appeal published candidate profiles on the three Democratic primary challengers to Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-8), two of whom took the deeply divisive tone that Republicans were to “end democracy.”
As reported by The Tennessee Star, one of those candidates, Leonard Franklin, doubled down on his dark rhetoric in an exchange with The Star.
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Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Thursday appeared on “Mornings with Maria” and told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that dehumanizing language and political polarization led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
McCormick was present at the rally when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump, piercing his ear, killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore, and injuring two more.
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Metro Nashville Council Member Ginny Welsch (District 16) said former President Donald Trump “called for” the July 13 assassination attempt he survived during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump was grazed by a single bullet in his upper right ear in what is formally being investigated as a failed assassination attempt during the rally last week.
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Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper during his failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday, was reportedly diagnosed with major depressive disorder prior to his death.
It was also reported that Thomas Matthew Crooks foreshadowed his attack, which claimed the life Trump supporter Corey Comperatore and injured two others in addition to piercing the former president’s right ear, on the popular video game storefront and platform Steam.
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Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick spoke at the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Tuesday of the “remarkable strength” displayed by former President Donald Trump immediately after he survived the Saturday assassination attempt, and argued the former president’s example stands in contrast to the weakness and “disgraceful decline” offered by President Joe Biden and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).
McCormick spoke on the second night of the RNC, which was titled “Make America Safe Once Again.” The former Trump administration official began by revealing his experience at the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and John Barrasso (R-WY) on Wednesday confronted U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on the floor of the Republican National Convention (RNC) over the Secret Service actions that preceded the Saturday assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The Tennessee Star confirmed the confrontation happened at the Fiserv Forum in Mulwaukee, Wisconsin where the RNC is being held. Blackburn and Barrasso confronted Cheatle upstairs in a luxury suite just prior to 9 p.m., just minutes before Blackburn uploaded video to the social media platform X with the caption, “[t]he American people deserve answers from the Secret Service.”
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Just after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Commercial Appeal published candidate profiles on the three Democratic primary challengers to Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN-8), two of whom took the deeply divisive tone that Republicans was to “end democracy.”
Sarah Freeman is running to be her party’s nominee in the race.
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A sniper from one of the local law enforcement agencies providing assistance at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 14 saw Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter who was killed at the scene, and photographed the would-be assassin immediately prior to his attack, a Wednesday report claims.
The Pennsylvania publication Beaver Countian first reported on Monday it was a Beaver County police officer who warned his superiors of a man with a rangefinder, which is used to calculate distance when using a weapon, citing multiple local law enforcement sources who told the outlet “extremely poor planning” and a lack of manpower allowed the attempt on Trump’s life.
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A video of a group of Ugandan children recreating the moment former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt over the weekend has gone viral on social media.
The video, first shared by TikTok user @bloodoffical0, shows a group of school-aged children recreating the moment shots rang out at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, July 13.
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Two members of the Metro Nashville Council blocked a resolution condemning the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump and all political violence from being discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.
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Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) both raised over $8 million over the last quarter, even as both candidates pause at least some of their advertising in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday.
McCormick raised slightly more than the Democratic incumbent, with his campaign reporting $8.4 million in receipts between April and June to the Federal Elections Commission. This includes a $2.06 million loan the former Trump administration official made to his own campaign.
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Thomas Crooks and his sister Katherine Crooks graduated from the same high school only two years apart; however, their school yearbooks paint the attempted assassin as very different from his sister regarding school engagement.
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Former President Donald Trump will hold a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday with vice presidential nominee, U.S. Senator JD Vance.
Saturday’s rally, which will be held indoors at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids at 5:00 EST, will mark Trump’s first rally since announcing Vance as his running mate.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was among the Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans who sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) requesting that he organize a committee hearing on the circumstances leading up to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump over the weekend.
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Driving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris by an undetected bomb. Refusing extra resources for a presidential candidate. Admitting an agent on a White House detail assaulted her supervisor.
Long before the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday night such focused a harsh light on the Secret Service, the presidential security agency was already facing difficult questions about its capability, training, recruitment and emphasis on diversity.
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The Pennsylvania Democratic Party did not respond to The Pennsylvania Daily Star when asked about a statement after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt in the commonwealth on Saturday.
Despite every member of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation issuing statements expressing solidarity with Trump or condemning political violence, the Pennsylvania Democrats had yet to release a statement on their website, or social media accounts including X, Facebook or Instagram, by press time.
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A spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service on Sunday appeared to blame the Butler Township Police Department (BTPD) for failing to secure the building that would-be assassin Thomas Crooks used to shoot former President Donald Trump before Crooks was killed at the rally on Saturday.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliemi claimed the agency was not responsible for securing the building, according to The New York Times, which reported it “was outside of the designated perimeter of the Trump rally, so it was secured by local law enforcement, not Secret Service agents.”
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The office of Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS-02) was silent Monday when asked by The Tennessee Star whether Thompson, who introduced a bill that would have stripped former President Trump of his Secret Service detail, had reconsidered that bill in light of Trump’s near assassination on Saturday.
Thompson’s spokeswoman, Yasmine Brown, did not return a comment request from The Star.
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Tony Bendele, a social media creator and trained firefighter in Pennsylvania, claimed he resigned his position as a captain in the Sunbury Fire Department on Monday after he expressed disappointment when an attempted assassin failed to kill former President Donald Trump at the Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Too bad it didn’t hit him square,” Bendele reportedly wrote in a now-deleted post to his Facebook page. A photographer, Bendele has more than 20,000 followers on the social media platform.
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