It’s difficult to the point of impossibility to feel sympathy or empathy for the being who loves Putin but hates American democracy. Sorry. I’m one of millions of Americans who can at best muster a “meh.” I feel badly for what’s left of our political institutions. MAGA has already started fund raising on the event. The only loser in this is American democracy, rule of law and our once resilient institutions.
Right?! Seems so unfair that a being who has advocated political violence since 2015 would be the target of violence. What a crazed world we live in, right? Plz go be obtuse with someone else. Be well.
No one except lonely incel boomers still run back to "TDS." Thats so middle-of-the-pandemic it's ancient. Be better. Wasn't it Slovenian Eva Braun who said it: be best. I thought we left it at you being obtuse someplace else? Oh well. Maybe next time.
Y’all are wishfully thinking… he wasn’t acting in a presidential capacity when he cheated on his pregnant wife and then upon running for office, tried to bribe her to stay quiet during the election - even his cronies all testified as to his intent and purpose thereof…
Hates democracy like eliminating the primaries, inflicting lawfare on your opponents, using the CIA and FBI to do your dirty work, buying off the competition (Sanders), denying RFK Jr. Secret Service protection? That kind of democracy?
It should be a real clusterfuck in Chicago, but it's of their own making. I'm not going to be lectured about democracy by people who only espouse as much when it's convenient.
Do you charge a cover for your stream of consciousness addled humor? I ask because you’re funny - peculiar and haha simultaneously. Say hi to Putin and Kim Jong. All the democracy lovers in one loathsome combo. Only if you know, has Orange Caligula had more Nazi’s over for chow? It’s common knowledge how well Nazi’s love and respect democracy.
Appalled by your indiscretion of naming people for Trump Nazi's. I am Jewish, who lost 7 family members to that insane military culture. You might be subconsciously describing yourself. Hitler would be proud 👏 of you.
Given most of Israel can say the same but is currently committing genocide and ethnic cleansing it’s clear that saying “I’m a Jew” gives more authority on the matter of how victims become perpetrators than whether or not someone deserves to be called a nazi.
You disagreeing on the matter of whether Palestinians are being subject to ethnic cleansing will prove my point.
I ran for office 25 years ago as a libertarian and not much has changed on my end, but interparty animosity out there, meanwhile, has gone nuclear. Thanks for hitting all the buzz words, I'd be disappointed if you didn't. Disappointing, but predictable.
Libertarian? That’s basically MAGA without the intellectual rigor. Libertarians are sovereign citizens who haven’t fully cooked or matured. Here’s another buzz word that suits your mood: snowflake. Go cry those tears to someone who remotely cares. I find I could not care less about you or your ideas. It’s been real. It’s been fun. But it hasn’t been really fun. Maybe now’s a good time for you to bugger off?
Hahahahahaha!! It actually thinks I want to hang around with it?!? I know you’re sad being alone and surrounded by assholes but have you stopped to think that maybe it’s you who shoots out shit relentlessly?
The level of propaganda and disinformation devoured is disturbing. I suggest an unbiased trip back through world history. Then a trip to add dictionary followed by some unbiased sourcing. It’s unfortunate some people have swallowed the American Pravda hook line & sinker. Trump is definitely not a Nazi. He may be a womanizer, and a shrewd is not ruthless businessman who is ill-equipped .Since He does not have the absolute power that most executives do when he is president . It is not fascism It’s just a man out of his element. However, I am a student of history and what I see do see here in the United States and across Europe. Is a very big push towards the social state . Which is as dangerous as a Nazi regime would be( which there is not one) . In the end, the only difference between extremes is the reason men are holding rifles over bodies and ditches.
If you look in the historical context, the similarities between what has happened here what happened in the DPRK, China, the Soviet Union and a half dozen other nightmares Throughout history lineup nicely for a totalitarian takeover is in the works. The danger is not MAGA , far from it. All you need to do is look at those who have attacked basic fundamental Bill of Rights principles. The silencing of speech, the attack on the second amendment. Lawfare., state investigative forces being used for political intimidation against opposition. These things reek of the corruption that leads to the tyranny of the totalitarian state.
It’s terrible to realize that folks like this specimen are voting Americans. After reading its increasingly violent and offensive screeds it’s terrible to realize the Taliban and Al Qaeda seem to be better people than most MAGA’s one encounters. What a terrible realization to make that millions of these MAGA troglodytes are no better than Bin Laden b/c both are terrified of American democracy and hate Americans.
It seems to me that you’re mixing 2 very different things together. I see can clearly see this as repugnant and as a dark day for America. Anytime an American chooses violence instead of using their powers of free speech and their right to select their leaders it is a terrible tragedy. I can easily understand how our country is undermined by individuals circumnavigating our core principles and taking irreversible violent actions to effect an outcome as a terrible thing.
Separately, there’s what I think of the man. He’s not fit for office. He’s morally insufficient. He’s amazingly unreflective. He has created an environment of disrespect, boorishness and hatefulness that has made such incidents almost predictable. He speaks and acts like a poorly parented child. He’s vulgar. Most importantly he tried to seize power by stopping the peaceful transition of power and he still refuses to accept the results of a free and fair election. There’s hardly anything more unAmerican than that. That’s a bright line for me that makes him unfit for office. The fact that Congress neglected their duty doesn’t absolve his guilt. He is far from being fit to be President of the United States.
BUT, that being my view, it has NOTHING to do with the attempted assassination. The fact that he is the creator of a heated political environment does NOT make the shooting any less horrific.
Finally, I’m a Christian. Although I find Trump’s behavior to be abhorrent and anathema to following God’s will, there’s no other way for me to see this except as evil.
I’m thankful for our country that the shooter missed.
This is absolutely because of Trump’s own behavior cultivating exactly what he wanted to cultivate but this time it was aimed at him. He’s a rapist, felon, and traitorous insurrectionist. He’s a leader of stochastic terrorism and has been playing “I’m not touching you” games to elicit responses. The assassin is to blame for the death and damage, and Trump is to blame for creating the political and social climate for violence. Calling for violence for protesters/rally disrupters, extrajudicial executions, other forms of “let’s hurt them” type of attitude. I’ve been expecting this to happen for a long time and am not at all surprised by these events. Anyone who has been paying attention shouldn’t be surprised by this tragedy. Trump isn’t just a victim, he’s complicit in his own injuries and the death and damage of the other victims. Fuck Trump. I hope he never gets assassinated so he experiences the horrors of deteriorating from his obesity, overall poor health, and drug abuse. I hope he lives another 20 miserable, decrepit years. The extremism of the right is on display with dangerous individuals making threats on air by saying “the revolution will remain bloodless as long as the left allows it to be.” They are literally playing the “I’m not touching you” game to elicit responses to then point to as justification for their immoral desires and as twisted vindication for propane they’ve been pushing.
I will never implicitly trust a democrat, but I know will always actively distrust a republican. They’re self serving, stupid, and/or morally incompetent. Any altruism from the right is transactional and conditional. The right is much more homogenous than the left and so it’s much easier to lob simplistic statements and risk making generalizations. Now, though, the majority of republicans have behaved in a way that I can safely designated Republicans as default bad-faith participants in any discussion or debate until proven otherwise. It’s no longer fallacious to generalize the party and its supporters in this way.
" ...it’s much easier to lob simplistic statements and risk making generalizations.."
Like yours? It's amazing haters never consider introspection for even a second. Everything is someone else's fault. This brand of tribalism is the reason people get shot, whether you like them or not, but, by all means, keep it up.
You can feed the beast every day, hoping it eats you last.
“Everything is always someone else’s fault” that’s true. like Trump putting the blame for his own violence fetish and rhetoric on the people saying political violence has no place in America. This comment is the “don’t believe your own eyes and ears” of thoughtless nonsense from pseudointellectuals shoehorning the people they don’t agree with into the box of a tribe. You’re either projecting (“accuse others of that which you are doing”) or just plain being wrong, the latter being fixable. The former is either the result of nefarious intent or being completely misguided.
150 meters (give or take) is not a difficult shot for a properly trained shooter, even with iron sights. Optics should make it easier. Of course, that assumes the irons or optics were properly zeroed. My AR has an EO Tech holographic sight with a 3x magnifier and is sighted dead nuts at 300 as are the irons. I am an experience shooter both in the military, police, and rifle competitions. I'm actually much more experienced with iron sights than with optics. I was issued a CAR-15 (a predecessor of the M-4) in the Air Guard as a security police flight sergeant and I could hit bulls at 500-meters with it.
I was trained at 200, 300, and 500-meters distance while in the Marines with both the M-14 and M-16. I agree with Mr Stewart in his comment about a tin roof on a hot, sunny day not being a particularly good shooting spot for comfort and steadiness of aim. It's hard to be certain from the photo of the wanna-be assassin's body and nearby rifle, but it appears the barrel on the weapon is too long to be an AR-15 with a standard carbine barrel, but instead it looks more like an M-16 rifle length. Hard to tell for certain. At 150-meters, its a six of one, half dozen of another kind of thing with barrel length.
For those that want to tell me that known-distance shooting is different than combat shooting, I already know that. I've been trained in that kind of shooting too and was an instructor in it. Oh yeah, and I have some on the job experience in Vietnam too.
Besides which, if he was a competent shooter a simple Google maps look could give you a pretty accurate known distance anyways. Down to at least 10 meters. When I first heard about the attempt I thought surely he must be shooting 500 meters or more as I had always assumed the Secret Service cordon would extend AT MINIMUM half a click. To know the shot came within the super easy range of your average hunter shooting at a deer is something.
Human factors is the one thing hard to factor. He missed by about an inch since he hit the Trump's ear. That's as simple as rushing and pulling the shot instead of squeezing the trigger. 1" over and the bullet goes through an eye instead of giving a new piercing. Had he aimed for the chest it also may have been a kill shot.
I agree a center mass shot would have been better for the shooter, not so great for Mr. Trump. Military snipers are trained to shoot center mass. Law enforcement shooters train for head shots. The difference lies in the desired end state. A kill for the military sniper is nice, but a seriously wounded victim is good too considering the extra people taken out of the fight to care for the wounded. An LE sniper generally MUST kill his target in order to save the life of hostages and that requires a head shot.
The famous Marine sniper, Carlos Hathcock, often said that the LE sniper has a far harder marksmanship job than a military sniper despite the often much closer distances involved. Perfect accuracy is critical. I suspect the shooter in this instance watched too many movies, TV shows, and Call of Duty.
I'm also wondering about the Secret Service cordon too. I've read that several requests were made and denied for additional staff on Trump' detail before this incident.
Agreed on all the above. As per Ryan's report I think the shooter failed to use the flags at the target site to account for wind drift and that is likely what saved Trump's life. I believe the rifle probably was zeroed but the shooter is identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks of Bethal Park, Pennsylvania. Registered Republican (which for stability of the entire country is probably a good thing so we don't have half a civil war break out between Republicans "taking revenge" on Democrats over this. There is definitely going to be a TON of disinformation campaigns started over this.
And right now I'm making the prediction that Trump wins the election in large part due to this incident. We now have Biden who looks incompetent and super old/senile after the debate, and now Trump looking vigorous standing up and raising a fist in defiance after getting shot and being within an inch of death. He already has cult icon status and this will push his tough strongman reputation to new heights and "legendary" status. Along with the QAnon style campaigns that happen to drive that narrative I don't have much belief anymore that Biden will be able to surmount this since the 2020 election was so close.
Having shot rifles competitively at longer ranges than 130 yards (including the M-16), I don't think the cross wind value was that drastic to require a lot of windage changes to sights. Heck, we shot at 200-meters offhand and kneeling. Perhaps a little bit of Kentucky windage for an experienced shooter. A shooter intent on assassinating someone with skilled counter-sniper protection does not allow for much time to horse around with minor sight adjustments. Also, Trump just fortuitously moved his head, likely just as the kid touched off his rifle, thus the kill shot miss. Possibly In frustration, the kid started rapid fire shots hoping to get one through, but hit other people instead. Split seconds later, he was dead probably with a .300 Magnum in the melon.
SS snipers were probably also looking more for someone a few hundred yards out. Scanning with a 10 or more power scope would have made the field of view pretty small at 150 yards, so it is easy to see why SS snipers had to lift his head just to find target. Coms a problem I agree.
Yes, I fully agree with you on the probable reason the SS sniper was looking over his rifle. Most any optic at that range might require a periodic Mk 1 Eyeball look-see to get a better grasp on situational awareness. I also agree on the primary zone the counter-snipers generally observe. I was a liaison officer with counter-sniper teams twice and helped them watch the distance (and they did have some potential 1,000-yard targets to watch from our perch). We also had three teams on that roof due to the extensive area needing observation, plus there were two other teams elsewhere, and still more along their routes and at the appearance location. I was part of the detail for Ronald Reagan and later for George HW Bush when he was prez.
Nothing points to a set up. A head shot is the worst choice, if you want the target to survive. As I've stated already... "If it were staged, with lightly wounding Trump being the goal, then they would not have aimed for his head. Instead, they would have aimed for the shoulder to the bicep. It's a big target, easy to hit while doing relatively minor damage. A head shot would have been too dangerous if it was planned. Bullet trajectory is affected by the wind, distance, temperature, and even the way you pull the trigger and your heart beat. That's too many variables to take a chance on."
I would disagree on one point. Trump is way too much of a coward to do anything remotely (even abstractly) for anything like this. He could not get out in the rain to pay respects to WW1 soldiers with our fellow allies. But I get it ..they thought he was a stooge anyway.
Wouldn't a roof ~167 yards away from the podium get special attention? I worked near the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and saw law enforcement snipers on multiple rooftops when presidents visited. I would have expected a law enforcement officer to be stationed on that roof if not a law enforcement sniper.
There may be several reasons...which might include a SS mistake or two...for the lack of coverage. The roof he shot from was private property, and the owner may not have allowed LE to be there. It may have been a local LE responsibility, but few small departments are really prepared for or equipped to plan this type of VIP security. Ryan pointed out that the trees partially obscured observation by the sniper team, possibly another oversight.
Based on news this morning, I'm pretty sure Ryan's comments about zeroing the rifle are on point. This was a pretty young guy, no military experience, no indication he had any proficiency with non-video game firearms. So unzeroed or poorly zeroed is a strong likelihood. In those circumstances, he was probably very lucky to have gotten his shots as close to Trump as he did. The fact that the other casualties...let's not forget that an innocent person died here...were fairly removed from Trump's location is further evidence of that.
In what deranged, politically and ideologically perverse world do you live, that you think an American politician would allow the public killing of a bystander to fake an assassination attempt? You need to step away from the computer and media, and get out into the real world. Your conviction that Trump is some kind of evil supervillain is literally insane.
Easy there, Trump is a narcissist and a deranged lunatic. We all know that he is fully capable of staging that. He has no moral compassion and is willing to rape 1w and 13 year old girls for his pleasure. Check the Epstien files. My guy
If it were staged, with wounding (martyring) Trump being the goal, then they would not have aimed for his head. Instead, they would have aimed for the shoulder to the bicep. It's a big target, easy to hit while doing relatively minor damage. A head shot would have been too dangerous if it was planned. Bullet trajectory is affected by the wind, distance, temperature, and even the way you pull the trigger and your heart beat. That's too many variables to take a chance on.
Thought the agents inside the event did a wonderful job. Outside not sure what happened. Also shooter was lying on a steel roof. I’m from oz so I don’t know how hot it was in butler. But a thin steel surface in the sun isn’t a stable platform.
It would have been around 31-32 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees Fahrenheit that day. Humid but not excessively so given the clear skies. Since it was 6 pm temperature would also be falling.
Do military snipers train under fire? I’m assuming so. I think he clearly wasn’t trained. I remember you commenting that Israeli snipers don’t go for headshots and are trained for center mass. I’m glad he doesn’t watch your videos.
Ryan, thank you so much for doing this. Unfortunately, I don't think it will change anyone's mind. People will see what they want to see regardless of the truth. They're a couple things I would have mentioned. First, the assassin was going for a headshot. This is a really difficult shot. Hitting a mansize target centermass as much easier than hitting someone in the head. Second, I would have also mentioned that normal commercial ammunition isn't sufficient for precision long range shooting.
The other thing I'd like you to change is to stop referring to police marksmen as "snipers". I spent some time with law enforcement, as a lawyer, not as someone who does anything useful. I've also dabbled in long range shooting. While the skill sets overlap, Police Marksman train to do something different than snipers. They're not good at concealment. But they are very good at making very difficult shots at ranges of 100 m or so. Police marksman have to hit headshots at these ranges at a level of consistency that is just unreal. Hitting a hand size target at 200 m 100 times in a row is merely a minimum qualification.
I’ve already seen people posting screenshots of the Secret Service Director’s bio where it states her last position. She came from PepsiCo where she was director of security for North American facilities. Which would definitely be odd. But the very next paragraph, one NOT shown in the screenshot, goes on to talk about all the posts she held in 27 years with the Secret Service. One of which was Director of training for physical protection.
There is no excuse for trying to take someone's life because you disagree with them or don't like their politics. I hope and pray that this a moment for all Americans to take a breath and tone down the rhetoric that is incendiary, truly pointless and extremely detrimental to us all. Your opponent isn't a demon from the pit of Hell, he/she just doesn't agree with your viewpoint. Killing a political opponent doesn't make the assailant right, it just makes them a murderer.
A disagreement about viewpoint is a little disingenuous maybe? How about taking rights from disadvantage people, actively subverting democracy, committing fraud at scale, women's healthcare?
How would you define a demon? Il good with the above
Believing everything you have been told by someone trying to turn your opinion isn't being smart or visionary. You repeat what you've been told about things that didn't happen. You are a tool. A disinformation tool, being used by people trying to convince everyone that Trump is some evil supervillain.
This is the danger to fall into dictatorship country... Where anyone make his self justice.
Every dictatorship countries have its population doing the job of the state police to eliminate and call the police states against their neighbours for any reason based on pure indifference and ultra individualism.
Exemple: I dont like this neighbor so I can call someone based on false statements to eliminate a rival... It can be for anything!
That is a social reason why the population does not trust anyone, neither their institutions of terrors.
You can look the social norms in North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, now Russia. It is all neighbours against neighbours. If someone can tell something bad about you. Socially it is ok to call the states to report it even if what the other is doing, has nothing to do with you or anything related to dangerous action...
He just hated Trump... and he could approach him not far from his town. There are over 300 millions population in USA... you have at least 3 millions of pure danger/ and 300k of pure evil. But still 297 millions of good people. These are the big numbers. So 50 states... you have everything you can believe to find.
I'm not surprised by this event. This is the second time Trump was nearly done in by Karma. The first time he was nearly killed by COVID, which he also treated with disdain. Also, assassins often come from the extreme ranks of the victims own supporters. eg, the assassins of Ghandi, and Yitzah Rabin. I'm betting that this is the case here , too.
The question being posed online is how was the building with a clear line of sight for a shooter not secured. Also, I wonder if DHS will finally approve for more Secret Service protection for President Trump which is a request that reportedly has been denied numerous times.
I know the answer to that one, when you have multiple agencies working together and some are local LEO, you have to make sure the intended shooter is not someone out of place, or not a good guy relocating to take out the real bad guy. slows the response by a bit.
As a Democrat for over 40 years, it makes me sad that the Democratic Party has become the party of war, lawfare and assassination. Watching all the Talking Heads on TV being gleeful over an attempted assassination is really upsetting. We remember when JFK was killed, and we’re still waiting to find out the truth about that murder. Don’t particularly like Trump, but I don’t want him or any other candidate to be murdered. My question is this: why wasn’t there an FBI agent or a Secret Service agent on that roof where the shooter with lying? Doesn’t the Secret Service do a survey of the area before a rally? And wouldn’t that roof be the first place you’d want to position one of your people?
It’s difficult to the point of impossibility to feel sympathy or empathy for the being who loves Putin but hates American democracy. Sorry. I’m one of millions of Americans who can at best muster a “meh.” I feel badly for what’s left of our political institutions. MAGA has already started fund raising on the event. The only loser in this is American democracy, rule of law and our once resilient institutions.
I'm guessing the shooter had a similarly ridiculous opinion of President Trump as well.
Right?! Seems so unfair that a being who has advocated political violence since 2015 would be the target of violence. What a crazed world we live in, right? Plz go be obtuse with someone else. Be well.
Wowza! I've seen some Trump Derangement Syndrome in my time but you take the cake. Congrats. Eat the whole thing. You earned it.
No one except lonely incel boomers still run back to "TDS." Thats so middle-of-the-pandemic it's ancient. Be better. Wasn't it Slovenian Eva Braun who said it: be best. I thought we left it at you being obtuse someplace else? Oh well. Maybe next time.
Finished your cake already? Have another.
I’ll start the next cake as soon as you mom delivers it. Is she en route?
Former president 34x felon donnie trumpie
Y’all are wishfully thinking… he wasn’t acting in a presidential capacity when he cheated on his pregnant wife and then upon running for office, tried to bribe her to stay quiet during the election - even his cronies all testified as to his intent and purpose thereof…
If you believe that trial was fair, I have a bridge to sell you. The charges will be dropped on appeal.
Wishful thinking on your part
Hates democracy like eliminating the primaries, inflicting lawfare on your opponents, using the CIA and FBI to do your dirty work, buying off the competition (Sanders), denying RFK Jr. Secret Service protection? That kind of democracy?
It should be a real clusterfuck in Chicago, but it's of their own making. I'm not going to be lectured about democracy by people who only espouse as much when it's convenient.
Do you charge a cover for your stream of consciousness addled humor? I ask because you’re funny - peculiar and haha simultaneously. Say hi to Putin and Kim Jong. All the democracy lovers in one loathsome combo. Only if you know, has Orange Caligula had more Nazi’s over for chow? It’s common knowledge how well Nazi’s love and respect democracy.
Appalled by your indiscretion of naming people for Trump Nazi's. I am Jewish, who lost 7 family members to that insane military culture. You might be subconsciously describing yourself. Hitler would be proud 👏 of you.
I do wonder why you clutch your pearls at any MAGA/Nazi commentary given Orange Caligula literally broke bread with a Nazi in the WH. Imbecile.
He acts like a certain Nazi orator so the comparison is apt
Given the state of Gaza, saying you’re a Jew doesn’t give you any special insight into nazis.
It gives me every right. You have an opinion or just making nonsensical comments??
Given most of Israel can say the same but is currently committing genocide and ethnic cleansing it’s clear that saying “I’m a Jew” gives more authority on the matter of how victims become perpetrators than whether or not someone deserves to be called a nazi.
You disagreeing on the matter of whether Palestinians are being subject to ethnic cleansing will prove my point.
I ran for office 25 years ago as a libertarian and not much has changed on my end, but interparty animosity out there, meanwhile, has gone nuclear. Thanks for hitting all the buzz words, I'd be disappointed if you didn't. Disappointing, but predictable.
Libertarian? That’s basically MAGA without the intellectual rigor. Libertarians are sovereign citizens who haven’t fully cooked or matured. Here’s another buzz word that suits your mood: snowflake. Go cry those tears to someone who remotely cares. I find I could not care less about you or your ideas. It’s been real. It’s been fun. But it hasn’t been really fun. Maybe now’s a good time for you to bugger off?
"Without the intellectual rigor"? Isn't that generous?
Not with assholes like you roaming around.
Hahahahahaha!! It actually thinks I want to hang around with it?!? I know you’re sad being alone and surrounded by assholes but have you stopped to think that maybe it’s you who shoots out shit relentlessly?
I can see why you lost so badly. Lol
The level of propaganda and disinformation devoured is disturbing. I suggest an unbiased trip back through world history. Then a trip to add dictionary followed by some unbiased sourcing. It’s unfortunate some people have swallowed the American Pravda hook line & sinker. Trump is definitely not a Nazi. He may be a womanizer, and a shrewd is not ruthless businessman who is ill-equipped .Since He does not have the absolute power that most executives do when he is president . It is not fascism It’s just a man out of his element. However, I am a student of history and what I see do see here in the United States and across Europe. Is a very big push towards the social state . Which is as dangerous as a Nazi regime would be( which there is not one) . In the end, the only difference between extremes is the reason men are holding rifles over bodies and ditches.
If you look in the historical context, the similarities between what has happened here what happened in the DPRK, China, the Soviet Union and a half dozen other nightmares Throughout history lineup nicely for a totalitarian takeover is in the works. The danger is not MAGA , far from it. All you need to do is look at those who have attacked basic fundamental Bill of Rights principles. The silencing of speech, the attack on the second amendment. Lawfare., state investigative forces being used for political intimidation against opposition. These things reek of the corruption that leads to the tyranny of the totalitarian state.
And so starts the people using whatever to make their own political point
Trump legitimately deserves prison time, more so than Hillary did. How is that lawfare to go after Mr. Lockherup for his crimes
It’s terrible to realize that folks like this specimen are voting Americans. After reading its increasingly violent and offensive screeds it’s terrible to realize the Taliban and Al Qaeda seem to be better people than most MAGA’s one encounters. What a terrible realization to make that millions of these MAGA troglodytes are no better than Bin Laden b/c both are terrified of American democracy and hate Americans.
I know, why don't you shoot him? You idiots have moving in this direction for 8 years.
Why bother replying if it’s just going to be personal attacks?
Trump objectively deserves prison time for willfully engaging in a more fragrant version of what people once chanted “lock her up” for.
Accept you’re a hypocrite or accept that he should be in prison alongside Hillary.
It seems to me that you’re mixing 2 very different things together. I see can clearly see this as repugnant and as a dark day for America. Anytime an American chooses violence instead of using their powers of free speech and their right to select their leaders it is a terrible tragedy. I can easily understand how our country is undermined by individuals circumnavigating our core principles and taking irreversible violent actions to effect an outcome as a terrible thing.
Separately, there’s what I think of the man. He’s not fit for office. He’s morally insufficient. He’s amazingly unreflective. He has created an environment of disrespect, boorishness and hatefulness that has made such incidents almost predictable. He speaks and acts like a poorly parented child. He’s vulgar. Most importantly he tried to seize power by stopping the peaceful transition of power and he still refuses to accept the results of a free and fair election. There’s hardly anything more unAmerican than that. That’s a bright line for me that makes him unfit for office. The fact that Congress neglected their duty doesn’t absolve his guilt. He is far from being fit to be President of the United States.
BUT, that being my view, it has NOTHING to do with the attempted assassination. The fact that he is the creator of a heated political environment does NOT make the shooting any less horrific.
Finally, I’m a Christian. Although I find Trump’s behavior to be abhorrent and anathema to following God’s will, there’s no other way for me to see this except as evil.
I’m thankful for our country that the shooter missed.
This is absolutely because of Trump’s own behavior cultivating exactly what he wanted to cultivate but this time it was aimed at him. He’s a rapist, felon, and traitorous insurrectionist. He’s a leader of stochastic terrorism and has been playing “I’m not touching you” games to elicit responses. The assassin is to blame for the death and damage, and Trump is to blame for creating the political and social climate for violence. Calling for violence for protesters/rally disrupters, extrajudicial executions, other forms of “let’s hurt them” type of attitude. I’ve been expecting this to happen for a long time and am not at all surprised by these events. Anyone who has been paying attention shouldn’t be surprised by this tragedy. Trump isn’t just a victim, he’s complicit in his own injuries and the death and damage of the other victims. Fuck Trump. I hope he never gets assassinated so he experiences the horrors of deteriorating from his obesity, overall poor health, and drug abuse. I hope he lives another 20 miserable, decrepit years. The extremism of the right is on display with dangerous individuals making threats on air by saying “the revolution will remain bloodless as long as the left allows it to be.” They are literally playing the “I’m not touching you” game to elicit responses to then point to as justification for their immoral desires and as twisted vindication for propane they’ve been pushing.
I will never implicitly trust a democrat, but I know will always actively distrust a republican. They’re self serving, stupid, and/or morally incompetent. Any altruism from the right is transactional and conditional. The right is much more homogenous than the left and so it’s much easier to lob simplistic statements and risk making generalizations. Now, though, the majority of republicans have behaved in a way that I can safely designated Republicans as default bad-faith participants in any discussion or debate until proven otherwise. It’s no longer fallacious to generalize the party and its supporters in this way.
" ...it’s much easier to lob simplistic statements and risk making generalizations.."
Like yours? It's amazing haters never consider introspection for even a second. Everything is someone else's fault. This brand of tribalism is the reason people get shot, whether you like them or not, but, by all means, keep it up.
You can feed the beast every day, hoping it eats you last.
“Everything is always someone else’s fault” that’s true. like Trump putting the blame for his own violence fetish and rhetoric on the people saying political violence has no place in America. This comment is the “don’t believe your own eyes and ears” of thoughtless nonsense from pseudointellectuals shoehorning the people they don’t agree with into the box of a tribe. You’re either projecting (“accuse others of that which you are doing”) or just plain being wrong, the latter being fixable. The former is either the result of nefarious intent or being completely misguided.
Please pause for this message from the Party of Peace: https://x.com/i/status/1812866511255585092
No. I don’t accept unsolicited links, especially if they’re for what used to be twitter. Have a day.
Coward.
Lol
Republicans really are that bad. I know it’s hard to accept but it’s true. At best they’re misinformed or uninformed.
150 meters (give or take) is not a difficult shot for a properly trained shooter, even with iron sights. Optics should make it easier. Of course, that assumes the irons or optics were properly zeroed. My AR has an EO Tech holographic sight with a 3x magnifier and is sighted dead nuts at 300 as are the irons. I am an experience shooter both in the military, police, and rifle competitions. I'm actually much more experienced with iron sights than with optics. I was issued a CAR-15 (a predecessor of the M-4) in the Air Guard as a security police flight sergeant and I could hit bulls at 500-meters with it.
I was trained at 200, 300, and 500-meters distance while in the Marines with both the M-14 and M-16. I agree with Mr Stewart in his comment about a tin roof on a hot, sunny day not being a particularly good shooting spot for comfort and steadiness of aim. It's hard to be certain from the photo of the wanna-be assassin's body and nearby rifle, but it appears the barrel on the weapon is too long to be an AR-15 with a standard carbine barrel, but instead it looks more like an M-16 rifle length. Hard to tell for certain. At 150-meters, its a six of one, half dozen of another kind of thing with barrel length.
For those that want to tell me that known-distance shooting is different than combat shooting, I already know that. I've been trained in that kind of shooting too and was an instructor in it. Oh yeah, and I have some on the job experience in Vietnam too.
Besides which, if he was a competent shooter a simple Google maps look could give you a pretty accurate known distance anyways. Down to at least 10 meters. When I first heard about the attempt I thought surely he must be shooting 500 meters or more as I had always assumed the Secret Service cordon would extend AT MINIMUM half a click. To know the shot came within the super easy range of your average hunter shooting at a deer is something.
Human factors is the one thing hard to factor. He missed by about an inch since he hit the Trump's ear. That's as simple as rushing and pulling the shot instead of squeezing the trigger. 1" over and the bullet goes through an eye instead of giving a new piercing. Had he aimed for the chest it also may have been a kill shot.
I agree a center mass shot would have been better for the shooter, not so great for Mr. Trump. Military snipers are trained to shoot center mass. Law enforcement shooters train for head shots. The difference lies in the desired end state. A kill for the military sniper is nice, but a seriously wounded victim is good too considering the extra people taken out of the fight to care for the wounded. An LE sniper generally MUST kill his target in order to save the life of hostages and that requires a head shot.
The famous Marine sniper, Carlos Hathcock, often said that the LE sniper has a far harder marksmanship job than a military sniper despite the often much closer distances involved. Perfect accuracy is critical. I suspect the shooter in this instance watched too many movies, TV shows, and Call of Duty.
I'm also wondering about the Secret Service cordon too. I've read that several requests were made and denied for additional staff on Trump' detail before this incident.
He probably shoot the center mass. But the bullet went there.
Agreed on all the above. As per Ryan's report I think the shooter failed to use the flags at the target site to account for wind drift and that is likely what saved Trump's life. I believe the rifle probably was zeroed but the shooter is identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks of Bethal Park, Pennsylvania. Registered Republican (which for stability of the entire country is probably a good thing so we don't have half a civil war break out between Republicans "taking revenge" on Democrats over this. There is definitely going to be a TON of disinformation campaigns started over this.
And right now I'm making the prediction that Trump wins the election in large part due to this incident. We now have Biden who looks incompetent and super old/senile after the debate, and now Trump looking vigorous standing up and raising a fist in defiance after getting shot and being within an inch of death. He already has cult icon status and this will push his tough strongman reputation to new heights and "legendary" status. Along with the QAnon style campaigns that happen to drive that narrative I don't have much belief anymore that Biden will be able to surmount this since the 2020 election was so close.
Having shot rifles competitively at longer ranges than 130 yards (including the M-16), I don't think the cross wind value was that drastic to require a lot of windage changes to sights. Heck, we shot at 200-meters offhand and kneeling. Perhaps a little bit of Kentucky windage for an experienced shooter. A shooter intent on assassinating someone with skilled counter-sniper protection does not allow for much time to horse around with minor sight adjustments. Also, Trump just fortuitously moved his head, likely just as the kid touched off his rifle, thus the kill shot miss. Possibly In frustration, the kid started rapid fire shots hoping to get one through, but hit other people instead. Split seconds later, he was dead probably with a .300 Magnum in the melon.
The russians are already painting his as blue hard core. But of course, DIP is in full swing and the low level information crew is eating it up.
SS snipers were probably also looking more for someone a few hundred yards out. Scanning with a 10 or more power scope would have made the field of view pretty small at 150 yards, so it is easy to see why SS snipers had to lift his head just to find target. Coms a problem I agree.
Yes, I fully agree with you on the probable reason the SS sniper was looking over his rifle. Most any optic at that range might require a periodic Mk 1 Eyeball look-see to get a better grasp on situational awareness. I also agree on the primary zone the counter-snipers generally observe. I was a liaison officer with counter-sniper teams twice and helped them watch the distance (and they did have some potential 1,000-yard targets to watch from our perch). We also had three teams on that roof due to the extensive area needing observation, plus there were two other teams elsewhere, and still more along their routes and at the appearance location. I was part of the detail for Ronald Reagan and later for George HW Bush when he was prez.
Thanks for your service. Reagan was my man, George HW a bit lesser.
That's why everything points to this being staged by Trump campaign
Come on. Get a grip on reality. It's quite a concept you know.
Nothing points to a set up. A head shot is the worst choice, if you want the target to survive. As I've stated already... "If it were staged, with lightly wounding Trump being the goal, then they would not have aimed for his head. Instead, they would have aimed for the shoulder to the bicep. It's a big target, easy to hit while doing relatively minor damage. A head shot would have been too dangerous if it was planned. Bullet trajectory is affected by the wind, distance, temperature, and even the way you pull the trigger and your heart beat. That's too many variables to take a chance on."
I would disagree on one point. Trump is way too much of a coward to do anything remotely (even abstractly) for anything like this. He could not get out in the rain to pay respects to WW1 soldiers with our fellow allies. But I get it ..they thought he was a stooge anyway.
Wouldn't a roof ~167 yards away from the podium get special attention? I worked near the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and saw law enforcement snipers on multiple rooftops when presidents visited. I would have expected a law enforcement officer to be stationed on that roof if not a law enforcement sniper.
There may be several reasons...which might include a SS mistake or two...for the lack of coverage. The roof he shot from was private property, and the owner may not have allowed LE to be there. It may have been a local LE responsibility, but few small departments are really prepared for or equipped to plan this type of VIP security. Ryan pointed out that the trees partially obscured observation by the sniper team, possibly another oversight.
Based on news this morning, I'm pretty sure Ryan's comments about zeroing the rifle are on point. This was a pretty young guy, no military experience, no indication he had any proficiency with non-video game firearms. So unzeroed or poorly zeroed is a strong likelihood. In those circumstances, he was probably very lucky to have gotten his shots as close to Trump as he did. The fact that the other casualties...let's not forget that an innocent person died here...were fairly removed from Trump's location is further evidence of that.
I still say it was staged af
In what deranged, politically and ideologically perverse world do you live, that you think an American politician would allow the public killing of a bystander to fake an assassination attempt? You need to step away from the computer and media, and get out into the real world. Your conviction that Trump is some kind of evil supervillain is literally insane.
Easy there, Trump is a narcissist and a deranged lunatic. We all know that he is fully capable of staging that. He has no moral compassion and is willing to rape 1w and 13 year old girls for his pleasure. Check the Epstien files. My guy
If it were staged, with wounding (martyring) Trump being the goal, then they would not have aimed for his head. Instead, they would have aimed for the shoulder to the bicep. It's a big target, easy to hit while doing relatively minor damage. A head shot would have been too dangerous if it was planned. Bullet trajectory is affected by the wind, distance, temperature, and even the way you pull the trigger and your heart beat. That's too many variables to take a chance on.
Thought the agents inside the event did a wonderful job. Outside not sure what happened. Also shooter was lying on a steel roof. I’m from oz so I don’t know how hot it was in butler. But a thin steel surface in the sun isn’t a stable platform.
It would have been around 31-32 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees Fahrenheit that day. Humid but not excessively so given the clear skies. Since it was 6 pm temperature would also be falling.
Good point. It's around 30°C (90°F) today.
Thank you for your voice of logic in the midst of such an emotionally charged event.
Just last week I went target shooting with my kids in Australia - first time for them, over ten years since I myself touched a rifle.
All of us had some bull's-eye hits at 300 meters (~330 yards) with optics.
Not exactly the same as the conditions the shooter had but still this could have been a relatively easy shot.
As for the secret service having to shoot through the trees - this smells to me like a failure of planning (one of many)
You also don’t have anyone who’s about to shoot back at you. That is one major difference.
Yep. That's one of the differences. I also shot in a shooting range with relative protection from the wind.
Do military snipers train under fire? I’m assuming so. I think he clearly wasn’t trained. I remember you commenting that Israeli snipers don’t go for headshots and are trained for center mass. I’m glad he doesn’t watch your videos.
They do not train while under fire. I have a whole video about how snipers work.
Easy shot without adrenaline induced stress knowing you may be unalived, agree 👍
And how many targets did you even notice at 100 meters, probably none because you weren't looking at close distances.
Ryan, thank you so much for doing this. Unfortunately, I don't think it will change anyone's mind. People will see what they want to see regardless of the truth. They're a couple things I would have mentioned. First, the assassin was going for a headshot. This is a really difficult shot. Hitting a mansize target centermass as much easier than hitting someone in the head. Second, I would have also mentioned that normal commercial ammunition isn't sufficient for precision long range shooting.
The other thing I'd like you to change is to stop referring to police marksmen as "snipers". I spent some time with law enforcement, as a lawyer, not as someone who does anything useful. I've also dabbled in long range shooting. While the skill sets overlap, Police Marksman train to do something different than snipers. They're not good at concealment. But they are very good at making very difficult shots at ranges of 100 m or so. Police marksman have to hit headshots at these ranges at a level of consistency that is just unreal. Hitting a hand size target at 200 m 100 times in a row is merely a minimum qualification.
I’ve already seen people posting screenshots of the Secret Service Director’s bio where it states her last position. She came from PepsiCo where she was director of security for North American facilities. Which would definitely be odd. But the very next paragraph, one NOT shown in the screenshot, goes on to talk about all the posts she held in 27 years with the Secret Service. One of which was Director of training for physical protection.
And Elon Musk was one of the people spreading the screenshot tweet: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1812296953671340451?s=46&t=xdHJHFStv88T6BArkJ9bMA
24k likes compared to the screenshot tweet of 17k.
Yep. That’s the post that prompted me to go look.
There is no excuse for trying to take someone's life because you disagree with them or don't like their politics. I hope and pray that this a moment for all Americans to take a breath and tone down the rhetoric that is incendiary, truly pointless and extremely detrimental to us all. Your opponent isn't a demon from the pit of Hell, he/she just doesn't agree with your viewpoint. Killing a political opponent doesn't make the assailant right, it just makes them a murderer.
A disagreement about viewpoint is a little disingenuous maybe? How about taking rights from disadvantage people, actively subverting democracy, committing fraud at scale, women's healthcare?
How would you define a demon? Il good with the above
Believing everything you have been told by someone trying to turn your opinion isn't being smart or visionary. You repeat what you've been told about things that didn't happen. You are a tool. A disinformation tool, being used by people trying to convince everyone that Trump is some evil supervillain.
Tool.
No one, anywhere, thinks trump is a supervillain. A regular villain, maybe. A revanchist authoritarian, definitely. Supervillain? lol no
This is the danger to fall into dictatorship country... Where anyone make his self justice.
Every dictatorship countries have its population doing the job of the state police to eliminate and call the police states against their neighbours for any reason based on pure indifference and ultra individualism.
Exemple: I dont like this neighbor so I can call someone based on false statements to eliminate a rival... It can be for anything!
That is a social reason why the population does not trust anyone, neither their institutions of terrors.
You can look the social norms in North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, now Russia. It is all neighbours against neighbours. If someone can tell something bad about you. Socially it is ok to call the states to report it even if what the other is doing, has nothing to do with you or anything related to dangerous action...
We don’t really know what the shooters beliefs were at this time.
He just hated Trump... and he could approach him not far from his town. There are over 300 millions population in USA... you have at least 3 millions of pure danger/ and 300k of pure evil. But still 297 millions of good people. These are the big numbers. So 50 states... you have everything you can believe to find.
I'm not surprised by this event. This is the second time Trump was nearly done in by Karma. The first time he was nearly killed by COVID, which he also treated with disdain. Also, assassins often come from the extreme ranks of the victims own supporters. eg, the assassins of Ghandi, and Yitzah Rabin. I'm betting that this is the case here , too.
Sober, data-based analysis. This is what I have been waiting for. This is what I am more than happy to pay for.
same for me! 😐
The question being posed online is how was the building with a clear line of sight for a shooter not secured. Also, I wonder if DHS will finally approve for more Secret Service protection for President Trump which is a request that reportedly has been denied numerous times.
If Tesla was just about Elon Musk... it would had bankrupt time ago.
Will be interesting to get an explanation of why the police or SS didn’t respond to the attendee pointing to the shooter before he took the shot.
I know the answer to that one, when you have multiple agencies working together and some are local LEO, you have to make sure the intended shooter is not someone out of place, or not a good guy relocating to take out the real bad guy. slows the response by a bit.
The counter sniper team failed... They were in disbelief mode... Nothing else! There no CEO or supervisor or anyone else to blame.
Maybe 114 seconds might matter! That is a whole lot of information to analyze and relay correctly in that short of time.
As a Democrat for over 40 years, it makes me sad that the Democratic Party has become the party of war, lawfare and assassination. Watching all the Talking Heads on TV being gleeful over an attempted assassination is really upsetting. We remember when JFK was killed, and we’re still waiting to find out the truth about that murder. Don’t particularly like Trump, but I don’t want him or any other candidate to be murdered. My question is this: why wasn’t there an FBI agent or a Secret Service agent on that roof where the shooter with lying? Doesn’t the Secret Service do a survey of the area before a rally? And wouldn’t that roof be the first place you’d want to position one of your people?
Thats really sad about the spectator that died. May they RIP