Free Republic

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” — Ian Fleming, Goldfinger “…probabilities cannot be bribed to deceive, and … they cannot be convicted of bearing false witness.” — Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book 1, Chapter 15 On July 13, 2024, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, before witnesses and unimpeded by law enforcement, climbed onto the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building at the Butler Farm Show. He was 441 feet away from the stage on which candidate Donald Trump was addressing 15,000 enthusiastic supporters. From that perch, Crooks used a semi-automatic rifle to rapidly fire eight rounds at...

Documentary of reactions from crowd following Butler attempted assassination. Includes interviews with surviving victims and witnesses. Very well done! 49 mins

VIDEOMany have seen, heard, and laughed at Scott MacFarlane telling Chuck Todd about how the angry crowd at Butler, PA gave him PTSD to such an extent that he had to take Trauma Leave. However, few have heard MacFarlane describe his PTSD attack on that very day of July 13, 2024 when he described live on site how he and the rest of the press corps were jumping under the rafters in panic to dodge bullets far away and long after the last shots were heard. Scott's description of how the angry crowd upset him will tear at your hearts...

CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent Scott MacFarlane told podcaster Chuck Todd on Wednesday about how traumatized he was by Trump rallygoers blaming the media for the assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in 2024. MacFarlane said he had personal trauma from the crowd’s immediate rage in response. "For those of us there, it was such a horror because you saw an emerging America," MacFarlane told Todd on his podcast. "And it wasn't the shooting, Chuck. This was – I got diagnosed with PTSD within 48 hours. I got put on trauma leave, not because, I think, of the shooting, but...

Former President Joe Biden's U.S. Secret Service received a credible threat on President Donald Trump's life 10 days before last July 13's Butler, Pennsylvania rally, but chose to leave the assigned details for Trump and the rally in the dark. "This past weekend, the Government Accountability Office produced [to] me its report on the July 13 assassination attempt," Grassley told the Senate in a floor speech Monday night. "The Government Accountability Office's report starts by stating, 'The U.S. Secret Service failed to implement security measures that could've prevented the assassination attempt on then-former President Donald J. Trump during a July...

One year after Secret Service security failures led to an assassination attempt against President Trump… Project Veritas on Monday released text messages from a Secret Service Agent inviting a stranger to the White House, disclosing operational details, and disparaging President Trump. Without knowing her identity, Secret Service Agent Marc Hendrickson invited a female Project Veritas journalist to the White House. The undercover journalist expressed her hatred for President Trump to which Hendrickson replied, “Yeah, he’s doing a lot of whacky shit right now.” Via Project Veritas: Text messages with Hendrickson reveal this agent engaging in egregious violations of Secret Service...

U.S. — CNN took time out of its broadcast today to mark the one-year anniversary of the time President Trump fell over at a rally after some loud popping noises. "The nation will always remember the startling images of Trump falling over and hitting his ear," said Anderson Cooper. "The big oaf just tumbled over, surprised as he was by some innocuous popping sounds. While we have never confirmed what the noises were, or how Trump got a cut on his ear, the day will go down in history nonetheless." CNN displayed several iconic images that came out of that...

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle responded to the GAO report on the Butler assassination attempt released by Senator Grassley. On Saturday, just one day shy of the one-year anniversary of the assassination attempt against President Trump, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released a report highlighting some of the Secret Service failures. As TGP reported earlier, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that the Secret Service during Biden’s presidency did not alert the team responsible for securing Trump’s July 13, 2024, rally. The report revealed the Secret Service, under then-Director Kimberly Cheatle’s leadership, knew of a threat...

Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) released the Committee’s final report regarding what can only be described as stunning failures by the United States Secret Service (USSS) that allowed then-former President Donald J. Trump to be shot on July 13, 2024, in an attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania. One year later, the facts remain as chilling as ever: a former President of the United States and major party candidate was shot in the head at a publicrally by an individual who was reported as suspicious and carrying a rangefinder to...

A crowdfunding effort that claims to have raised a $40 million bounty for the assassination of President Trump has been linked to a former employee of Iran’s primary propaganda network. The campaign, organized by a group known as the “Blood Covenant,” comes after multiple radical Iranian clerics issued fatwas, or death warrants, against Trump – denouncing him as an “enemy of Allah” after the US military bombed three of Tehran’s nuclear facilities last month. “We pledge to award the prize to whoever can bring the militants and those who threaten the life of the Deputy of Imam Mahdi (may our...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called on Americans to put aside their political differences and pray for former President Trump after he was rushed off stage when apparent shots rang out during his Saturday rally in Butler, Pa. Secret Service agents rushed Trump off the stage just minutes into his rally after he dropped down and reached towards his ear when the noises rang out. He appeared to have blood on his face when he stood up, but he pumped his fist at the crowd before being led away from the podium. “Now is the time for every American who loves...

Today is the first anniversary of the shooting of the Republican presidential candidate while on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania. Once it became clear that the hit had not succeeded, the awful corrupt American media lost all interest in the story, which remains the most under-investigated presidential assassination attempt of the last hundred years. Curious. Here is the column I wrote a year ago with a few annotations twelve months on: Let's cut to the chase - the US Secret Service: In on it? Or just totally crap? To get that out of the way: At the bare minimum, the Secret...

One year after coming millimeters from a very different outcome, Trump, according to friends and aides, is still the same Trump. But they see signs, beyond being on higher alert on stage, that his brush with death did change him in some ways… Roger Stone, a longtime friend and informal adviser, noted that Trump has had other brushes with death, including a last-minute decision not to board a helicopter to Atlantic City that crashed in 1989 and another near-assassination two months after Butler when U.S. Secret Service agents spotted a man pointing a rifle through the fence near where Trump...

“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote in a post on his social platform X, alongside a video of the former president standing and raising his fist after being shot in the ear. The tech billionaire, who owns Tesla and SpaceX along with the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has feuded with President Biden in recent years and indicated he would be supporting GOP candidates. In March Musk said on X he voted “100% Dem until a few years ago,” but “now, I think we need a red wave or America is...

While Lorenzo Sewell was in high school, his dad got incarcerated and his brother got murdered in East Detroit. “I was mentored by murderers. I was a student of the street,” said the former drug abuser, drug dealer and gang leader. But Lorenzo found God in Paul-like conversion in his senior year in 1999 and now pastors the dynamic 180 Church in Pontiac, Michigan. When Donald Trump asked to visit his church to listen to members talk about their issues, Pastor Lorenzo thought it was a prank call. When he subsequently got invited to speak at the Republican National Convention,...

WASHINGTON, D. C. - U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli wants to mark the yearly anniversary of the day an assassin tried to shoot President Trump as a national “Faith and Defiance Day.” The Salem, Ohio, Republican announced Friday that he’s introduced a resolution to designate the yearly anniversary of the 2024 attempt on Trump’s life on July 13 as “Faith and Defiance Day” to honor Trump, and those who were killed and injured at the political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Rulli says he was inspired when Trump stood up after a bullet grazed his ear, with his fist raised, “telling us...

Look, this author’s sense of humor can be very dark, very NSFW and very transgressive. But this is beyond the pale. During tonight’s debate, Harris claimed people tended to leave Trump’s rallies because they were bored, and Trump denied this. That led the Onion, which was kind of “live joking” about the debate, to post this: FACT CHECK TRUMP: “People don’t leave my rallies.” TRUE: They’re carried out in body bags. — The Onion (@TheOnion) September 11, 2024 There are no words. Yes, someone was brought out of a Trump rally in a body bag, because someone tried to kill...

Six members of the Secret Service have been suspended for failures related to last year’s assassination attempt against President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa. The suspensions for the six agents ranged from 10 to 42 days, and they won’t be paid while on leave, Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn told CBS News on Wednesday. The agents will not be fired, but upon return to work, they will be placed in roles with diminished operational responsibility. “We aren’t going to fire our way out of this,” Quinn told the outlet. “We’re going to focus on the root cause...

Six agents were suspended by the U.S. Secret Service for failures connected to last year's attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, an official told ABC News. The personnel moves were confirmed four days shy of the anniversary of the July 13, 2024, shooting incident that left Trump's ear bloodied. Corey Comperatore, a firefighter attending Trump's campaign rally that day, died in the attack. Countersnipers in Trump's Secret Service who were on-site killed the shooter, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. In the aftermath of the shooting, an independent review by the Department of...

Shawn Monper, 32, a resident of Butler, Pennsylvania, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with making threats to assault and murder President Donald J. Trump, other U.S. officials, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.“I want to applaud the outstanding and courageous investigative work of the FBI and the Butler Township Police Department, who thankfully identified and apprehended this individual before he could carry out his threats against President Trump’s life and the lives of other innocent Americans,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Rest assured that whenever and wherever threats of assassination or mass violence occur, this Department...