NPR

inactionman wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 10:35 pm

Trump rushed off stage at Pennsylvania rally as loud noises heard

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd1d31jeyzlo

Raggs wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 10:37 pm Had blood on his ear too. I hate the fact that the idea of it being staged comes into my mind.

Raggs wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 10:37 pm Had blood on his ear too. I hate the fact that the idea of it being staged comes into my mind.

sturginho wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 10:57 pm

Raggs wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 10:37 pm Had blood on his ear too. I hate the fact that the idea of it being staged comes into my mind.

It was the first thought that came to my mind when I saw the photo

Gumboot wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:09 pm Just seen some video, and it actually looks legit. No idea how the blood got on his face, but the secret service agents' response didn't look staged. Bizarre.

fishfoodie wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:16 pm

Gumboot wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:09 pm Just seen some video, and it actually looks legit. No idea how the blood got on his face, but the secret service agents' response didn't look staged. Bizarre.

Explain to me how all these supposed shots managed to miss everyone behind him !

fishfoodie wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:16 pm

Gumboot wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:09 pm Just seen some video, and it actually looks legit. No idea how the blood got on his face, but the secret service agents' response didn't look staged. Bizarre.

Explain to me how all these supposed shots managed to miss everyone behind him !

Gumboot wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:22 pm

fishfoodie wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:16 pm

Gumboot wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:09 pm Just seen some video, and it actually looks legit. No idea how the blood got on his face, but the secret service agents' response didn't look staged. Bizarre.

Explain to me how all these supposed shots managed to miss everyone behind him !

Mate the more I see of it the more I haven't got a clue what's going on. If it's staged, it's quite the production.

Uncle fester wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:24 pm

fishfoodie wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:16 pm

Gumboot wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:09 pm Just seen some video, and it actually looks legit. No idea how the blood got on his face, but the secret service agents' response didn't look staged. Bizarre.

Explain to me how all these supposed shots managed to miss everyone behind him !

Good footage on BBC at the moment. Seems it went across the stage rather than through it.

"Butler county district attorney Richard Goldinger tells me Trump was grazed by gunfire but is safe," Washington Post journalist Meryl Kornfield wrote on social media.

"An audience member was killed and the shooter is dead. Another person is in serious condition, the prosecutor said."

fishfoodie wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:16 pm

Gumboot wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 11:09 pm Just seen some video, and it actually looks legit. No idea how the blood got on his face, but the secret service agents' response didn't look staged. Bizarre.

Explain to me how all these supposed shots managed to miss everyone behind him !

Sinkers wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:27 am He’s going to milk this for all it’s worth and lean into every conspiracy theory that’s beneficial to him isn’t he?

Sinkers wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:27 am He’s going to milk this for all it’s worth and lean into every conspiracy theory that’s beneficial to him isn’t he?

Niegs wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:38 am

Sinkers wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:27 am He’s going to milk this for all it’s worth and lean into every conspiracy theory that’s beneficial to him isn’t he?

Here's me with the completely naive hope that this is his 'Ebeneezer Scrooge' moment and he becomes a gent henceforth, healing America with peace and love.

... or that (despite the fist pumping photo) that he's scared shitless and drops out.

Sinkers wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:27 am He’s going to milk this for all it’s worth and lean into every conspiracy theory that’s beneficial to him isn’t he?

Guy Smiley wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 3:01 am

Sinkers wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:27 am He’s going to milk this for all it’s worth and lean into every conspiracy theory that’s beneficial to him isn’t he?

Perhaps sadly inevitable, this is the worst thing that could have happened for those of us wanting to see him crash and burn. His popularity will soar and a lot of those inactive or noncommittal voters will swing in behind him now.

Niegs wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:49 am What a fucked up country... people already cashing in from people who are rallied by it.

The shots fired at Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday are being investigated as an assassination attempt of the former president and current Republican presidential nominee.

Assassination attempts on presidents and presidential nominees are littered throughout American history. What happened in Pennsylvania is horrifying, but sadly not surprising.

I’ve been really struck by how many senior political figures in the United States came out after the shooting and said political violence has no place in America. US President Joe Biden said violence of this kind is “unheard of” in the US.

That is pretty astounding. The United States was founded on political violence, and incidents of political violence mark its entire history.

In fact, Biden began his political career framing himself as the political heir to the murdered Kennedy brothers – President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1968.

However, for this incident to occur in this moment, given the volatile nature of the presidential campaign so far and the deep divisions in the United States, is deeply concerning.

The way the shooting has been weaponised on social media so quickly – with conspiracy theories unfolding in real time – means the potential for this kind of violence to escalate is very high.

You only have to look at the insurrection of the US Capitol on January 6 2021 to see how quickly political violence can explode in the US.

This is due, at least in part, to the way violent rhetoric has been cultivated quite deliberately by elements of the far right in recent years. In particular, undercurrents of political violence have simmered at Trump rallies since the beginning of his first run for the presidency in 2016.

The threat of violence has become central to Trump’s political image, to his appeal and to his supporter base. You only have to watch a few moments of every Trump rally and every Trump speech to hear him speak about violence, often in graphic detail and with great relish.

For instance, he has repeatedly referenced conspiracy theories when describing the attack against former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, in their home in 2022, as well as mocking him and joking about the attack.

This is a feature, not a bug, of the Trump campaign and the movement behind him.

And it has a real-world impact. A nationwide review conducted by ABC News (the US media organisation) in 2020 identified 54 criminal cases in which Trump himself had been invoked in “direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault”.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation (the architect of the Project 2025 plan to overhaul the US government under a second Trump presidency), talked about a “second American Revolution” that would “remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Given how ever-present this threat of violence has become, it’s perhaps more surprising that an incident of this magnitude doesn’t happen more often, or hasn’t happened already.

A campaign-defining image

It’s also striking what a master of the political image Trump is. You can see this in the footage of the shooting in Pennsylvania: after Trump stands up, he raises his fist defiantly to have that image captured.

That image is of course going to define this moment, if not Trump’s entire presidential campaign.

There have been a series of tipping points in this campaign so far, and this may well be the decisive one. It could turn Trump from a martyr to a saint in the eyes of his supporters.

Watching how Trump, his campaign and the people around him use this narrative will be so important, especially in advance of the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to start in Wisconsin in the coming days.
Former President Donald Trump is rushed off stage by secret service after an incident during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. David Maxwell/EPA

You can already see elements on the right – particularly among Trump’s supporters – attempting to use the assassination attempt to foster conspiracy theories as a rallying point for the former president.

Given the fall-out from Biden’s debate performance in recent weeks, a contrasting image of the two candidates is also emerging and could solidify further – even if it doesn’t reflect them accurately.

That image of Trump, bloodied with a raised fist, could certainly come to frame his entire campaign and rally support behind him.

It is entirely possible, then, that this becomes the moment when Trump won the election.

Niegs wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:38 am

Sinkers wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:27 am He’s going to milk this for all it’s worth and lean into every conspiracy theory that’s beneficial to him isn’t he?

Here's me with the completely naive hope that this is his 'Ebeneezer Scrooge' moment and he becomes a gent henceforth, healing America with peace and love.

... or that (despite the fist pumping photo) that he's scared shitless and drops out.

Gumboot wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 3:21 am

Guy Smiley wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 3:01 am

Sinkers wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:27 am He’s going to milk this for all it’s worth and lean into every conspiracy theory that’s beneficial to him isn’t he?

Perhaps sadly inevitable, this is the worst thing that could have happened for those of us wanting to see him crash and burn. His popularity will soar and a lot of those inactive or noncommittal voters will swing in behind him now.

Next week's RNC is gonna be a fenzy of hero worship and rabid MAGA hatred. Trump's fundraising will go through the roof...

Niegs wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:49 am What a fucked up country... people already cashing in from people who are rallied by it.

Yeah, how'd that work out for the attendees who were killed and wounded. Jesus wept.

Torquemada 1420 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 6:12 am Versus geriatric, dementia sufferer Biden who can barely walk up a flight of stairs.....

Law enforcement authorities have identified the man who made an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

The FBI said the shooter, who is dead, was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive was not clear.

The gunman was immediately “neutralized” by the Secret Service, chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi said.

Bethel Park is a predominantly white, relatively well-to-do city in the southern reaches of greater Pittsburgh. The site of the rally, Butler, is about an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania voter records listed a Thomas Matthew Crooks with the same address and birth date as a registered Republican, though it was not clear from the records when that was put in place.

Torquemada 1420 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 6:12 am Defo over now. Trump's camp will milk this for all the macho, US v the world (bad guys) mentality that is ingrained in the mindset of Americans. Versus geriatric, dementia sufferer Biden who can barely walk up a flight of stairs.....

Sinkers wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 2:27 am He’s going to milk this for all it’s worth and lean into every conspiracy theory that’s beneficial to him isn’t he?

epwc wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2024 6:55 am Fuck, if it’s a Mexican or a Muslim who knows what’ll happen. He’s definitely president again, beyond fucking ridiculous