Thursday, August 29, 2024

WE KNOW THE MOTIVE OF THE TRUMP SHOOTER. WE SHOULD STOP SAYING WE DON'T.

Yesterday The New York Times reported this about Donald Trump's would-be assassin:
The man who tried to kill former President Donald J. Trump in July first showed an interest in committing acts of public violence in 2019 but narrowed his focus to Mr. Trump after the announcement of his rally in Butler, Pa., according to an F.B.I. analysis of his electronics.

Investigators — who performed an exhaustive search of his devices and online accounts — do not believe that Thomas Crooks ... was motivated by a specific political ideology....

Starting as a teenager in 2019 through this year, Mr. Crooks progressed from searching “detonating cord,” “blasting cap” and “how to make a bomb from fertilizer” to seeking detailed information about the activities and whereabouts of politicians in both parties. By late 2023, his search history included queries related to Mr. Trump, President Biden and both parties’ conventions, the officials said.
The Times story says (emphasis added):
While Mr. Crooks’s motive remains opaque, his online searches reveal someone who was looking for an opportunity to pull off a spectacular attack that would garner widespread attention, by either inflicting mass casualties or killing someone famous. Thus far, that profile more closely resembles that of a mass shooter than a politically motivated assassin.
UPI's story adds:
Crooks is reported to have conducted "more than 60 searches related to former President Trump and President Biden within the month leading up to the attack," according to the FBI.

Other online searches included, "How far was Lee Harvey Oswald from John F. Kennedy" and "Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show?" according to officials.
According to UPI:
The FBI said the 20-year-old gunman was "hyper-focused" on a "target of opportunity," rather than any political ideology.
Yet the UPI story bears this headline:
FBI reveals new details, no motive in Trump assassination attempt
Why do we keep saying we can't determine Thomas Crooks's motive? The desire "to pull off a spectacular attack that would garner widespread attention" clearly was his motive.

And he wasn't just focused on the presidential election, as we learned from earlier news reports:
The gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump searched online for a member of the Royal family as he was planning his attack, FBI investigators have said....

He also searched for Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, and Merrick Garland, the US attorney general.
And:
Investigators said Crooks appeared to be worried about his mental health, searching for “major depressive disorder” before carrying out the attack.
Crooks didn't need a political motive to take a shot at a prominent politician, any more than John Hinckley did. He was a lost boy who thought he could give his life meaning by killing someone famous. So we have our answer.

The media's insistence that Crooks's motive is still mysterious gives fuel to Republican conspiracy theories. To the GOP, it's a simple statement of fact that "they" -- meaning we -- tried to kill Trump for political reasons.



We know that Crooks registered to vote as a Republican but also once gave $15 to a Democratic get-out-the-vote organization. The New York Times quotes Kevin Rojek, an FBI special agent in charge:
An analysis of his search history, and several encrypted email accounts, has revealed no “definitive ideology,” Mr. Rojek added, “either left-leaning or right-leaning — it’s really been a mixture.”
So he wasn't a political assassin. His motive was his own pain. Republicans are deceiving is when thay say his motive was politics.
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