“At this point [in] the investigation, it appears that he was a lone actor, but we still have more investigation to go,” explained Robert Wells, the executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, referring to the suspected shooter.
“We are investigating this as an assassination attempt,” but also as a “potential domestic terrorism act,” he explained.
“So our counterterrorism division and our criminal divisions are working jointly together to determine the motive.”
Trump survived a shooting at his campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday when he was hit in the ear less than 10 minutes into his remarks. He was escorted offstage by Secret Service agents, where blood could be seen near his right ear and on his cheek.
One victim, identified as Corey Comperatore, was killed during the incident while two others were seriously injured. The Trump campaign said that the former president is “fine.”
The suspected shooter has been identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthews Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., whom the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said was one of their employees, working as a dietary aide. Crooks died during the incident.
The attempted assassination of Trump represents a glaring failure by the Secret Service, which left the former president exposed to gunfire in a breach of security that will likely haunt a long-idealized agency that has been repeatedly tarnished by scandal in recent years.
Important questions about the shooting remain unresolved, but the fact that the 20-year-old gunman managed to scale a roof about 200 yards from where Trump was speaking has already prompted calls for a searching investigation of the Secret Service.
President Joe Biden on Sunday night made a primetime plea to lower the temperature in American politics after a gunman shot at former President Trump at a rally the day prior.
“The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down,” Biden said in remarks in the Oval Office, adding, “This places an added burden on all of us that no matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend into violence.”
“Let’s remember here in America, while unity is the most elusive of goals right now, nothing is more important for us now than standing together. We can do this,” Biden stated.
“Let’s never lose sight of who we are.”
