Reports are saying he registered Repub recently but his only political donation on record was to a Dem org. Repubs are responding by saying he only registered Repub so he could vote against Trump in the primary (you have to be registered to the party to vote in their respective primary in Penn). I haven’t caught any responses yet for why he would have donated to Dems but not really be a supporter.

Seems the guy didn’t have much of a social media presence and the only things I’ve seen floating around so far are his public records related to political registration and donations.

Some photos floating around of the shooter show him wearing a Demolition Ranch shirt like this (*graphic content warning*) :
https://twitter.com/elly_bar/status/1812324018302943373

I looked up the brand
https://linktr.ee/demolitionranch
and checked out a bit of their social media posts, and it seemed pretty conservative coded, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was one. Could just be they both like guns or something else going on there

Other relevant stuff would be his YouTube profile for instance.

What I saw in the videos of the shooting lead me to believe the bullet hit him. I suppose it’s not outside the realm of reason it could have been glass from a teleprompter or similar ricocheting effect but I didn’t see anything near him in the videos (I don’t see any teleprompter - and the main video floating around pans out pretty far showing a wide angle from front of stage). Maybe it was wood splintering from the pulpit - I didn’t see anything splintering up in the videos but could be an issue of resolution quality I suppose.

I still think it’s fair to say/believe it was the bullet, and it doesn’t change anything of substance here if it was wood/glass debris instead of the bullet proper, but I agree it’s possible medical evidence from examining the wound could alter our understanding here.

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Regarding the shooter and SS, I’ve read a lot of conspiracy takes that SS was in on it and allowed the attempt, but also responses to those claims that he was hidden from view of SS by the roof slope until right before the shooting - and where you can see the SS snipers take notice of something right before the shooting but not firing first - that they probably noticed someone pop over the slope and the brief delay between them clearly reacting to something they were seeing and the shootings starting was in the sniper team getting confirmation it was a threat to take out and not just a rando civilian climbing a roof to get a view of the event. I think that sounds more plausible than the SS were in on a deep state assassination attempt.

@DJ, that’s not to say I think you’re saying it was some deep state state plot - just relaying what I’ve seen as a reasonable sounding explanation for how the shooter could have gotten shots off

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Also I agree that the motive matters here. In a vacuum motive always matters when a crime is committed (both in what you can be charged with and what severity of sentencing you receive by a sympathetic vs hostile jury), but in this specific case there’s a big difference in public opinion to be had in terms of sympathy and the downstream consequences of it, whether it was a supporter of the opposition party trying to eliminate a political rival vs someone from the same political team going after their own guy

Oh, no… I’m certainly not suggesting some conspiracy or similar nonsense. I do think the ricochet concept has legs, but that’s not a conspiracy at all, it just makes sense given the not at all serious seeming injury Trump sustained. If we hear it’s a bullet, I’ll believe it immediately. Although, I’ll also believe Trump is the luckiest man on the planet if it actually was a bullet graze.

Update: I have seen the teleprompters now and I think pretty safe to rule them out since they do not appear damaged in any way


Still happy to update my priors if more evidence emerges but don’t believe it was teleprompter glass

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Update #2: I have now heard a response to this. Apparently the donation was made by a 60-something yo guy with the same name.

In non-trump related news, Texas Governor Abbott wants to know why folks are still without power

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-gov-gr ... 40946.html

I'm sure there are answers but will anything come of it? Doubtful

If the motive becomes public, it’ll further divide us and will be seen as potential green light to escalate and retribution

Really hope he’s just Red, through and through

Not knowing will divide us a lot more. People use uncertainty to create all kinds of problems and strife. I’d rather KNOW it was an anti-Trump fanatic, than face constant speculation.

Oh… and the sooner the better, because otherwise conspiracy theories will take hold, and they tend to be permanent.

Yeah good point

you know...thanks to the immunity ruling...Biden couldn't be charged in anyway (I do not believe he had anything to do with it)

I don’t think that’s really true... I don’t believe assassination of political rivals falls under the “official duties” of a pres

I really hope the shooter is like John Hinckey Jr (who shot Reagan cuz he wanted to impress Jodie Foster) cuz if it ends up being a totally normal guy making a statement then there will be more statements made in response. There are lots of people out there just waiting to get called on to make a statement.

The way SCOTUS wrote, I think you could argue it does.

The president commands the military, under the constitution. Giving the military an order would be an official act, and SCOTUS made it clear that prosecutors couldn’t even look at motive in that kind of situation.

Wow that’s really interesting

You misspelled insane.

Edit: the insane irony is that Biden could not only order Trump’s death, he could also order the Seals to disband SCOTUS. There doesn’t seem to be any wiggle room. Commanding the military isn’t even questionably official, it’s absolutely official, and therefore absolutely immune from prosecution. That is, unless the president is impeached. But then again, just order the Seals to kill the people who would vote for your impeachment.

Lol I was explaining to to a couple of friends earlier and I used BOTH adjectives lol. Wish I could post a screenshot. Interesting and insane

I added an edit above…

It does if you're protecting the country from a threat to the country.

This is an absolute first for me… both of the teams I wanted to win, won.

I’m almost confused, I’m so used to disappointment in sports.