After the assassination attempt on Trump, Biden calls for unity and launches investigation

A day after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, U.S. intelligence officials investigated how a gunman armed with an AR rifle was able to get close enough to shoot and wound the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania, where the agency disastrously failed in one of its core responsibilities.

Corey Comperatore, 50, a volunteer firefighter attending Trump’s rally, was killed when he jumped on his family members to protect them from the gunfire. At least two other rally attendees were injured.

Less than 24 hours after the assassination, Trump arrived in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention and posted on his online portal Truth Social that he could not allow “a ‘shooter’ or potential assassin to force changes to the schedule or anything else.”

The former president also wrote: “Our condolences go out to the other victims and their families,” and said he “prays for the recovery of the injured and we keep in our hearts the memory of this citizen who was killed in such a cruel manner.”

“At this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united, show our true character as Americans, remain strong and determined, and not allow evil to win,” he posted.

President Joe Biden said in a prime-time national address the day after the shooting that political passions may run high, but “we must never descend into violence.”

“We debate and disagree, we compare and contrast … but in America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box,” Biden said in his address. “Politics must never be a literal battlefield. God save us from a battlefield.”

In earlier remarks on Sunday, Biden called on the country to “unite as one nation” and conduct a “thorough and swift” investigation, urging the public “not to make assumptions” about the shooter’s motives or connections.

The FBI identified the shooter on Sunday as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

The gunman, who intelligence officials said was killed, fired several shots at the stage. from an “elevated position outside the meeting place,” according to the agency. The FBI assumes that the shooter acted alone. A motive has not yet been determined.

An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from Trump’s rally, as well as satellite images of the site, shows the gunman came astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. One video posted on social media and geolocated by AP shows the gunman’s body lying motionless on the roof of a factory north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held. In another image, the gunman is seen with a bleeding wound to his head and wearing a gray T-shirt with a black American flag on his right arm.

In his earlier remarks on Sunday, Biden called the attack on Trump “not who we are as a nation.”

“That’s not American. And we can’t allow that,” he said. “Unity is the hardest goal of all, but nothing is more important right now than that.”

Calls for an investigation are coming from all sides

Republican Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday raising questions about the shooting and demanding information about the Secret Service’s protection of the former president.

“The gravity of this security failure and this terrifying moment in our nation’s history cannot be underestimated,” Green wrote.

The Secret Service did not have a spokesman at a press conference Saturday night where FBI and Pennsylvania State Police officials briefed reporters on the shooting investigation. FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said it was “surprising” that the gunman was able to fire on the stage before he was killed.

Members of the Secret Service sniper and counter-assault teams were at the rally, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation.

The heavily armed counter-assault team, whose Secret Service code name is “Hawkeye,” is responsible for eliminating threats so that other agents can shield and take away the person they are protecting. The counter-sniper team, known by the code name “Hercules,” uses long-range binoculars and is equipped with sniper rifles to engage threats from long distances.

Mayorkas said his department and the Secret Service are working with law enforcement to investigate the shooting. Ensuring the safety of presidential candidates and their campaign events is one of the department’s “most important priorities,” he said.