Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party opens its nominating convention Monday, with Trump set to be officially anointed the party’s presidential candidate later this week, as federal authorities work to unravel unanswered questions about a shooter who tried to kill Trump at a Saturday rally.
Security is sharply in focus for the convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but federal law enforcement agencies say they are not planning any changes to their already extensive security measures.
“We are confident in the security plans for this event and we are ready to go,” Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the U.S. Secret Service's coordinator for the convention, said at a televised briefing Sunday. “We are not anticipating any security changes.”
Trump told The Washington Examiner newspaper that his address at the convention Thursday was set to be “really tough” and focus on U.S. President Joe Biden’s policies but will now include calls for national unity.
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the newspaper.
Biden said Sunday the shooting was “contrary to everything we stand for as a nation, everything. It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not American. And we cannot allow this to happen.”
He pledged that the Secret Service would give Trump “every resource capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety.”
Biden also said he expects Republicans this week to criticize his record, while offering their own vision for the country, and that he will be using his own events this week to promote his administration’s work.
“I'll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law, to call for action at the ballot box, no violence on our streets,’’ Biden said. ‘’That's how democracy should work.”
Suspect
The FBI said it has identified a suspect but had not yet established a motive for Saturday’s assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The law enforcement agency said 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was the “subject involved” in the shooting. Bystanders outside the security perimeter of the area where Trump was speaking said they yelled at police to no avail when they spotted the gunman crawling up the roof of a nearby building with a weapon.
The gunman was able to fire multiple shots, hitting Trump in his right ear, killing one spectator at the rally and critically wounding two others before a Secret Service sniper killed the suspect. An AR-15-style rifle was found near the suspect’s body.
Crooks, who graduated from high school two years ago, had been working as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
He was a registered Republican. But when he was 17, Crooks also made a $15 political donation to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, according to a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing.
Trump’s wife, former first lady Melania Trump, who was not at the rally, said in a social media post Sunday: “A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion — his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration. The core facets of my husband’s life — his human side — were buried below the political machine.”
In Photos: Trump whisked from stage at rally following apparent assassination attempt
She added, “For those of you who cry in support, I thank you. I commend those of you who have reached out beyond the political divide — thank you for remembering that every single politician is a man or a woman with a loving family.”
In a social media post, Trump said he was “fine.” He was released from the hospital late Saturday.
The shooting incident immediately raised questions about the level of Secret Service protection provided to Trump, although the security agency rejected as “absolutely false” an assertion by some Trump supporters that the Secret Service turned down a request for more security for Trump.
"In fact, recently the U.S. Secret Service added protective resources and capabilities to the former president’s security detail,” an agency spokesperson said.
Andrew McCabe, a former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told CNN that authorities, in planning for the outdoor rally, had failed to “eliminate sightlines” to the stage where Trump spoke, either by positioning a physical barrier between the building from where the gunman fired and the rally stage or by posting law enforcement personnel nearby to block any access to the rooftop.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives said they will launch an investigation into the incident and asked Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to attend a hearing on the matter. A hearing is scheduled for July 22.
Analysts warned the assassination attempt could upend a fiercely fought presidential campaign and further divide American society.
“This is an exceptionally dark day in America — an exceptionally dark day in our democracy. Possibly the most serious act of political violence we've seen since 9/11 at least,” said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Today the world changed,” said George Washington University professor Casey Burgat.
“There will be partisan finger-pointing about how and why this happened, but across the political spectrum, we will rightfully hear a unified rejection of all political violence. I can only hope the latter wins out,” Burgat said.
VOA's Serbian Service, Katherine Gypson and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this story. Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
