A Man and an Enigma

[canyonwalker]

On Saturday former president Donald Trump was nearly assassinated. One of my first thoughts when I saw the breaking news was, "OMG, I hope whoever shot him doesn't strongly identify with Democratic politics." The last thing we need right now— other than a political assassination— is for the false narrative Trumpists have been telling for years now that Democrats are extreme and violent and out to "get" "real" Americans to be bolstered by an actual instance of leftwing violence. So far it's just been a fiction they repeat daily. And, of course, plenty of people believe it because they repeat it so often and point to made-up or heavily distorted stories to justify it. But for an actual, bonafide instance to occur.... That would take their fear-mongering of violent lefties to the next level.

And that takes us to where we're at in understanding the motivations of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the person who allegedly shot at Trump. Authorities are basically nowhere in understanding him. Shooters, whether they're would-be assassins or mass shooters of ordinary civilians, often leave a manifesto, explaining and justifying their strongly held beliefs. Crooks left no manifesto. Shooters often air their beliefs among like-minded people, either in person or (much more common today) in splinter groups online. Crooks did none of that, either, at least as far as authorities have discovered and made public.

In the first hours after the shooting I saw claims on social media that Crooks was aligned with various far-right political groups. I haven't seen these in fact-checked stories in mainstream media. Thus I'm taking them with a large grain of salt until otherwise reported.

Comments

[some_other_dave]

I have heard that he donated $15 to a Democratic campaign a few years ago, but that he was registered to vote Republican. And he was wearing a right-wing gun-nut organization's T-shirt when he was killed.

That information appeared to be correct, but of course if it were fake it would be designed to appear correct.

Except for one copy of the voter information that was obviously doctored in MS Paint to change his voter affiliation to Democrat--that one was very poorly done.

[canyonwalker]

I mentioned Crooks's voter registration and token political donation in my blog the day before. Neither proves much taken on its own.

The gun club t-shirt I'd seen mentioned in social media but not in mainstream reporting until just after I posted this journal entry. I'm not 100% confident what to make of the group's politics. The mainstream press avoids characterizing it aside from quoting the club's founder who's all like, "Nooo, we're not political!" I haven't read up on it myself.

Other reporting I've seen, though not widely reported, is that acquaintances and neighbors said Crooks expressed right-wing opinions in conversation and previously had Trump signs in his yard.