Smith said he and Crooks took a sophomore US history course together at Bethel Park high school, located in a middle-class suburb eight miles (13km) south of Pittsburgh.

Smith told the Inquirer about a mock debate in which the history professor asked students to signal their support or opposition for government policy proposals.

“The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”

Recollections about Crooks’ political views and high school experience vary considerably.

The son of a registered Libertarian father and Democratic mother who are both licensed to work as behavioral health counselors, Crooks was cast by some former classmates as a tormented victim of bullying – and others as a kind, affable nerd who excelled at math and science.

“He was very kind,” Mark Sigafoos told the Inquirer, adding that Crooks would help him in the two classes they shared. “He was a nerdy kid, but I don’t think he was as harshly bullied as some people are saying.

“I feel like this is one of those things that you wouldn’t expect from him … No one that I know said they ever found him to be a creepy, loner kind of guy.”

Sigafoos does not recall Crooks making political overtures in class – but rather as someone interested in how government works, and “not trying to insert his own beliefs into it”.

Yet another student from Bethel Park, who did not share any classes with Crooks, said he was mocked for his clothes, which included hunting outfits.

“He was bullied almost every day,” Jason Kohler told reporters. “He was just a outcast, and you know how kids are nowadays.”

Crooks shot at Trump while wearing a T-shirt promoting The Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel for gun enthusiasts. The channel has millions of subscribers featuring videos on different guns and explosive devices.

Secret Service counter-snipers fatally shot Crooks after he fired at Trump from a bottle manufacturing plant rooftop with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle – legally purchased by his father.

CNN reported being told by a senior law enforcement source that Crooks bought 50 rounds of ammunition hours before Saturday’s attack.

Trump said he was physically “fine” after a bullet hit the tip of his right ear.

The slain audience member was identified as former firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50. Audience members David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, were both critically wounded.

Explosives were later found in Crooks’ vehicle, according to several news outlets, including CBS and the New York Times, citing anonymous law enforcement sources.

Crooks graduated high school in 2022. He had been working as a dietary aid helping prepare food at a local nursing home. Marcie Grimm, the administrator of Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, told the Associated Press that Crooks had a clean background check when he was hired.

Initial searches appear to suggest that Crooks was not an avid social media user, and no clues about his motives or political declarations have so far been discovered in online posts or publications.

Republicans will ignore this and keeping pushing their next Big Lie.

>>1315671
>Crooks shot at Trump while wearing a T-shirt promoting The Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel for gun enthusiasts.
What are the DR people saying?

>>1315703
>This assassination was sponsored by DealDash

>>1315703
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-shooter-reportedly-wearing-demolition-ranch-merchandise-t-shirt-1924914
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-rally-shooter-thomas-matthew-crooks-demolition-ranch/
https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/trump-shooter-shock-demolition-ranch-youtube-19573039.php

Demolition Ranch is a YouTube channel hosted by Dr. Matt Carriker, a Boerne-area veterinarian and firearm enthusiast who launched the brand in 2011. It’s since grown to have more than 11.6 million subscribers who tune in to watch Carriker and his friends shoot weapons, detonate explosives, review weapons and offer firearms safety and education.

Carriker, who calls himself “King of the Demolitia,” posted an image of the shooter’s body with the words “What the hell” Saturday evening on Instagram.

“Last night was crazy … I’ve got news stations calling me asking if I ever spoke with the shooter,” he said in a Sunday morning post on X. “What … the … hell.”

Carriker, who also owns Desperado Shooting Range in Boerne, couldn’t be reached by telephone and didn’t respond to a request for comment made via Instagram.

Demolition Ranch sells a variety of gear via another of Carriker’s ventures, Bunker Branding Co., a Boerne apparel company that specializes in social media influencer merchandise.

Despite Carriker's professed shock at his brands being associated with the assassination attempt, Bunker Branding began selling T-shirts Monday with the now-famous photograph of the former president raising his fist after the shooting and the words, “You Missed.”

Carriker and his wife, Mere, launched Bunker Branding in 2017 in their garage to sell some extra T-shirts, according to one of his videos. Business documents list him as president of Ranchmerch.com LLC, the entity doing business as Bunker Branding.

>>1315715
On social media site X, Carriker wrote: "Sucks seeing articles about this and they are naming 3 people… the shooter, trump… and somehow me." A representative for Carriker did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment.

Carriker also said he is "in disbelief" about the incident, adding that he will soon make a public statement on YouTube.

>>1315698
It's not that they're ignoring it, they're in outright denial that it's even possible it's true.

>>1315741
More like they see right through this farce and aren't putting up with the typical left wing deceit and treachery.

>>1315698
your argument is that he got radicalized by the far-right into hating trump and donating to liberal groups.
do you hear yourself? so pathetic

>>1315742
When we repeat your own dictator's words back to you, you call that a lie as well. Facts don't care about your feelings.

>>1315747
They didn't even make an argument. They're just acknowledging the facts presented. You should try it sometime.

>>1315747
Interesting how you're purposely reversing the chronological order of events

>>1315764
Not him but the correct order of events would be donating to Progressive causes, then being radicalized to kill Trump

Looking at things rationally, the most current FBI public statement from Sunday claimed that he had conflicting political views and no clear motive has yet been established.

If we're going to talk about if it was the left or the right that radicalized him to kill trump, there's only one side of the aisle that produces that rhetoric

Imagine being so inspired by Biden you celebrate his inauguration by donating to actblue and then try to murder the guy running against him in the next election

>>1315772
Both left and right wing news sources are making the claim he's a republican. The one or two chuds here who are still denying that fact are simply being their usual contrarian selves or fishing for (You)s.

>>1315776
It doesn't matter what political party he is affiliated with, Trump represents The Republican Party in name only, always has. Both parties have used violent rhetoric against him, saying that because someone votes a certain way that they are now 100% committed to that side is a fallacy. No matter how much you want it to be false a guy tried to killed Trump because the media told him our freedom was at stake, something that has been drilled into the American public for the last twenty years. How old was Crooks? Twenty-years.

>>1315800
As long as master baiters make posts like >>1315801 and >>1315802 it's going to keep mattering.

>>1315776
he was a fearmongered leftist, you can also tell because he was drop dead ugly

>>1315850
You should come with a single good lie instead a firehouse of shit lies

>>1315859
im not a liberal. i dont lie

>>1315804
He's right you know

>>1315668
>one former classmate of his has come forward to describe him as being “definitely conservative”

>>1315671
>Initial searches appear to suggest that Crooks was not an avid social media user, and no clues about his motives or political declarations have so far been discovered in online posts or publications.

So the FBI, NSA and other federal security services can't find any evidence of the guy's political orientation but some random dude who went to school with him, is now the definitive authority?

>registered to vote as a Republican months later at age 18, according to federal finance records and Pennsylvania voter data.

Can it be proven that it was physically him who registered as a Rep? Because the Dems have been screaming that ID requirements to vote are racist and homophobic and it could have been literally anyone claiming to be the guy.

>>1315954
No he isn't

>>1315668
inb4 they just assume a gun enthusiast is conservative lmao.
Ignore that he donated blue ignore that he was had covid and mask paranoia and ofc ignore the person he was targetting

>>1315963
he's a registered republican

>>1315964
you mean democrat donor thomas crooks?

>>1315965
No I mean registered republican voter Thomas Crooks, who is the subject of the op story

>>1315964
>>1315966
nikki voter he wanted trump out badly he registered republican to vote for another candidate. That's what leftists are telling people to do to infiltrate the publican party.

>>1315967
>one former classmate of his has come forward to describe him as being “definitely conservative”

>>1315966
>Smith’s recollection potentially adds contours to the complicated portrait of Crooks, who donated $15 as a 17-year-old to a progressive political action committee in early 2021 – and then registered to vote as a Republican months later aged 18, according to federal finance records and Pennsylvania voter data.

from the op story

>>1315969
democrat confirmed

>>1315969
>>1315970
That was before he registered and voted as a republican and joined the youtube channel

>>1315969
Reread the op headline
>“definitely conservative”

>>1315972
he privately donated to actblue to get progressives and democrats elected and tried to assassinate the republican nominee. i'm going to keep replying with that every time you try to weasel past the fact we still don't know his politics or motives.

>>1315975
You keep overlooking that he registered and voted as a republican after that. He was a republican. This is not debatable.

>>1315972
Read past the headline and you discover exactly what investigators are telling us - we don't have a clear picture of his politics because the information is conflicting, but you lot keep trying to skip over that.

>>1315977
>Read past the headline
Wrong board
>>>/pol/
You might as well try to edit the OP pic. The fact the he was a Republican isn't going away.

>>1315976
it just doesn't say as much as you want it to. you keep trying to milk it and i keep having to remind you he donated to actblue to help get progressives and democrats elected.

>>1315771
You're still lying.
He donated $15 to a get out of the vote group and was radicalized by the far right.
Also interesting how trying to increase voter participation is considered 'progressive'. You're not really shaking off the fascist accusations when you say stuff like that.

>>1315980

How the fuck haven't any of you figured out yet that your vote doesn't factor into who the next president is going to be?

Every US president except for one, is a descendant of the same British monarch. Every US president for the last half century is a member of the CFR, and either the Bilderberg Group or Bohemian Club or both. They meet behind closed doors with the billionaires that own the mainstream media, and corporate America. The press is not allowed to report on any of these meetings.

America has a legal fucking bribery system, and almost everyone in Trump's cabinet as well as Biden's cabinet attended a Jesuit university. You know - the same Jesuits that are the military order of the Vatican and had to be kicked out of 83 countries for toppling governments?

Politics in the US are theatre and politicians are paid actors. Why are you morons still arguing about left and right when the entire thing is a show meant to get you doing just that?

Republicans start wars and lie to you; Democrats start wars and lie to you. Both take your natural rights away and you still want to bicker with the moron next to you about who is the bigger retard. All while you fawn over the asshat lying politicians in office that are working overtime to make your life shit in the first place. Newsmax and CNN didn't say it though, so it can't be true.

>>1315979
>You might as well try to edit the OP pic

>>1315982
>Both sides are equally bad!
>Just don't vote!
>Also, I'm going to shill for right wing anyway.
You need help

>>1315984

You should pay attention to what's going on around you for more than four years at a time.

How many wars did Obama and Biden collectively start again? Wasn't it Biden that passed the racists ass NY crime bills? Pretty sure it was.

I'm not a retard and thus I won't be voting - I'll leave that to you and the rest of the population that hasn't figured out that presidential elections are shams.

>>1315985
>How many wars did Obama and Biden collectively start again?
Uh...none unless you count the bombing of Libya as a war started by Obama? Which you shouldn't because that was in response to an ongoing civil war and the bombing focused entirely on the destruction of materiel to the point where more bombs were dropped than people killed, including civilian casualties. Compare and contrast with the current bombing of Palestine by Israel.

Obama transitioned away from military interventionism in place of drone strikes (and even those he put stricter guidelines on and drew down over the course of his administration). Likewise Biden pulled us out of Afghanistan and drastically cut our drone program after Trump increased it again.

>>1315985
>Wasn't it Biden that passed the racists ass NY crime bills?
Biden was never a representative of NY. If you're referring to the Clinton Crime Bill, yeah Biden helped craft that bullshit. When you've been in government for decades, you're bound to have a few shitty ideas if you've been trying to accomplish anything. And that shit will have less shitty consequences than the handful of SCOTUS appointees Trump got in just 4 years, to say nothing of all the other horrible bullshit Trump fucked up.

>I'm a retard and thus I won't be voting
Please don't

>>1315976
>You keep overlooking that he registered and voted as a republican after that. He was a republican. This is not debatable.

Pennsylvania election regulations require a voter to declare for a party before voting in a primary election and then only voting for those in that party and it's not uncommon to register for the "opposing" party and vote for their weakest candidate, to undermine the leading candidate.

This combined with the shooter donating money to a LeftDem organization and _trying to kill Trump_ clearly suggests the shooter was a LeftDem.

>>1315987
>>How many wars did Obama and Biden collectively start again?
>Uh...none

The entire "Arab Spring" was initiated by Obama and Hillary at the behest of Israel, turning the Arab world upside down and resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

>>1315987

Of course I count it. You clearly haven't figured out that war is an industry and that there are no legitimate wars. I also count Syira, Lybia, Yemen, Somalia, and Iraq.

Ukraine was a war that started over a CIA backed coup because Russia was going to bankroll Ukraine's IMF issued loan that was up for renewal.

Israel has the most defended border in the world - cats set off the fucking alarm. You think the terrorist attack on Oct. 7th wasn't a false flag?

Every fucking modern war is orchestrated and has been since the age of Napoleon. The US has been staging coups in the global south for centuries to destabilize and topple governments and you're too blinded by partisan politics to even realize any of it.

You're either a asleep or a moron f you can't figure out that both democrats and republicans, including Biden, Obama and Trump are fucking psychopaths.

They tell you there are bad brown people out to get you, then they arm them with money and weapons so they can become Al Queda, ISIS, Hamas, the Cartels, etc... then use the media to scare you into thinking their drone strikes and bombs are for your defense. All the while they rake in profits, take away your freedoms, and you lap their lies up and support them. You have zero evidence your vote even factors into who the next president will be, you just blindly trust in a system that is clearly broken af.

I guess the lack of WMDs in Iraq or the fact that they're still holding people in Guantanamo to figure out who perpetrated 9/11 hasn't stopped to make you think for even a second, that all they do is lie. It doesn't matter how many holes their stories have in them or how many people they kill, you'll still vote for them because you're too afraid to admit you bought a huge lie.

>>1315992
Where do you people get this shit from?

>>1315968
>loves gun
>definitely conservative
is that your logic? So liberals love firebombs and arson right.

>"H-HIS CLASSMATES SAID THEY ASSUME HE WAS A CONSERVATIVE!!!"
>donated to actblue
boom
>did an ad for blackrock
boom
>tried to kill the republican candidate
boom
>voted for the worst republican candidate to attempt to sabotage the republicans
boom
>looks like an incel
boom
it was a violent Democrat terrorist
facts > feelings

>>1316010
>did an ad for blackrock
Ah yes, Blackrock, famously progressive. Also his school did an ad for Blackrock. He appeared for like 1.5 seconds in it in B-roll.
>voted for the worst republican candidate to attempt to sabotage the republicans
I seriously doubt he voted for Trump.
>incel
Yeah, Republican.

apparently they found a printed copy of this thread on his desk: http://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2889116&forum_id=2#27962434

>>1315998
Ask the classmate who called him definitely conservative

>>1316013
>Prep

>Jock

>Nerd

>Scumbag

>Loser

>Woman
hmmm

>>1316011
good post

>>1316016
Samefagging, again? Wow.

>>1316022
That ain't me. I hate the good post shitposters too.

>>1315747
Wasn't fuentes screeching about trump being a zionist recently? And those donations weren't even him, that was the old dude in philly

>>1316022
yeah theyre samefagging. theyre not sending their best
>>1316011
transgender tier post

>>1316025
this was immediately debunked

>>1316026
You really dont want it to be one of your conservi-bros who took a shot at the emperor with no clothes, huh buddy?

If you notice the shirt he was wearing, and look up the logo, it is a doomsday bunker brand. I believe the name of it is literally 'Bunker'. IDK about you, but those ideas are typically aligned with republican conservative views. Unless ur a hollywood pedo and want the bunker for other reasons.

Blackrock, as we know is a powerhouse. With all of those resources why are they shooting their commercials in real schools, vs having an entire set of actors? Well, it's how the scope out their next lonesome young man to manipulate. As you all have heard, the shooter was in last years campaign video ad.

When you watch the slow motion video, the millisecond trump turned his head, there is no way he knew it was coming. Nobody can turn their head that precisely. Certainly not Trump.

I believe he was conservactive, but I believe he was targeted and coerced into carrying out this action. He was first identified by Black Rock, then mentored the past year subliminally leading him to believing that this is something he had to do.

Engineering Behavior. MK Ultra.

>>1316052
All the angry stupid bigot hate rhetoric online, it would take very little to get a disturbed gun nut like this kid to carry out a shooting. His political affiliation is less important than his history of obsession with firearms and desire to kill. Internet just gave him an excuse.

>>1315994
>Where do you people get this shit from?

From history. Read a book, BIPOC.

>>1316022
>>1316026
samefag spotted

>>1316052
>eight years of lefties calling Trump a racist, a nazi etc
>antifa killing people that wear maga hats in the streets
>democrats try to lessen/remove Trump's secret service detail
>lefties immediately try to blame conservatives
Shut up retard

>>1316026
>transgender tier post
what

>>1316055
You alternative history isn't real.

>>1316060
Trump is actually a racist, and they blame conservatives for a good reason.

>>1316066
Everybody is racist after the george floyd riots.

>>1316014
yes and my classmate who likes wolfenstein is definitely a nazi too. Just like every american who plays video games.

>>1316053
the people who want to do this to trump are obviously from a certain side whose been projecting and screeching about jan 6 for years even though they're the side of violence bigotry and rape

>>1316075
It's very disrespectful to actual nazis to call modern neonazi trash a nazi

>>1316076
Yea asshole conservative gun nuts just like this shooter. They suck and they never shut up about Jan 6th and how they broke into the capital and smeared their shit on the walls for the country.

>>1316090
haha nice satire.
>>1316078
just call them leftists, that's where all the sex predators and terrorists are anyways

>>1316097
if leftists were actual nazis then you would be a leftist

>"A former classmate of the 20-year-old man who tried unsuccessfully to kill former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday recalled him being staunchly to the right of the political spectrum. “He definitely was conservative,” Max R. Smith told The Philadelphia Inquirer of Thomas Crooks. “It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.” Smith shared an American history class with Crooks, and remembered a mock debate where their teacher made students stand on one side of the classroom or another to signal their allegiance. “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”

>>1316097
The large majority of child predators are straight men, this is just a fact, but keep hate mongering with your wildly inaccurate feelings.

>>1316099
I don't get it I'm already being called a nazi by your type even though you're the violent gunwielding maniac who wants to take out their potlical rivals. So are you saying nazis are the good guys now

>>1316110
majority of LGBTQRS++ members are straight man who pretend to be gay to pray on woman by making them let their guard down. Its the same deal with male feminists 5 years before being synonymous with "nice guys" aka rapists.
But keep acting gay while praying on kids you child predator.

>>1316104
>he was so frickin conservative he donated to actblue and tried to kill a republican instead of a democrat

>>1315748
You're calling one of the two party candidates a dictator?
What do you call the other party? "Dear Leader" in German?

>>1316199
He was so frickin conservative he registered as a republican and was indoctrinated by gun nuts on youtube

>>1316148
He was a republican

>>1316279
Trump is the one claiming he wants to be a dictator.

>>1316060
>Chud headcanon running wild

>>1316285
conspiracy theorist and low critical thinking headcanon aside, he wore the shirt to blend in and cause commotion

>>1316353
nope he was a huge gunfag but really bad at it
https://nypost.com/2024/07/14/us-news/would-be-trump-assassin-tried-to-join-high-school-shooting-club-was-rejected-for-being-comically-bad-shot/

>>1316354
yes, the left cant aim
>>1316287
this has been rigorously debunked numerous times. please stick to facts please

>>1316404
you're no hitler

>>1316354
> A few years earlier, Crooks had tried out for the rifle team at Bethel Park High School, two former classmates told The Post.

Ahh, so more random guys making unconfirmed claims? Welp, that settles it, it MUST be true?!...

>>1316408
>the claims are unfounded because... I said so!

>>1316425
> a supposedly staunch conservative (now conveniently dead) wanted to kill a staunch conservative because... some dude who went to high school with him says so!

>>1316428
Are you calling the reporters liars?

>>1316430
Yes, reporters are liars

>>1316428
>wanted to kill a staunch conservative
No. He wanted to kill Trump.

It's crazy how far the gaslighting has gone already.

>>1316287
sure he did, leftists love to eat kids and rape people to death that's why you're pro abortion so there's less evidence out there -from the same sauce.

>>1316026
transgender out of nowhere.

>>1316488
The denialism is worse than the gaslighting
>>1316488
in minecraft

>>1315904
>>1315850
You talk like a twitterfag bot

>>1316428
Turns out when the American right wing slides so far to the right they fall into fascism, they'll breed people who think Trump is a liberal and want him dead.

>>1316057
>>1316062
>>1316502
>so offended by my post he replies thrice

Trumpers are so messianic in their belief in the Trump I'm not surprised a Trumper tried to take him out just so they could have their own martyr and their own Jesus Christ

>>1316709
>in their belief in the Trump
are they sending indians now?