Former late-night host appearing at ritzy fundraiser for Biden amid campaign crisis
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, has pushed the argument that a President Biden unfit to seek a second term is also unfit to remain in office for the last months of his current administration.
“Everyone calling on Joe Biden to stop running without also calling on him to resign the presidency is engaged in an absurd level of cynicism,” Vance wrote on social media platform X.
“If you can’t run, you can’t serve,” Vance stressed. “He should resign now.”
Vance joins the calls from other Republicans who over the past week have tried to make the push to get Biden off the ticket one and the same as getting Biden out of office.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Friday argued that “if he’s not going to be their nominee because he’s not up to it, how can he be our president for the next six months?”
“If there’s something wrong with you that doesn’t allow you to run for president, how can you still be there as president?” Rubio told Politico. “If they’re going to remove him as nominee, they’ve got to remove him as president, and that’s really bad for our country.”
The Biden campaign is looking to tap some star power as the president returns to the campaign trail, roping in David Letterman to headline a fundraiser on July 29.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green will join the former “Late Night” host in stumping for donors at the house of a Biden family friend on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend the event as well as part of a fundraising gauntlet the president plans to hit as he sees out the month ahead of his planned certification by the DNC.
The Associated Press reported that Biden will have 10 fundraisers over the last 10 days of July.
Green told the Associated Press that he expects Biden to stay in the race, but if he does step down then Vice-President Kamala Harris will likely get the nod to succeed him.
“I think the president stays in this race unless he feels that it is not winnable, or he feels that he has to hear other voices in his inner circle that he shouldn’t run,” Green said. “If the president felt that he wasn’t up to it and truly not up to it, he would step down.”
President Biden
plans to return to the campaign trail as soon as possible, with plans to visit Georgia and Texas in the coming days.
Axios reported that Biden has started laying out his travel plans as he recovers from COVID-19 at his Delaware beach house in Rehoboth. He has resisted calls from his party to step down, with his communications team holding a remote press conference on Saturday to push the argument for a second Biden presidency.
The calls for Biden to step down has drawn over 30 sitting Democrat congressmembers: Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, on Friday urged Biden to “end his campaign,” arguing that “our full attention must return to these important issues.”
One senior Democrat official told Axios that the entire issue feels “stuck” at the moment, adding that it’s “not to say it’s going to stay stuck.”
Senior officials are pushing Biden to make a final decision over the weekend and have continued arguing with Biden advisers as to why bowing out would best serve the good of the party.
“It’s a fairly universal sentiment internally that we have reached the end of the road,” one Biden aide admitted, noting that some key hold outs will keep fighting to keep Biden in the race.
The rulemaking body of the Democratic National Convention is preparing to vote on President Biden as the party’s presidential nominee.
The Democratic National Convention’s Rules Committee members voted Friday for a virtual roll call on Aug. 7 to certify Biden’s victory, despite widespread upset over what many call visible mental decline.
The nearly 200 committee members will meet again on or before July 26 to formally adopt the virtual roll call format.
The vote itself will be held in the first week of August and is thus far expected to serve as a rubber stamp on the Biden campaign;
President Biden’s campaign is planning fundraising events that extend through to the end of the month.
The Biden-Harris ticket is holding a fundraiser on July 29th in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts that will feature special guests talk show legend David Letterman and Hawaiian Gov. Josh Green.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will be in attendance.
Green, who has been governor of Hawaii since 2022, is a personal friend of the Bidens. The governor is among the administration’s closest political allies.
“We support the President, the V.P. and the Democratic Party, in good and tough times because he has been there for us as a family and a state,” Green told the Associated Press.
With the Democratic Party set to follow through on plans for an early roll call nominating Biden as their presidential candidate, this fundraiser is further proof of the campaign’s commitment to staying on the ballot.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on the phone with approximately 300 major Democratic Party donors on Friday, telling them there was nothing to worry about within President Biden’s campaign, despite the media kerfuffle.
“I will start by sharing something with all of you, something I believe in my heart of hearts. It is something I feel strongly you should all hear and should take with you when you leave, and tell your friends too,” Harris told the donors, according to multiple reports. “We are going to win this election. We are going to win.”
Harris spoke to donors via video for approximately five minutes, championing the Biden administration and sharply criticizing former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric at the Republican National Convention.
“Let me be clear: Trump’s convention this week was one big attempt to distract people,” Harris reportedly told donors. “He wants to distract attention away from his record and his Project 2025 plan. Can you believe they put it in writing? It is further empirical evidence that the stakes of this election couldn’t be higher.”
The call was intended to quell fears among party donors that backlash against Biden from within his party could prove disastrous for his campaign.
Biden has been consistent and clear that he intends to stay in the race and run against Trump in November as the Democratic Party nominee.
The Biden campaign took a swipe at “anonymous” sources that have relayed concerns from within the Democratic Party about the president’s candidacy as questions continue about his physical and mental state.
Campaign Spokesperson Kevin Munoz highlighted Biden TV interviews this past week and support from Black women and Hispanic groups, while linking Trump to the conservative Project 2025 agenda, which has been portrayed as a blueprint for a future Republican administration, which he has disavowed.
“Donald Trump and Republicans – despite claims of a ‘new tone – their message is the same: Revenge and retribution,” Munoz said in a memo released Friday evening highlighting why Biden should stay in the race. “Their convention focused on bowing down to Putin, mass deportation, and inflicting their Project 2025 agenda on the American people.”
Biden scrapped several campaign events this week after contracting COVID-19. He is self-isolating in Delaware. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris is on the campaign trial.
“And as we’ve said before, President Biden is excited to get back on the campaign trail as soon as he can,” he added.
In making his case, Munoz highlighted the Republican National Convention that concluded Thursday in Milwaukee.
“Attendees brandished signs calling for ‘Mass Deportations Now,’ while an architect of Trump’s cruel family separation policy took center stage during the convention’s primetime slot,” he said.
“JD Vance, the poster child for Project 2025’s extremism, was unveiled as Trump’s running mate and, in becoming Trump’s vice presidential nominee, doubled down on a future of abortion bans, worse access to health care, and higher costs for middle-class Americans,” added Munoz.
New details on kill shot that took down would-be Trump assassin at Pennsylvania rally
The shot that killed the man who attempted to assassinate former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday was a “one-in-a-million shot,” according to a source familiar with the investigation into the shooting.
Fox News learned from the source the kill shot was a single shot taken by a Secret Service counter sniper whose view was obscured.
A local tactical team also took a shot at the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, but missed.
The Secret Service sniper who killed Crooks could only see Crooks’ gun scope and the top of his eye and forehead because the lip of the roof was blocking the sniper’s view.
TRUMP SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW GUNMAN EVADED SECURITY
The source described the shot to Fox News as a “one-in-a-million shot.”
The news comes as more information begins to come out about the botched security detail that allowed Crooks to climb onto a building, get a clear line of sight of Trump and open fire on the former president.
While the Secret Service agents who stopped the shooter and jumped to protect Trump are being praised, the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, has been harshly criticized for her handling of the matter.
FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT QUESTIONS WHY TRUMP WAS ALLOWED ON STAGE AMID THREAT CONCERNS: ‘WHY NOT DELAY?’
The House Committee On Oversight and Accountability has scheduled a hearing for Monday with Cheatle, who is facing calls to resign from lawmakers over her agency’s handling of the Trump rally shooting.
The hearing, “Oversight of the U.S. Secret Service and the Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump,” is scheduled to begin on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. Monday.
PENNSYLVANIA SHERIFF DEFENDS LOCAL OFFICERS WHO CONFRONTED TRUMP RALLY SHOOTER
Cheatle is refusing to resign, but House Speaker Mike Johnson told FOX Business Thursday he is prepared to call on President Biden to fire her.
“Continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident, and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no intentions to step down. She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement late Wednesday.
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Cheatle was confronted by senators demanding answers when she showed up at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
Secret Service agent questions why Trump was allowed on stage amid threat concerns
A retired U.S. Secret Service agent questioned why former President Trump was cleared to take the stage at Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, despite a “person of interest” being identified beforehand.
“Why the rush? Why push him on stage? Why not delay?” questioned Mike Matranga on “America’s Newsroom” Thursday.
“It would have taken nothing to take a tactical pause, assess the situation, locate him, and potentially prevent what we haven’t seen in 43 years.”
Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was perceived by the Secret Service as a “person of interest” after law enforcement saw him acting suspiciously and determined he had a golf range finder, according to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Crooks was only identified as a threat when he “retrieved the weapon” and climbed onto the roof of a building just prior to the shooting, according to Guglielmi, who added that a threat requires, “a different protocol and a different course of action than a person of interest.”
Soon after that, Butler Township police officers confronted Crooks on the roof, and he pointed his weapon at one of them, who then dropped off the roof. Crooks then fired on Trump and was taken out by a Secret Service counter sniper.
Matranga called the situation a “catastrophic failure.”
“Failing to even address the American people or to point the finger solely at the local law enforcement is just not right,” he said. “This is a catastrophic failure of communications. We’ve known this for decades, that we rely too heavily on our local counterparts to do the jobs that we are designed to do, and so this is a catastrophic failure.”
“The former president deserves better,” he continued. “The individuals who were harmed and the individual who succumbed to his injuries deserve better.”
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Heckman contributed to this update.
As friends and family gathered to remember Corey Comperatore, the father and firefighter killed by gunfire at a Trump rally on July 13, at his funeral on Friday morning, locals lined the streets leading to Comperatore’s church to remember the fallen “hero.”
Comperatore, 50, was shot during an assassination attempt against the former president in Butler, Pennsylvania, around 6:11 p.m. that evening.
“My son was a fireman with Corey for years. Great mentor for him. He was a wonderful person,” Sylvia Lowry told Fox News Digital on Friday. “Of course, we’re all devastating. Great family. … We just pray that he rests in peace.”
She went on to describe Comperatore as “quiet,” a “family man,” and a “good soul.”
Jeanne Fox, who worked with Comperatore’s wife, Helen, described the volunteer firefighter as a “good dad” — specifically, a good “girl dad” to his two daughters.
The former fire chief for the Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department also served 10 years in the U.S. Army Reserves.
“Above all, Corey was the quintessential family man and the best girl dad,” his obituary states. “His love for his wife Helen Comperatore was a testament to the power of partnership and devotion. Together, they raised two daughters, Allyson and Kaylee Comperatore, who will carry forward his spirit of compassion.”
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this update.
Would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks researched mass high school shooter Ethan Crumbley before attempting to kill the former president, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Ethan Crumbley, now 18, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing four students and injuring seven others at Oxford High School in Michigan in November 2021, when he was just 15 years old.
Crooks looked up Crumbley before carrying out the assassination attempt at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, the source told Fox News Digital.
Following Crumbley’s historic conviction, his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors argued that the couple did not properly secure their guns and home and did not get their son the help he needed before the shooting. The parents even visited Oxford High School administrators to discuss their son’s disturbing drawings he made in glass the same morning of the deadly shooting.
Crooks’ other internet search history included photos of Trump and Biden, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and “major depressive disorder,” as The New York Times previously reported.
Investigators learned of Crooks’ search history after cracking his phone, according to the Times.
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this update.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., spoke to NBC’s Kristen Welker about Secret Service briefing for members of Congress on the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
Cramer said a lingering question for lawmaker is why Trump was allowed to take the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, when there was a known security threat.
“And so when we had this moment last night where we we learned that the directors, not only in the building, but on the same level, a few of us were at we that this is our moment to ask her, and her hostility toward us was remarkable, her unwillingness to talk and and then the appropriate suggestion that maybe this isn’t the right place to do it,” Cramer said, referring to the moment a group of GOP senators confronted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday.
Cramer said Trump never should have been allowed on stage at the rally.
“I mean, when you look at that timeline and you think at 551, this threat was so significant that that the Secret Service notified the counter sniper unit, who then put their eyes on that roof. So if it was significant enough to call the calling the counter sniper unit, why wasn’t it significant enough to keep the president from going to the stage.”
FBI agents appeared to be seen canvassing shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ neighborhood in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, one week after the gunman was killed in a failed assassination attempt against former President Trump.
The agents, dressed in button up shirts, were seen driving a small black SUV. They carried documents in hand and went door to door to speak with neighbors.
Investigators are still working to identify a motive in the shooting, which claimed the life of Corey Comperatore and led to injuries for Trump, David Dutch and James Copenhaver.
Neighbors who spoke to Fox News Digital said Crooks’ family were not politically outspoken and former classmates described the shooter as a quiet loner.
Jason Kohler, who attended the same high school as Crooks, described him to Fox News as an “outcast” who was always alone and “bullied every day.”
Kohler told reporters that Crooks sat alone at lunchtime and was mocked for his clothing, which often included “hunting outfits.”
Julianna Grooms, who graduated one year after Crooks, also said that he dressed in camouflage or hunting attire and interacted awkwardly. In his freshman year, she said, he stood out with wide-legged jeans and Spongebob Squarepants T-shirts.
“If someone would say something to his face, he would just kind of stare at them,” Grooms told the Wall Street Journal. “People would say he was the student who would shoot up the school.”
Fox News Digital’s Rebecca Rosenberg and Fox News’ Chelsea Torres contributed to this update.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will hold his first campaign rally on Saturday since the assassination attempt on his life just one week ago.
Trump is scheduled to travel to Grand Rapids, in the battleground state of Michigan, where he will be joined for the first time by his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio. The rally will be their first joint appearance on the campaign trail.
Trump and Vance will take the stage in Grand Rapids with the Republican Party unified behind them after this week’s nominating convention. In contrast, the Democrats are in turmoil and it is no longer certain that President Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee facing Trump in the Nov. 5 election.
Biden is facing mounting calls from many elected officials in his own party to step aside as the party’s White House candidate and to end his re-election bid, after his poor debate performance against Trump last month.
Reuters contributed to this update.
A Florida man was arrested Friday after he allegedly made written threats against former President Donald Trump and his 2024 running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, on social media.
The Jupiter Police Department said Michael M. Wiseman has been charged after making written threats to kill Trump, Vance and their families on Facebook.
Police received multiple online crime tips alerting them to the alleged Facebook posts.
“After investigating the reports and the suspect’s Facebook account, JPD detectives found that Wiseman had made multiple threats against Trump and Vance, who earlier this week became the Republican nominees for President and Vice President, respectively. Threats were also made concerning bodily harm to members of the Trump and Vance families,” the police department said in a statement.
“JPD coordinated the investigation with the United States Secret Service and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office. JPD officers took Wiseman into custody without incident.”
Jupiter is about 20 miles north of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach.
The Associated Press contributed to this update.
The Secret Service should have foreseen a “tactical reason” to have countersnipers placed on the AGR building rooftop at former President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday – where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire – according to a retired Army infantry captain who witnessed the chaos from the front row.
“I’ve been in more firefights than I can count, I can tell you, but I’ve never been in anything like that,” Sean Parnell, a former congressional candidate who can be seen in photos of the shooting just steps away from Trump on stage right, told Fox News Digital.
“Doesn’t it make sense to engage behind the president, too?” he added. “There was a tactical reason for that to be occupied.”
Parnell said that as soon as he arrived at the rally, he took a general look around and potential security vulnerabilities stood out to him, but he also saw a strong police presence.
“As a combat veteran, 16 months in Afghanistan, I’ll tell you that looking for threats like that is, once you come back from combat, you’re kind of wired like that,” he said. “That experience that never leaves you. I didn’t think anything was going to go wrong. I’m at a political rally … but you still think about that.”
He said his immediate thought was that the gunman was either perched on a nearby water tower or the AGR building to the north of the stage.
“Instantly, it was like building or water tower,” he recalled. “But there’s no freaking way. The Secret Service would have that on lockdown.”
But somehow, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able to climb on top of it with a rifle.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this update.
The Republican leader of Pennsylvania’s second-most populous county said Friday the way former President Trump responded to his assassination attempt likely won him the support of critics and undecided voters alike.
Allegheny County Republican Committee chairman Sam DeMarco – whose area was rocked by news that shooter Thomas Crooks was living in their community – said that although he did not attend the Butler, Pa., rally, he shared his real-time reaction to the news.
“I was getting ready to go downtown to meet my friends and listening on the Fox stream when I heard the president had been shot, and I could tell you I was absolutely floored,” he said. “I couldn’t believe that something like that could happen; [that] there could be a lapse in security that could permit that.”
DeMarco said, however, it was Trump’s reaction, now immortalized by the iconic image of the Republican presidential nominee mouthing the word “fight” with his fist in the air, and his courage to continue on with his campaign that will live on.
“I think President Trump, in the wake of the shooting there as he rose to his feet, with the Secret Service, men, women just hanging off of him had the thought to be able to raise his fist in the air to show the crowd that he was okay and to urge them to continue to ‘fight,’ fight for this country – I think he won votes from folks that were undecided, or may not have been supporters, from folks all across this country,” DeMarco said.
“I think he further exhibited the strength that he has when he, after just going back to [Bedminster, N.J.] for a day, continued on to the Republican [National] Convention on-schedule – and then culminated last night with a one-hour-plus speech.”
“What person – after having been shot by someone and coming so close to death – can carry on like that?”
Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this update.
Billy Ray Cyrus on Friday appeared at the funeral for Corey Comepratore, a volunteer firefighter, husband and father who was killed by gunfire last Saturday during a rally for former President Donald Trump.
The “Achy Breaky Heart” singer was seen taking photos and shaking hands with law enforcement in attendance outside Cabot United Methodist Church in Cabot, Pennsylvania, on Friday morning.
“Corey Comperatore is a[n] Army reservist veteran and former firefighter chief. Billy Ray Cyrus has always been passionate about honoring troops and first responders. Today he was honored to join the family and perform during the service,” a source told Fox News Digital on Friday.
The funeral for Comperatore, 50, drew hundreds of family members, friends and local law enforcement officials — both local and federal — to Cabot. Butler County residents, including those who knew the Comperatore family and those who did not, lined the rural roads surrounding the church with American flags and signs honoring Comperatore.
“American Hero Corey Comperatore,” one sign read. Another called the volunteer firefighter a “true hero.”
Comperatore died after being shot at the rally while protecting his family.
Former President Trump commemorated the fallen firefighter on Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, with Comperatore’s firefighter jacket and helmet displayed on stage.
“He lost his life selflessly acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets… what a fine man he was,” Trump said during his RNC speech on Thursday. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others.
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin and Chris Eberhart contributed to this update.
The shot that killed the man
who attempted to assassinate former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday was a “one-in-a-million shot,” according to a source familiar with the investigation into the shooting.
Fox News learned from the source the kill shot was a single shot taken by a Secret Service counter sniper whose view was obscured.
A local tactical team also took a shot at the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, but missed.
The Secret Service sniper who killed Crooks could only see Crooks’ gun scope and the top of his eye and forehead because the lip of the roof was blocking the sniper’s view.
The source described the shot to Fox News as a “one-in-a-million shot.”
The news comes as more information begins to come out about the botched security detail that allowed Crooks to climb onto a building, get a clear line of sight of Trump and open fire on the former president.
While the Secret Service agents who stopped the shooter and jumped to protect Trump are being praised, the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, has been harshly criticized for her handling of the matter.
The House Committee On Oversight and Accountability has scheduled a hearing for Monday with Cheatle, who is facing calls to resign from lawmakers over her agency’s handling of the Trump rally shooting.
The hearing, “Oversight of the U.S. Secret Service and the Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump,” is scheduled to begin on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. Monday.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Bryan Lienas contributed to this update.
A Kentucky college professor is “no longer” employed at Bellarmine University after his controversial comments on the assassination attempt on former President Trump went viral.
Professor John James reacted to the shooting with an Instagram post that read, “if you’re gonna shoot, man, don’t miss.” A screenshot of James’ post was captured and shared by Libs of TikTok, an account with 3.2 million followers on X.
After the Libs of TikTok post went viral, Bellarmine University announced that James had been placed on unpaid leave.
“Words and actions that condone violence are unacceptable and contrary to our values, which call for respecting the intrinsic value and dignity of every individual,” the school said in a statement. “We strive to create an inclusive community that welcomes all and models a spirit of goodwill. We are aware of an offensive and unacceptable social media post made by an employee over the weekend.”
In a July 16 update, the university said James “is no longer a Bellarmine employee.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci waved away concerns over former President Trump’s gunshot wound after the assassination attempt on Trump’s life during a rally in Pennsylvania last week.
On July 13, shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a bullet that grazed the side of Trump’s head, hitting the top of his right ear. One spectator was killed and two others were critically injured by the assailant before he was shot dead by U.S. Secret Service agents.
Fauci, during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, said the public shouldn’t be very concerned about the extent of Trump’s wound and the former president’s treatment.
“I don’t think there is much more to it. I mean, from what we’ve seen and what we’ve heard, it was, it was a bullet shot that grazed his ear and injured his ear, according to the physicians who examined him. There was no other further damage,” Fauci said.
“So I think that with regard to the health related purely to the bullet itself, I think he’s he’s in the clear as far as I can see. I mean, it’s dangerous to make diagnoses from a distance from what I’m seeing, the way he’s acting now and what his physicians report saw. It seems to have been a superficial wound to the ear, and that’s all.”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Friday she will testify before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday.
“We are committed to better understanding what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure it never happens again,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
Earlier this week, Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., issued a subpoena to compel Cheatle to testify. The Department of Homeland Security requested that her testimony be delayed until later in the week, but the committee refused.
“Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about the Secret Service’s historic security failures that led to the attempted assassination of President Trump, murder of an innocent victim, and harm to others in the crowd. We look forward to Director Cheatle’s testimony on Monday, July 22 to deliver the transparency and accountability Americans deserve,” Comer said in a statement after Cheatle confirmed she will testify Monday.
House lawmakers have promised to exercise oversight on the Secret Service after former President Trump was shot at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Questions abound on how the shooter was able to take a sniper’s position on an unsecured rooftop within range of the president.
Cheatle has resisted calls for her resignation after the security failure.
A Pittsburgh man who witnessed the assassination attempt on former President Trump in Butler, Pa., last weekend recounted his amazement to Fox News Digital in watching the crowd erupt in cheers after the GOP nominee mouthed “Fight!” and fist-pumped moments after being shot.
Bob Crankovic said he was sitting behind Trump just off his right shoulder when the rally began.
Several minutes into the rally, Thomas Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., attempted to kill Trump, but shot him in the ear after the former president turned at the last moment to explain a border policy graphic.
Crankovic, who has been active in local Republican circles since 2016, said it was approximately his fourth Trump rally, and that Saturday’s started just as the others had – with rallygoers bedecked in red hats and American flag-themed regalia.
However, after shots rang out, Crankovic saw Trump dropping and being smothered by Secret Service agents. What happened next was similarly shocking, he said.
“As soon as unfortunately the shots went out what happened was that I immediately ducked for cover,” he said. “By the time I happened to look up at the president, roughly around the second or third shot, he was already covered up,” he said.
“So it was tough to watch. But, I mean, as soon as the president got up, everybody was absolutely screaming their head off for the president in support.”
Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
Investigators are probing whether would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks flew a drone over the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania, hours before he shot former President Trump on July 13.
A source familiar with the investigation confirmed reporting that Crooks flew a drone over the buildings he eventually climbed on to try to assassinate Trump.
A senior congressional source also tells Fox News they are looking into the matter, but could not confirm specifics of the drone.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that law-enforcement officials briefed on the matter said 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks flew a drone to conduct reconnaissance at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds before Trump took the stage.
According to the Journal, Crooks flew the drone on a programmed flight path to the grounds on July 13, and officials said the path suggests the shooter flew the drone to the site more than one time ahead of the event.
A source told Fox News Digital that the FBI is looking at a drone linked to the shooting investigation, but pushed back on the specifics of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.
The FBI declined to comment to Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Bryan Lienas, Chad Pergram, CB Cotton and Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this update.
There are now two working theories on how Thomas Crooks got a DPMS AR-15 rifle onto the roof of the AGR building in Butler, Pennsylvania last Saturday without being noticed prior to an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, who’s now the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
According to a federal law enforcement source briefed on the investigation, Crooks either hid his father’s rifle near the AC unit he used to climb up onto the roof of the AGR building, or he had it in the backpack he was spotted with, along with the golf range finder.
However, this source said hiding the rifle in his backpack would require a significant amount of disassembling and reassembling the rifle, and that the more likely scenario is that Crooks hid the rifle behind the AC unit.
Fox News has reported that Crooks bought a ladder and ammunition on the morning of the rally. However, federal law enforcement sources say that no ladder was found on site, and the working theory is that Crooks grabbed the rifle, climbed upon the AC unit and then climbed onto the roof.
We now also know that the unit inside that building was a Butler Township Emergency Services Unit sniper team who was doing “overwatch” on the event. This team was looking out of the windows of the building at the event, watching for any suspicious activity, while Crooks snuck up on the roof above them.
Fox News can also report that the Secret Service Counter Sniper who killed Crooks took only one shot.
Fox News’ Jake Gibson and David Spunt contributed to this report.
Harris reassures Dem donors on emergency call there’s nothing to worry about
Vice President Kamala Harris held a brief conference with the Democratic Party’s top donors yesterday in a show of support for her running mate.
Harris spoke with approximately 300 major Democratic Party donors on Friday, telling them there was nothing to worry about within President Biden’s campaign, despite the media kerfuffle.
“I will start by sharing something with all of you, something I believe in my heart of hearts. It is something I feel strongly you should all hear and should take with you when you leave, and tell your friends too,” Harris told the donors, according to multiple reports. “We are going to win this election. We are going to win.”
CAMPAIGN CHAIRS SAY BIDEN IS BOTH ‘MORE COMMITTED THAN EVER’ TO PRESIDENTIAL RACE AND ‘ASKING FOR INPUT’
“We know which candidate in this election puts the American people first: our President, Joe Biden,” Harris said in support of her running mate.
Harris spoke to donors via video for approximately five minutes, championing the Biden administration and sharply criticizing former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric at the Republican National Convention.
“Let me be clear: Trump’s convention this week was one big attempt to distract people,” Harris reportedly told donors. “He wants to distract attention away from his record and his Project 2025 plan. Can you believe they put it in writing? It is further empirical evidence that the stakes of this election couldn’t be higher.”
SCHUMER ‘FORCEFULLY’ TOLD BIDEN HE SHOULD DROP HIS RE-ELECTION BID: REPORT
The call was intended to quell fears among party donors that backlash against Biden from within his party could prove disastrous for his campaign.
However, Harris did not take questions from the donors following her short address, causing some to wonder what the point of the communication was.
Additionally, the call came on the same day that nearly a dozen Democratic lawmakers voiced preference for Biden to drop out of the race.
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Biden has been consistent and clear that he intends to stay in the race and run against Trump in November as the Democratic Party nominee.
While critics of the administration within the Democratic Party have treated Biden’s re-election bid as a decision yet to be made, the White House has been consistent and firm in its statements that he is indeed running.
“The president’s in this race,” Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday morning. “You’ve heard him say that time and time again.”
Would-be Trump assassin researched mass shooter and his family before attack
Would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks researched mass high school shooter Ethan Crumbley before attempting to kill the former president, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Ethan Crumbley, now 18, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole killing four students and injuring seven others at Oxford High School in Michigan in November 2021, when he was just 15 years old.
Crooks looked up Crumbley before carrying out the assassination attempt at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, the source told Fox News Digital.
Following Crumbley’s historic conviction, his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
TRUMP SHOOTER THOMAS CROOKS’ ONLINE SEARCH HISTORY INCLUDED ‘DEPRESSIVE DISORDER,’ TRUMP, BIDEN, DNC
Prosecutors argued that the couple did not properly secure their guns and home and did not get their son the help he needed before the shooting. The parents even visited Oxford High School administrators to discuss their son’s disturbing drawings he made in class the same morning of the deadly shooting.
Crooks’ other internet search history included photos of Trump and Biden, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and “major depressive disorder,” as The New York Times previously reported.
FBI’S 200 INTERVIEWS AND SEARCH OF 14,000 IMAGES LED TO … NOTHING?
Investigators learned of Crooks’ search history after cracking his phone, according to the Times.
FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed investigators’ findings during Wednesday’s congressional hearing, where he said the FBI has conducted 200 interviews and combed through 14,000 images on Crooks’ phone.
FOLLOW LIVE UP-TO-MINUTE DETAILS OF ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION
Federal officials are still working to determine a motive behind Crooks’ assassination attempt against the former president, which left former Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department chief Corey Comperatore, 50, dead and two others — David “Jake” Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver ,74 — critically wounded. They are now in stable but serious condition.
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Crooks also visited the rally site at least one time before Saturday’s shooting, Wray reportedly said.
Bill Maher derides Trump voters who believe God spared former president from death
HBO host Bill Maher doesn’t believe that God’s hand saved former President Donald Trump from being killed by an assassin’s bullet last week and thinks those that do are getting close to making him a “demigod.”
In the closing monologue of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host mocked Trump supporters who have claimed that former President Trump’s assassination was prevented by an act of God, telling them to open their eyes and stop with the “magical thinking.”
“Enough is enough with interpreting every event as a DM [direct message] from heaven,” Maher said, rebuking religious Trump supporters during the segment.
TRUMP SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW GUNMAN EVADED SECURITY
Maher condemned the attempted assassination at the very beginning of his show, as he had shortly after the traumatic event occurred. He told his HBO audience on Friday, “You should be as angry about that as if the candidate you like got shot.”
He also hammered the U.S. Secret Service for appearing to drop the ball in preventing the incident, saying, “You should also be angry that the Secret Service allowed some kid with a sniper rifle and a range finder to get past the metal detectors. What? The TSA once tackled me over a bottle of Visine.”
Later in the show, however, Maher slammed the way some religious Trump fans have characterized his attempted murder.
The segment, titled, “In God We Lust,” began with the host stating, “Since the bullet that was meant for Donald Trump missed him last Saturday, Republicans have been indulging in an orgy of magical thinking, saying things like, ‘Trump wears the armor of God.’”
He shared quotes of various conservatives and pro-Trump influencers who claimed God protected the former President, including one from Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., himself a victim of an assassination attempt in 2017.
FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT QUESTIONS WHY TRUMP WAS ALLOWED ON STAGE AMID THREAT CONCERNS: ‘WHY NOT DELAY?’
Maher read Scalise’s post about the Trump shooting, which stated, “Yesterday, there were miracles. And I think the hand of God was there too.” The host then joked about how God handled Scalise’s shooting compared to how He handled Trump’s: “Steve was also shot, but God was having an off day. And that bullet missed his ear and went into his spleen.”
Warning his supporters to avoid attaching religious significance to Trump, he continued, “America doesn’t need a demigod. From the pharaohs to Julius Caesar, to Hirohito, many cultures have tried it – the earthly being who is simultaneously divine or god-ish. And it never turns out well.”
Elsewhere in the segment, he ripped religious people who claim to see signs from God in everything, even in mundane inanimate objects.
“There’s a kind of person in this world who loves to see signs in everything, never asking why – if God has something to communicate to us – he doesn’t just f—— say it. He’s God for God’s sakes. Why show up in a flapjack, or a frying pan, or a Walmart receipt?”
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Whitmer’s former opponent warns Dems would be making mistake putting her on ticket
MILWAUKEE – Former Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon warned that adding Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to the presidential ticket would be a bad move for Democrats but “fantastic” for Republicans.
Rumors have swirled in recent weeks that President Biden will yield to pressure and bow out of the 2024 presidential race, with some saying that Whitmer would be a top choice to step in. Dixon told Fox News Digital she has heard rumbling that Whitmer would be a top choice to be the vice president for Kamala Harris, which she called “shocking” but also “fantastic” for Republicans.
“I think that would be absolutely fantastic for us as Republicans, because I know that she has strong weaknesses when it comes to debating and for her to go up against a Senator, J.D. Vance, that would be a very big challenge for her and would show the country exactly who she is.”
Biden called on Americans to “lower the temperature in our politics” following the assassination attempt on Trump, but Republicans have criticized his campaign for launching more negative attacks since the attempted assassination. Whitmer is no stranger to criticism for inciting violence dating back to 2020 when the Trump campaign slammed her for appearing on camera while the digits “8645” in bubble letters were perched by a house plant on a coffee table behind her.
GOV. WHITMER TELLS ‘THE VIEW’ SHE NEVER SAID MICHIGAN’S UNWINNABLE FOR BIDEN: ‘CRAZIEST THING TO THINK’
At the time, the Trump campaign accused her of encouraging an assassination attempt, given that “86” can be shorthand for killing someone.
“She’s always, she’s constantly gone out and told people that so-and-so is a threat,” Dixon said. “Here’s a threat. There is a threat against your reproductive rights, and it’s all going to be taken away. But, you know, you talk about the 86, 45, and let’s not forget that she went out on national television and literally put a call to assassinate Donald Trump on her set right behind her, so the entire country would see it. I can’t think of anything more disgusting than having a sitting governor go out there and call for the assassination of a sitting president.”
DO THESE POTENTIAL BIDEN REPLACEMENTS HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BEAT TRUMP?
Whitmer, long rumored to be an option for Democrats if Biden drops out, would fare the best in a matchup with Trump, with a Fox News poll from November showing the Democratic governor within the margin of error of the former president, garnering 46% of the support of registered voters compared to 48% for Trump.
The two-term governor of the crucial Midwestern swing state could be an attractive option for Democrats, though Whitmer has reportedly expressed annoyance that her name is being mixed in as a potential replacement for Biden. Responding to a recent Politico report that the Michigan governor warned the Biden campaign the president no longer had a shot at winning her home state following the debate, Whitmer took to social media and asserted that anyone who thinks she would make such a claim is “full of s—.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Whitmer’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
Celebrity performs at funeral for firefighter who died shielding family at Trump rally
CABOT, Penn. – Billy Ray Cyrus on Friday appeared at the funeral for Corey Comepratore, a volunteer firefighter, husband and father who was killed by gunfire last Saturday during a rally for former President Donald Trump.
The “Achy Breaky Heart” singer was seen taking photos and shaking hands with law enforcement in attendance outside Cabot Church in Cabot, Pennsylvania, on Friday morning.
“Corey Comperatore is a[n] Army reservist veteran and former firefighter chief. Billy Ray Cyrus has always been passionate about honoring troops and first responders. Today he was honored to join the family and perform during the service,” a source told Fox News Digital on Friday.
The funeral for Comperatore, 50, drew hundreds of family members, friends and local law enforcement officials — both local and federal — to Cabot. Butler County residents, including those who knew the Comperatore family and those who did not, lined the rural roads surrounding the church with American flags and signs honoring Comperatore.
TRUMP SHOOTING VICTIM COREY COMPERATORE’S FUNERAL DRAWS HUNDREDS, SECURITY ON HIGH ALERT
“American Hero Corey Comperatore,” one sign read. Another called the volunteer firefighter a “true hero.”
Comperatore died after being shot at the rally while protecting his family.
LAST WORDS OF ‘HERO’ FIREFIGHTER WHO DIED AT TRUMP RALLY SHOOTING REVEALED
Former President Trump commemorated the fallen firefighter on Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, with Comperatore’s firefighter jacket and helmet displayed on stage.
“He lost his life selflessly acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets… what a fine man he was,” Trump said during his RNC speech on Thursday. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others.
TRUMP HONORS FALLEN FIREFIGHTER DURING RNC SPEECH
“This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours, and this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness.”
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Comperatore served 10 years in the U.S. Army Reserves, served as chief of the Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department in the early 2000s and was a church-going, loving father and husband.
WATCH: 5 of the most inflammatory moments from MSNBC hosts during the RNC
Despite calls on the left and right for the temperature to be dialed down following the assassination attempt against former President Trump, MSNBC hosts continued making inflammatory remarks during their coverage of the Republican National Convention this week.
Primetime hosts at the liberal network accused candidates of being secret racists and even gave a platform to conspiracy theories questioning if Trump was actually shot.
Here are five of the most eyebrow-raising remarks by MSNBC primetime hosts covering the RNC this past week.
Alex Wagner: JD Vance is a secret White nationalist, despite being married to an Indian woman
LIVE UPDATES: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
MSNBC host Alex Wagner attracted headlines after she claimed that Trump’s pick for vice president, JD Vance, dropped “Easter eggs of White nationalism” by saying during his RNC speech that he wanted to be buried in his family’s plot in Kentucky.
“I just think the construction of this notion reveals a lot about someone who fundamentally believes in the supremacy of whiteness and masculinity, and it’s couched in a sort of halcyon, you know, revisitation of his roots, but it is actually really revealing about what he thinks matters and who America is, and that America is a place for people with his shared Western background,” Wagner said.
Joy Reid: Getting better from COVID is like surviving getting shot
MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who questioned whether Trump was actually shot with a bullet at his rally on Saturday, argued on Wednesday that President Biden getting COVID-19 and recovering was “exactly the same thing” as Trump surviving an assassination attempt.
“This current President of the United States is 81 years old and has COVID, should he be fine in a couple of days, doesn’t that convey exactly the same thing? That he’s strong enough – older than Trump – to have gotten something that used to really be fatal to people his age. So, if he does fine out of it and comes back and is able to do rallies, isn’t that exactly the same?” Reid asked.
AMBER ROSE CLAPS BACK AT JOY REID AFTER CRITICIZING CONVENTION SPEECH: ‘STOP BEING A RACE BAITER’
Reid also seemed to entertain far-left theories casting doubt on the former president’s injuries.
“These two men are both elderly. Donald Trump is an elderly man who, for whatever reason, was given nine seconds to take an iconic photo op during an active shooter situation. Weird situation, we’ll figure that out one day,” Reid said.
The liberal host also suggested Trump was facing the “consequences” of his own “dangerous” rhetoric.
“The idea of political violence that we’ve been nursing really since then, is so dangerous,” she said. “It’s so dangerous that you cannot avoid the consequences of it, even if you’re one of the people promoting it.”
EDITOR AT ‘MAJOR NEWS OUTLET’ TELLS MEDIA TO BURY ICONIC PHOTO OF TRUMP AFTER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: REPORT
Michael Steele: Was Trump actually shot?
MSNBC host Michael Steele was similarly accused of pushing “conspiracy theories” this week in questioning whether Trump’s ear was hit by a bullet.
“A person lost their life, two have been severely injured, and yet we’ve not received a medical report from the hospital, nor have we received a medical report from the campaign, or from the Trump organization about the extent of the damage to his ear,” Steele said.
“If he was shot by a high-caliber bullet, there should probably be very little ear there,” he continued. “And so, we’d like to know that. Is there cosmetic surgery involved? What is the prognosis for recovery? Were there stitches? What is the extent and nature of the damage to his ear? Was it caused by a bullet, as opposed to, as some reports … saying it was actually shards of glass from the teleprompter?”
Rachel Maddow: Liking ‘Lord of the Rings’ is racist?
Like her colleague Alex Wagner, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow had her own unusual take on JD Vance. Maddow drew a connection between the senator’s interest in “The Lord of the Rings” to the “far-right.”
“‘Lord of the Rings’ is a sort of favorite cosmos for naming things and cultural references for a lot of far-right and alt-right figures, both in Europe and the United States. Peter Thiel names all these things after Tolkien figures in places like his company Palantir, for example,” Maddow said.
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“Like his mentor, like Peter Thiel, who had given him all his jobs in the world, Mr. Vance also when he founded his own venture capital firm with help from Peter Thiel, named it after a Lord of the Rings thing,” Maddow said. “He called it Narya, N-A-R-Y-A, which you can remember because it’s Aryan, but you move the n to the front,” she continued.
“Apparently, that word has something to do with elves and rings from the Lord of the Rings series, I don’t know.”
Nicolle Wallace: ‘Right-wing’ extremism is the real threat
At another point this week, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace became visibly frustrated over the way Biden had answered a question from NBC’s Lester Holt about “bullseye” rhetoric directed at Trump.
“There was one way to answer that question, and it was, ‘Lester, should I use the word bullseye or crosshair? No, but the FBI director that Donald Trump selected, his name is Christopher Wray, and he testified under oath before Congress that the greatest threat to this country is no longer foreign terrorism. It’s domestic violent extremism,'” Wallace said, growing angry as she spoke.
“Inside that threat, the biggest bucket by far is right-wing domestic violent extremism, so go talk to them,” she snapped while pointing her finger.
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The eyebrow-raising comments came as the liberal network found itself at the center of other controversies this week.
A New York Times report revealed MSNBC was projecting a live feed of the GOP convention as a background for several of its primetime shows, rather than reporting live from the event. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Jen Psaki, Joy Reid and other MSNBC anchors were not inside the convention hall or even in the same city, according to the report.
An MSNBC spokesman told the Times that at “the top of every broadcast, hosts identify themselves as being in New York or at MSNBC headquarters.” But critics say the live video feed of a bustling convention behind them sends a different impression to viewers tuning in throughout the night.
Still, the move drew mockery from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and others this week.
“We are here live, as opposed to some other networks that just have a big LED, who shall remain nameless,” Tapper said during an interview with Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.
The network also drew backlash from its own anchors after it pulled “Morning Joe” off the air on Monday in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against Trump two days prior.