FBI officials investigating the shooter in Butler, Pa., who targeted former President Donald Trump say they believe he acted alone and have not yet established a motive for Thomas Matthew Crooks’ alleged actions.
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office who is leading the investigation into the assassination attempt, said key evidence collected from the scene is being shipped to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va. These include an AR-style 556 rifle, which was purchased legally, as well as Crooks’ cellphone.
Also being analyzed is a device found in Crooks’ car. NPR previously reported that the device was explosive in nature. Rojek would not definitively say that, but other officials on a call with reporters said it was “rudimentary” in nature.
“Our primary focus is on the phone and we’re working to get access to the phone,” Rojek said.
Crooks’ family is cooperating with the investigation, FBI officials said. His father purchased the weapon used in the attack and investigators are looking into how Crooks gained access to it.
Investigators are also looking into Crooks’ actions in the days and weeks before the shooting, Rojek said.
Robert Wells, assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said the bureau was investigating the incident as “an act of domestic terrorism.”
There was no indication that Crooks had mental health issues and they found no threatening language on his social media accounts. The investigation is still in its early stages, he said. Investigators have limited insight into recent communications that Crooks made — texts and phone call details — that thus far has not revealed any motive for his actions. Rojek said the FBI has not yet identified an ideology associated with the shooter.
The FBI says that anyone who has information regarding the investigation is asked to call the organization's tip line, 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Investigations
President Joe Biden said Sunday there’s “no place in America” for political violence “or any kind of violence for that matter” following the assassination attempt.
He also urged patience as the FBI takes the lead in investigating the shooting.
“We don't yet have any information about the motive of the shooter. We know who he is,” Biden said from the White House. “I urge everyone, everyone, please don't make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations. Let the FBI do their job, and their partner agencies do their job.”
Biden spoke briefly with Trump last night and said he’s “sincerely grateful that he’s doing well and recovering.”
Former President Donald Trump was whisked away by the Secret Service during his campaign rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania after apparent gunshots were heard in the crowd.
— PBS News (@NewsHour) July 13, 2024
Trump turned to the crowd and raised a fist after the incident, with visible blood on his face. After… pic.twitter.com/Lvj14Yg5qu
He also extended condolences to the family of 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, a firefighter who was killed during the assassination attempt. “He was a father, who was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired,” Biden said. “And he lost his life, God love him.”
The president said he’s ordered the Secret Service to provide Trump with “every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety.”
He further ordered the Secret Service to review all security measures in place for the Republican National Convention, scheduled to begin in Milwaukee on Monday.
Biden also ordered an independent review of national security measures in place at Trump’s rally and promised to release the results of that investigation to the American people. “We must unite as one nation,” Biden said in closing. “We must unite as one nation to demonstrate who we are. “
Attorney General Merrick Garland said he had been briefed and the “the Justice Department will bring every available resource to bear to this investigation.”
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., also plans to launch an investigation, an aide confirmed to NPR on Sunday. Peters is also running the Senate Democrats' 2024 campaign operation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also vowed a full investigation, saying, “The American people deserve to know the truth.” Johnson promised to call FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials to testify.
The convention
Trump says the assassination attempt against him won’t interfere with his plan to travel to Milwaukee ahead of this week’s Republican National Convention there.
“Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a “shooter,” or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee, as scheduled, at 3:30 P.M. TODAY.”
In a separate post a few minutes later, Trump said: "UNITE AMERICA!"
At the convention, he is expected to accept the party's nomination for president and announce his running mate. His speech is set for Thursday.
The shooting Saturday did little to deter support for people like Cooper Walden who traveled from Illinois. He quickly learned of the assassination attempt through social media. “I think there are going to be some people that feel that way, just, you know, to just see someone that you support the attack like that, you know, really hits you,” Walden explained.
Walden is not a delegate but he is one of thousands expected to be in Milwaukee for the convention this week.
Organizers of the largest expected protest against the convention also said their plans have not changed in light of the shooting. “We are confident in our security plan,” said Omar Flores, a spokesperson for Coalition to March on the RNC, in a statement on Saturday night. He emphasized the group’s experience organizing protests without injuries and violence, but noted there will be “teams of experienced marshals and medics prepared to keep us safe.”
Anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 people are expected to attend that rally and march on the first day of the RNC. The hotly contested march route was only recently worked out on Friday with the city of Milwaukee — which is hosting the convention — to allow demonstrators within sight and sound of RNC delegates at the Fiserv Forum arena — but not within the security perimeter for the venue.
Reaction
A Biden campaign official said the Biden campaign is pausing all outbound communications and working to pull down its television ads. Democratic volunteers were supposed to go out knocking on doors and campaigning for Biden this weekend, but a campaign official says in-person campaigning is on hold, for now.
This follows an earlier announcement from Biden's campaign that they were rushing to pull down all TV ads and other messaging in light of the attack on Trump. It's not clear how long the campaign will pause activity, given that the Republican National Convention starts on Monday in Milwaukee and Trump's campaign has already sent a fundraising appeal following the shooting.
In a statement issued Sunday morning, Former Vice President Mike Pence expressed gratitude for Trump's recovery and condemned political violence — something with which he has personal experience. Pence wrote on X that he and his wife Karen are praying for Trump's recovery, as well as for those "lost and injured in this horrific attack."
"There is no place in America for political violence and it must be universally condemned," he wrote.
Pence, who has not endorsed Trump, has blamed the former president for endangering his life on January 6, by pressuring him to block the certification of the election results and telling angry supporters that he hoped Pence would "do the right thing."
Some of the protesters who later stormed the Capitol building to interrupt the vote certification chanted "Hang Mike Pence." Pence has since condemned both political violence and Trump's actions, saying in 2023 that "His reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day."
Pence's comments came after leading congressional leaders from both parties, former Republican candidates and former presidents all condemned political violence and offered their sympathies on Saturday.
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) July 14, 2024
Europe’s leaders also spoke out against political violence following the shooting.
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned the attack on Trump, calling it despicable. Writing on X, Scholz wished Trump a speedy recovery and warned that “such acts of violence threaten democracy.”
Also writing on X, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, sent Trump his “thoughts and prayers” in what he called “these dark hours.”
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said she hopes “dialogue can prevail over hate and violence” in the next few months of the election campaign, while British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “appalled by the shocking scenes” at the rally.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she is deeply shocked, a sentiment shared by the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who has called the shooting “unacceptable.”
Texas and San Antonio reaction
San Antonio and other Texas officials all condemned the shooting.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg called it a "devastating day for America."
Devastating day for America.
— Mayor Ron Nirenberg (@Ron_Nirenberg) July 13, 2024
Political violence is an immeasurable step beyond the pale. Wishing Donald Trump a swift recovery.
Praying for those affected, Pennsylvania, and our nation.
San Antonio State Sen. Roland Gutierrez said "guns have no place at political rallies. Or in elementary schools. Or churches. Or grocery stores."
Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro agreed with many Democrats and Republicans in condemning political violence and praying for Trump's recovery.
South Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar sent his thoughts and prayers to Trump and his family.
Democratic Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred said that "violence of any kind has no place in our democracy."
Democratic Congressman Greg Casar condemned "political violence against Trump or anyone else."
San Antonio Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales said he is praying for Trump's "speedy recovery."
Central Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett said: "Violence begets violence, whether directed at Trump or inspired by him." He condemned all acts of violence and said, "In America, we must make our voices heard by ballots, not bullets."
The rally and the shots
Among those in the crowd during the Saturday rally was NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben, who was covering the event along with other news media.
Kurtzleben told NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday that, roughly 10 minutes into Trump’s speech, a series of loud pops rang out and those in the press pen took cover.
“We all and plenty of people in the crowd as well dropped to the ground and waited for the pops to stop,” she said.
Kurtzleben then saw a cluster of Secret Service agents surround Trump, who held his fist in the air in the moments after the assassination attempt to cheers from the audience.
Quickly, many attendees tried to leave the crowded rally in rural Butler, Pa., about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. “You had a lot of people in a place that’s just hard to get out of quickly,” she said.
A man, appearing in a seemingly blood-stained shirt, told a CBS campaign reporter that he was an emergency room physician and graphically recalled attempting to provide aid to one victim — who he said had suffered a shot to the head.
Another man told NBC he was standing next to a man who was fatally shot. He said initially there was confusion within the crowd as to whether it was fireworks or gunshots.
A woman in attendance told an NBC affiliate that it was her adult son who first heard the gunshots and warned her to get down. Her son, she said, squeezed her hand, alerting her to just how frightening the situation had become.
One man who was outside the rally told the BBC he had seen the alleged shooter on a roof holding a firearm and attempted to alert law enforcement, but was ultimately ignored. Minutes later, he said, shots were fired.
A CNN map of the scene of shooting. pic.twitter.com/OF4tUFCVrR
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 14, 2024
Chris Takach, an attendee at the rally, told Oliver Morrison, a reporter for NPR member station WESA: “We were next to the speaker tower on the fence line, heard the shots, we heard ammunition, riddle around in metal and then the hydraulic line on the speaker tower on the right side come down and then everybody hit the deck and then the cops all converged toward the, the right side of his body, Trump’s that is.”
In audio obtained by Kurtzleben, a member of the rally audience turned to the press and placed blame on the media for the incident. “Hey you! This is your fault! Your fault,” the person could be heard saying.
Once the gunman was "neutralized" by a Secret Service counterassault team, Trump was rushed off stage and the rally ended soon thereafter. Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign's communication director, said Trump was checked out at a local medical facility and was fine.
"I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania," Trump said in a statement on Truth Social on Saturday. "Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said he heard six to eight shots and saw a rally attendee just behind him who appeared to be very hurt.
“I was on the front row standing up about 30 feet from President Trump when the shooting started. There was a lady behind me who caught a stray bullet. She seemed to be in pretty serious condition,” Miller told The Texas Newsroom.
Miller, a potential future cabinet pick if Trump is elected again, said he suspected a small caliber weapon was used because of the sounds the shots gave off.
“At first when it went off, I thought it was a balloon. Second one went off, I thought, well, maybe that's firecrackers. And by the third one, I realized that it was a gunshot,” he said.
Miller said he saw the president hit. While most people took cover, he gazed around for the shooter but could not identify one in the chaos. Miller, a rancher, said he’d never before had an experience like this.
He wished for the best for Trump and the rally attendees who were hurt. “We’ll just keep them in our prayers,” he said.
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 14, 2024
Fears of political violence
Recent polling suggests a growing number of Americans may see political violence as an option, and at the same time, more Americans are worried about that possibility.
A Public Religion Research Institute survey released in October 2023 found increasing support for political violence, with 23 percent of those surveyed agreeing with the statement “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country. That’s up from 15% in 2021.
Republicans were more likely than Democrats to agree with that statement, and people who believed Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen were even more likely to agree with it.
At the same time, a Pew Research Center survey earlier this year found a majority of Americans — about 7 in 10 — think politicians should “avoid heated or aggressive language” because it could encourage violence.
Again, there is a partisan gap here; majorities of Americans from both parties expressed those concerns, but Democrats were much more likely to say politicians should avoid heated language.
Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords — herself a survivor of political violence, responded to what happened at the Trump rally by saying, "Political violence is terrifying. I know."
"I’m holding former president Trump, and all those affected by today’s indefensible act of violence in my heart," she said. "Political violence is un-American and is never acceptable — never."
Historical resonance
The attack on Trump calls to mind past incidents of political violence in U.S. history, including assassinations and attempts on leading political figures. Here’s a look at several of the most significant moments of this kind in U.S. history.
Presidential Assassinations: John F. Kennedy, William McKinley, James A. Garfield, Abraham Lincoln: Four sitting U.S. presidents have been assassinated. President Kennedy’s assassination was the first of several high-profile and pivotal assassinations during the tumultuous and violent 1960s, including the killings of civil rights leaders Malcolm X in 1965 and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, and Kennedy’s own younger brother, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968. President Lincoln was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer, just after the end of the Civil War in 1865. The two others, though less-discussed today, were President James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881, and President William McKinley in 1901.
Attempt: Ronald Reagan, 1981: About two months into his first term as president, Ronald Reagan was shot outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981. Reagan, his press secretary, a Secret Service agent, and a police officer were injured. The president was hospitalized for 12 days.
This is how the Secret Service reacted in 1981 when Ronald Reagan was shot.pic.twitter.com/N4GBoHqMWZ
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 13, 2024
Assassination: Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968: The civil rights leader was shot and killed in Tennessee while preparing to march on behalf of Black sanitation workers who were striking for better working conditions. King had faced arrests, violence, and threats for his civil rights activism and had alluded to the risk to his life in his public comments.
Attempt: George Wallace, 1972: George Wallace, the Alabama governor who became infamous for his segregationist views, was shot and paralyzed from the waist down during a speech near Washington, D.C. in 1972, while campaigning for president. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who himself had been assassinated four years earlier, had called Wallace “perhaps the most dangerous racist in America today,” noting Wallace’s exceptional rhetorical skills. However, Wallace eventually had an apparent change of heart and spent his later years seeking forgiveness for his promotion of racist ideas and policies.
Assassination: Robert F. Kennedy, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, was killed by a Palestinian from Lebanon who said that he was angry about Kennedy’s support for Israel. The shooting came while RFK was running for president, less than five years after his older brother’s assassination in 1963 — and just months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Attempt: Theodore Roosevelt, 1912: Theodore Roosevelt, who had first served as vice president, initially became president in 1901 as a result of McKinley's assassination. Roosevelt himself would later face an assassination attempt on his own life while campaigning for a third term as president in 1912 in Milwaukee. Roosevelt survived the shooting but ultimately lost the election to Woodrow Wilson.
Other Recent High-Profile Attacks: The shooting of Trump comes after a period of heightened political extremism and threats of violence, according to historian Leah Wright Rigueur of Johns Hopkins University. She points to shootings of members of Congress in recent years, including Gabby Giffords and Steve Scalise, as well as the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as examples of escalating tendencies toward political violence. “We’ve passed a tipping point,” she told NPR. “This is an incredibly important and dangerous moment in American history.”
Lindsay Chervinsky, a presidential historian and author of Making of the Presidency, said this reminds her of the 1960s — a time of “racial tensions, economic challenges, unpopular wars, divisions within the parties and sectional realignments.”
Chervinsky expressed concerns about the potential for “escalation of violent rhetoric among his supporters” and a heightened sense of “persecution.”
Yale historian Joanne Freeman said there is still much to be learned about the attack, but said that violent rhetoric “helps normalize this kind of act.”
Norma Martinez, the Texas Newsroom's Lauren McGaughy and NPR's Jason Breslow, Megan Pratz, Krishnadev Calamur, Esme Nicholson, Liz Baker, Tamara Keith, Emma Bowman, Sarah McCammon, Alana Wise, Ben Stiles, Elena Moore, Jeongyoon Han, and Ximena Bustillo contributed to this report.