Gunman flew drone over Trump rally area before shooting: FBI
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The FBI head says there is currently no proof that gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks had any collaborators or co-conspirators.
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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on July 20, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (AP)
The 20-year-old gunman, who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a campaign rally, flew a drone over the location about two hours before the speech began, the FBI director said on Wednesday.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said before a Senate committee that the investigation into the July 13 incident had not yet uncovered the gunman's purpose.
Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault weapon soon after 6:00 pm, when the Republican presidential nominee was addressing a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper less than 30 seconds after firing and US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday after the organization came under heavy criticism for failing to stop the attack.
According to Wray, Crooks flew a drone above the rally location for approximately 11 minutes on the day of the incident, between 3:50 and 4:00 pm, about 200 yards (meters) away from the platform where Trump was set to speak.
The drone and controller were found in the gunman's vehicle as well as two "relatively crude" explosive devices and another at Crooks' home.
The FBI director stated that the bombs could be detonated remotely and that the shooter was carrying a transmitter when he was shot.
Wray stated that "the on-off position on the receivers," means had he attempted to detonate them from the roof, he would have been unsuccessful.
"But that doesn't mean the explosives weren't dangerous."
When asked how many rounds Crooks fired, Wray said eight cartridges had been found on the roof.
The head of the FBI told reporters that investigators "do not yet have a clear picture of his motive," despite working hard to find one.
According to Wray, the attacker "appears to have done a lot of searches of public figures, in general" although Crooks became "very focused on former president Trump and this rally" starting somewhere around July 6 or so.
The FBI chief revealed that Crooks even Googled 'How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?', referring to Lee Harvey Oswald's assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
He stated that there is currently no proof that Crooks had any collaborators or co-conspirators.
At 1st rally since shooting, Trump says 'took a bullet for democracy'
Donald Trump, addressing his first campaign rally on Saturday since surviving an assassination attempt, dismissed concerns that he poses a threat to America's democratic system, telling the crowd, "I took a bullet for democracy."
"I'm not an extremist at all," claimed the newly-crowned Republican presidential nominee at the Michigan rally, downplaying his reported links to Project 2025, a shadow manifesto from his close associates described by critics as an authoritarian, right-wing agenda.
He also mocked the Democratic Party, which is under unprecedented pressure for President Joe Biden to abandon his reelection bid due to concerns about his age and fitness to serve until 2029, if reelected.
"They have no idea who their candidate is... This guy goes and he gets the votes, and now they want to take it away. That's democracy," Trump told the crowd of 12,000 supporters.
The presidential hopeful revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping sent him a “beautiful note” following the assassination attempt.
"[President Xi Jinping] wrote me a beautiful note the other day when he heard about what happened," he said.
Trump described Xi as "a brilliant man who controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist," adding that the Chinese leader makes people like Biden look like “babies.”
He also lauded Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin as "smart, tough" leaders who "love their country," echoing his 2022 praise for Putin’s decision to launch a special military operation in Ukraine.
In that 2022 speech at a rally in Georgia, Trump described DPRK leader Kim Jong Un as "tough", and remarked about Kim and Xi, "The smartest one gets to the top."
