{"id":2295847,"date":"2024-07-16T09:27:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T13:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-videos-from-trump-shooter-explode-leave-major-question-that-the-establishment-media-cant-answer\/"},"modified":"2024-07-16T09:52:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T13:52:16","slug":"watch-videos-of-trump-shooter-explosion-raise-unanswered-questions-for-mainstream-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-videos-of-trump-shooter-explosion-raise-unanswered-questions-for-mainstream-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Videos of Trump Shooter Explosion Raise Unanswered Questions for Mainstream Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwatch-videos-of-trump-shooter-explosion-raise-unanswered-questions-for-mainstream-media%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2295847&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the recent shooting of former President Donald Trump and delves into the background \u2063of the alleged shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks. It explores the lack of online footprint \u2062for \u2063Crooks, particularly\u200d on <a title=\"Facebook's Vaccine Information Censorship Effort: The Facebook Files\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-facebook-files-the-effort-to-censor-vaccine-information\/\">social media \u200cplatforms<\/a> like Discord, raising questions about the information being shared with the\u2063 public. The article also touches on the prevalence of\u2063 conspiracy theories surrounding assassinations and the importance of ensuring a full and accurate account of events to prevent the spread of misinformation.<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/commentary\/\">Commentary <\/a><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif;\">By <\/span><a style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/author\/cillianzeal\/%20\">C. Douglas Golden<\/a><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif;\"> \u00a0July 16, 2024 at 3:44am<\/span><\/p>\n<section>There\u2019s a reason conspiracy theories tend to crop up surrounding assassins or would-be assassins: For the most part, the men and women who attempt (and sometimes succeed) at these acts don\u2019t usually do so with clear, rational motives.With the exception of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/actor-defends-pro-trump-jon-voight-john-wilkes-booth-comparison\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Abraham Lincoln\u2019s killer<\/a> \u2014 who wished to keep the cause of the Confederacy alive \u2014 assassins of U.S. history, anyway, tend to be a hodgepodge of fringe lunatics shunned by normal society.In 1981, Ronald Reagan shooter John Hinckley carried out his act in the hopes of impressing actress Jodie Foster. Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated President James Garfield in 1881 was an insane office-seeker prone to fits of unwarranted grandiosity who was shunned from a bizarre 19th century sex cult and was termed, in a 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/article\/president-garfields-assassin-charles-guiteau-was-one-of-historys-first-incels\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Post<\/a> piece, \u201cone of history\u2019s first incels.\u201dMost were simply psychotic and wanted to make a name for themselves but lacked the necessary tools to do so \u2014 except through infamy.<\/p>\n<p>This invariably leads to conspiracy theories and the suspicion that we aren\u2019t being told the complete story. The conspiracies may be false but the second part is all too true; the establishment media outlets are often all-too-happy to go along with whatever narrative is fed to them until it\u2019s <a title=\"Biden gun policies concern Second Amendment advocates\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-gun-policies-concern-second-amendment-advocates\/\">long past time<\/a> when the facts of the matter could be properly sussed out.<\/p>\n<p>Even then, we\u2019re kept in the dark as Americans far too often \u2014 such as with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/trump-reveals-main-suspect-cover-jfk-assassination-docs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">JFK assassination files<\/a>, which were supposed to be released in full years ago and, shocker of shockers, still haven\u2019t been fully made public.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings us to the curious case of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old man who shot former President Donald Trump on Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounding him in the ear. One member of the audience was killed and two others were critically wounded.<\/p>\n<p>Crooks, you\u2019ll likely not be surprised to learn, was reportedly bullied throughout high school and described as a \u201cloner.\u201d However, unlike many loners who find solace in the digital world provided by social media, we seem to have very little footprint of Crooks\u2019 online activities thus far.<\/p>\n<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/07\/14\/nx-s1-5039185\/who-was-alleged-trump-rally-shooter-thomas-matthew-crooks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NPR<\/a> profile of Crooks lists only a presence on the social media chat app Discord, where users join one or many of at least 25,000 \u201cservers\u201d (as of 2023, at least, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1429573\/discord-number-of-servers-by-category\/#:~:text=Discord%20was%20launched%20as%20a,of%20over%2025%20thousand%20servers.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Statista<\/a>) dedicated to everything from music to politics to general chat. Other than that, according to NPR, \u201c[t]o the extent he used social media, it appears he left no major footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have identified an account that appears to be linked to the suspect; it was rarely utilized and we have found no evidence that it was used to plan this incident, promote violence, or discuss his political views,\u201d a Discord representative told NPR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDiscord strongly condemns violence of any kind, including political violence, and we will continue to coordinate closely with law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, for those who are going to become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/trump-assassin-linked-blackrock-strangest-twist-yet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thomas Crooks<\/a> \u201ctruthers,\u201d several things don\u2019t ring true about this, particularly in the light of a report from, of all places, the celebrity-news-chasing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2024\/07\/15\/thomas-matthew-crooks-joking-classmates-penis-donald-trump-assasination-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TMZ<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The gossip site has been digging further into Crooks\u2019 life than many other outlets have been \u2014 and, according to a Monday afternoon report, \u201cCrooks was \u2026 described to us as a savant when it came to computer tech. He was one of the most talented students in class \u2014 being able to take computers apart and reassemble them without a hitch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the site was able to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2024\/07\/15\/thomas-matthew-crooks-joking-classmates-penis-donald-trump-assasination-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">obtain a video<\/a> of him in 2020 saying that he was attending Stanford University and had abnormally large genitalia. (The first is untrue, Crooks was in 10th grade at the time. We won\u2019t speculate on the second.)<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>WARNING: The following video contains graphic language that some viewers will find offensive.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JUST IN: TMZ has obtained footage of Thomas Matthew Crooks claiming he had a 10-inch pen*s.<\/p>\n<p>The video was reportedly taken in February of 2020 at Steel Center Career and Technical Education in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>Classmates say Crooks was quiet but would open up and\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1eJm2jAlDG\">pic.twitter.com\/1eJm2jAlDG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CollinRugg\/status\/1812971491417551282?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Crooks, classmates said, according to TMZ, could open up once he warmed up to a social situation. Thus, we are left with a number of questions as to what we\u2019re being told about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/secret-service-scrambles-shift-blame-trump-shooting-backlash-hits-hard-nobody-contacted\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">alleged shooter\u2019s<\/a> social media footprint and what is actually\u00a0<em>known<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And the curiosity is undeniable. TMZ\u2019s post publicizing its report on the social media platform X had more than 1.6 million views as of Tuesday morning Eastern Time \u2014 that\u2019s viral by any standard. A post about the report, above, from conservative commentator Collin Rugg had 13.4 million \u2014 that\u2019s explosive.<\/p>\n<p>If TMZ is to be believed \u2014 and as tawdry as the Hollywood gossip site can get, it\u2019s right more often than not \u2014 this was apparently a computer whiz who, in real life, was a loner. Using a priori logic, we can deduce therefore that much of his time could have been spent in the virtual world of social media.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/explodingtopics.com\/blog\/top-social-media-platforms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study<\/a> published earlier this month on data-centric platform Exploding Topics using traffic numbers from the software and analytics companies Semrush and Similarweb, Discord \u2014 which started as a platform for in-game chatting for video game players but has since expanded to a general chatroom app \u2014 wasn\u2019t even in the top 25 social media platforms by <a title=\"Dating App Bumble Shares Close 63% Higher After IPO, With Founder Becoming \u2018Youngest Female CEO To Take A Large U.S. Company Public\u2019\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dating-app-bumble-shares-close-63-higher-after-ipo-with-founder-becoming-youngest-female-ceo-to-take-a-large-u-s-company-public\/\">monthly active users<\/a>, or MAUs. It placed 27th with roughly 200 million MAUs.<\/p>\n<p>Now, some of the platforms ahead of Discord are unique to other parts of the world and wouldn\u2019t be germane to a U.S. social media user. Chinese platforms WeChat, Douyin, Baidu and Sina Weibo, among others, had higher MAUs than Discord.<\/p>\n<p>However, compare <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wow-company-accused-using-memory-kobe-bryant-keep-gamers-engaged\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Discord\u2019s<\/a> 200 million MAUs with No. 1 Facebook\u2019s 3.06 billion, No. 3 WhatsApp\u2019s 2.40 billion, No. 4 Instagram\u2019s 2.35 billion, No. 15 X\/Twitter\u2019s 600 million or even No. 18 Reddit\u2019s 430 million. We\u2019re being told that a computer \u201csavant\u201d only has a footprint on \u2026 Discord?<\/p>\n<p>And, before you ask \u2014 no, the explanation isn\u2019t that he wanted to stay off the radar by focusing on a privacy-centric app for social media. In fact, Discord is notorious for being one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/discuss.techlore.tech\/t\/discord-is-a-privacy-nightmare\/7007\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">worst offenders<\/a> when it comes to maintaining user privacy, so much so that even Mark Zuckerberg might be impressed. No. 3 WhatsApp and No. 8 Telegram offer far more privacy features, so that argument goes out the window.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, the question raises itself: Did this shooter have accounts on more <a title=\"DEA: Criminal drug networks are flooding U.S. with deadly fentanyl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dea-criminal-drug-networks-are-flooding-u-s-with-deadly-fentanyl\/\">mainstream social media apps<\/a>, and what was he posting on there? The establishment media outlets can\u2019t answer this \u2014 nor do they seem to be particularly interested, judging from the coverage.<\/p>\n<p>The answer could very well be nothing. This could be another John Hinckley or Charles Guiteau, just another madman who found an opportunity and went for it. Or, it could be another John Wilkes Booth striking a blow for the Confederacy, or an unstable communist like Lee Harvey Oswald taking a shot at Kennedy. (Or so the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/tucker-carlson-releases-explosive-interview-rfk-jr-touching-ukraine-jfk-assassination-lied\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> official story<\/a> goes.)<\/p>\n<p>The thing is that we don\u2019t know and that things don\u2019t add up. This is how conspiracy theories spread like pathogens \u2014 and until we get a full and reasonable account of who Crooks was and how he managed to go undetected and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/breaking-shooter-spotted-30-min-firing-reported-multiple-times-pics-taken-no-one-stopped-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nearly kill<\/a> the presumptive nominee for president, the nagging sensation will linger that we aren\u2019t being told the whole truth and nothing but the truth.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div>\n<p><b><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Commentary by C. Douglas Golden on July 16, 2024 discusses the tendency for conspiracy theories to arise around assassins, who often have irrational motives. The article highlights the case of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who shot former President Donald Trump, and questions the lack of information about his online presence. The author raises concerns about the incomplete narrative surrounding Crooks and the potential for conspiracy theories to spread. The article also includes a note from the Deputy Managing Editor urging support for The Western Journal in the face of challenges from Big Tech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":2295848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/crooks-sbs-trump-for-july-16-2024.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[15368,33831,6842,3634,6554],"class_list":["post-2295847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-explosion","tag-mainstream-media","tag-shooter","tag-trump","tag-videos"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/crooks-sbs-trump-for-july-16-2024.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2295847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2295848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2295847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2295847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2295847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}