Registered Republican, how about that...

Yeah, but he isn’t a true republican! He was an Antifa double agent from the Queer Terrorist camps in woke San Francisco!
(This was a joke. Please don’t quote this shit)
- Wait until google's AI quotes you on this shit
  
  Fuck.
- Reuters and others are all like "despite being registered republican, HE DONATED TO ACT BLUE WHEN HE WAS A CHILD. THATS 15 DOLLARS OK, SO...THE IMPLICATIONS."
  
  To clarify, someone named "Thomas Crooks" from ZIP 15102 donated $15 to ActBlue in January 2021 (when the shooter would have been 17 years old).
  So there's a chance that this isn't the same guy, because without a middle name or additional identifiers, there are plenty of other people with this name whom this could be.
  There's also a chance that this was him and his political views have changed in the past 3 years since donating to ActBlue. 17-20 is definitely the age where people break free from their parents' political ideals. It's also when severe mental illnesses can manifest.
  Regardless, he registered as Republican and voted in elections after this donation was made, and his voter registration occurred nearly three full years before the assassination attempt, so it's not like he changed his voter registration last minute in an attempt to troll. He's been registered as a Republican since Biden's first year in office, and donating the equivalent of 30 minutes of minimum wage labor to the DNC three years ago isn't really indicative of anything.
  
  I just took a peek at the bad place most of us migrated from, and let me tell you they are REALLY convinced that this 15$ donation (if it was even him) is the most significant thing about this person.
- Quoted and reported to the news as coming from a reputable anonymous source ..... you are reputable right?
  
  "Many people are saying it."
  
  Can't be less reputable than the average republican politician
- Queer Terrorist Camps would be an excellent name for a gay bar in the Castro
- Sorry bro, your account isn't marked as a bot account. I'm citing this comment as a reputable source in an academic paper and there's nothing you can do about it.
- !shirtsthatgohard@lemmy.world

Some social media accounts said that a gunman with ties to the “deep state” had opened fire and shot Mr. Trump. Without citing evidence, the accounts also blamed government agencies such as the F.B.I. and the Centers for Disease Control for targeting Mr. Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/us/politics/trump-rally-disinformation-x-social-media.html
Ah yes, the CDC, well known for it's highly trained hit squads. I can't even with these chuckleheads anymore. It would just be hilarious if they weren't poised to wreck the country for at least most of the duration of my likely natural life.
- A highly trained squad wouldn't have missed him. This proves that it's a CDC action. /s
  
  I know this is sarcasm but, I mean If I was the CDC and I wanted to neutralize an old man, I probably wouldn't use bullets. That's a like a rogue leaving their poisons at home so they could instead carry a sword and shield against someone whos super weak to poison.
- That alone is so telling to me:
  One: it's obviously projection as it always is. Which means we can expect previously mundane regulatory agencies beefed up in ways that make no sense with regards to enforcing what's in their purview, in order to carry out dirty tasks like this. This is a self-report. They're telling us exactly what they want to do with our federal agencies.
  Two: it's just more indication of how easy it is going to be for the Republicans to "dismantle the administrative state" (literally their own words). If this is how their base thinks regulatory agencies operate, then it's going to be real fucking easy to convince any who aren't already onboard to get rid of them entirely.
  
  When they consider homosexuality to be a disease...
  
  Thanks for taking it a level deeper than my general snark towards R. You are spot on.

Oh, he was a registered Republican? Mentally ill lone wolf is back on the menu, boys!
- It doesn’t seem like it ever left the menu. This menu sucks ass.

We should make a bingo board of all the conspiracies.

With Donald Trump dead, the replacement candidate would win without effort. The same is true if someone targeted Biden.
They're both so bad that their deaths would boost their own parties.
- Honestly, I completely disagree.
  If Biden came out, Kamala would likely be in. No one really likes Kamala, she's just a resounding meh. And plenty of people are just plain racist.
  If Trump came out, I'm not sure who would replace him, but nobody would have such a death grip on his base like he does. Many of them probably wouldn't even vote.
  
  came out
  Like, as gay?
- Not only that, more than most of Bidens campaign message is just warnings about Trump. If Trumps not the candidate Biden will have wasted billions and a lot of time on political messaging that doesn't matter anymore.
  
  That's not really true. Mostly it's him struggling to describe all the ways that he's been one of the better progressive presidents despite having a completely non functional congress and outright hostile court. The only message that sticks is how awful Trump is because it's easy to say and understand, and is obviously true to some and obviously false to others.

So this makes it I'd say 50/50 IMO that either the motive was a personal grudge against some misfortune he blames Trump specifically for a la the assassination of Shinzo Abe, or that he was a gun nut who didn't want to surrender his Common Law AR-15 nor his Common Law stash of cocaine laced LSD at a security checkpoint, and went up on the roof to watch the show until he finished off the entire stash in one go and the demons told him that there was someone charging his position through the stage or something.
I'm almost more inclined to believe the second one because the first shot that actually caused the ear bleeding is now rumored to not have actually hit Trump but instead the Teleprompter which sprayed glass Shrapnel at the felon in chief which is what actually cut his ear.
This would imply that the first shot which he'd have the most opportunity to laze the shot for was not actually aimed directly at Trump as much as in the same direction as he happened to be in relative to the shooter. Unless the teleprompter was a lot closer to Trump at this particular rally than they usually are to the stage during most rallies on either side of the aisle.
- He might also have been trying to impress some young Hollywood starlet (Reagan got shot because his shooter got obsessed with Jodie Foster after watching Taxi Driver) or some other form of mental illness (besides being a gun nut and Republican, I mean)...
  
  Also a chance that he knew an attempt on Trump would make him a martyr
  Quick Edit: Not saying he thought things through or was sane. After all, he used live rounds when blanks would still make noise and ensure Trump was not in danger. Just that it could have been his intent
- My favorite conspiracy theory is that the shooter wasn't trying to get Trump at all. They were trying to kill a member of the secret service and got Trump instead.
- Suppose I'll vote on the grudge.
  He was registered Republican, young, and so likely part of Republican family. He felt like giving to Democrats in 2021 (odd year for a political donation). So I'm imagining a close family member who was all in on Trump and anti mask and anti vaccine dying from COVID-19. In the short term he tossed a little money at Democrats as some sort of small token retribution.
  As to why he'd miss, he's likely barely got experience and hitting a target from a distance is hard.
- Could also be a self appointed (or not) agent provocateur, who thought that a near miss would make trump a hero and his supporters even more fired up (in reality they didn't need a push - the cult members already twist anything he does or is done to him to make him a hero), and martyred himself for "the cause" (E: or believed whoever hired him that he would be spared). I really wouldn't put that past the average trump supporter.
- Or he was a democrat who registered republican so that he could try to vote someone else in the primary.
  
  This is a real thing that people do.
- “Cocaine-laced LSD” brother at least come up with plausible drug-lacing combinations, you really sound like you have no idea what drugs are or do.
  You do realize that “drug bad all bad everyone who drug bad unga bunga” was one of the methods they used to get us to where we are today right?
  
  It was a joke
  
  I'm positive it was meant as hyperbole.

Lots of Nazis tried to kill Hitler.
- And what did Hitler do? Blame the Jews.

- I have never accepted the whole concept of how our personalities are written in the stars, but as a Scorpio, I'm naturally skeptical.
- LOL

Technical question: I don't get what that registration is. Was he a member of the party?
Is it just the registration to be eligble to vote and if yes, how the fluff does it contain info on the party? Doesn't the US have secrecy of the ballot?
- In most states, only party members can vote in their party’s primary elections.
  Primary elections are held before the general election to pick the party’s candidates for the general.
  
  In most states, only party members can vote in their party’s primary elections.
  Minor point of clarification:
  Pennsylvania is one of only 14 states with closed primaries
  
  Maybe he wanted to vote against Trump several times: both in the primary and main
  
  That's kind of true, but it depends. Most states don't have laws requiring closed primaries and allows the party to choose which voters to include. However, in general the Republican party tends to have closed primaries when possible.
  They are closed in Pennsylvania, though.
  https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/state-primary-election-types
- I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but you're required to register a party affiliation before you can vote in the primaries. As a liberal, I've considered registering Republican in situations where the Democratic nominee has pretty much been decided and I want to give a boost to less polarizing Republican candidates. Pennsylvania is one such state that uses the closed party system (you need to be Republican to vote in Republican primaries). I've since moved to a state that allows "Independent party" members to choose the primary they wish to vote in.
  Not saying this explains the shooter's party affiliation, we still need to wait on all the details. Just something to keep in mind so we don't jump to conclusions.
  
  That varies state to state. Some states (like Texas) have open primaries where you just choose at the voting station which ballot you want. Others (like Pennsylvania) have closed primaries where you have to be registered as a member of the party to vote in the primary.
- The USA doesn’t really have party members in the sense you’re thinking. It’s not a club that you either belong to or don’t. Being a "party member" can have different meanings depending on context.
  Political parties exist at both the state level and the national level, and the state parties mostly operate independently of the national parties. Each U.S. state has different rules governing political parties and how they work, and each state party has its own rules for how it administers itself.
  You only need to care about that stuff if you want to be a party official or a candidate for political office. As an ordinary voter, all you really need to care about is whether your state has party registration or not, and to register with the party you intend to vote for, as many states only allow you to participate in the primary election for the party in which you are registered to vote for.
  As for ballot secrecy, yes, how you actually vote is private information, but how you registered to vote, and what elections you voted in, are public information.
  
  Thanks alot.
  This is a confusing/interesting way of ballot secrecy. Basically it sounds like: You have to make a public statement for one political party, but you are allowed to lie. Thus it's secret
- You generally need to register with a party to participate in party primaries.
  Some states allow you to do it day of, some require large lead times.

A motive was not clear
bitch please

Posted this elsewhere but will join into the discussion under this meme as well:
So, this is 100% speculative rambling at this point, but as a gut feeling on my part that can be proven wrong: I get the feeling it might have been someone from a Republican family, possibly shitty family psychology-wise, registered as Republican for his families sake but got f'd up by the pressure within his personal relationships and the state of the world, who radicalised himself on the internet.
- I'll offer "hard core maga family, and a close loved one died from COVID-19 and he blames Trump"

Does anyone know if these chuds typically tell each other to donate once to a seemingly counter political cause, through a public record digital trail, so that it adds deniability and confusion if/when they go forward with the suicide mission?
Like these folks need the excuse, but I can see that easily being a tactic.

Fascinating https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SexmfU6b1ik

He has always denounced crooks