Former President Donald Trump is proceeding with the Republican convention in Milwaukee this week after an attempted assassination on Saturday, one that opened up major implications for politics and national security and left politicians on both sides of the aisle reeling.
Plenty of false information is being circulated on social media as law enforcement officials and the Trump campaign try to find out what happened, and why. Getting quick answers is especially crucial as security officers work to ensure Milwaukee is safe ahead of the Republican National Convention. Roughly 2,400 delegates are heading into town to see who Trump has picked as his running mate and to officially nominate the former president to the top of the ticket.
As the program goes ahead on schedule, many questions remain about the shooting that claimed the life of a firefighter and wounded two others in addition to Trump. Here are some of the biggest questions that’ll be tackled by law enforcement, the Trump campaign and members of Congress.
1. Why did the shooter target Trump?
A sniper killed the suspected gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, shortly after he fired his shots. Crooks lived in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, an upper middle-class suburb about an hour’s drive from where the Trump rally was held. He worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, The New York Times reported, and didn’t have a criminal history.
The FBI is still investigating Crooks’ profile and what motivated him to carry out the attack. To do that, they’ll be interviewing friends and family and looking at his online history as well as any writing left behind.
One law enforcement official said investigators were looking at Crooks’ posts on Discord, a popular application for sharing messages and interacting with others.
Crooks was registered as a Republican, but he once donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic-aligned voter turnout organization, according to publicly available records.
President Joe Biden on Sunday urged Americans not to speculate about the motives of the attack. “Let the FBI do its job,” he said, while also calling for an “independent review.”
2. How did this happen while Trump was under Secret Service protection?
Trump has around-the-clock protection from the Secret Service because he’s a former president. Though his rallies often draw tens of thousands of attendees, each person is subject to intensive security screenings and required to open up bags and pass through metal detectors to enter.
The gunman shot at Trump from about 150 yards away, on top of a roof that was near the outdoor rally but outside the venue. It’s unclear why the Secret Service didn’t secure that area and why it took officers so long to respond. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear — coming just shy of what many said would have been a fatal blow to the head.
Trump dropped to the ground after it happened and bodyguards flew on top of him to shield him. As they got up, Trump pumped his fist in the air and urged his followers to “fight” before he and his bodyguards made their way offstage.
Senate Homeland Security Chair Gary Peters was set to speak with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday, Axios reported, adding that the panel would conduct an investigation that would include hearings.
The chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), said on CNN Sunday that the panel hadn’t been briefed yet but that he wanted to know whether the breach happened because of protocol problems or inadequate funding.
3. What else did the shooter have planned?
Officers recovered an AR-style rifle by Crooks’ body but haven’t yet said how he acquired his weapon. The Associated Press cited two unnamed sources saying the firearm belonged to his father.
Authorities reported finding explosives— including an IED, or improvised explosive device — inside a car driven by Crooks that was located near the Trump rally. Additionally, materials for making bombs were found inside Crooks’ home, The Associated Press reported.
4. Will Republicans trust the FBI to carry out the investigation?
Republicans and conservative media figures are already raising questions about whether to trust the FBI to look into the attempted assassination. They point out that FBI agents carried out the search on Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after he allegedly refused to turn over classified documents.
Former Republican primary rival Ron DeSantis pointed to the FBI’s investigation of the 2017 congressional baseball practice shooting as a sign Washington “bureaucracy” may not be up to the task. The bureau concluded the gunman in that case had carried out the mass shooting to provoke “suicide by cop,” even though other agencies determined it was an act of violent political extremism. A top official admitted during a House committee hearing in 2021 that the shooting would have been characterized as “domestic terrorism” today.
5. How will the attempted assassination affect the Republican National Convention?
Officials said Sunday that they weren’t making any operational changes to security at the Republican National Convention given that they’d already engaged in extensive planning during the last year and a half.
There are “no known articulated threats” against the RNC or anyone visiting the RNC, FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Hensle said.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers requested Sunday that guns be banned from the so-called soft perimeter of the convention and urged other officials to take additional steps to protect attendees, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Trump said Sunday he considered postponing his arrival by two days, but decided against it. He is expected to travel to Milwaukee on Sunday evening.
I “have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” Trump posted on social media Sunday afternoon. He’ll formally accept the nomination on Thursday.
6. How will the shooting change campaigning ahead of the election?
The Biden campaign pulled digital campaign ads from the airwaves shortly after the shooting and halted the president’s campaign and official travel plans. Vice President Kamala Harris postponed an upcoming campaign stop in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she was scheduled to discuss abortion rights near Trump’s home base. The event had been announced only hours before Saturday’s Trump rally started.
Additionally, Biden rescheduled a trip to Texas to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act during a visit to the LBJ Presidential Library. He’ll instead do a planned interview on NBC from the White House and continue with a campaign event in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
A Biden campaign official told POLITICO that after his Monday interview, Biden and the Democratic National Committee would “continue drawing the contrast between our positive vision for the future and Trump and Republicans’ backwards-looking agenda over the course of the week.”
