Trump to hold first rally with JD Vance one week after assassination attempt

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at an event last week, managed to fly a drone and obtain aerial footage of the Pennsylvania fairgrounds the same day the former president took the stage there, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The apparent breach is sure to prompt further questions about Trump’s security at the event.

Police encountered Crooks multiple times but didn’t stop him from climbing onto a roof near the rally and firing on the former president, wounding Trump, killing one attendee, and harming two other rallygoers.

The Secret Service has also suggested it faced “limited resources” ahead of the shooting.

Joe Biden may be at a perilous moment in his campaign, but that hasn’t stopped Biden administration officials from going on the attack against the Trump.

Last night, in an interview that quickly began circulating widely on social media, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg went on Real Time with Bill Maher and savaged Trump VP pick JD Vance as a thin-skinned political climber, someone who would “say whatever they needed to to get ahead.”

“Five years ago that seemed like being the anti-Trump Republican, so that’s what he was,” Buttigieg said.

The Biden official also pointed out just how shocking it was that JD Vance once compared Trump to an “opioid,” given Vance’s roots in Appalachia, which has struggled with a bitter opioid crisis.

“That really is the darkest thinking you could possibly say about Donald Trump, at least in public, but behind the scenes he was apparently calling him Hitler,” Buttigieg went on.

The secretary then compared Vance to Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president, who he argued made numerous moral compromises for power to join the Trump White House, only to end up being nearly killed during the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

For more on JD Vance’s past remarks about Trump, here’s this story from Justin Rohrlich.

A law enforcement official told the outlet that the only other recent activity on the gunman’s phone was texts from his parents, asking about his whereabouts. The texts from Crooks’ parents started at about 1pm and continued during the afternoon, according to the report.

“This is the first good thing that‘s happened to Democrats in the last three weeks,” David Axelrod said on CNN. “This really reminded everyone why Donald Trump is fundamentally unpopular outside this room.”

Eric Garcia and Andrew Feinberg report.

Probably the most memorable part of the night — or of any convention(?) — Hulk Hogan hamming it up for the cameras, doing his thing, and ripping open his shirt.

Here’s John Bowden with the highlights.

“I know you’re all used to hearing me shouting outside a courthouse, but tonight I want to take you behind the law and behind the headlines and share with you a side of President Trump that reveals his character, his kindness, and his commitment to saving this great country,” she said.