Almost immediately after the news began to circulate on Saturday that a man — now identified as 20-year-old registered Republican Thomas Matthew Crooks — botched what appears to have been an attempted assassination of former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, conspiracy theories were flying.
After firing off several rounds from a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle while perched on the roof of a building just outside the rally's security perimeter, narrowly missing what could have been a fatal injury to Trump, Crooks was killed by Secret Service. It was later discovered that explosive devices were concealed in his car, parked nearby. As of Sunday morning, there has been no indication that Crooks had any help in his endeavor to kill the former president, or that the violent event was "staged" in any way, as many on social media have been suggesting. Nevertheless, the finger-pointing continues.
