At Issue — July 14: Assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, identity of shooter, local reaction

By KSTP

AT ISSUE 714

This week on At Issue, Tom Hauser discusses Saturday night’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the identity of the man who fired the gun, and local reaction from Minnesota politicians.

President Biden answered questions in front of the nation for nearly an hour following the assassination attempt. He continues to say he has no plans to drop out of the presidential race.

It’s the first time he’s taken questions from reporters in months – something other Democrats have urged him to do.

The man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump first came to law enforcement’s attention at Saturday’s rally when spectators noticed him acting strangely outside the campaign event. The tip sparked a frantic search but officers were unable to find him before he managed to get on a roof, where he opened fire.

Officials have identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the shooter. Investigators are still hunting for clues as to what drove him to carry out the attack.

The FBI said they were investigating it as a potential act of domestic terrorism.

Just minutes before he left for Milwaukee and the Republican National Convention, David Hann, the Minnesota GOP Chair, joined Tom Hauser in the studio to discuss the attempted assassination of the former president.

The Republican National Convention gets underway on Monday.

Significant security precautions were already in place—even before last night’s events. Police from 23 other states and Washington, D.C. will assist Wisconsin agencies.

Additionally, officers from Bloomington and Rochester and deputies from Hennepin and Ramsey counties will all help to bolster security at the RNC.

Hauser was also joined during At Issue by former DFL State Senator Jeff Hayden and Republican strategist Andy Brehm amid news confirmed to the Associated Press from law enforcement that officials found bomb-making materials inside a vehicle at the home of the man suspected in the Trump rally shooting.