Former President Trump survives assassination attempt, FBI IDs shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks

The volunteer firefighter who died shielding his family from a sniper's bullets intended for former President Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is being remembered as a selfless "girl dad" and churchgoing family man who regularly put others before himself.

Corey Comperatore, 50, died Saturday night while shielding his wife and family from gunfire after a 20-year-old man snuck onto a roof and started shooting at Trump during a rally in the Pennsylvania town.

"It's just so typical of him, the way it all happened, with protecting his wife and his daughter and just throwing himself on top of them when they hear the shooting," said Eileen Shamanski, whose children grew up playing soccer alongside Comperatore's daughters.

"He was an all around good guy that was always there to lend a hand and support not just his own children but all the other kids who were friends of their girls and on the team," she told Fox News Digital. "He had a just give it your all attitude, [and] a lot of kids respected him for that, just always being there supporting, giving those pep talks to get them going. It's going to be a big loss."

Their families have been close for years due to their girls' common interest in travel soccer, she said. And although Comperatore worked long hours and was a volunteer firefighter in his downtime, he never missed a game or a practice, she said.

"We didn't think it was true at first, when my daughters called me crying," she said. "Then we saw his wife and daughter on the news, when they were tending to him – it was just a sad thing to see, so sad, but I know he would've done it again in a heartbeat if it came down to it."

Fox News' Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.

The politicians who are rumored to be in consideration to serve as former President Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 election swiftly took to social media to show support for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee after an attempted assassination this weekend in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who is considered a frontrunner to become the Republicans' vice presidential nominee across three betting markets, blasted the rhetoric that had been emanating from the Biden campaign and its supporters.

"Today is not just some isolated incident," Vance posted on X. "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also offered his support for the president on Saturday.

"We all know President Trump is stronger than his enemies. Today he showed it," Burgum wrote on X.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has also been floated as a potential running mate, tweeted a picture of a bloodied Trump giving a fist-pump to the crowd on Saturday.

"God protected President Trump," Rubio wrote.

Fox News' Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

A law enforcement expert joined "Fox News @ Night" on Sunday to detail what happened when an officer at former President Trump's Pennsylvania rally allegedly confronted the gunman on a rooftop before the deadly shooting on Saturday.

Retired Las Vegas Police Lt. Randy Sutton says the officer was alerted to the gunman, now identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and was attempting to confront him on the roof, but there was "no ladder" or access point.

The officer decided to reach Crooks by climbing onto the back of another officer, according to Sutton's sources.

"As he was lifting himself up over the roof line, suddenly the suspect pointed his gun at him, the officer ducked down, and when he did, he fell off the back of the other officer," Sutton said.

Sutton explained that this was not a situation where an officer committed a "cowardly act," dismantling an earlier report that the officer possibly retreated when he confronted Crooks.

"This is an officer who made an observation, saw that he was about to be shot, and fell off the back of the other officer," Sutton said.

Dr. Sheila Nazarian spoke on how political rhetoric has impacted the country following the assassination attempt on former President Trump at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Nazarian made the comments during a panel discussion on "Fox News @ Night" with fellow panelist Dr. Houman Hemmati.

The victim who died in a shooting at former President Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday night is being remembered by the fire department he had worked for.

Corey Comperatore was killed in the shooting while Trump survived an assassination attempt and other spectators were injured.

"As many of you have already heard, we lost one of our members, Corey Comperatore, in a senseless act of violence last evening," Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company in Pennsylvania wrote Sunday on Facebook. "Corey was a lifetime volunteer firefighter within our company and will be greatly missed by all who knew him."

"Corey, rest easy brother and we will take it from here," the post continued. "Please pray and send good thoughts to Corey's family and everyone that knew him."

The fire department added in another post, "We remember and honor one of our own. A brother, son, husband, father and friend."

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he is donating $50,000 to a GoFundMe to support the victims of Saturday's shooting at a campaign rally for former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

President Trump survived an assassination attempt at the rally while one spectator was killed and other spectators were injured.

The former president has authorized the GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $3.5 million as of Monday morning.

Scott joins singer Kid Rock, UFC president Dana White and others in donating to the fundraiser.

"I donate my Senate salary every quarter and am honored to join @KidRock, @danawhite, @ufc and others in supporting the victims of the Butler shooting," Scott wrote on X. "I am sending $50K to this great cause."

President Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday night, saying the attempted assassination of former President Trump is forcing Americans to "take a step back" and calling on all sides to "lower the temperature in our politics."

"My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics," Biden said. "Do remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors, we’re friends, coworkers, citizens, and most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together."

The attempted assassination of Trump "calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are," he added.

Biden said he was "grateful" that Trump is "doing well" and said he is keeping "him and his family in our prayers." He also extended "our deepest condolences" to the family of Corey Comperatore, who was fatally shot as he shielded his wife and daughters from the bullets.

The president linked several incidents of recent political violence to the attempt on Trump, pointing to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021; the attack on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband; an attempted plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020; and the "intimidation of election officials."

"There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence, ever, period. No exceptions," Biden said.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

The Secret Service said allegations that its resources were diverted away from former President Trump for an event for first lady Jill Biden are inaccurate.

Questions about the Secret Service's security of the former president's campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday have been raised following the assassination attempt against him at the event.

RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree claimed on X that Secret Service sources told her that resources were diverted to Jill Biden's event and away from Trump's rally because they followed agency protocol applying to Trump as a former president. Crabtree also said there were "many supplemental agents from different field officers (not Trump's regular detail) providing security at the rally because Trump's regular detail has been overworked (some working 7 days straight), and only two counter-snipers."

But the Secret Service's chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi responded that Crabtree's claim was "very wrong."

"Susan, this is very wrong," he wrote. "We did not divert resources from FPOTUS Trump & protection models don't work that way. As far as 'field office teams' these are the candidate nominee operations teams that are added during election years for the heavy travel tempo.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who attempted to assassinate former President Trump and killed a spectator at Trump's rally on Saturday, was a member of the Clairton Sportsman's Club in Pennsylvania.

"I can confirm that Mr. Crooks was a member of Clairton Sportsman's Club," the club's legal council Robert Bootay said in a statement to Fox News. "Beyond that, the Club is unable to make any additional commentary in relation to this matter in light of pending law enforcement investigations. Obviously, the Club fully admonishes the senseless act of violence that occurred yesterday. The Club also offers its sincerest condolences to the Comperatore family and extends prayers to all of those injured including the former President."

A witness to the attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, told Fox News Host Laura Ingraham on Sunday that he thinks the commotion created from bystanders after seeing a man with a gun may have saved the president’s life.

Ingraham interviewed Michael DiFrischia on her show, “The Ingraham Angle” on Sunday evening, when he provided the host with a description of the events he saw leading up to the attempted assassination of Trump.

DiFrischia said he had been at a spot where he could see the teleprompter for about 10 minutes. When Trump started speaking, he focused on watching the president when his wife, who was standing next to him, nudged him to alert him to a younger kid running through the crowd. Someone else in the crowd saw the younger man and said the guy had a gun.

DiFrischia told Ingraham he thought the man was trying to get a better vantage point to the rally and did not think much of it, so he began watching Trump again.

But when others heard the man had a gun, “chaos ensued and everybody was screaming to alert the cops of the situation," DiFrischia explained.

“It was pretty crazy,” he said, telling the host several people were trying to tell the police what they saw and where the man with the gun was. “I wish somebody could have got to him before somebody had to lose their life.”

DiFrischia said the sad part was that somebody lost their life.

“Luckily, you know, President Trump only got hurt. He didn’t lose his life, as well,” DiFrischia said. “I kind of think us making a commotion may have actually saved the president’s life, though, because otherwise this guy could have just had all the time in the world to do whatever. Luckily, somebody spotted him and we were able to make a big enough commotion.”

Former Attorney General Bill Barr told Fox News’ Jesse Watters on Sunday that President Biden’s sentiments of scaling back the political rhetoric were noble, adding the hopes they follow through after calling former President Trump “Adolph Hitler, a racist and a fascist.”

Barr appeared as a guest on “Jesse Watters Primetime” Sunday, when the host asked the former attorney general about Biden’s remarks following the attempted assassination of Trump, as well as other things like whether the FBI should be trusted to do a clean investigation and whether Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should be fired.

Watters opened up the interview asking Barr, “Why can the media call Trump a Nazi who’s going to imprison all of their children and expect everybody to say, ‘oh, you know, it’s just a both sides deal?’”

Barr said when someone is “demonized to the extent Trump was being demonized,” a target is placed on him, though he would not put complete blame on Democrats because “both sides engage in extreme rhetoric occasionally.”

“What was bothering me was that the thrust of the Democratic narrative for this election year had become that [Trump] was a mortal danger to our democracy, and if he wins, the country is going away,” Barr said. “When you take that position, you know, that is an apocalyptic and hysterical position that's bound to lead to violence eventually.”

On Sunday evening, Biden spoke from the Oval Office and suggested the political violence has to stop. Watters asked Barr if he foresees the Democrats scaling back the rhetoric.

Barr said Biden’s sentiments were “very noble,” and that he hopes Biden follows through because if they believe the rhetoric has gone too far, they will scale it back.

“What he said about, you know, differences in policy, fine, you can attack your adversaries, you can attack their character on their policies and so forth. But they demonize him, calling him Adolf Hitler, a racist and a fascist,” Barr said. “It’s ridiculous. He’s not the threat to democracy that they’re portraying. He was president for four years and he carried out excellent policies, and it was all done lawfully.”

Watters asked the former attorney general if he trusts the FBI to do a clean investigation into the attempted assassination on Saturday, which Barr said they should be given a chance.

Still, he said there was a lot to investigate, including the Secret Service agents in the detail.

“There’s no question in my mind that they’re loyal and brave, and that they would take a bullet for President Trump,” he said. “But there was obvious…screw ups there that have to be looked at carefully.”

Barr also said the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda is destructive of meritocracy and is affecting the confidence levels of agencies like the Secret Service.

Finally, Watters asked Barr if he would fire Secret Service Director Cheatle.

Barr told the host he would fire her, “simply for having a tin ear and not coming out and being visible and saying something” about how an assassination attempt was able to happen.

“I think it's still important to start the discussion and the transparency with the American people and the way they handle today by trying to just brief Milwaukee and not saying anything about it, was so ham handed that I would fire her just for not understanding how the responsibility of government officials, to interact with the public,” he said.

Former President Trump recently told an outlet that he has "completely" rewritten the speech that he planned to give at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee this week.

In a recent interview with the Washington Examiner's Salena Zito, Trump said that his new speech will focus on uniting Americans after Saturday's shocking events.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” Trump said. “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches...Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”

Instead of focusing on attacking President Biden's policies, his new speech will reportedly aim to bring the country together.

"This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together," the former president explained. "The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago."

The rooftop where a would-be assassin open fire on former President Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday was reportedly identified as a security vulnerability before the event.

Sources familiar with the U.S. Secret Services’ operations told NBC News that the agency was aware of risks associated with a building that stood adjacent to the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former President held his rally.

“Someone should have been on the roof or securing the building so no one could get on the roof,” a former senior Secret Service agent familiar with the planning told the outlet.

The shooting, which injured Trump, killed an attendee, and injured others, has raised serious questions about how the suspect – identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks – was able to access the rooftop within range and direct line of sight of where the former president was speaking.

A leading Democrat fundraiser and political strategist is apologizing after he emailed journalists Saturday night to suggest the attempted assassination of former President Trump may have been "staged."

Semafor reported that Dmitri Mehlhorn, the top political adviser to billionaire LinkedIn co-founder and Democrat mega-donor Reid Hoffman, sent an email Saturday night to a group of journalists after the incident and wrote that one "possibility – which feels horrific and alien and absurd in America, but is quite common globally – is that this 'shooting' was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash."

Mehlhorn wrote that false flag attacks were "a classic Russian tactic" used by Vladimir Putin to win power in 1999 and that other examples of the "tactic of committing raw evil and then benefiting from the backlash include Hamas on October 7."

He went on to say that another possibility "is that some crazy anti-Trumper in this chaotic moment decided to assassinate the former President." Law enforcement authorities identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who was killed after firing shots that grazed Trump's right ear and killed one rallygoer while wounding two others. Authorities have not revealed his motive and the investigation into the assassination attempt is ongoing.

Click here to read more.

Eric Revell of FOX Business contributed to this report.

President Biden addressed the nation Sunday evening following an assassination attempt on his GOP rival, former President Trump, at a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Biden implored Americans to “lower the temperature in our politics.”

“While we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors. We’re friends, coworkers, citizens and, most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together,” Biden said.

Biden said Saturday’s shooting demands that everyone “take a step back, take stock of where we are.”

“Thankfully, former Trump is not seriously injured. I spoke to him last night. I'm grateful he's doing well and joy to keep him and his family in our prayers. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victims who was killed,” Biden said.

The president reiterated that nation must not go down the road of political violence.

“We must not go down this road in America. We’ve traveled before, throughout our history, violence has never been the answer,” Biden said, invoking the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, and the attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in October 2022.

“There’s no place in American for this kind of violence – for any violence – ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized,” Biden said.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. shared a post on X from Melania Trump on Sunday, calling her words “Beautiful.”

“Let all Americans remember that their opponents are full, precious human beings,” RFK Jr. said.

Melania Trump’s post was in response to an assassination attempt on former President Trump on Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald's passion—his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” Melania wrote. “The core facets of my husband's life—his human side—were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times. Let us not forget that differing opinions, policy, and political games are inferior to love.

“Our personal, structural, and life commitment - until death - is at serious risk. Political concepts are simple when compared to us, human beings… This morning, ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence,” she continued. “We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realize this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships, again."

The FBI believes the suspected shooter at former President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday acted alone, but the bureau is talking to the suspect’s friends and family to see whether anyone knew of his plans, a senior official told Fox News.

Kevin Rojek, FBI Special Agent in Charge Pittsburgh, said earlier Sunday that information obtained by the bureau indicates the shooter acted alone, and the is no further public safety concern.

“We have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation,” Rojek said.

The FBI has obtained the suspect’s cell phone and sent it to Quantico, but haven’t yet been able to extract any data. Once they do, it may possible open up other avenues for subjects who potentially knew of the suspect’s plans.

The ATF was on the scene of Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally “within minutes” after an assassination attempt on the president, according to the agency.

The ATF identified the shooter in less than 30 minutes by completing an urgent trace through the agency’s National Tracing Center on out-of-business records from a close dealer and provided the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service those results.

The ATF said it is continuing to provide support to its partners with respect to firearm evidence including securing additional evidence and locations for the execution of warrants.

ATF experts with the agency’s National Center for Explosives Training and Research (NCETR) facility are providing assistance related to the suspected destructive devices, ATF said.

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki called on the Republican National Committee to overhaul its planned programming for the upcoming convention to avoid "escalating" the country's rhetoric following the failed assassination attempt against former President Trump.

In an appearance on "Meet the Press" Sunday, Psaki described feeling "scared" in the aftermath of the attempt on former President Trump's life, echoing other panelists who called for the country to dial down the divisive political rhetoric.

With the Republican National Convention set to begin on Monday, Psaki said the party should adjust the planned speakers and programming to lower the temperature and "restore civility." Psaki said that while calls among Democrats for Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 race have been "paused," the convention could reignite the conversation. 

"The convention is starting and unless the programming changes, the rhetoric and how the programming is set up is not actually calming the tone or restoring civility," Psaki said. "We'll see if that programming changes, but if it stays the same, that is escalating it. It is not a civil approach to a convention."

Read the full article about Jen Psaki by Yael Halon