The gunman who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump appears to have used the controversial alt-right favored social media platform Gab to spread messages “in support of President Biden,” according to the platform’s founder.
Gab CEO Andrew Torba said he learned Wednesday that Thomas Matthew Crooks “may have had an account on our platform” after getting “an emergency disclosure request from a law enforcement agency.”
The account @epicmicrowave — which the CEO stressed he has been “unable to confirm” was definitely Crooks’ — “posted on the site nine (9) times total,” Torba tweeted just 30 minutes after getting the law enforcement request.
“While the account made very few posts on the site, the majority of them were in support of President Biden,” the CEO said.
“A number of posts in particular expressed support for President Biden’s COVID lockdowns, border policies and executive orders.”
Torba shared images of pro-Biden comments made by the account, with its handle blacked out.
In one, the poster mocked someone sharing an election projection, writing in February 2021: “Didn’t you also think Biden would lose in a landslide yeah I would not be very confident in your election predictions.”
In another thread, the user defended Biden’s border policies with a study that compared crime statistics for undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants and American citizens in Texas.
Would-be Trump assassin’s timeline of terror
Crooks shops at Home Depot and purchases a five-foot ladder.
Crooks visits the Allegheny gun store for 50 rounds of ammunition. He then makes the hour-long drive from his hometown of Bethel Park to Butler for the rally.
Crooks enters the rally and metal detectors pick up a rangefinder that he carried inside. He was still permitted to enter, but authorities kept a close eye on him until he left the secure area.
A video appears to show a man matching Crooks’ description walking near a building just past the secured perimeter for the rally. He does not appear to have his rifle on him.
Secret Service is warned of suspicious person, identifies him as “threat,” but allows Trump to take stage anyway.
Crooks climbs onto the roof of the American Glass Research complex. He did not use the ladder he had purchased to climb onto the roof and it was not found at the scene. Instead, he would use the air conditioning units to hoist himself up.
Crooks lays flat on the sloped roof as he prepares to take aim and fire
Crooks fires at least five times at Trump, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore and injuring two others. Trump’s upper right ear is hit.
Crooks is immediately shot and killed by the Secret Service. A cell phone and a remote transmitter are found next to his body.
Trump is rushed away from the rally and to Allegheny General Hospital to have his ear treated.
“Biden executive orders don’t incentivize human trafficking as human traffickers aren’t interested in citizenships, likewise the majority of illegal immigrants are not criminals and in fact some studies (such as the one linked below) show lower rates of crime committed by these individuals,” the poster wrote.
“It is also unclear if the extensive path to citizenship is in fact effective at routing out potential bad actors hence why there is a review of that system,” the user added.
Torba said he was “disclosing this information at significant personal and business risk.
“If the past is any guide, defying the D.C. consensus by publishing the first definitive evidence that the shooter was a Biden supporter — something Democrats and their media allies have tried to cover up and deny at every turn — has a high probability of resulting in significant political and media backlash,” he wrote.
“We have saved the account data pending receipt of a search warrant,” he stated.
Crooks, 20, opened fire with an AR-15 rifle during Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, clipping the former president in the ear and killing a rally attendee before he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
Authorities have yet to elaborate on a motive for the attack, which has sparked fierce bipartisan outrage at Secret Service failings in protecting the presidential candidate.