Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) in an exclusive interview on “Pod Force One” said he is “not satisfied” with the public findings of investigations into the assassination attempt against President Trump on the campaign trail in Butler, Pa., nearly two years ago.
McCormick told The Post’s Miranda Devine in the latest episode of the podcast, out Wednesday, that there are many “unresolved” questions Americans have about the shooting and that to rebuild trust the government needs to be radically transparent.
“I’m not satisfied,” said the Pennsylvania Republican, who witnessed Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, shoot Trump in the right ear, kill Corey Comperatore, 50, and injure two other rallygoers at the Butler Farm Show grounds on July 13, 2024.
“I’m not satisfied about what happened because when you go to the place and you see how close it was, the idea that a lone gunman — I’m typically not one who’s prone to conspiracy theories — but the fact that a lone gunman could get up there at that distance,” McCormick explained.
“It was less than 150 yards, so prominent you now see all the people with the cell phones taking pictures, seems just hard to imagine such a breach — and such a breach in security, such a breach in protocol,” he added.
Federal and congressional investigations of the shooting have yielded little as to Crooks’ motivations, compared with inquiries into the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Within days of Kirk’s killing, state and federal officials were discussing the degree to which the alleged gunman Tyler Robinson had been radicalized online by a “leftist ideology.”
Disclosures from the FBI about Crooks’ potential motivations trickled out more than a year after the incident — with some members of Congress saying their demands for information were previously “stonewalled.”
As plain in those disclosures, Crooks’ digital footprint, dating back nearly a decade before he tried to assassinate the 45th president, revealed a violent obsession and increasing radicalization that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“IMO [in my opinion] the only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building and set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them,” he apparently wrote in an August 2020 YouTube comment.
The president has been briefed by FBI Director Kash Patel about the investigation of Crooks and said he was “satisfied” with its findings.
“Such a feat for a 20-year-old with no supposedly social media presence, although we did find that he did have it, but it was kept from us. Why?” Devine asked.
“I’m not sure. But I think it’s one of those things that I am unresolved,” McCormick responded. “We go back to the public trust, public confidence, when things aren’t fully wrestled to the ground, even if there’s legitimate answers, you breed mistrust.”
“I came from a firm called Bridgewater. We had this concept, which was radical truth, radical transparency in the way we ran the company,” he noted. “And the truth is always better when you just bring air onto it and the American people, they can take it.”
“They can take the truth — whether it’s about JFK’s killing, or whether it’s about the Epstein files, or whether it’s about the attempt on President Trump’s life at Butler — the American people, unless it’s a matter of national security where something is going to compromise our capacity to protect the American people, I think, more is better,” McCormick stated.