As MAGA world fuels rumors that Trump’s attempted assassin was linked with antifa or DEI, his former classmates in Pennsylvania say the shooter was a conservative.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, former classmates remember 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as a mild-mannered right-winger. “He was definitely a conservative,” said Max R. Smith, one of his ex-classmates.
When remembering Crooks, a classmate described a debate in American history class. “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”
Others echoed the description, painting him as a quiet loner, while another former student described him as “a quiet kid, not obviously political or violent in any way.”
Public records seem to back up the claim that Crooks was on the right, Crooks registered as a Republican in September 2021, the month he turned 18.
Some have also noted that Crooks appeared to be sporting a T-shirt from gun fanatic YouTube channel “Demolition Ranch.”
On Biden’s Inauguration Day, however, a 17-year-old Crooks also allegedly made a $15 donation to a “Progressive Turnout Project PAC,” which has been given much attention. As Ryan Grim at DropSite news reports, this contribution shouldn’t be given too much weight. The email-based PAC regularly spams inboxes with confusing links and flashy colors and can hardly be seen as demonstrating much about the shooter’s ideology.
The FBI has still not found a possible motive for the shooting.
