A former classmate of the man who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump recounted a heated political discussion with the shooter, according to Fox News.
Vincent Taormina told Fox News Digital in an interview posted Wednesday that the shooter, Thomas Michael Crooks, considered him “stupid” for supporting Trump. Trump was slightly wounded Saturday during the attempted assassination at a Butler County, Pennsylvania, rally, which left former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore dead and two other attendees wounded.
“I brought up the fact that I’m Hispanic and, you know, I’m for Trump. And he said, ‘Well, you’re Hispanic, so shouldn’t you hate Trump?,’” Taormina recounted. “No. He’s great. He was a great president. He called me stupid – or insinuated that I was stupid.”
WATCH:
‘Shouldn’t You Hate Trump?’: Classmate Recounts Being Called ‘Stupid’ For Backing Trump By Alleged Would-Be Assassin pic.twitter.com/Z7RG5fvXr6
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 17, 2024
“He said, ‘Well, that’s kind of stupid.’ He was a know-it-all,” Taormina continued. “So, like, once again, if he was passionate about something, he would just talk, talk, talk and acted like he knew everything, especially politics-related. He would say it in a tone that was, like, ‘I’m better than you,’ in a type of way, and meanwhile, it’s like, dude, we’re in the same classes.”
Taormina also described Crooks as having a few friends in school who he said were “the type” to threaten to carry out a school shooting.
“His friend group, they were known for being, like, just out there, little bit more recluse, some of them didn’t even show up to school, some of them went home school, some of them — I think one of them went to, like, private school,” Taormina said. “They were definitely the type and they did make threats to shoot up our school. And that year, I believe it was our freshman year because I had left our freshman year. Before I left, you know, everyone’s going through Snapchat, everybody’s texting everybody, you know, saying this, that and the third, everybody was saying it was Thomas who made a threat and it was that friend group.”
Taormina also disputed that Crooks was “severely bullied,” saying he knew kids at the school who were and that Crooks was “not one of them.” He also questioned why there was no intervention by school officials.
“The signs were there and somebody definitely had to know. Somebody, whether he was talking to somebody or somebody just didn’t realize, it was overlooked, somebody should have known because he was not a loner. And both of his parents and counselors, how do you not see that warning sign?” Taormina asked.
Trump survived a previous assassination attempt during his successful 2016 campaign for President. A 20-year-old man from the United Kingdom who was in the United States illegally admitted during a December 2016 court proceeding that he tried to take a police officer’s gun in order to shoot Trump during a June 2016 campaign event in Las Vegas.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Secret Serviced referred the DCNF to the FBI, declined to comment.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated.
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