Law&Crime Sidebar - Everything We Know About Donald Trump Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

The former President of the United States was struck by gunfire during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. Donald J. Trump was hit in the ear by a bullet before the Secret Service swarmed him and took out the gunman. The FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down everything we know about Crooks leading up to the attempted assassination of former President Trump.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. It is a horrifying and tragic crime that will go down in American history. The apparent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump that left one dead, two injured. What we know about this reported shooter and how on earth could this have happened. We bring on law enforcement expert and former sheriff's deputy and SWAT team member,

chat airs. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. This shouldn't come as a surprise, but we don't cover political stories here on Sidebar. We get enough of that on the news, right? We hear, we talk about crime stories that are capturing the nation's attention, those that you might not know about, but you should know about those that have important legal angles. However, when you have a crime, a violent crime, a violent crime, a violent crime, a violent act that intersects with politics, how could we not discuss it here on sidebar? What am I talking about? That on Saturday, July 13th, 2024, a day that we will all ask ourselves in the years to come,

where were you? Where were you when you found out and watched on TV the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump? It's terrifying. It was terrifying to watch. It is an image, a moment that will be emblazoned in. everybody's memory, and authorities now say 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire during a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Take a look at that. So that arrow is the lowest amount of illegal immigration ever in recorded history into our country. And then the worst president in the history of our country took over. And look what happened to our country. Probably 20 million people. And you know that's a little bit old that chart. That chart's a couple of months old and if you want to really see something that said take a look at what happened. Hold on, hold on, when you're ready, on you.

Move! Move! Move! Oh, got here. Oh, go. Oh, go. Oh, go. Thank you.

He's on top of the roof. He's on the roof, buddy. He's dead. I just seen his hair. Oh, he's short of a head. He's dead. Holy s. U.S.

U.S.S. U.S.S. U.S.S. And you can see Donald Trump recognize his ear had been hit. In photos and videos afterwards, you definitely see the damage blood streaming down his face, him being covered by secret service agents. He gets up, fists to the crowd, mounting fight, as he's escorted off the stage and into a car.

Just an incredible sight to see. Honestly, I had chills in the back of my neck watching this unfold in real time. Crooks, the identified shooter, was shot and killed instantly by Secret Service sniper teams at the scene. Donald Trump told the New York Post that he's supposed to be dead and that a piece of his ear had been torn off. There's been a lot of talk about how close that bullet had come to his head. Now, as you might have heard on the audio of that incident where Trump says, let me get my shoes. He said secret service agents had hit him so hard that his shoes had fallen off and even said his shoes are tight. And aside, by the way, from the ominous visual of someone trying to kill a former president of the United States, this shooting had devastating consequences.

50-year-old firefighter, Corey Compitour, lost his life. Reporting indicates he was shielding his family when the gunfire erupted. He was trying to protect them. He was killed. An absolute true hero to the end. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said, Corey was a girl dad, Corey was a firefighter, Corey went to church every Sunday, Corey loved his community, most especially Corey loved his family. There were also two people who sustained critical injuries in this, 57-year-old David Dutch

and 74-year-old James Copenhagenover, although police indicated they are now in stable condition, thank goodness. The GoFundMe page, by the way, was set up for the victims, and I want you to hear this. Originally, they set a goal of a million dollars, almost four million dollars. has been reached with over 52,000 donations, unbelievable. The FBI is currently investigating this shooting. And what we know is that the shooter used an AR-style 556 rifle, reporting indicating that the firearm was purchased legally by Crook's father. It's unclear how he actually was able to obtain the gun, though.

He was positioned about 130 to 150 yards away on a nearby roof, this seemingly outside of the perimeter of where this rally was taking place. The shooting, by the way, happened about six minutes. into Donald Trump's speech. And after the shooting, law enforcement discovered, quote, rudimentary explosives in Crook's cars. Car was parked near the rally. And this included an apparent IED. And also, authorities found bomb-making materials at his home as well. As for Crooks, authorities are still looking into his background. What his apparent motive was for this? Crook's high school classmate, Jason Kohler, 21 years old, told media that Crooks

was a loner who was bullied so much in high school. He would wear hunting out. He would sit alone at lunch. He was just an outcast, and Culler even said it's just honestly kind of sad. Hey, we're going to get back to this historic story in just a minute, but I want to thank one of our sponsors who helps make this show possible so we can analyze these stories for you. Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Look, if you should find yourself in that position where you're hurt and you need legal representation, Morgan and Morgan may be who you want in your corner because they are specialists in this area. And they're so big because they win a lot. verdicts and settlements in the multi-million.

They also make the process so easy for their clients because from starting your claim to uploading documents to talk to your legal team, it can all be done from your smartphone. Also, this is a firm where there's no upfront fee. You only pay them if you win. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. There's also reporting that he played chess, video games,

was learning computer programming and coding. But here's something interesting. Another apparent classmate of Crooks, Jameson Myers, came out and told media that Crooks had tried out for the school's rifle team, but apparently didn't make the team because of how bad a shot he was. Wow. Now, there were a lot of odd things that are surrounding this shooting in terms of whether law enforcement or people at that rally had saw the suspected shooter before he opened fire. How that roof wasn't secured. Why the shooter wasn't neutralized earlier? Was there a miscommunication between local law enforcement and the Secret Service?

Before we get into any of that, President Joe Biden delivered some remarks on Sunday regarding this shooting as well. Yesterday's shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back. Take stock of where we are. How we go forward from here? Thankfully, former Trump is not seriously injured. I spoke to him last night. I'm grateful he's doing well, and Jill and I keep him and his family. family in our prayers. We would also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victims

who was killed. Corey was a husband, a father, a volunteer firefighter, our hero, sheltering his family from those bullets. We should all hold his family and all those injured in our prayers. A former president was shot. An American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. We cannot, we must not, go down this road in America. There is no place in America for this kind of violence or any violence for that matter. An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation, everything. It's not who we are as a nation. It's not America. And we cannot allow this to happen.

Unity is the most elusive goal of all. But nothing is important than that right now. Unity. Okay, so with all that in mind, let me bring in right now. Chad Ayers, former sheriff's deputy, SWAT team member, founder of proactive response group, and a friend of the show, Chad, good to see you. Thanks so much for coming on. I can't believe what we're talking about. We knew you were coming in.

We thought we would, you know, talk about some story that was happening in the news. What were your thoughts as you were watching this? For me, it was one of the most surreal, scary experiences seeing it happen in real time. You know, it's crazy as I was getting oil changed in the car. someone had alerted me, hey, the former president's just been shot, and you're like, whatever. But it immediately took me back to thinking about, you always hear people like our parents' age who knew where they were when JFK was assassinated. The first thing that came was like, this is where I'm going to, this is going to be the story.

Immediately went home and started following this up to about 3 o'clock in the morning. And, you know, I guess for me, a lot of failures. You have a very unique background, and I wanted to talk to you about this. What stands out to you about this shooting? What were you looking at as the reporting was coming in? And we have a lot of different parts to talk about. What were you thinking about as the more details are coming to light and as going on at the evening? You know, Jesse, I was a detail leader for a U.S. congressman for about two years.

I've attended several of these rallies for the former president. And what goes into them, the background, the security, the advancement that goes into them. and to think that this happened. Obviously, what the first and foremost is an elevated position shot, how in the world did this happen? That's step number one on an advancement as you prepare for any type of these visits. And my law enforcement background, you know, we had the opportunity to run six to eight motorcades for current presidents, large events worked hand in hand with the Secret Service,

with the counter-assault team, with their advanced team. I know that, you know, the Secret Service has a zero-fail mission. They were this damn close to losing that zero fail mission on Saturday. So just a lot of breakdown, I think, in communication. Do you think that means, and I've seen reporting about this, that local law enforcement in Butler County was supposed to be maintaining the outside perimeter and communicating that to the Secret Service? Is that something that could, and by the way, we're not placing blame here

because we don't have the full idea about what happened. But if you talk about a breakdown in communication, there were multiple agencies working together here. Is that something I would be totally off that local law enforcement, there might have been a miscommunication there? Well, no, I'm not sure if it was miscommunication. Obviously, at any of these type of events, you're going to solicit the local authorities for extra assets to have. So, but at the end of the day, you know, it does come back to the United States Secret Service. I think that the shift, the detail, that President Trump's detail did a phenomenal job on stage.

Right. There is a very big issue, you know, with. whoever did the post assignments and the advancement. So I think that we are going to have to wait to this investigation is fully complete to truly grasp and understand. But at face, you know, this can't happen. Whether it was local law enforcement, you know, there are some reporting out there. Obviously, the service will solicit, you know, TSA to help with running magnetometers. I really think that it's going to come down to there was a manpower issue. And again, sources close to me have told me that they requested additional assets. So the Secret Service and the

FBI have been pushing back on this. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglemi says there's an untrue assertion that a member of the former president's team requested additional security resources and that those were rebuffed. And he said, this is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources and technology and capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo. And also the FBI came out and said the same thing. What do you make of that? I think that there's going to be a lot of CYA during this investigation. We know what that means. Exactly. So, obviously, nobody in a situation like this, blame is going to be pushed on all different. Locals are going to blame the feds. Feds are going to blame the locals. At the end of the day, you've got to be able to work together. There's been events, look, mistakes happen, not mistakes like this, where you're 150 yards away, you have a building. And again, I've been part of this. We would always, you know, when you're sitting there, having the background that I have in working with the Secret Service, you're always going to want to pull, you know, drop. large flags, pull 18 wheelers up, something that blocks the view of the stage where

the man's going to be at. Because that's a line of sight. That's a line of sight. And wouldn't that either be sweeped, right? They would do protective sweeps at, or at least when they have, and I believe their reporting indicates there were four sniper teams. There were two from the Secret Service, two from local law enforcement. They would keep an eye on those buildings or are they looking more in the distance?

Maybe they'd be looking further out and not necessarily something that's 150 yards away. No, so again, you would use your resources and a lot of times with the counter-sniper element, you would want to kind of transition from like a 180, you know, and everyone's kind of 180 to your secondary team to locals, right? And you're communicating with them. So you're going to have a spot or someone on their binoculars that's kind of sweeping and your other guys a lot of times on the rifle. So was there a lackment or a miscommunication as to who was covering what?

I don't know. I still think at the end of the day, that building comes into play should have never, you know, you should have had post standards standing there. So was there, you know, reports today is that law enforcement was there, that there was a law enforcement agencies or a law enforcement officer assigned to that building. Right. And can we amplify that a little bit? Because there were reports that people saw this shooter before him. They saw a guy matching his description carrying a rifle. Others saw him actually scaling the roof, climbing up to the roof. Ben Macer told KDKA, he saw the guy move from roof to roof. I told an officer, the alleged shooter, was on the roof.

When I turned around to go back to where I was, it was when the gunshot started, and then it was just chaos, and we all came running away, and that was that. There is also reporting that a local police officer had confronted the shooter, that the shooter aimed the gun at the officer, and the officer backed away. And there's also been reporting that the shooter was seen by local law enforcement, and they said to watch out for him, but this was maybe not, but this was communicated, the Secret Service. So you have a lot of different stories here about what happened,

but I think a common theme could be. He was in their sights, whichever way you want to use that, before the shooting took place. I think that's the concern here. Right. The AP is reporting earlier on my way here to the studio that people had alerted them as he was trying to go through the magnetometers that, hey, this guy's acting weird,

he's acting suspicious, they lost sight of him in the crowd, of that initial crowd. So, I know that early on, something raised the suspicion of attendees to notify law enforcement. Where he went to, we don't know. But again, there's so much technology out there. And again, obviously the service is not going to tell, lay out their cards of all the technology and stuff they use for security purposes. And I respect that. But, you know, when this report is released, it is.

is going to be so interesting to figure out who was. And here's the problem. Social media and all this stuff is putting out so much stuff. And that's why I've always said it's important that we wait to all the facts come. But the fact of the matter is law enforcement was notified several minutes beforehand. So where was that breakdown of communication of getting someone up there? The problem I have is I want to know this officer that confronted him on the roof. You know, was he on a ladder? If that's true. If that's true. True, right? Did he climb the same ladder? How did this officer get up there? Did someone, you know, lift him up somehow? I would have some serious issues if a police officer scaled a ladder as a guy with a long gun, you know, where we've got a former president and a candidate about to take the stage and you basically come back down. And look, we have to be clear. Sniper teams took down this guy instantly after the shots were fired. There is a question of could they have taken?

taking him out beforehand. Now, talk to me about how much discretion sniper teams would have to take out a target in that environment if they see them in their sites before. Right. So obviously, there's, again, stuff circling around the internet, they asked for permission to take the shot. That is absolutely false. In this type of situation, they do not have to ask for any type of, you know, authority

to take a shot or utilize deadly force in this type of situation. When you are assigned and you've got a former president on there and someone is laying on the roof with a long gun, the first opportunity they have, they're going to take that. So again, I don't want Monday morning quarterback or second this counter-sniper unit. There's the possibility that maybe the angle and the slant of the roof, they couldn't get a visual on him until he got to a certain position. I have a feeling that's what's going to be relayed once this report is put out. but let's be very careful to, you know, start voicing our thoughts and opinions on this counter-sniper unit till we know what they saw, you know, at that time. And there's going to be a lot of conspiracy theories.

It's going to happen. I mean, there already is. There were minutes after this was happening. There were conspiracy theories about what was happening. Like, is there any chance that they thought he might have been a member of law enforcement, might have been a member of the secrets? They just didn't know yet? Absolutely not.

They would know. They would know immediately. We do briefings. I mean, our briefings, there's, you know, and, and, you know, and, you know, and, again, this is no secret. Obviously, you'll see the guys in their suits, the shift, they'll have pins on. We have, you know, there's ways that we identify. Law enforcement, you know, even some of the undercover people that may be out there, you're never going to see someone just randomly climb up on top of a building in plainclothes prone out with a long gun. It's just not going

to happen. I want to ask you about what's happening with the investigation. So the FBI is taking the lead in investigating this. According to Evan Lambert from News Nation, the FBI is looking into Crooks. They say he was a lone actor. They're working to access his cell phone, no mental health diagnosis issues at this point. Apparently, his family is cooperating. They're processing DNA, weapons, fingerprints, the scene, digital evidence, social media. What are they doing right now? What is the FBI looking for by looking at all these different pieces of evidence? I think first and foremost, like you said, they're trying to rest assured that he was a loan actor. Sure. First, because we don't want anyone else out there. Could this, you know, be a,

could there have been a secondary person that just didn't commit, freaked out, possibly? But they're going to build a profile on Crooks to figure out, okay, we know where the gun came from, that it came from his father's, you know, what caused him, they're going to be looking internet history, things like that, really diving into a digital footprint to see, was he influenced by anyone, was he in communication with any other people? What was his planning like? Because let's be honest, There's no way, Jesse, you're going to convince me that this guy that Crooks woke up on Saturday and said, I know the rallies today. I'm just going to go, he did his homework. That's going to be an interesting part.

New where to be a position. New where to be, exactly. So, again, they're going to be pulling the digital data from that van that they've taken, the black box out of there. They're going to track his movements as far back as they can as to when he decided to do this. By the way, if I'm understanding it correctly, they didn't ID him. on the spot. It wasn't like he was carrying his license. They had the idea him through DNA, right? Correct. DNA and other biometric terms. And that tells you something too, right? The fact that he wasn't apparently carrying any kind of identification. And I would also have to imagine,

and I don't know, he had to know, and he's going in there, not going to be making it out. 100%. Obviously, you know, in my line of work, we talk about this a lot, you know, because we teach active shooter response, which, thank God, understand this could have, you know, unfortunately we had another person that lost their life and two other ones that are fighting for their lives now as well. This could have turned out a whole lot worse too as well as, and including not just the former president being shot, but a mass shooting in and of itself. Absolutely. And these people that go into this, they know it's a one-way mission. They're not coming out. When you're laying on a roof at an event that should be one of the most secured events there is, right? Some of the most powerful

people in the world, there's no chance you're going on. How tough is that shot, by the way, 130, 150 yards away. I mean, again, it was, what, centimeters away? I don't know if that's an accurate way of saying from his head, from former President Donald Trump's head. I mean, how tough is that shot? You know, on the way here, I was asking about a business partner because they haven't released, or maybe you can tell me, what type of site he was using? I don't think we know at this point. So that's going to be an interesting part, right? If this guy was using iron sites, just stock iron sites? That's tough. And, I mean, even for someone, but, you know, whether it was a red dot or some type of magnification, I could take, Jesse, I could take you

if you had no experience with the rifle. I could take you out in about, you know, 45 to 50 minutes I could have you at that distance making those shots. So it makes me wonder, so as they're also wondering about whether or not how we got access to the gun, practice, right? They would probably be looking at local gun rangers. Because obviously, had he done his research on what that distance was. Yeah. You know, a 556, I am not a big ballistics expert or anything, but I know, you know, the, I can't even quote the maximum effective range of that. It's well past that. Right. Well past that. So I'm sure that he knew at that distance, put it on and if it drops an inch, it drops an edge. Let's also just clarify this point. After the shots, the response, and I've

seen criticism online about the way Secret Service agents were behaving, but the response from the sniper teams, down to the agents, down to law enforcement, down to the military teams that were there. What did you make of that? Because for me, as an outsider looking in, it was very swift. And I think the criticism I've seen online about some of the agents is unwarranted and unfounded. 100%. Again, I think the United States Secret Service that day, the shift, the counter-sniper's and his detail did an absolutely perfect job. It's totally different. It's being in that role versus being a cop. Right.

And law enforcement, we are trained to go towards the threat. Right. Right. In that type of situation, no, it's not. You go to the man or woman, you go to your protectee, and we cover him. That's what they did. And you notice, you know, obviously former President Trump and any type of dignitary president, they're going to go through training with the Secret Service. They're telling him what to do as well.

Right. To get down. So it actually helped them on that aspect. Sure, you're getting all these people talking about that they should. have got him off the stage sooner or anything like that, you also hear the shooters down. Right. So again, we can Monday morning quarterback, there could have been second shooter. There could have. That's how they knew how to get up and move. 100%. So why, you know, at that point, you know, I'm not saying times on their hand, but I think they realized that there was no life-threatening

injury to the, you know, former president at that time. Do I think that could have gone a little bit quicker? Maybe. But again, it worked out. And obviously when they get a second shooter, They didn't know if there was a second. And you got to get the cars. You got to get, you got to get your vehicles. You know, his detail leader saying, we got to get to the car, sir. We got to get to the car, sir. But that was another thing.

Communication, if you realize, it was really, at one point, it was limited to the president and his detail leader, his shift leader. Because in a stressful situation, if you've got four or five people that are on top of you saying, get up, no, stay down, this. So he knew the shift leader's making those calls as to when we're going to move. You saw the two counter-assault element guys. which is kind of their SWAT guys, providing that exterior cover, getting him to the car. Now, what's going to be interesting, and obviously a lot of people probably remember this from Reagan

is when the former president gets to the vehicles. Again, his shift leader, his detail is going to then start a head-to-to-to-check because that's what happened to Reagan. They didn't realize Reagan had been shot until he gets in there, and his agent found, you know, he was rubbing down here and he said, oh, I think you laid on my rib. Reagan starts coughing up blood, and that's when he realized, uh-oh, he's been shot. So, again, there's protocols that are going to go in on the way to the hospital. The profile of the shooter, anything there stand out to you? Were you shocked, I mean, even from the age to the background that we know so far?

I think the age kind of sticks out a little bit. I feel like a lot of times after these types of mass shooting events, the loaner phrase sticks out. Is that just a go-to phrase that people use? I don't know. I think, again, the investigation, as more people come forward, it's going to help build that profile. And the FBI, obviously, is the best at building profiles on people. So do you agree that the FBI should be taking command of this? I do. Okay. And what I mentioned what they might be looking into, but what are, what resources

did the FBI have that perhaps another agency doesn't have? Especially, and again, I don't know much about that town that that was in. I can only assume, you know, kind of small town vibe. So obviously the Bureau has so many more resources than the capability, especially we're talking about getting into the phones, right? Right. especially iPhones. I mean, there's been so many cases. iPhones are very hard to get into. So there's nobody else I would want trying to get into the phones, getting to the computers. They have the, you know, the FBI has the best aspects on forensics on, you know, whether it's computer forensics, things like that. That's who I want to work in this.

You talked about the report. I want to get to that because the President Joe Biden has directed the U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheetle to review all security measures to see what happened. And a statement from U.S., from Director Cheadle reads in part, quote, The Secret Service is working with all involved federal, state, and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place. Again, we understand the importance of the independent review announced by President Biden yesterday, and we will participate fully. We will also work with the appropriate congressional committees on any oversight action.

What are your thoughts on that? It needs to happen. I think the American people deserve to understand what took place on Saturday. And that way we can, in any type of event like this, we learn from them, right? In a swap background, we would always debrief afterwards. And in fact, I asked a good friend of mine with the service, when I thought, you know, when he thought that the chef may have debrief themselves, he said at the hospital. When the former president was being checked out and evaluated, that group,

you saw surround him was probably in there debriefing, hey, what went right, what went wrong. And obviously there'll be a more formal, you know, after action report and debrief. But, you know, it is important that the American people know what happened and prevent this from ever happening again. The Department of Homeland Security and Congress, they're also looking into this. So when would we have some sort of independent report on what happened here? I would not anticipate anything before six to eight months at a minimum. This is not going to be a quick turnaround. There is so much to look at crime scene wise. I mean, think how many people were there, Jesse. How many people are coming forward to interview and say they saw something? Yeah. I mean, you're talking about

thousands of people, thousands of, or hundreds if not thousands of cell phone videos, things like that. That report's not even going to be touched until every one of those are downloaded, looked into all that. I mean, you know, it could be upwards to a year before this report comes out. Wow. Shocking. It was shocking to see, as you keep saying, you know, it is a terrible situation because we lost the life of, again, a father, a husband, somebody who was protecting his family's life, a few people injured, President Trump was injured, and it could have been, despite Ossan, it could have been even worse, but thankfully it wasn't. So we saw this swift action from Secret Service and local law enforcement there as well. Clearly there

were deficits, but again, could have been much worse. Chad Ayers, thank you so much, my friend, for coming in. Appreciate it. It's always a pleasure. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. or Spotify.