(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Following the attempt on GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s life, mainstream media sought to valorize the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, by dubiously portraying him as a well-endowed Republican.
According to his classmates, the 2022 graduate who lived with his parents in Bethel Park, Pa., and spent nearly $1,500 on an OnlyFans site over a period of five months was something of a loner in high school who was regularly bullied.
Those who knew Thomas Matthew Crooks: “He was bullied almost every day. He was just an outcast." pic.twitter.com/Lg9O2qgpKd
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) July 15, 2024
“He would sit alone at lunch. He was just the outcast,” Jason Kohler, 21, told NBC. “It’s honestly kind of sad.”
Following suit, ABC News on Monday offered an allegedly “complex portrait” of Crooks.
“He was somebody who came across as lonely a lot,” said Jameson Myers, another one of Crooks’s former classmates, adding that he was “bullied so much in high school.”
Myers called Crooks “an interesting one” who was “more socially reserved” and “didn’t have a ton of friends.” Still, he reportedly “was a very nice, even sweet guy.”
Notably, Crooks had tried to join the high school shooting team but was cut from the team for lack of skill.
“He didn’t just not make the team, he was asked not to come back because how bad of a shot he was; it was considered, like, dangerous,” said Myers.
Others suggested that he “wasn’t really fit” for the team, adding that “he also shot terrible.”
Celebrity gossip site TMZ, meanwhile, posted footage of Crooks, apparently at school with friends, claiming to have a 10-inch penis:
JUST IN: TMZ has obtained footage of Thomas Matthew Crooks claiming he had a 10-inch pen*s.
The video was reportedly taken in February of 2020 at Steel Center Career and Technical Education in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania.
Classmates say Crooks was quiet but would open up and… pic.twitter.com/1eJm2jAlDG
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 15, 2024
In addition to being lonely and sexually frustrated, Crooks also appeared to be committed to left-wing causes.
The then-18-year-old donated $15 in 2021 to the far-left Progressive Turnout Project, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Per the Progressive Turnout Project’s website, the group is “dedicated to mobilizing the Democratic Party and defending democracy.”
However, it is known for promoting extremist rhetoric on its social-media sites, such as claiming that “Donald Trump will destroy democracy.”
Crooks’s mother, Mary, also appeared to have donated twice to ActBlue recently, although the specific records were not yet available to confirm that the address matched that of the family, nor what specific organization it may have been earmarked for.
Despite the evidence of the family’s political leanings, the day after the shooting, media outlets including NBC News quickly pounced on the fact that Crooks was a registered Republican in order to deflect from the Left’s culpability in promoting stochastic terrorism against the former president.
NOT SO FAST: About those reports the Trump sho*ter was a “registered Republican” and therefore must have been a Trump supporter…
The.National Pulse is reporting that one Thomas Crooks of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania made a contribution to progressive PAC ActBlue pic.twitter.com/4TlZw6RUZM
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 14, 2024
Many pointed out, however, that Democrats had organized widespread campaigns—particularly in closed primary states such as Pennsylvania—to switch their registrations in order to vote against Trump in the Republican primary since President Joe Biden faced no significant challenges in the Democrat primary.
Republican pundits also noted that they had switched their registrations to Democrat in the past, suggesting it was a meaningless measure of political affiliation.
I registered Dem in NY to vote in primaries
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 14, 2024
