Can government incompetence run so deep that its accidental consequences appear deliberate?
Or, when a preponderance of evidence points in one direction, must a reasonable person accept an otherwise unthinkable conclusion?
These questions came to mind again on Thursday morning when Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida took to the social media platform X and posted a hitherto unreleased photo of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old man who allegedly attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13, walking around a building near the rally and carrying an AR-15.
According to Luna, a rally attendee took the photo and gave it to law enforcement officials.
“I have just obtained a photo that was taken by individual at rally in PA of Crooks with the gun used to shoot at President Trump walking around building prior to assassination attempt. This photo was submitted to LEO in PA. To my knowledge this photo has not been released until now,” the congresswoman wrote.
I have just obtained a photo that was taken by individual at rally in PA of Crooks with the gun used to shoot at President Trump walking around building prior to assassination attempt. This photo was submitted to LEO in PA. To my knowledge this photo has not been released until… pic.twitter.com/55osUSrVeE
— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) August 15, 2024
The breathtaking incompetence required to overlook a rifle-toting man at an event featuring a former and perhaps future president hardly inspires confidence in the Secret Service.
Nonetheless, it beats the alternative.
Should more people lose their jobs over the events of July 13th?
With that in mind, prominent Trump supporters on X responded to Luna’s photo by voicing what many have already suggested.
“He’s open carrying an AR15 a few hundred feet from a presidential candidate and former president speaking. Zero chance this wasn’t an inside job,” Brenden Dilley wrote.
He’s open carrying an AR15 a few hundred feet from a presidential candidate and former president speaking.
Zero chance this wasn’t an inside job.
— Brenden Dilley (@WarlordDilley) August 15, 2024
“Inside job,” Gunther Eagleman wrote.
Inside job.
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) August 15, 2024
Others suspected a much deeper plot akin to what President John F. Kennedy’s alleged killer Lee Harvey Oswald suggested before the assassin Jack Ruby silenced Oswald for good.
“Crooks was only the patsy, not the shooter,” one user wrote.
Crooks was only the patsy, not the shooter.
— MisterJohn.eth🔺 (@jmsTradesCrypto) August 15, 2024
“There is a lot of explaining to do. How did the USSS become weaponized and plot against 45? Who has the power to corrupt federal agencies?” another user wrote.
There is a lot of explaining to do. How did the USSS become weaponized and plot against 45? Who has the power to corrupt federal agencies?
— Craig (@CraigG92375) August 15, 2024
Whatever one suspects, we must at least admit that both incompetence and design remain as plausible conclusions.
On one hand, of course, malicious design seems likely because it represents the next step in a pattern of behavior. In fact, Tucker Carlson predicted an assassination attempt on Trump nearly a year ago. For reasons only they can say, establishment operatives have tried everything to stop Trump. They reek of desperation.
On the other hand, their desperation notwithstanding, would professionals have made the security stand-down so obvious? Would they have exposed themselves to that kind of scrutiny? Or, in the event of Crooks’ success, did they have a plan to fix blame on a foreign adversary and thereby drag Americans into another war?
Luna’s photo — as grainy as it may be — raised these questions anew. Unfortunately, we still have no answers.
Meanwhile, establishment operatives have done everything possible to bury the Trump assassination attempt story. They have done this despite years spent amplifying the fake “insurrection” narrative surrounding the Capitol incursion of Jan. 6, 2021.
That, more than any individual photo, might constitute the best evidence we have.
