This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The man in the audience who was shot and killed at President Donald Trump's political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday has been identified as Corey Comperatore, who recently turned 50.
He was the former fire chief for Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania.
His daughter, Allyson Comperatore said, "He was the best dad a girl could ever ask for."
"He was a man of God, loved Jesus fiercely, and also looked after our church and members as family.
"The media will not tell you that he died a real-life superhero. They are not going to tell you how quickly he threw my mom and I to the ground. They are not going to tell you that he shielded my body from the bullet that came at us."
Corey’s sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer, said: “The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most. He was a hero that shielded his daughters.
"His wife and girls just lived through the unthinkable and unimaginable. My baby brother just turned 50 and had so much life left to experience. Hatred has no limits and love has no bounds. Pray for my sister-in-law, nieces, my mother, sister, me and his nieces and nephews as this feels like a terrible nightmare but we know it is our painful reality."
Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa., held a news conference Sunday, and said: "Corey was a girl dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community and, most off all, Corey loved his family."
"Corey died a hero," he stressed. "Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. Corey was the very best of us."
"Political disagreements can never ever be addressed through violence," Shapiro continued.
This is a moment where all leaders have a responsibility to … take down the temperature."
Meanwhile, Nicole Parker, a former FBI agent and Fox News contributor, said: "This is an epic failure by the United States Secret Service."
"The vitriol in this country is awful, it's disgusting."
She also blasted federal security agencies under Joe Biden for having their priorities out of whack.
"They seem to be focused on the wrong things," she said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Shortly after a sniper shot at President Trump, injuring him Saturday, the left's absolute and irrational hatred of President Donald Trump surfaced online.
It was in a statement attributed to a staff member for U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi.
A report at the Gateway Pundit explained Thompson, who is campaigning to try to remove Secret Service protection from President Trump, should the Democrats’ lawfare against him succeed in obtaining certain convictions and penalties, offered “crocodile tears on X” after the failed assassination attempt against Trump Saturday.
His "canned statement" included "thoughts and prayers."
But the report noted his field director, Jacqueline Marsaw, unleashed a comment on what appears to be an utter hatred of Trump.
Her comment appeared to express disappointment that the attacker, now dead, did not aim well enough.
"I don't condone violence, but please get you some shooting lessons so you don't miss next time. Oops, that wasn't me talking," her statement, quickly removed from online, said.
The attacker, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old Democrat donor, was shot and killed by law enforcement. One bystander was fatally shot during the violence.
Social media users blasted Thompson, who is noted for running ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's tainted and partisan Jan. 6 committee that orchestrated witnesses, evidence, and testimony to try to make the events of that day at the Capitol appear to be Trump's fault:
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party, the national news media and many social-media “influencers” have, since 2016, continually likened Donald Trump to the single most reviled human being in history, Adolf Hitler. Are they thereby complicit in the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump?
After all, the most moral and righteous response to the real Hitler was to try to kill him. There were, in fact, 16 known plots to assassinate Hitler, and every one of the participants – from revered German theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer to “20 July plot” ringleader Col. Claus von Stauffenberg – are to this day universally considered patriots and heroes.
But Hitler was a raging psychopath who murdered 11 million people, while Trump is a successful, much-loved American president who murdered zero people. Comparing the two is therefore not only obviously insane, it’s also straight-up evil – because it implicitly encourages unstable, confused and rage-filled people to consider assassinating Donald Trump.
Yes, Biden released a written statement condemning the assassination attempt, and then briefly went on camera to say a few nice words. But this same Joe Biden, less than a week earlier, on July 7, said: “We’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put >I>Trump in a bull's-eye.
Biden recently demonstrated once again just how wedded he is to the Trump-is-Hitler-so-vote-for-me-even-though-I’m-demented narrative. Even though leftwing factcheck site Snopes had just issued a belated but high-profile debunking of the infamous "Charlottesville lie" – that Trump had paid tribute to “very fine” Nazis after a 2017 Virginia rally – Biden just couldn’t resist telling the Big Lie one more time during his ill-fated CNN debate with Trump.
And how could Biden resist? After all, it’s his favorite lie. He first told it while accepting the Democrats’ nomination as their presidential candidate in 2020, with the Washington Post pompously announcing that "For Joe Biden, Charlottesville defines the Trump presidency."
Biden even claimed – falsely, of course – that “Charlottesville” was his very reason for running for president. He repeated this lie, which has been continually debunked by both right and left for the last seven years, in his inauguration speech. In fact, he has probably repeated this particular lie – that Donald Trump loves Nazis – more often than any other single accusation against the 45th president.
The left – as conservative broadcaster Todd Starnes notes, citing both Newt Gingrich's and Tucker Carlson's concerns over Trump being assassinated – is committed to keeping Trump out of the White House by any means necessary. Period. And one of its main methods for accomplishing that end has been to continually liken Trump to Hitler.
Thus, Hillary Clinton's controversial June 6 D-Day post on X – obliquely but unmistakably identifying Trump with Hitler – was not the exception, but the rule.
The left’s comparison of Trump with Hitler has been incessant and never-ending. When in 2020 a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, was being attacked night after night by violent leftwing radicals attempting to burn it down – with people inside – Trump sent federal law enforcement agents to secure the building, as was his constitutional right and obvious duty. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's response? “The use of stormtroopers under the guise of law and order is a tactic that is not appropriate to our country in any way.” Get it? “Stormtroopers”? Trump is another Hitler.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn echoed the same Hitler comparison, telling CNN: “This president and this attorney general seem to be doing everything they possibly can to impose Gestapo activities in local communities.” Ooh, “Gestapo.” That means Trump is Hitler. CNN's Don Lemon compared Trump to Hitler on-air, as did Democratic presidential candidate Robert "Beto" O'Rourke.
Throughout Trump’s presidency, Democrats and media personalities continually likened the 45th U.S. president to Hitler. They falsely demonized a heroic, disabled veteran, who nevertheless landed a desk job with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as being a Nazi. And people like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even likened Trump's border detention facilities (without mentioning they were first set up by President Barack Obama) as Nazi "concentration camps."
Is it possible that AOC is really that ignorant and/or idiotic? Has she ever watched videos of the liberation of real concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau and Buchenwald? It’s difficult to view any of these videos and not weep over the unimaginable – that’s the right word, unimaginable – evil that was perpetrated on millions of innocents.
Then there’s this video commercial, titled "God made a dictator," produced by the “Lincoln Project.” Although one would never expect it from a group with such a nice name, and which Wikipedia describes innocently as “an American political action committee founded in December 2019 by moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members who oppose U.S. President Donald Trump and Trumpism,” the commercial explicitly and viciously equates Donald Trump with three people: Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Un.
What's the real message here? What effect might all of these "Trump is just like Hitler!" theatrics have on lost and angry souls like Thomas Matthew Crooks, the young man who shot at Trump in Pennsylvania?
It goes on year after year. Biden officially describes not only Donald Trump, but the entire Republican Party, as "semi-fascists." This defamation obsession apparently runs in the family. Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Biden, recently caught sight of a former Trump aide attending Hunter’s Delaware firearms trial. According to Fox News, she approached the man, pointed her finger at him and said, “You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of s***.”
But the insanity goes beyond just vile, demented name-calling. Some on the left responded to the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity decision by openly fantasizing about Biden "send[ing] in the military to take out Trump." BBC presenter David Aaronovitch actually called on Biden to have Trump "murdered."
Lest these be dismissed as isolated nut cases, consider that Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., a ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, has plans for Trump if he is sentenced to prison over the 34 pretend “felonies” for which a clueless leftwing Manhattan jury convicted him. In April, Thompson introduced H.R. 8081, the “Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable Former Protectees Act” – or “DISGRACED Former Protectees Act” for short. The legislation is specifically crafted to terminate Secret Service protection for Donald Trump (and any other high government official who otherwise would qualify for such protection) should they be sentenced to prison following conviction for a federal or state felony.
Obviously, the effect of such legislation would be to make it much easier for Donald Trump to be harmed or killed if he is sent to prison by a corrupt New York judge.
The Trump-is-Hitler obsession is never-ending: Just a few weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times published a major 2024 election-season news report headlined, "Trump and GOP repeatedly echo Nazi and far-right ideology as they aim to retake White House." Just as back in 2016, when five different Washington Post writers explicitly compared Trump to Hitler, the LA Times identifies Trump, his speech, his ideology, his values and his presidential agenda with those of history’s most reviled and genocidal mass-murderer, Adolf Hitler and his monstrous Third Reich.
Right now, millions of good Americans, horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania, are praying. They're praying for Donald Trump. They're praying this doesn't happen again. They're thanking God for protecting Trump; after all, had the bullet's trajectory been even an inch or two different, Donald Trump's skull would have been hit and American history would have been cataclysmically altered forever.
Americans are praying for their nation, for a return of peace and unity and sanity.
And one more thing many are no doubt praying for: That the leftist elites, from Joe Biden on down, including their propaganda media, will STOP insanely fueling unhinged leftists’ monstrous fantasies of assassinating “America’s Hitler,” a man who in reality is one of the best and most-loved presidents ever to bless this nation. They are praying that God might impress into these people’s minds the truth – that Trump is not Hitler, and that Republicans, conservatives, Christians and Trump supporters are not “fascists,” “racists,” “Nazis,” “white supremacists,” “deplorables,” “Christian nationalists,” “violent extremists” and “domestic terrorists.”
They are fervently praying that this wildly insane and dangerous slander will stop before it results in the assassination of a beloved president, and plunges the United States of America – which Ronald Reagan, echoing Christ's words, once described as "a shining city on a hill"– into unimaginable levels of chaos, suffering and violence.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The attempted assassination happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, where President Donald Trump was holding a campaign rally, at about 6:15 p.m. Saturday.
Here's a timeline (all times Eastern):
6:02 p.m. Trump enters the stage, to the music of "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood. He waved.
6:05 p.m. The song is over and Trump is at the microphone to speak.
About 6:10 p.m. Rally attendees notice a man climbing to the top of a roof. Policeman climbs the roof, but retreats when the gunman points his rifle at him.
6:11 p.m. Multiple shots are fired, Trump grabs his ear, and that drops to the ground as a voice is heard saying "Shots, shots, shots."
6:12 p.m. Trump is covered by Secret Service agents who, after making sure he was no longer in the line of fire, took him off stage and into a vehicle. Trump gives fans a thumbs-up.
6:14 p.m. Law enforcement vehicles lead Trump's limousine, and the rest of his motorcade, away from the rally grounds.
Shortly after the shots, Trump fist-pumps to his crowd, and appears to repeatedly mouth the word "fight."
6:42 p.m. It was an "incident," the Secret Service claimed, which confirmed Trump is safe. Within minutes Trump's campaign echoed that saying Trump was "fine."
7:24 p.m. Authorities confirm there are victims.
7:49 p.m. "Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi of the Secret Service says agents neutralized the attacker and he was dead. Also announced was the fact one rally participate was killed.
8:13 p.m. Joe Biden says he's trying to call Trump.
8:42 p.m. Trump confirmed on Truth Social the facts: "It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!"
9:33 p.m. FBI office in Pittsburgh says it is investigating.
9:37 p.m. Trump praises his own team.
11:53 p.m. FBI spokesman Kevin Rojek called the shooting an assassination attempt.
Midnight. Trump's plane lands in Newark, New Jersey, for his return to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster."
Times from USA Today, Daily Express.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
"During former President Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on the evening of July 13th at approximately 6:15 p.m., a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue.
US Secret Service personnel neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased. US Secret Service quickly responded with protective measures and the former president is safe and being evaluated.
The incident is currently under investigation and the Secret Service has formally notified the Federal Bureau of investigation.
Anthony Guglielmi
Chief of Communications”
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The U.S. Secret Service rushed President Donald Trump off stage after gunfire erupted at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday.
"Someone just tried to ASSASSINATE President Trump," said U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
"The Democrats and the media are to blame for every drop of blood spilled today. For years and years, they've demonized him and his supporters.
The U.S. Secret Service, whose prime duty is to protect American presidents, said "the former president is safe."
"At approximately 6:15 p.m., a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally venue. U.S. Secret Service personnel neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased. U.S. Secret Service personnel quickly responded with protective measures and the former president is safe and being evaluated. One spectator was killed, two spectators were critically injured. This incident is currently under investigation and the Secret Service has formally notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Trump himself posted a statement on his Truth Social page at 8:42 p.m., saying: "I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country.
"Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!"
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman said the former president "is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility."
The person believed to be the shooter is dead. One spectator at the rally has been killed, and a second is in serious condition, according to the Butler County district attorney.
NBC News reported: “Trump was about six minutes into his speech when he reached for the side of his face as popping sounds rang out over the rally. He then crouched down as Secret Service agents rushed the stage and surrounded him. He was quickly escorted into a vehicle, walking off the stage with agents on all sides.
"Trump pumped his fists in the air as he was escorted off of the stage. The crowd cheered as the former president raised his arms.
"Reporters on the scene saw smoke and heard what they initially thought were fireworks before everyone ducked and law enforcement encircled Trump."
At a briefing Saturday evening from Maryland, Joe Biden was asked if he thought this was an assassination attempt on Trump. He responded: "I have an opinion but I don't have any facts."
Biden issued a statement earlier online, indicating:
"I have been briefed on the shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania.
"I'm grateful to hear that he's safe and doing well. I'm praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information.
Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There's no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it."
"I am not shocked by this," former FBI agent Nicole Parker said on Fox News.
"Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. … People will do anything they have to to take him out."
One woman at the scene told Fox News: "God gets all the glory that Trump was protected."
Just five days ago, Joe Biden stated in a conference call to major donors"it's time to put Trump in a bull's-eye."
"I'm abstolutely certain I'm the best person to be able to do that. So, we're done talking about the debate. It's time to put Trump in a bull's-eye."
Former President Barack Obama reacted to the incident, saying: “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy. Although we don’t yet know exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics. Michelle and I are wishing him a quick recovery.”
Mark Stone, a U.S. correspondent for Sky News, said of the incident, “You can hear as he begins the speech a few shots.
"He then appears to put his hand up towards his ear and then gets down on the ground. It will be standard procedure for someone who's been president, a former president, someone of this stature. They will have been told, there will be a procedure of what to do if this sort of thing happens.
"From what I can gather from looking at the footage, the shots seem to have come from the left-hand side as you look at him, because people are looking over to that side."
"This is an extraordinary moment. It is many, many years since an assassination attempt, if this is what it turns out to be, on a president.
"Ronald Reagan – there was an assassination attempt on him in the 80s – in Washington, D.C., in the Hilton Hotel. This is developing and it is incredibly serious."
Elon Musk took to X to say: "I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery."
Donald Trump Jr. said: “He’ll never stop fighting to Save America ”
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father was assassinated during the 1968 race for the White House, said: “Now is the time for every American who loves our country to step back from the division, renounce all violence, and unite in prayer for President Trump and his family.”
An Arizona judge has dismissed murder charges against an elderly rancher accused of shooting dead an illegal immigrant who trespassed on his property.
The ruling is a win for Americans protecting their land and their families from the lawless invasion that President Biden has unleashed, and which Donald Trump has campaigned vigorously against.
The case against 75-year-old George Alan Kelly put a spotlight on the southern border crisis that has many Americans angry and in fear for their safety.
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again after the first trial ended in a mistrial.
The judge said that Kelly should not face trial again because of his advanced age and health issues and too much time had passed since the last trial.
“A re-filing of these charges at a future date would place the defense at a significant disadvantage,” Fink said.
The judge also said that the prosecution's decision not to immediately retry the case was made to give the state a "greater tactical advantage at some future date."
The case ended in a mistrial in April when the jury voted 7-1 to acquit.
“The more logical … reason for the jurors’ 7-1 vote for acquittal is that the State simply failed to persuade the jurors of the Defendant’s guilt,” the judge wrote in the order. “The evidence simply was not there.”
Prosecutors had accused Kelly of fatally shooting a Mexican man, Gabriel Cuen Buitimea, who crossed Kelly's property while fleeing Border Patrol agents in January 2023. Another man who survived, Daniel Ramirez, was the prosecution's key witness.
The prosecutors had a glaring hole in their narrative, notably, they didn't have the bullet that killed Buitimea. There was also no evidence of the time of death.
The trial highlighted fears over a massive influx of illegal migrants through the southern border, which has particularly impacted communities in states like Arizona.
Kelly had reason to fear for his and his family's safety because of an uptick in drug smuggling activity in the area where they lived, his lawyers said. His lawyers said he fired warning shots at a group of men whom he believed were armed.
“This is what’s going on in Mr. Kelly’s life during the lead-up to this incident on January 30th,” defense lawyer Brenna Larkin said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – The Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals court convicted 53 defendants, leaders or members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, in a mass trial Wednesday.
According to WAM, the official Emirates news agency, "The court sentenced 43 defendants to life imprisonment for the crime of creating, establishing, and managing the terrorist 'Justice and Dignity Committee' Organisation for the purpose of committing terrorist acts in the country."
In addition, the court sentenced five defendants to 15 years jail time for cooperating with the "Reform Call" Organisation and advocating for it in articles and tweets posted on social media platforms. The court decided the defendants either knew or should have known its purpose was to take action against the UAE.
Five other defendants were handed 10-year prison sentences and an AED 10 million ($2.72 million) fine for the crime of laundering money with the intent of establishing and financing a terrorist organization.
The court also ruled in favor of fining six companies, impose on each of them an AED 20 million ($5.4 million) fine, as well as dissolving and closing their headquarters, and confiscating their assets. Meanwhile, 24 defendants had their cases dismissed.
The rulings – which are not final and can be appealed at the Federal Supreme Court – drew the ire of leftist humanitarian organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In a statement, Amnesty alleged defendants were "held in prolonged solitary confinement, deprived of contact with their families and lawyers, and subjected to sleep deprivation through continuous exposure to loud music," according to The Media Line.
The UAE, which under the leadership of Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was one of the first signatories of the Abraham Accords with Israel, establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, has taken a zero tolerance policy toward Islamists and Islamism. Firmly aligned with conservative Sunni branch of Islam – or kingdom states such as Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia – the UAE has for more than a decade cracked down on activities it deems harmful to its peace and prosperity. It too is acutely aware of the threat radical Islam poses, including Iranian millenarianism, which through its nuclear program and the "ring of fire" it has ostensibly established to threaten Israel, can also be turned against Muslim Arab states, too.
Deporting pro-Palestinian protester
Although the incident occurred at a graduation ceremony at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus in May, reports of the expulsion of a student protester only surfaced Wednesday. The UAE deported the student who wore a keffiyeh and yelled "Free Palestine!" as he crossed the stage to receive his diploma.
Although the UAE has offered material support to the Palestinians in Gaza in the form of humanitarian aid – much of which Hamas terrorists were recorded stealing – it has maintained a careful path between backing Arab brethren and taking too harsh a line against its Abraham Accord partner, Israel. On the domestic front, political parties are illegal and the Emirati authorities have clamped down sharply on any attempts to hold mass demonstrations against the war, the likes of which have been seen both on the Arab street, and obviously large-scale pro-Hamas protests in many Western capitals. Indeed, at cultural events in Abu Dhabi, the authorities have barred people wearing keffiyehs from entering.
"I think the government and the laws of the country don't necessarily align with wanting to create an environment that appeals to the West as well, if we’re talking about freedom of speech and so on," said one student, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, reported The Times of Israel.
Responding to questions from AP, NYU Abu Dhabi said it has been "guaranteed academic authority" on campus but "in none of our locations… are members of the NYU community immune from local law."
Alec Baldwin's trial is underway for his role in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust, Breitbart reported. The 66-year-old is charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Attorneys for Baldwin will plead his case before a New Mexico judge after a gun the actor was using in the movie discharged a live round, fatally wounding Hutchins and striking director Joel Souza. The actor is charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and faces up to 18 months in prison.
The trial follows the conviction of the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, for the same charge. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison but has filed an appeal.
In a Hollywood twist, Court TV began broadcasting the trial on Wednesday to turn proceedings into a television spectacle. Viewers watched live as the prosecutors and Baldwin's attorneys presented their conflicting versions of the case at the Santa Fe County District Courthouse.
Prosecutors against the 30 Rock actor claimed Baldwin "violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety" while on the set of Rust, ABC News reported. Baldwin allegedly committed "numerous breaches" of weapons safety that led to the 42-year-old's death.
On that fateful day in 2021, Baldwin was on set at a Santa Fe church practicing his cross-draw with the Colt .45 revolver being used as a movie prop. Somehow, the gun was loaded with at least one of the five live rounds found on set after the investigation.
The prosecution contends that regardless of the fact that the gun had live rounds, Baldwin is at fault as he recklessly mishandled the firearm. Prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson said in her opening statement to the jury that the "prop" weapon was a real gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks.
Baldwin was known to "do his own thing" between takes, including keeping his finger on the trigger while practicing his draws, which contradicts gun safety policy. "The evidence will show that that third and fatal time, he takes it out once again, fast. He cocks the hammer, points it straight at Miss Hutchins, and fires that gun, sending that live bullet right into Miss Hutchins' body," Johnson told the jury.
"After the shooting, the defendant began to claim he didn't pull the trigger. The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that's not possible," Johnson said, adding another layer to the damaging assertions.
Baldwin's attorney, Alex Spiro, laid the blame at the armorer's feet in his opening remarks. "On this set, there was a real bullet, something that should never be on a movie set, something which has nothing to do with making a movie," Spiro told the jurors.
"You will hear no evidence, not one word that Alec Baldwin had anything to do with that real bullet being brought onto that set. No one had any idea that this venomous, toxic element had been inserted into this magic they were creating," Spiro continued.
"But it did," he added. "It entered that place. It killed an amazing person, it wounded another, and it changed lives forever." Spiro insinuated that Gutierrez-Reed was to blame as Baldwin was handed a safe for prop use "cold gun" but "shocked" everyone when a live round came out.
"Alec is startled. He immediately says, 'I didn't mean to shoot. I didn't pull the trigger,'" Spiro added, underscoring the claim about his lack of responsibility.
The jury will get to decide Baldwin's fate after hearing from witnesses on both sides of the issue. It's unfortunate that this happened at all, and someone will have to pay for the cinematographer's untimely death.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Under President Donald Trump's tenure, there were howls of outrage from Democrats and their allies in the media that his administration was keeping illegal alien children in "cages" while their cases were processed.
Those reports almost uniformly failed to point out that the cages were built while Barack Obama was in the White House. Michelle Obama even went public in blaming Trump for what developed under her husband's management, complaining, "They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages."
A fact-checker, in fact, pointed out, "What she did not say is that the very same 'cages' were built and used in her husband's administration."
When the Biden administration resumed "holding migrant children in cages," the media went silent again.
But whistleblowers now are revealing the catastrophe that has developed for migrant children is much, much worse than "cages" with Biden in the Oval Office. Under his open borders policies, some 85,000 children have gone missing.
A report at the Daily Wire revealed whistleblowers told members of Congress that the Department of Human Services has lost "at least 85,000 children who crossed the border illegal as 'unaccompanied minors' after placing them with 'sponsors.'"
Those children may have been trafficked for forced labor or even prostitution, the U.S. Senate panel was told.
The children were handed over to "people who clearly were not their relatives and when there was evidence of abuse and trafficking" under Biden, the report said.
One whistleblower said when supervisors were alerted to "sadistic abuse" and evidence that the adults taking children were not relatives, "the Biden administration’s DHS Office of Refugee Resettlement took her off the job and retaliated against her."
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, blamed Biden for shoveling children out to homes of "poorly-vetted" volunteers to avoid putting them in "cages" as he had characterized President Trump's efforts.
The reality of Biden's efforts, however, meant that as many as 500,000 children were turned over to adults who sometimes were strangers, background checks were eased, and the single oversight effort was a telephone call to the children 30 days later – at a time which many simply had gone missing, the report said.
Republican senators held the hearing unofficially, as Democrats, in the Senate majority, refused to participate.
Tara Lee Rodas, with a 20-year career in government, volunteered to help with the incoming flood, and she reported Carmen, a Guatemalan girl of 16, "was sent by the Biden administration to live with someone who claimed to be her brother. But pictures on social media showed him touching her sexually; 'it was clear her sponsor was not her brother,' she said. Soon, Carmen was advertised on the sponsor’s social media with her shirt unbuttoned, looking drugged up. Her 'sponsor' also posted child pornography to social media," the report said.
Rodas said she now wonders if Carmen is safe.
A report at PJMedia said Republican Sens. Grassley, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and John Cornyn of Texas held the hearing.
The report noted other children were turned over to live with "known gang members."
In fact, the federal bureaucracy turned a child over to a known gang member even knowing there wasn't a relationship and about the gang member's affiliation, one whistleblower charged.
The results of Biden's programs, the whistleblower charged, were "a government-funded child sex trafficking scheme."