Video shows Trump gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks yelling “slash Republican throats”
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Video of man yelling “slash Republican throats” was from 2020. It is not Thomas Matthew Crooks.
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The video of a man yelling "slash Republican throats" was taken in 2020 on Arizona State University’s campus.
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The university and FBI investigated the incident in 2020. Arizona State University’s president confirmed July 15 that the man in the video was not Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspect in the July 13 Trump rally shooting.
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In 2020, Crooks was a sophomore at Bethel Park High School in Pennsylvania.
As authorities seek to determine what motivated a Pennsylvania gunman to open fire on former President Donald Trump’s political rally July 13, some social media users are trying to fill in the gap with their own theories.
"Thomas Matthew Crooks, Slash Republican throats," read a July 14 X post that included a video showing a man yelling. "There were signs … " read another July 14 X post with the same video.
(Screenshot of X post)
Both posts were corrected by community notes, X’s crowdsourced approach to addressing misinformation. The notes said that Crooks went to a Pennsylvania high school in 2020. One also included a better quality video, posted Feb. 6, 2020.
The 2020 video is real, and as onlookers at Arizona State University’s campus took video of him, the man shouted,"Slash Republican throats! Slash fascist throats!"
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The Arizona Republic reported that the man was yelling at members of Arizona State’s Students for Trump chapter who had set up a table on campus. The university confirmed the person was not Crooks.
"ASU concluded its investigation back in 2020, in conjunction with the FBI, and determined the subject in the video was not a credible threat," Arizona State University President Michael Crow said in a July 15 statement. "That person has a different name and different date of birth than the suspect in the attempted assassination of former President Trump over the weekend."
Crooks, who was 20 years old, graduated from Pennsylvania’s Bethel Park High School in 2022. He would have been a high school sophomore in 2020. The Secret Service said its agents shot and killed Crooks after he opened fire at the Trump rally.
Although little is known about Crooks’ political history, he was a registered Republican and donated $15 in 2017 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a political action committee that rallies Democratic voters. The 2024 presidential election would have been the first in which Crooks could have voted.
We rate the claim that this video shows Crooks yelling "slash Republican throats" False.
Our Sources
X post, July 14, 2024
X post, July 14, 2024
X post, February 6, 2020
The Arizona Republic, ASU working to identify man yelling 'Slash Republican throats' in viral on-campus video, February 6, 2020
The Arizona Republic, ASU police investigating after viral video shows man yelling, 'Slash Republican throats!', February 5, 2020
BBC, Thomas Matthew Crooks: What we know about Donald Trump's attacker, July 15, 2024
CNN, What we know about the Trump rally gunman so far, July 14, 2024
Federal Election Commission, Thomas Crooks, accessed July 15, 2024
CBS News Trump rally shooter identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20-year-old Pennsylvania man. Here's what we know so far, July 15, 2024
Arizona State University, ASU President Michael M. Crow on Trump shooter and ASU social media rumors, July 15, 2024
Phone interview with Jerry Gonzalez, Arizona State media relations, July 15, 2024
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Video of man yelling “slash Republican throats” was from 2020. It is not Thomas Matthew Crooks.
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