Yesterday's attempted slaying of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania has plunged an already chaotic news cycle into uncharted territory. The media on both sides of the aisle was set ablaze. It's difficult to grasp that barely 12 hours have passed since the event, but details have continued to roll out. I attempted to postulate what might have happened in a purely speculative article shortly after the shooting, but now most of the questions I posed have been answered. (If you somehow missed them, you should also go back and read Beege's update and Ed's analysis before going through this.) 

First of all, the identity of the shooter seems to have been confirmed. Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania fired at least five or six shots with a rifle before being killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper team. (You can see a couple of pictures of him here. He looks like a geeky nerd, but clearly even nerds can be dangerous in certain circumstances.) Props to the Secret Service for their rapid, effective response. Everyone who volunteers to take on that job is faced with one critical question that is almost unique to this branch of service. Should the day come, would you be willing to take a bullet for the President? Well, the day came and they immediately put themselves in the potential line of fire.

The FBI has identified the individual suspected of attempting to assassinate former president Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania is believed to be the person who shot Trump and several rally attendees, the FBI confirmed. One person is believed to have died during the shooting and another is in critical condition.

Returning to the initial, speculative questions I posed in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, most of them have already been answered sufficiently barring further revelations. I first asked how someone could have smuggled a rifle into that event. That didn't happen. Crooks was located on a roof outside of the rally site. But that does suggest that there will need to be a quick review of the Secret Service protocols that are in place. Providing security for Trump must be a nightmare given his packed, chaotic schedule. But that roof was apparently an obvious spot where an assassin could make an attempt. They should have had someone stationed up there.

I also asked whether the shooter could have been someone from the inside, perhaps involved in law enforcement, who would have been able to get a weapon into the event. That is no longer an issue. Crooks has no known ties to the campaign, the police, or the Secret Service that we are aware of.

My alternate idea was, as some in the media initially speculated, that the sounds heard were actually loud fireworks and Trump had injured his head while being pushed to the ground. (Ed went back later and deleted that part of the post, but I need to own up to what I wrote.) That was also completely disproven. The former President was definitely shot. I also asked how a gunman could have managed to not strike anyone else. The initial reporting when I pushed out that article only mentioned Trump being struck. Tragically, several others actually had been shot with one of them being killed. But as I said, I was operating on very limited information at the time. I'll take the blame for all of that without issue.

So what does this mean going forward? Security at future Trump rallies will doubtless be ramped up. If there was one lunatic like Thomas Matthew Crooks out there, we simply can't rule out the possibility that there could be more. This campaign and the majority of the mainstream media coverage of it has taken an already sharply divided nation and inflamed those divisions to dangerous levels. There could be other aspiring nutjobs waiting in the wings who believe that they will be remembered as "heroes" if they become the person to take down the "evil monster threatening democracy" that is Donald J. Trump. As for the Bad Orange Man himself, he further swelled his own legend when the potentially deadly moment arrived. Rather than cowering on the floor under a pile of Secret Service agents, he rose up and thrust his fist in air, imploring his supporters to "Fight!" An American flag waved in the background, creating what will doubtless be one of the most iconic images of the campaign that will live on in perpetuity. Now we march on toward November with Trump firmly at the helm. Don't expect him to back down or be cowed in any way. It's simply not in the man's character.