Happy Tuesday!

Today’s Brew is spiked with some Advanced Memory Formula because it seems many have already forgotten what happened one month ago today.

Trump Assassination Attempt: One Month Later

One month ago today, at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump came within a whisper of being murdered. Only a fortuitous, uncharacteristic turn of his head spared the nation a horror that could have made J6 look like a day at Six Flags.

In a moment for the ages, Donald Trump, his face bloodied, jumped up, pumped his fist and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Nonetheless, it seems the tragedy has been nearly erased from public memory. Google tried its best, with its algorithm blocking auto-filled searches of “assassination attempt Trump.” Astonishingly, we know little more about shooter Thomas Crooks today than we did in July.

Worse still, with each passing day, we have seen increasing evidence that makes simple, if staggering, ineptitude by the Secret Service seem less likely to be the underlying reason that Crooks was able to get off a shot.

Trump was allowed to go on stage, even though the Secret Service knew there was a dangerous suspect on the loose. They kept him on stage, even as word came that a gunman was on the roof of a building just a few hundred yards away. What else could they have allowed that would have made Crooks’s task even easier?

What reason do we have to believe that the same administration that had been painting Trump as Hitler, sent armed agents to storm his home after giving them the green light to use deadly force against him, and vowed to stop him from ever taking office would not have acted to take out the leader of a movement it treats like domestic terrorists?

The head of the FBI went before Congress and under oath suggested that Trump may not even have actually been shot. Given this, do we have any reason to believe anything that comes out of his mouth?

The former head of the Secret Service actually claimed agents weren’t on top of the building where Crooks was allowed to station himself because the roof’s steep slope. The would-be assassin danced around that roof like Nureyev on stage with the Bolshoi Ballet, and yet still, a month later, the Secret Service is playing dumb, and the only information we’re getting is from whistleblowers and the local, very ticked-off police.

Perhaps we will finally get some answers now, though. A bipartisan House of Representatives task force began work Monday, starting with letters demanding staff-level briefings from the Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service, FBI, and Department of Justice. Then again, given how abominably those agencies have acted the past several years — directly against Trump and his supporters — there’s little hope the task force will get full cooperation. But there is some reason to expect full retaliation against any whistleblowers who come forward.

May the task force and other independent investigations bring the truth to light. Meanwhile, a bit of new information that warrants a deep dive …

DHS and FBI Trained at Same Range as Shooter

Records obtained by Sen. Charles Grassley indicate DHS and FBI agents trained at the very same gun range as Thomas Crooks: Clairton Sportsmen’s Club Range in Clairton, Penn. Crooks joined on August 10, 2023, and went 43 times, including on Christmas and several other holidays, in the 11 months before the shooting. Fox News’s Jesse Watters had the story.

Is it unreasonable to ask if Crooks was recruited? It’s not like the FBI doesn’t have a history of getting chummy with troubled souls, such as those entrapped in the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Secret Service Breaks Into Salon to Use Restroom

The Secret Service has apologized for breaking into a salon near a Kamala Harris fundraiser in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on July 27 without permission and taping over the camera in order to allow people to use the bathroom. (They then left the door unlocked for two hours.)

Something smells about this story. The Secret Service wouldn’t be breaking into someone’s business without permission simply because some average rally-goer needed to tinkle. Who gave the order? Did the Secret Service abuse their authority on their own? Or did Harris campaign leaders get the Secret Service to do their personal bidding for some reason?

NEW: Kamala Harris' Secret Service team forced to issue an apology after they broke into a salon in Massachusetts while Harris was at a fundraiser nearby.

A female agent was seen duct-taping a camera outside the business while agents picked the lock.

Once inside, the agents… pic.twitter.com/usaFIjK9vS

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 11, 2024

Such hubris, especially following so closely on the heels of the same agency nearly seeing Trump murdered on their watch.

Since when can government authorities enter private property just because they feel like it? Suppose the feds are hungry. Can they just break in and raid my fridge? (I guess we should have known the answer to that was “yes” when they got away with raiding a former president’s home to gin up a criminal case against their boss’s opponent.)

Sean Davis of The Federalist makes a killer point.

They’ll break the law for a potty break, but they won’t lift a finger to prevent an assassin from shooting Trump in the head. https://t.co/7EIJ36YKuM

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 11, 2024

Trump on X, EU Threatens Musk Over Interview

Last night, former President Donald Trump did an interview on X with Elon Musk. We’ll talk about that later today on Al’s Afternoon Tea.

Hours before the interview, the European Union decided it was its business to interfere with our election by sending a letter to Musk, threatening the social media giant.

With great audience comes greater responsibility #DSA

As there is a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in 🇪🇺 in connection with events with major audience around the world, I sent this letter to @elonmusk

📧⤵️ pic.twitter.com/P1IgxdPLzn

— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) August 12, 2024

Wrote Thierry Breton of the European Commission: “My services and I will be extremely vigilant to any evidence that points to breaches of the DSA, and will not hesitate to make full use of our toolbox, including by adopting interim measures, should it be warranted to protect EU citizens from serious harm.”

Trump himself returned to X yesterday with a vengeance, posting campaign videos and asking, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president?” Thus far, though, there have been no mean tweets. (What are the betting odds on how long that lasts?)

Speaking of mean tweets, on the seventh anniversary of the Charlottesville riots, the Harris campaign repeated the vile “very fine people” mantra that has been proven to be a hoax.

7 years ago today, white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched on Charlottesville, chanting racist and antisemitic bile and killing an innocent woman.

This is who Donald Trump calls “very fine people” pic.twitter.com/FfHJhWVR9B

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 12, 2024

Memo to Kamala Harris: Lies and slander are not “joyful.”

Update: Spanish Boxing Coach Reveals Imane Khelif “Hurt” Female Sparring Partners

Imane Khelif, the biological male who just won a gold medal in women’s boxing at the Olympics, trained for a while in Spain with a former Spanish boxer named Rafael Lozano. According to The Blaze, Lozano told Radio Marca, “They were doing a training camp here at the Blume and we couldn’t put [Khelif] with anyone. We put her with Jennifer Fernández and it hurt her. Whoever we put her with, [Khelif] hurt her.” Lozano said Khelif matched up equally with top Spanish boxer Jose Quiles.

“I don’t see it as fair; I don’t see it as equitable,” he said of Khelif competing against women. “Everyone can think what they want, but that’s how I see it.”

A female boxer named Joana Nwamerue concurs. She says she sparred with Khelif in Bulgaria, and insisted to Reduxx the boxer is “male,” with “male power” using “male techniques.” Nwmamerue says she wasn’t hurt when boxing Khelif, but worried weaker females would be.

Nwamerue says Algerian national team members told her that Khelif was a woman, whose body was “changed” from living high in the mountains.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports Khelif’s coach Georges Cazorla let slip that the boxer had “problems with hormones” and “with chromosomes” when tested by the International Boxing Association, leading to Khelif being disqualified from the world championships last year.

Along The Stream

Keith Guinta tells us how “New Whistleblower Book Shepherds for Sale Sends Regime Christians into ‘Attack’ Mode.”

Keep your eyes out for Albin Sadar’s interview with Shepherds for Sale author Meghan Bashan later this morning.

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.