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They were the shots heard around the world. One of them struck America's 45th president.
Months after gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks pulled the trigger that fateful Saturday evening in Butler, Pennsylvania, questions still linger: what string of events allowed a 20-year-old gunman to climb to his sniper's perch and open fire on one of the most prominent political figures in the world?
Some, including former President Trump himself, insist it's a byproduct of a political climate that has reached a boiling point thanks to incendiary rhetoric.
Others argue the gunman's motives – and the details of that day – are still unclear.
Regardless, Fox News' Jesse Watters is on the case.
FBI INVESTIGATION OF TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT INVOLVES ‘FULL FORCE’ OF THE DEPARTMENT, WRAY SAYS
Former President Trump was injured during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
"It's a story of fearless courage but also stunning incompetence, and each revelation brings more questions than answers," the "Jesse Watters Primetime" host said of the July 13 shooting, leading viewers into the first episode of a new Fox Nation series covering the attempted assassinations of the former president.
Trump dropped to the ground shortly after firecracker-esque popping noises threw the massive outdoor crowd into a state of disarray. After narrowly escaping death, blood from his ear streamed down his face and Secret Service agents enveloped him.
Thanks to one last-second turn, he was still alive.
But the story would continue with a different antagonist just two months later when, in an apparent second assassination attempt, suspect Ryan Wesley Routh was allegedly spotted with a semi-automatic weapon pointed in Trump's direction at the Trump International Golf Course in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Thanks to eyewitnesses, he was caught that day and taken into custody, where he remains.
"Jesse Watters Primetime" host Jesse Watters explores the assassination attempts on former President Trump in a new Fox Nation show. (Fox News)
"One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump's presidential campaigns has always been his massive rallies," he narrated, leading viewers into the first episode of the Fox Nation series, "Jesse Watters: Attempted Assassination of Trump."
"But as you watch these rallies, you have to wonder: how does the Secret Service protect such a candidate from an assassin? In Butler, Pennsylvania, we learned a lot about that," Watters said.
Though information about both events remains limited, indicators point to premeditation in the days leading up to Crooks' attempt to assassinate Trump.
"All of this pre-planning told me he was mission-oriented. He knew what he wanted to accomplish," said James Fitzgerald, a former FBI profiler. Crooks had researched the distance between former President John F. Kennedy and his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot him fatally in November 1963.
"He [Crooks] signs up for this particular event on July 6, and then he starts searching about Oswald-Kennedy distances, so now we're in the research and planning stage. Next, we're coming to the preparation stage…"
It all seemed to happen right under the nose of the United States Secret Service, and that notion spawned a series of calls for investigations — including one requiring then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify before Congress shortly before stepping down.
"We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service snipers whenever they arrived, and that never happened," Jason Woods, a Pennsylvania SWAT team officer, told ABC News after the incident.
"That was a pivotal point when I started to think things were going wrong because that never happened" he added.
To follow Jesse Watters through the complex twists and turns of the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump, sign up for Fox Nation and begin streaming "Jesse Watters: The Attempted Assassinations of Trump."
Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.
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