Local Officials React to Trump Shooting

Several Long Island and South Fork elected officials and candidates reacted swiftly to the apparent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday evening.

The former president and Republican Party nominee for president was grazed by a bullet fired from outside a campaign rally grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania. Authorities have identified the shooter, who was shot and killed by Secret Service agents, as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. According to published reports, Crooks was a registered Republican. A motive has not been established.

In the wake of the shooting, in which one rally attendee was shot and killed and two others wounded by gunfire, U.S. Representative Nick LaLota of New York’s 1st Congressional District, a Republican who endorses Trump’s candidacy, pointed to President Joe Biden and the media.

“Five days before today’s shooting, President Biden told supporters it was time ‘to put Trump in a bullseye,’” LaLota wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday evening. “The leftist mainstream media didn’t cover it, and they surely didn’t condemn it. America should hope the shame brought upon them changes their ways.”

His post included a cover of The New Republic magazine, which depicted Trump as Adolf Hitler and the headline “American Fascism: What It Would Look Like,” and an apparent excerpt of a transcript of Biden’s remarks in which the passage including “Trump in a bullseye” is highlighted.

John Avlon, the Democratic Party’s nominee to challenge LaLota, also issued a statement on X. “Political violence is what we all must stand up against,” he posted on Saturday evening. “It has no place in our country.”

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, a Republican, issued a statement. “Hatred and acts of violence toward an elected official or candidate for office regardless of political affiliation have no place in this country,” he said. “As Americans, we stand united on the principles that make our country strong. While there are no reported threats in Suffolk County at this time, my office will continue to monitor the situation.”

Southampton Town Councilman Michael Iasilli also issued a statement on Saturday evening. “My prayers go out to former President Trump and his family, and those hurt and killed at the rally in Pennsylvania,” he said. “The tragic violence we witnessed today was horrific and heartbreaking.

“We are in serious need of healing in this country,” Iasilli continued. “We all must work to reduce the political temperature and anger in our communities. And it starts at the local level. Unnecessarily hyperbolic or threatening political discourse carries consequences. We must seek to come together and realize that we are all human. Democrat or Republican, politics shouldn’t be this.”