President Trump said Tuesday he was told that investigators found nothing “abnormal” about Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who attempted to assassinate him a year ago.
“They’ve told me things and they really say they haven’t found anything that abnormal,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office Tuesday while meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “I would say this – the Secret Service was very brave because they were right there and they jumped on me.”
Crooks fired eight rounds at Mr. Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, while perched on the roof of a building nearby. One bullet struck Mr. Trump’s ear, while another killed a rally attendee.
Mr. Trump said of the Secret Service, “They made a mistake, they should’ve had somebody on that roof, and they should’ve had communication with the local police who also, I mean they did a very good job, but they made some mistakes.”
He said Crooks, who was killed by counter-snipers, was “just a nut-job looking to do this.”
“Look, anything can happen, but I think we have the best people anywhere in the world right now,” he said. “I think they’ve learned.”
Authorities have said Crooks, 20, worked in a local nursing home and earned an associate degree in engineering science at a community college. He was a member of a shooting club for at least a year.
Referring to former FBI Director James Comey, with whom he clashed, Mr. Trump said, “I wouldn’t have believed the old FBI.”
The president urged people to read the 2019 report from then-Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz about Mr. Comey.
“The old FBI under Comey was crooked as hell. He was one of the most crooked,” he said.
Top senators who launched a bipartisan investigation into the incident are mixed on whether their investigation should continue.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, has been calling for final conclusions on the investigation, saying it’s “gone on too long.”
“We’ve essentially got the conclusions,” Mr. Paul said. “Big mistakes were made. It shouldn’t have happened. The president almost died. And reforms had to take place. We think most of those have taken place.”
• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this report.
