Meanwhile, online, some of Biden’s favorite Republican stars have alleged that Biden’s words motivated the would-be assassin. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s new vice presidential pick, said that comments from his rival’s campaign were a “direct factor” in sending eight bullets flying at the former president.
“I don’t like Democrats, but I don’t know if I can blame them,” said Kurt Hanka, 29.
He wondered aloud whether anyone will ever know what motivated the 20-year-old shooter near Pittsburgh. The FBI has not determined a motive. Hanka said he understands the pressure on public figures to speak out “now, now, now,” but the party wants to wait until the facts are known.
Authorities have never found a written statement from suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks that he read, and the gunman simply seemed unstable, Hanka said, similar to other “crazy people” who have opened fire on crowds in the US.
“We should blame individuals,” he said.
Interviews with dozens of voters in this Trump-supporting swath of western Pennsylvania made it clear that people were not afraid to criticize Biden, but many were hesitant to link their political rival to the attack on Saturday at Butler’s fairgrounds that left a former volunteer fire chief dead, injured two spectators and injured Trump’s ear.
The brother of Steve Warheit, 50, who died in the shooting, told The Washington Post that the tragedy was caused by “a very poor decision made by a young man,” a sentiment echoed by the victim’s wife.
In conversations with The Washington Post, some residents here said they support the First Amendment. They don’t believe President Trump incited a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol in 2021, nor do they believe Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) declared Saturday that “Democrats and the media are responsible for every drop of blood that was shed today.”
They don’t know why the blood started flowing or what stopped it, but they said they noticed people struggling to pay rent, groceries and gas and under a lot of stress. Like many conservatives across the country, many of those interviewed by The Washington Post said poor access to mental health care was a bigger concern than easy access to guns.
“That young man was a target,” Debbie Cherry, 77, an elderly care worker, said of the shooter.
She said she imagined him isolated and distressed.
“We need more programs to get these kids outside,” the lifelong Republican said Monday afternoon, pointing to the cloudless sky, “to make them less depressed and get the blood flowing.”
Personal responsibility is a cherished value in Butler, a former steel-making hub that has struggled to recover from a decline in manufacturing jobs over the past half-century, she said.
Cherry voiced the questions that were on everyone’s mind: How could security have missed someone climbing onto the roof of a neighboring factory? How could Crooks, the suspect who drove from Bethel Park and was shot dead at the scene, have been crouching there unnoticed, armed with an AR-type rifle?
Faith is another pillar of life here, some residents said, and the common consensus is that it is likely the devil, not Biden, who has stoked fear at the venue beloved for its award-winning cow and rabbit exhibits.
Republicans criticized Biden for insisting that Trump must be put “at the center of the bullseye,” something some found disingenuous. (The president apologized for the remarks, made during a private call, and said he meant Democrats should focus on Trump’s shortcomings.)
“Joe Biden gave the order,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) wrote on social media, linking to the “spot-on” comments.
Eric Seeber, owner of a produce stand near the rally, scoffed.
“All Biden awakens is sleep,” said the 54-year-old Trump supporter.
Rick Olszewski, 43, headed to the church to process what he’d survived. It seems like a nightmare now, but a look at his sunburned face shows he’d been burned by the July heat at the rally before Trump took the stage. When people started screaming, he fell to the ground.
“We see evil,” the pastor said as we sat in our pews the next morning, “and we wonder: what is going on?”
Olszewski had some ideas: A devout Christian, he believed that the Devil was the driving force behind all evil.
But it didn’t help that Biden called Trump a “dictator.”
“If someone is already losing their mind, that ‘dictator’ comment can push them to an even more extreme point,” he said.
But he didn’t blame Biden for the fact that he was already in trouble. Life is hard. He knew it. His apartment burned down and he was homeless. He worked long hours in a window factory. He said he wanted to join the military, but his history of strokes thwarted that dream.
He found comfort in God, but not everyone turns to God, and some may be gripped by anger in the moment and on the verge of losing their temper, he said.
What didn’t help: A sign loudly proclaiming “Democrats attempted assassination.”
“It can incite the same kind of hatred, the same kind of violence,” Olszewski said.
Two rows front at Butler Assembly of God, Paula Arnold bowed her head in prayer. As a nurse, she had lost count of the number of people she had seen over the years who were in obvious mental distress. Some didn’t have health insurance. Others couldn’t afford counseling. Sometimes there was no one at home to remind them to take their medication.
“We’re the greatest country in the world,” said Arnold, 58, “but our health care situation is not where we want it to be.”
So she doesn’t blame Democrats for what she witnessed at the rally. She said both sides were hurling insults. Vance, a former Trump opponent, once called his running mate “the American Hitler.”
Arnold was more concerned about the people who saw or heard their neighbors being shot, as she knew that kind of trauma could require expensive medical treatment.
Down the road, at Rock en Haven, a log-cabin-style bar, Amy Spangler was still settling in. Her father was at the gathering; her family lived close enough to hear the pop-pop-pop.
Who was putting their lives at risk?
A quick Google search revealed that Crooks was a recent adult, and like Spangler, he was a registered Republican, though his age would have prevented him from voting in the last presidential election, she noted.
She studied the photo of his face and her first instinct was, “This is a mental health issue.”
“Without the facts, what else can you say?” she said.
Spangler, 45, was tired of people who argued that liberal talking points caused the problem.
In her view, the smear campaign in Washington has been heating up for a long time. Democrats cannot blame Trump for the mob that stormed the Senate floor on January 6, 2021. It is not Trump’s fault if Democrats take his words “if we don’t fight like hell, we don’t have a country anymore.”
Spangler was outraged by what he saw as a call to stifle free speech.
“If they try to censor politicians, it affects everyone,” she said.
Like Trump, she liked the American way of people speaking freely.
