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Politics34 outlets ran this4 min read

New FBI documents detail Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' background

Records reveal the would-be assassin's quiet nature and interest in firearms.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
New FBI documents detail Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' background

What this story says

  • Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
  • FBI documents obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley detail Crooks' upbringing and behaviour.
  • Crooks' father described his son as quiet and emotionally withdrawn from birth.
  • Crooks used the alias 'Bob Dole' for some online purchases, according to federal records.

Who covered it

Left 12%(3)Centre 16%(4)Right 72%(18)

Percentages are shares of the 25 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 9 of the 34 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

57/100

Hype

68/100

34 sources · methodology

Thin on the left so far

Only 3 of the 25 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, was described as quiet and emotionally withdrawn by his father, according to newly released FBI documents. The records, obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley as part of his investigation, provide further details about Crooks' life and interests.

Crooks' father, Matthew Crooks, told the FBI that his son had been a quiet child from birth and that he struggled to establish a strong father-son bond. He noted that Thomas rarely expressed his emotions and was difficult to understand. The father also stated that his son became increasingly withdrawn over the years and had difficulty speaking with teachers in high school. Crooks was killed by Secret Service snipers shortly after the shooting.

Disagreements in reporting

Reports differ on whether Crooks had clearly defined political views. His father told the FBI that his son did not appear to have strong or clearly defined political views, and that he did not identify with a single political party, according to Internewscast. However, an unidentified ATF interview subject told investigators that Crooks was a 'big history buff' who was 'interested in politics' and frequently discussed 'Trump and Biden' around the time Trump was first elected, as reported by Internewscast.

What the coverage left out

None of the left-rated or centre-rated digests mention that an anonymous donor paid for Thomas Crooks' cremation, a detail reported by multiple right-rated digests.

Tags:#DonaldTrump#ThomasCrooks#FBI#AssassinationAttempt#USPolitics

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 15 Sept 2026, 16:00, and will add the sides that appear.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

Would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks used 'Bob Dole' pseudonym to prep for Butler shooting
InternewscastCentre

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

3 rated outlets

  • The left-rated reports focused on the emergence of new FBI documents concerning Thomas Matthew Crooks. Cumhuriyet, which published a full report, highlighted that the documents were obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and included interviews with Crooks' father. This report also noted Crooks' use of aliases for online purchases and his interest in technology and privacy tools. Raw Story's digest mentioned 'bizarre new details' about Crooks' behaviour.

Centre

4 rated outlets

  • Centre-rated reports highlighted Crooks' use of the alias 'Bob Dole' for online purchases. Internewscast's full report detailed how Crooks used the name for ordering items, including parts to modify his rifle, and advised his father on online privacy. The report also noted that the reason for choosing the 'Bob Dole' alias remains unknown. Dailymail.com's digest described Crooks as a 'quiet loner'.

Right

18 rated outlets

  • Right-rated reports led with details about Thomas Matthew Crooks' use of the alias 'Bob Dole' and his upbringing. Fox News, The US Sun, TrendingPolitics, news-pravda.com, thedailybs.com, PJ Media, Times of India, The Beltway Report, and New York Post all mentioned the alias in their headlines or initial reporting. Many of these reports, including digests from Fox News and PJ Media, also highlighted that an anonymous donor paid for Crooks' cremation. Digests from Times of India and New York Post focused on descriptions of Crooks being 'emotionless since birth'.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover New FBI documents detail Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' background?
Of the 25 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 12% are rated left, 16% are rated centre, 72% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 34. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is New FBI documents detail Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' background left or right?
The story itself is neither. What can be counted is who has covered it, and 72% of the 25 rated outlets on it are rated right — so far this is a story carried mostly by the right. Coverage is still arriving and that can change, which is why the figure is dated rather than fixed.
Is the coverage of New FBI documents detail Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' background biased?
New FBI documents detail Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' background is one event reported by 34 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting New FBI documents detail Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' background?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered New FBI documents detail Trump assassin Thomas Crooks' background?
34 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Who is Thomas Matthew Crooks?
Thomas Matthew Crooks was the 20-year-old individual who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was killed by Secret Service snipers shortly after the shooting.
What new information has been revealed about Thomas Crooks?
Newly released FBI documents, obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, detail Crooks' upbringing and behaviour. His father described him as quiet and emotionally withdrawn from birth. Crooks also used the alias 'Bob Dole' for some online purchases and showed an increasing interest in firearms.
Did Thomas Crooks have political views?
Reports differ on this. His father told the FBI that Crooks did not appear to have strong or clearly defined political views. However, an ATF interview subject described him as interested in politics and frequently discussing Trump and Biden.

Read it at the source

34 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

3

Centre

4

Right

18
Show 10 more

Not rated

9
Show 1 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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