'Never Again Is Now': Glenn announces relief campaign for Middle East, 'Restoring Honor' anniversary event in Birmingham, and much more

Below are the prepared remarks from Glenn's radio show Monday June 8th, 2015

Get the key information from the announcement of 'Never Again Is Now' HERE

Five years ago this August 28th five hundred thousand americans boarded a plane, train or bus. They came from all over the country and indeed all over the world. They didn’t know what to expect. They just knew something big was going to happen. Those that were not there, do not understand. But those five hundred thousand people felt something that they still feel today. It was the start of something divine and we thirst for more of it.

Since we met, things in our country have gotten worse. I don't even mean politically, I mean we have gone over the cliff of madness, and indifference. Nothing makes sense anymore. Our Pentagon is told the biggest threat to our nation is global warming, we are told that we have ended the war in Afghanistan and Iraq yet our planes are still dropping bombs and our sons and daughters are still losing their lives. Those who seek high office are telling us about a war on women but it has nothing to do with the women and young girls that are raped and sold into slavery every day by people we sold guns to. The gay rights activists sue over flowers and wedding cakes and say nothing about the homosexuals that are thrown of the roofs of buildings in Syria everyday. We as Christians claim our rights are being violated while at the same time children are being crucified for their profession of Jesus Christ and we say nothing.

How many stories, and hours of network time has been lost forever on Bruce Jenner or the Duggars that drown out the voices of those beheaded cry out from the blood soaked sands of Libya?

We have become a people that are frankly absurd. We are a gross parody of the Great Americans that came before us. Our so called Civil rights leaders have become a sick joke who have turned the cries of racism, sexism, rape from cries of help to shouts of blackmail or threats.

We can no longer even teach our children that 2+2=4 because our math no longer contains absolute answers. If you feel good about 5 or 8, those can be correct as well. Our institutions of higher learning have become the modern day slave trade, enslaving our children to debt while insuring that they cannot read, reason or think for themselves.

Our churches have gone silent because they have built huge cathedrals to themselves and the God that they obey is the God of the Bank. They convince themselves that they cannot say things that might be too controversial because they would lose too many “customers” in the pew, they couldn’t service the debt. We have replaced revealed truth with light shows and rock bands.

The hatreds of old have reappeared, hatred of the jew, the banker, or the rich. We say we must be tolerant but we persecute, silence and destroy anyone who dares speak an opinion other than the newly accepted political “truth”. The murder rate in city after city has sky rocketed by 20 and 25% in the last 6 months while the citizens cry out for justice as they commit an injustice by burning their own city down. Only to have the city leaders thank the Bloods, Crips and Nation of Islam for partnering with them to keep the peace. The good cops will no longer risk their lives to keep the peace because we have condemned all police and labeled them killers. They are ALL guilty until proven innocent and even when they are declared innocent no one seems to care or to report.

In 2001 an enemy attacked us. He was unlike anything we had seen. He was vicious and had a set of principles that were too insane to rationally accept. Those days seem reasonable now. Currently our enemy marches people in orange jumpsuits and beheads them while quoting scriptures from the Koran or locks them in cages and sets them on fire. They crucify, behead and literally rip open the chests of our fallen on the battle field and eat the raw organs and our leaders call for more war or tell us the cannibals are a JV squad.

I will no longer pretend that nothing is wrong and act as though things are normal and that this is progress. This is not progress, this is madness. When America, the last bastion of Freedom, the best hope for all of mankind, becomes a place where her citizens turn their eyes from Crucifixions of children we are no longer a country or people I recognize.

We are a nation in which our citizenship is more of an indictment than an honor.

If we are to stand in the gap when real trouble comes to our shores, when our cities have been set on fire by our fellow countrymen, when ISIS comes to our malls and schools, we must begin to prepare now. Real war unlike we have seen since the 1940s is coming, like it or not. But a bigger battle is already in play. A battle for the soul of America. In this battle, we must soften our hearts. Rid ourselves of anger and hatred of each other that has been ginned up by the enemy within. We must also begin to organize ourselves in ways that the real civil rights giants have done in the past because this, in time, may just well be the last stand for the republic and we must not allow false hatreds to tear us apart.

There are no solutions on our streets in Ferguson or Baltimore because there is no unity of Principles. Where are those who stand for real justice without looting? Who are seeking the truth no matter if it means the cops are innocent or guilty? Who is preaching that God is the only one that can provide real peace and eternal justice? They are there, but there are not enough of them, and most of the ones that do preach this are not being seen.

I am happy to live in these days because we are now FORCED to grapple with the problems that have faced others throughout history, and our very survival demands that we solve them – now.

We must stick together and unify. Not around a common cause or a common outcome but instead unchanging universal principles, regardless of the outcome.

Whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, it causes trouble in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. We must disregard the things that are being taught by the Pharaohs all around us.

These Pharaohs are working on all sides and in almost every camp and they have successfully redefined hate. It is being packaged and sold as diversity, political correctness and progress. It is Godless and it seeks a victory over reconciliation and in the end will only produce generations of war, despair and hopelessness.

The silencing and destruction of others because of their viewpoint in the name of progress has become the new norm and revenge and vengeance is the new law of the streets.

We must stand united and declare: Just because one might disagree does not mean that we hate one another. We as Christians are commanded to Love one another and to abide by His higher laws. If we abandon these two principles our faith is dead. But as Christians we cannot pick and choose which laws we obey.

We ourselves have become unrighteous, covetous, full of envy, deceit and proud. We are boastful covenant breakers. By professing ourselves wise we have become fools. Our practice of our faith in word only too many times gives people the opportunity, rightly in many cases, to confuse with disagreement with Judgment and hatred.

Let each of us be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God. Love works no ill to his neighbor. Love is the fulfilling of the law. It is high time we awake from our sleep for trouble is nearer than we believe. We must again find away to live with one another in peace and understanding.

Rev Dr Martin Luther King had the right idea. He saw a vision built on God’s truth, with Unity and love as key principles, and the concept of boycott and non-violent were his tactics, driven by principles, and based on truth. This non-violent resistance also worked with Gandhi, but Gandhi, a Hindu, said he learned it from Jesus - the revolutionary. Gandhi even chided the modern followers of Jesus for not following Jesus’ example, telling them, “You Christians have in your keeping a document with enough dynamite in it to blow the whole of civilization to bits; to turn society upside down; to bring peace to this war torn world. But you read it as if it were just good literature, and nothing else.”

He was right. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will start a revolution. It has before and it will again – if its teachings are applied and lived out in each of us.

This is not about politics. Politics has failed us because we have failed to stand for justice and righteousness. We have failed to stand for first principles and too many hearts have grown cold. This is about who we are and our culture. We must jump start the American heart. We must prepare to be stronger and more disciplined than we ever thought possible. We must dedicate ourselves to the principles of America and the principles of God.

In talking about the Gospel based non-violent resistance, Martin Luther King, said:

"As we begin to struggle with this evil we must always be sure that we struggle with Christian methods and Christian weapons. As we press on for Justice, we must be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If we succumb to the temptation of using violence in this struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos."

It is not the 1960s anymore. The dark days full of hate and rage have come and gone. We are no longer those people or those so-called and self-appointed civil rights community organizers who wish to drag us back; we dismiss them.

Those who seek retribution over reconciliation, those who blackmail or incite --- We do not need you anymore. There is a new generation of men and women, young and old, Christian, Jew, agnostic, liberal and conservative, black and white, straight and not, that have a better idea.

We do not need catchy slogans nor political parties, we believe less in the power of the check book and more in the power of the back bone.

To heal our country, we must stand in line with the everlasting truth of the Almighty, accept His will and His grace and then put our faith into action. We then that are strong ought to bear the troubles and infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Currently the weakest among us are those of all faiths and walks of life being killed by ISIS in Syria, Lybia, Iraq and all across the middle east but also by those in Iran, Afghanistan, and even those in Saudi Arabia.

After the second world war we as a people promised "Never Again".

May I suggest that Never again is NOW.

A genocide is going on now and we all know it. The pictures are on the web, yet we turn our eyes. We must be brave enough to look, and Christian enough to act. God specifically tells us: “When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help . . . don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him – don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him; open your purse; lend whatever and as much as he needs. . . . Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God’s blessing in everything you do – all your work and ventures. . . .”

First they came for the Coptic Christians but I didn't speak out because I wasn't Coptic.

Then they came for the Homosexual and stoned them to death, but I didn't speak out because I wasn't homosexual.

Then they sold the Kurdish women and children in to slavery but I wasn't a 9 year old kurd so I didn't say anything.

Then they came for the muslim who wasn't muslim enough and the Christian that wouldn't convert but I didn't say anything because I didn't think it involved me and I didn't think I could do anything anyway.

Eventually they will come for you, and there will be no one left to speak out for you.

Not to speak is to speak, not to stand is to stand. God will not hold us blameless.

Evil exists. But so does God. As the sky grows darker, it is only then that we can see the stars that begin to shine. We must be those pinholes of light and as others begin to join us, the sky will grow bright and it will be those very stars that are in fixed positions of stability that will guide all those lost in the darkness to safety.

The world may tell you that it is foolish to stand for things that are right and just, that you are too weak but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and He has chosen the weak to confound those things that are mighty.

Let us develop a dangerous unselfishness.

Let us be the new righteous among the nations, those who declare themselves free of all men, yet make themselves servants unto all, that they might gain the more. Let us be the next Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Fredrick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, Hilda Solis, Nelson Mandela, Oskar Schindler. All giants that had nothing more than you. Just a willingness to stand against injustice and bend the arc of History.

We are those that have been called for this time. This could have happened in any other generation, but it didn’t; it happened in ours. It happened now, and We can be the civil rights leaders of this generation.

It will take dedication, hard work, and perseverance on our part – it will require actually living by the teachings of faith that so many of us so casually profess. But we will not give up and we will not give in to hopelessness or hate.

The Christian who speaks out for the homosexual being stoned in Iran, the homosexual who stands for the Christian Baker in Oregon, The Jew that sees the dark echoes of the past and wakes his people to the plight of the Coptic Christians and the Christian who stands in defense of the Jew in France or on an American college campus. These will be the people that begin to change the world.

We will not go over the cliff with the rest of humanity. But where there is true hatred, murder, corruption, power and evil, it will not be tossed aside easily. We fight not against flesh and bone, but principalities. Nevertheless, we will stand against them.

Whenever you take a stand for truth and justice, you are liable to scorn. Often you will be called an impractical idealist or a dangerous radical. It might even mean physical death. But if physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children from a permanent life of spiritual death, than nothing could be more Christian. We should not worry about persecution. We should expect it because we know that is what happens when any individual stands for a great principle, for a great principle – a great truth – is often unpopular.

We will be troubled at every side but not distressed, we will be perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed.

I will not silently sit by as others redefine bravery as Caitlyn Jenner while a Father in Erbil watches his children slaughtered in front of him because his children would not deny Christ.

I will not pretend that free on demand abortions constitute a war on women while women are murdered in cold blood by there own families in so called honor killings here in our own country.

There are many things to fix in America and racism, sexism and injustice does exist here, but we must recognize how grotesque we have become in our cry of ‘injustice’.

We are a country who has lost not only its way, but history will show we have lost our mind. When finger guns constitute a class three look a like weapon in schools, while children are being slaughtered in schools by isis, when teachers can take their students to porn stores for a field trip and parents are told that they need to embrace this, when people claim there are 82 genders when God created two and some now are arguing for TransAblism - the person who feels they were born handicapped but were born in a fully able body and so they want the medical system to remove a limb, our society has gone over the edge of no return.

I am announcing today that I am a community organizer of sorts and I would like you to join me.

We are going to start with the clearest injustice on the planet today. One that will bring us together and something we can all unite on. This is something that our houses of worship should be leading on, but far too many are silent. It is time we turn the tables over and chase the money changers out of the churches and hold the arms up of those brave enough to say the things that need to be said.

Five years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial we introduced you to the Black Robe Regiment. There were just over three hundred that joined us that day. Spiritual leaders from all denominations. Today we have in our data banks over 70 thousand pastors, priests and rabbis. I am told that if this were Germany 1939 over ten thousand of these holy men would have walked to the gas chambers themselves as they would not have complied. But the real secret is, Bonhoeffer had less then 10 pastors with him, had he had 10,000 maybe the Holocaust would not have happened at all.

I am not a preacher, but I am going to be starting a tour of churches this summer. We are going to begin to shake ourselves awake and we will begin with the pulpits. God is not dead, but many of his pulpits are. I will be speaking at churches where the pastors can be trusted to say the difficult things. Places were pastors know what time it is and will sleep no more. NEVER AGAIN IS NOW. .

Our faith requires us to put our Christian belief into action.

Together we will wake the most powerful force on earth --- the people of God, together we can be an army of good.

I am beginning where Martin Luther King began --- in Birmingham, Alabama. Guiding Light Church in Birmingham, Alabama is just down the street from the building where MLK began his historic stand against Bull Connor. Bishop James Lowe is a brave and outspoken man. We may not agree on everything, but He and his congregation are unafraid and have welcomed us for the anniversary of Restoring Honor and Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech. Friday August 28th.

There are no tickets to buy and space will be limited. I will speak at as many churches that we can afford. If it is three churches or 300 in the end, I do not know but it is time the flocks demand from the shepherds a return to first principles. We must not lose our uniqueness as different denominations, I am not suggesting we mix our theology, I am however suggesting that the hour grows late and God is the only answer. If we turn our faces back toward Him, He will heal our land. But we must humble ourselves, do the uncomfortable things and come together. The body is made up of many parts and all of those parts are needed now.

What could bring us all together? We needed to find the most glaring injustice on earth. Something that black, white, straight or gay, Glenn Beck or even Bill Maher could agree on:

ALL LIFE MATTERS. The genocide perpetrated by the psychotic killers named ISIS must stop. So the first thing we are doing is raising money to help those innocents in the middle east. I hope to be traveling to the middle east in the next two or three months with a plane load of aid and my cameras to bring home the story of the children who are standing up against the evil of isis.

I may ask you to join me as we bring aid and comfort to those most in need. I would ask for your donation to help us in this goal of raising $2 million dollars in relief. We will also ask some of your churches around the country to take this money and actually fill the boxes and the planes. We will be asking your children to write letters to children in refugee camps so they know that America has not forgotten them. Please go to mercuryone.org right now and donate and join our cause.

There is much more to this campaign as it will be an on going movement and we will begin discussing it on tonights TV show on TheBlaze TV. We are going to begin to gather like minded people and train for non violent resistance and civil disobedience. We must understand that we are now David and Goliath has all the power.

I am asking you to be a man or woman of merit. Of honor, courage, love and discipline. It is an honor to have been born at this time. It is by the grace of God that he has allowed such a flawed man as me to have this platform and get to know you everyday.

I don't know how this all works, nor do I know where it all ends, but I do know it is a journey I must take and if we refuse to ask if God is on our side, but instead ask if we are on His side, Americans will again change the world with Malice toward none and charity for all.

How did Trump's would-be assassin get past Secret Service?

PATRICK T. FALLON / Contributor | Getty Images

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday was targeted in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It occurred just after 6:10 p.m. while Trump was delivering his speech.

Here are the details of the “official” story. The shooter was Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was 20 years old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He used an AR-15 rifle and managed to reach the rooftop of a nearby building unnoticed. The Secret Service's counter-response team responded swiftly, according to "the facts," killing Crooks and preventing further harm.

Did it though? That’s what the official story says, so far, but calling this a mere lapse in security by Secret Service doesn't add up. There are some glaring questions that need to be answered.

If Trump had been killed on Saturday, we would be in a civil war today. We would have seen for the first time the president's brains splattered on live television, and because of the details of this, I have a hard time thinking it wouldn't have been viewed as JFK 2.0.

How does someone sneak a rifle onto the rally grounds? How does someone even know that that building is there? How is it that Thomas Matthew Crooks was acting so weird and pacing in front of the metal detectors, and no one seemed to notice? People tried to follow him, but, oops, he got away.

How could the kid possibly even think that the highest ground at the venue wouldn't be watched? If I were Crooks, my first guess would be, "That’s the one place I shouldn't crawl up to with a rifle because there's most definitely going to be Secret Service there." Why wasn't anyone there? Why wasn't anyone watching it? Nobody except the shooter decided that the highest ground with the best view of the rally would be the greatest vulnerability to Trump’s safety.

Moreover, a handy ladder just happened to be there. Are we supposed to believe that nobody in the Secret Service, none of the drones, none of the things we pay millions of dollars for caught him? How did he get a ladder there? If the ladder was there, was it always there? Why was the ladder there? Secret Service welds manhole covers closed when a president drives down a road. How was there a ladder sitting around, ready to climb up to the highest ground at the venue, and the Secret Service failed to take it away?

There is plenty of video of eyewitnesses yelling that there was a guy with a rifle climbing up on a ladder to the roof for at least 120 seconds before the first shot was fired. Why were the police looking for him while Secret Service wasn't? Why did the sniper have him in his sights for over a minute before he took a shot? Why did a cop climb up the ladder to look around? When Thomas Matthew Cooks pointed a gun at him, he then ducked and came down off the ladder. Did he call anyone to warn that this young man had a rifle within range of the president?

How is it the Secret Service has a female bodyguard who doesn't even reach Trump's nipples? How was she going to guard the president's body with hers? How is it another female Secret Service agent pulled her gun out a good four minutes too late, then looked around, apparently not knowing what to do? She then couldn't even get the pistol back into the holster because she's a Melissa McCarthy body double. I don't think it's a good idea to have Melissa McCarthy guarding the president.

Here’s the critical question now: Who trusts the FBI with the shooter’s computer? Will his hard drive get filed with the Nashville manifesto? How is it that the Secret Service almost didn't have snipers at all but decided to supply them only one day before the rally because all the local resources were going to be put on Jill Biden? I want Jill Biden safe, of course. I want Jill Biden to have what the first lady should have for security, but you can’t hire a few extra guys to make sure our candidates are safe?

How is it that we have a Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, whose experience is literally guarding two liters of Squirt and spicy Doritos? Did you know that's her background? She's in charge of the United States Secret Service, and her last job was as the head of security for Pepsi.

This is a game, and that's what makes this sick. This is a joke. There are people in our country who thought it was OK to post themselves screaming about the shooter’s incompetence: “How do you miss that shot?” Do you realize how close we came to another JFK? If the president hadn't turned his head at the exact moment he did, it would have gone into the center of his head, and we would be a different country today.

Now, Joe Biden is also saying that we shouldn't make assumptions about the motive of the shooter. Well, I think we can assume one thing: He wanted to kill the Republican presidential candidate. Can we agree on that at least? Can we assume that much?

How can the media even think of blaming Trump for the rhetoric when the Democrats and the media constantly call him literally worse than Hitler who must be stopped at all costs?

These questions need to be answered if we want to know the truth behind what could have been one of the most consequential days in U.S. history. Yet, the FBI has its hands clasped on all the sources that could point to the truth. There must be an independent investigation to get to the bottom of these glaring “mistakes.”

POLL: Do you think Trump is going to win the election?

Kevin Dietsch / Staff, Chip Somodevilla / Staff, Kevin Dietsch / Staff | Getty Image

It feels like all of the tension that has been building over the last four years has finally burst to the surface over the past month. Many predicted 2024 was going to be one of the most important and tumultuous elections in our lifetimes, but the last two weeks will go down in the history books. And it's not over yet.

The Democratic National Convention is in August, and while Kamala seems to be the likely candidate to replace Biden, anything could happen in Chicago. And if Biden is too old to campaign, isn't he too old to be president? Glenn doesn't think he'll make it as President through January, but who knows?

There is a lot of uncertainty that surrounds the current political landscape. Trump came out of the attempted assassination, and the RNC is looking stronger than ever, but who knows what tricks the Democrats have up their sleeves? Let us know your predictions in the poll below:

Is Trump going to win the election?

Did the assassination attempt increase Trump's chances at winning in November?

Did Trump's pick of J.D. Vance help his odds?

Did the Trump-Biden debate in June help Trump's chances?

Did Biden's resignation from the election hand Trump a victory in November? 

Do the Democrats have any chance of winning this election?

What is the Secret Service trying to hide about Trump's assassination attempt?

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Contributor, Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

This past weekend we were mere inches away from a radically different America than the one we have today. This was the first time a president had been wounded by a would-be assassin since 1981, and the horrific event has many people questioning the competency and motives of the supposedly elite agents trusted with the president's life.

The director of the Secret Service apparently knew about the assassin's rooftop before the shooting—and did nothing.

Kimberly Cheatle has come under intense scrutiny these last couple of weeks, as Secret Service director she is responsible for the president's well-being, along with all security operations onsite. In a recent interview with ABC, Cheatle admitted that she was aware of the building where the assassin made his mark on American history. She even said that she was mindful of the potential risk but decided against securing the site due to "safety concerns" with the slope of the roof. This statement has called her competence into question. Clearly, the rooftop wasn't that unsafe if the 20-year-old shooter managed to access it.

Glenn pointed out recently that Cheatle seems to be unqualified for the job. Her previous position was senior director in global security at America's second-favorite soda tycoon, PepsiCo. While guarding soda pop and potato chips sounds like an important job to some, it doesn't seem like a position that would qualify you to protect the life of America's most important and controversial people. Even considering her lack of appropriate experience, this seems like a major oversight that even a layperson would have seen. Can we really chalk this up to incompetence?

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Contributor | Getty Images

The Secret Service and DHS said they'd be transparent with the investigation...

Shortly after the attempted assassination, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Secret Service, launched an investigation into the shooting and the security protocols in place at the rally. The DHS promised full transparency during the investigation, but House Republicans don't feel that they've been living up to that promise. Republican members of the House Oversight Committee are frustrated with Director Cheatle after she seemingly dodged a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. This has resulted in calls for Cheatle to step down from her position.

Two FBI agents investigate the assassin's rooftop Jeff Swensen / Stringer | Getty Images

Why is the Secret Service being so elusive? Are they just trying to cover their blunder? We seem to be left with two unsettling options: either the government is even more incompetent than we'd ever believed, or there is more going on here than they want us to know.

Cheatle steps down

Following a horrendous testimony to the House Oversight Committee Director Cheatle finally stepped down from her position ten days after the assassination attempt. Cheatle failed to give any meaningful answer to the barrage of questions she faced from the committee. These questions, coming from both Republicans and Democrats, were often regarding basic information that Cheatle should have had hours after the shooting, yet Cheatle struggled with each and every one. Glenn pointed out that Director Cheatle's resignation should not signal the end of the investigation, the American people deserve to know what happened.

What we DO and DON'T know about Thomas Matthew Crooks

Jim Vondruska / Stringer | Getty Images

It has been over a week since 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks narrowly failed to assassinate President Trump while the president gave a speech at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennslyvania. Despite the ongoing investigations, we still know very little about the would-be assassin, which has left many wondering if the agencies involved are limiting the information that Congress and the public are receiving.

As Glenn has pointed out, there are still major questions about the shooter that are unanswered, and the American people are left at the whim of unreliable federal agencies. Here is everything we know—and everything we don't know—about Thomas Matthew Crooks:

Who was he?

What we know:Thomas Crooks lived in Bethel Parks, Pennsylvania, approximately an hour south of Butler. Crooks went to high school in Bethel Parks, where he would graduate in 2022. Teachers and classmates described him as a loner and as nerdy, but generally nice, friendly, and intelligent. Crooks tried out for the school rifle team but was rejected due to his poor aim, and reports indicate that Crooks was often bullied for his nerdy demeanor and for wearing camo hunting gear to school.

After high school, Crooks began work at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as a dietary aide. In fact, he was scheduled to work on the day of the rally but requested the day off. He passed a background check to work at the facility and was reportedly an unproblematic employee. Crooks was also a member of a local gun club where he practiced shooting the day before the rally.

It was recently revealed that sometime before his attempted assassination, Crooks posted the following message on Steam, a popular computer application used for playing video games: "July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds." Aside from this, Crooks posted no warning or manifesto regarding his attack, and little other relevant information is known about him.

What we don't know:It is unclear what Crook's political affiliations or views were, or if he was aligned with any extremist organizations. Crooks was a registered Republican, and his classmates recall him defending conservative ideas and viewpoints in class. On the other hand, the Federal Election Commission has revealed he donated to a progressive PAC on the day Biden was inaugurated. He also reportedly wore a COVID mask to school much longer than was required.

Clearly, we are missing the full picture. Why would a Republican attempt to assassinate the Republican presidential nominee? What is to gain? And why would he donate to a progressive organization as a conservative? This doesn't add up, and so far the federal agencies investigating the attack have yet to reveal anything more.

What were his goals?

What we know: Obviously we know he was trying to assassinate President Trump—and came very close to succeeding, but beyond that, Crooks' goals are unknown. He left no manifesto or any sort of written motive behind, or if he did, the authorities haven't published it yet. We have frustratingly little to go off of.

What we don't know: As stated before, we don't know anything about the movies behind Crooks' heinous actions. We are left with disjointed pieces that make it difficult to paint a cohesive picture of this man. There is also the matter that he left explosives, ammo, and a bulletproof vest in his car. Why? Did he assume he was going to make it back to his car? Or were those supplies meant for an accomplice that never showed up?

The shocking lack of information on Crooks' motives makes it seem likely that we are not being let on to the whole truth.

Did he work alone?

What we know: Reportedly, Crooks was the only gunman on the site, and as of now, no other suspects have been identified. The rifle used during the assassination attempt was purchased and registered by Crooks' father. However, it is unlikely that the father was involved as he reported both his son and rifle missing the night of the assassination attempt. Crooks' former classmates described him as a "loner," which seems to corroborate the narrative that he worked alone.

What we don't know: We know how Crooks acquired his rifle, but what about the rest of his equipment? He reportedly had nearly a hundred extra rounds of ammunition, a bulletproof vest, and several homemade bombs in his car. Could these have been meant for a co-conspirator who didn't show? Did Crooks acquire all of this equipment himself, or did he have help?

There's also the matter of the message Crooks left on the video game platform Steam that served as his only warning of the attack. Who was the message for? Are there people out there who were aware of the attack before it occurred? Why didn't they alert authorities?

We know authorities have access to Crooks' laptop and cellphone that probably contain the answers to these pertinent questions. Why haven't we heard any clarity from the authorities? It seems we are again at the mercy of the federal bureaucracy, which begs one more question: Will we ever know the whole truth?