A former classmate of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old man who attempted to assassinate Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, revealed in a recent interview that Crooks had mocked him for supporting Trump and generally disliked Republican politicians.
Vincent Taormina told Fox News, “I brought up the fact that I’m Hispanic and, you know, I’m for Trump. And he said, ‘Well, you’re Hispanic, so shouldn’t you hate Trump?’ No. He’s great. He was a great president. He called me stupid – or insinuated that I was stupid.” Taormina recalled this exchange occurring in an English class discussion in 2016.
“He just did not like politicians, especially with the choices that we had. He did not like our politicians,” Taormina added.
Taormina noted that Crooks was usually silent, except when discussing topics he was passionate about, like politics. On those topics, Taormina described Crooks as being “smug [and] arrogant.”
“He would just talk and act like he knew everything, especially politics-related, and he would say it in a tone that was like, ‘I’m better than you,'” he said.
Taormina also mentioned that Crooks had a small group of friends, adding, “They were definitely the type, and they did make threats to shoot up our school.” Taormina and other classmates suspected Crooks was behind a threat, but had no concrete evidence. He noted that when one threat was made, Crooks wasn’t in school for a few days.
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