Tucker Carlson Unearths Thomas Crooks' Dark Digital Trail in Explosive Exposé

In a gripping 34-minute YouTube documentary released this week, conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson has blown the lid off what he calls the "hidden online history" of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman behind the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Drawing on a trove of recovered data from Crooks' scrubbed social media accounts, Carlson paints a chilling portrait of a teenager steeped in violent rhetoric, whose radical evolution from Trump supporter to left-wing extremist raises explosive questions about FBI oversight and potential cover-ups.

The investigation, sparked by an anonymous tipster who used Crooks' publicly available phone number to reconstruct his digital footprint, reveals over 700 YouTube comments posted between 2019 and 2020—when Crooks was just 15 to 17 years old. These weren't idle rants; they formed a "detailed digital trail of violent threats," Carlson asserts, including explicit calls for assassination and civil war. "This is not the profile of a lone nut," Carlson narrates in the film. "This is someone who was broadcasting his intentions for years."

Crooks' early posts, from the summer of 2019, brim with pro-Trump fervor laced with brutality. Responding to MSNBC coverage of Rep. Ilhan Omar, he wrote at midnight: "Ilhan Omar and others are invaders and should honestly be killed and their dead bodies sent back." Days later, in a tirade against "Trump-hating Democrats," he fantasized: "Everyone of the Trump hating democrats deserve to have their heads chopped of and put on steaks for the world to see what happens when you fuck with America." He even wished "a quick and painful death" on immigrants and anti-Trump congresswomen, and bluntly hoped Trump would "have these people murdered" in reference to "The Squad." By September, his rhetoric escalated to endorsing dictatorship to "get rid of the progressives" and boasting that gun-toting Republicans could storm Washington: "50 million Americans with AR-15s will make quick work of any blockades the gov. can put to protect the white house." Quoting Mao Zedong, he added: "The only real political power comes from the barrel of a gun."

A pivotal shift occurred in early 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Crooks' comments veered sharply leftward, mocking Trump loyalists as "brainwashed" cultists and defending lockdowns as essential for public safety. "If someone in your family has Covid-19 why wouldn't you want them quarantined?" he scolded anti-restriction protesters. "Are you really going to get in the way of trying to stop this pandemic on account of your phobia of government?" He lambasted conservative media for misinformation, accusing them of racial fearmongering: "Viruses don't spread through race like Tucker Carlson probably told you."

By August 2020, Crooks' final online flurry speculated on guerrilla warfare against the government, advocating "terrorism-style attacks" like bombings and assassinations over direct confrontations. Notably, he engaged with a shadowy YouTube user, @Willy_Tepes—linked to the Nordic Resistance Movement, a U.S.-designated terrorist group—who egged him on: "We have more guns than they do ;) There is no way we can avoid a war at this point." Crooks' posts abruptly ceased after this exchange, just four years before the Trump rally shooting.

Carlson bolsters his claims with forensic evidence: a never-before-seen Google Drive video of Crooks dry-firing a handgun in his bedroom, account suspensions dated to the day after the attempt, and archived comments scrubbed from the internet. He accuses the FBI of deliberate deception, citing a July 2024 CNN report that investigators probed a YouTube account rife with antisemitic and anti-immigration violence—yet Deputy Director Paul Abbate told Congress it showed only "far-right" leanings, ignoring Crooks' leftward pivot. "The FBI lied," Carlson charges, pointing to mass surveillance contracts that should have flagged Crooks long ago. Recent leaks, per the New York Post, suggest the bureau obstructed probes into his motives, with no manifesto ever surfaced.

The exposé arrives amid lingering suspicions: Why was the crime scene hosed down by FBI agents? Why did anti-drone systems fail during Crooks' pre-shooting reconnaissance? And why withhold surveillance from his shooting range? Carlson hints at deeper rot—perhaps recruitment by extremists or even FBI informants embedded in radical circles—questioning if Crooks was a "Manchurian candidate" left unchecked.

FBI Director Kash Patel fired back on X, insisting a massive probe—spanning 20 accounts, thousands of interviews, and tips—confirmed Crooks acted alone. But Carlson's film, already amassing millions of views, has reignited fury over institutional failures, forcing a reckoning on how a kid's online venom can fester into real-world terror. As the 2024 election scars fade, one thing's clear: Thomas Crooks' digital ghost refuses to stay buried.