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The Independent
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Bill Maher roasts Trump fans who say ‘God saved' him from sniper bullet — but did not spare Corey Comperatore
Comedian and political commentator Bill Maher took aim at Donald Trump supporters who credit God with saving the president during the July 2024 assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. On Sunday's episode of the Club Random podcast, Maher questioned his guest, actor Esai Morales, on why God would spare Trump, but not Corey Comperatore, a Trump supporter and former firefighter who was killed in the incident. 'I'm religious, but I'm not religious. You know what I mean?' Morales said. 'And people go, oh, I'm spiritual as a fad, but I just know something, somebody out there in here all around loves me enough that has not allowed me to destroy myself.' 'But what do you say to the person who gets eaten, that why didn't the God love him?' Maher asked. ' You know what I mean? What about all the people who have the s****y outcome?' 'A very good point,' Morales admitted. Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired an AR-15 rifle at Trump from a rooftop during the Butler rally on July 13. He injured Trump's ear and killed Comperatore while also wounding two others. Crooks was shot and killed by a member of the Secret Service Counter Sniper Team shortly after the attack. On the podcast, Maher dismissed claims that the Trump assassination attempt was staged. Morales admitted he briefly wondered if it might have been staged because Trump fell and then quickly got back up. 'Yeah, but OK, a bullet did go,' Maher said. 'That's my point. It couldn't have been staged. And, you know, people say, 'God saved Trump.' Where was the God for the other guy?' This isn't the first time Maher shared his opinions on Trump's assassination attempt. A few hours after the shooting, Maher posted a video from a Minnesota stage, stating he would not make jokes about the incident. 'I unequivocally denounce [the shooting], I don't care what you think about that. Not funny,' he said at the time, 'I'm sure that there will be jokes that people will make because they hate him so much that they wished it went he other way. Not for me.' Maher went on to call Trump 'the luckiest motherf***er that has ever walked the face of the Earth,' and wrongly assumed the then-unidentified shooter was a liberal before any motive was confirmed. 'Whoever did this, the shooter has done so much damage to the left,' Maher said. '[The left] has lost a lot moral high ground in the 'you're the violent people' and the 'liberals don't shoot people, liberals don't solve it that way.'' Before the shooting, Crooks had searched for information on Trump, Joe Biden, and other public figures, as well as gun-related websites. His parents had reported him missing hours before the rally. Investigations revealed bomb-making materials in his vehicle and home, and a remote detonator was found on his body. But a month after the shooting, Maher found the humor in the assassination attempt, calling it 'one of my favorite days from 2024.' 'It'd be different if he [Trump] got killed. No tragedy happened — well, for one guy,' Maher said about Comperatore on Matt Friend's podcast Friend In High Places. 'A guy shoots at Trump, the guy behind him gets shot and killed — that's so Trump,' Maher continued. 'It's just so, it's just so on brand to have the other guy …. he never goes to jail. He never loses money in bankruptcy. It's always somebody else holding the bullet or the bag.'
Indian Express
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Usha Vance's new life in Trump's Washington
She has settled her three children into new schools, set up play dates and overseen the childproofing of her 9,000-square-foot home. She takes the children to the second lady's office overlooking the Washington Monument, attends Mass with her family in the Virginia suburbs and hikes on wooded trails around Washington, the Secret Service in tow. She has a warm relationship with the president of the United States, who marvels over her academic credentials and tells her she is beautiful, a senior administration official said. She gets along with Melania Trump, the first lady, too. Less than a year ago, Usha Vance, onetime Democrat and the daughter of immigrants, was living a radically different life as a litigator for a progressive law firm while raising her children in Ohio. Many old friends are bewildered by her transformation. She may be the wife of the vice president, they say, but she must be appalled by the Trump administration's attacks on academia, law firms, judges, diversity programs and immigrants. Others say she likes the respite from her legal career and the glamour and influence of her new role. (Vance, who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts and was a top editor on The Yale Law Journal, referred to herself at a recent public appearance as a 'former lawyer.') She always supported her husband's ambitions, they note, even if she did not necessarily share them. People close to the vice president, who went from being a vocal critic of now-President Donald Trump to his running mate, argue that Vance went on a similar but less public journey that soured her on the left. Either way, colleagues say, she is a model, at least for now, of a movement embraced by the White House and pushed by her husband that encourages women to have more children and celebrate the family as the centerpiece of American life. 'I think she's doing a great job as second lady of the United States,' Vice President JD Vance said in March in Bay City, Michigan, with Usha Vance standing behind him. 'And here's the thing: Because the cameras are all on, anything that I say, no matter how crazy, Usha has to smile and laugh and celebrate it.' Online critics slammed the vice president for sexism. But those who know the couple say that no matter her silence in public, JD Vance leans on his wife's counsel in private. 'Her influence on her husband is incalculable,' said the senior Trump administration official, who has worked with Usha Vance on and off for the past year and asked not to be named in order to speak freely. The official described the second lady as someone who has 'well considered' opinions on marriage, politics and faith, but holds herself at reserve. If Vance, 39, is not happy with all aspects of the Trump White House, friends say she would never let on. 'Her history and her upbringing suggest it,' the administration official said, 'but she's married to JD, and at some point you have to accept it.' The Vances have babysitters but no live-in nanny, and JD Vance leaves the West Wing many early evenings to have dinner with his family and help put the children to bed. The Vances have also taken their three children, now 8, 5 and 3, on official international trips, including to Good Friday services at the Vatican and to dinner in New Delhi with the prime minister of India. Vance declined to be interviewed for this article, as did a large number of relatives, friends and colleagues. More than a dozen who did offer their perspectives did so on the condition of anonymity out of fear of angering her. Only recently has she tiptoed out on her own and offered a glimpse of herself and the purpose she sees in her new role. On June 1, she announced on social platform X the 'Second Lady's 2025 Summer Reading Challenge' for children, driven by her view that reading is an antidote to modern distractions, including her own. From the start, back when they first met at Yale Law School, Usha Vance has been her husband's guide to the elite and a cool salve for his hot temper. One friend of the couple said he would not be vice president without her. 'I'm one of those guys who really benefits from having sort of a powerful female voice over his left shoulder saying, 'Don't do that, do that,'' JD Vance told Megyn Kelly in 2020. For a long time it was his grandmother, Mamaw. 'Now it's Usha,' he said. Unlike JD Vance, whose roots are in a dysfunctional family of the white underclass captured in his bestselling memoir, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' Usha Vance is the eldest of two daughters of accomplished Indian immigrants, Krish and Lakshmi Chilukuri. They arrived in California in the early 1980s. The Chilukuris settled in Rancho Peñasquitos, a planned San Diego neighborhood, where their home today is worth $1.4 million. Vance's father, Krish, worked as an aerospace engineer at United Technologies and Collins Aerospace for 30 years and is now a lecturer at San Diego State. Lakshmi, Vance's mother, is a molecular biologist and the provost of Sixth College, an undergraduate school at the University of California, San Diego. Vance blazed her way through the local Mount Carmel High School, Yale College, a teaching fellowship in China and a prestigious Gates Foundation scholarship at the University of Cambridge in Britain. She wrote in the Gates scholars' yearbook that her interests were 'exploring urban neighborhoods, cooking & green markets, long walks, panicking about law school.' Whatever worries she may have had, friends describe her as a picture of confidence when she was back at Yale in 2010 to start law school. She and JD Vance were soon assigned as partners on a major writing assignment. He was awestruck. 'She seemed some sort of genetic anomaly, a combination of every positive quality a human being should have: bright, hardworking, tall and beautiful,' he wrote in a widely quoted passage in 'Hillbilly Elegy.' The feeling was not mutual at first. 'I think it's fair to say that JD was sort of the pedal in the relationship and I was a little bit of the brakes,' she told the crowd at the U.S.-India forum this month. 'Because I was sort of focused on the schooling part of it.' The two were married in 2014 in an outdoor wedding in Kentucky, near JD Vance's hometown, and spent the next decade crisscrossing the country. Along the way, Usha Vance gave birth to Ewan in 2017, Vivek in 2020 and Mirabel in 2021. Vance clerked for Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Chief Justice Roberts, and worked for the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson in San Francisco and Washington. JD Vance became a partner in a venture capital fund co-founded by Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire and major Trump supporter. In 2017, the couple moved to Cincinnati, where Usha Vance worked remotely for Munger. The couple bought a big $1.4 million Victorian in East Walnut Hills, a liberal-leaning neighborhood. Vance joined the board of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and put Post-it notes on wine bottles to remind her husband which were the good ones to use for guests. A pivotal moment for Usha Vance came in 2018, when Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh, by then a Supreme Court nominee, of sexually assaulting her at a high school party nearly 40 years earlier. Kavanaugh denied the accusation and was narrowly confirmed, but friends say that Vance was outraged by Democratic attacks on a man she admired. 'My wife worked for Kavanaugh, loved the guy — kind of a dork,' JD Vance told New York Times columnist Ross Douthat last year. 'Never believed these stories.' When Vance became Trump's running mate in the summer of 2024, Usha Vance quit her job at Munger and threw herself into the vice presidential campaign. She and the children were often on the trail with him, and colleagues say she was a key part of the preparations for his debate with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Usha Vance has largely stayed out of the fray over the administration's political and policy agenda, even as her husband has continued to be a polarizing figure. The one exception for Usha Vance was in March when she planned a trip to see a national dog sled race in Greenland, which Trump has said he wants to take over from Denmark. Vance made a cheerful video ahead of the trip, but it was ultimately downsized to a brief stop with her husband at a U.S. military base after strong objections from Greenlanders. In the coming months, Vance says she will continue to roll out second lady projects. For now, she continues to take her children to her office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the one with the view of the Washington Monument.
Time of India
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
'Get that throbbing feeling once in a while': Donald Trump recalls assassination attempts; calls presidency 'dangerous business'
US President on Friday reflected on threats to his life while addressing a key court decision that expands his administration's policy-making powers. During a White House media briefing, Trump recalled an incident from July 13, 2024, when a bullet grazed his ear during a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "I get that throbbing feeling every once in a while," he said. "But you know what? That's okay. This is a dangerous business." The remarks came as the Republican president acknowledged a Supreme Court ruling that curtails federal judges' ability to issue nationwide injunctions against executive policies, a decision seen as a major victory for his administration. Drawing comparisons to other high-risk professions, Trump added, "You have race car drivers as an example, 1/10 of 1% die. Bull riders, 1/10 of 1%. That's not a lot, but it's — people die. When you're president, it's about 5%. If somebody would have told me that, maybe I wouldn't have run. Okay? This is, this is a very dangerous profession." Historically, four US presidents have been assassinated while in office, and several others- including candidates- have survived gunshot wounds. Trump himself has faced multiple threats. Law enforcement agencies say he survived an assassination attempt on September 15, 2024, while golfing in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect, who faces five federal charges, has pleaded not guilty. In the July shooting incident, Secret Service agents killed the assailant. One person attending the rally was killed, and two others were injured. The US government has also accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of plotting to assassinate Trump. Iran, whose nuclear sites were targeted by US military strikes last weekend, has denied the allegation. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Now in his second term, Trump has pushed for greater executive authority, targeted political rivals, and pledged to take action against opponents. Meanwhile, on the international front, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday agreed to a US-brokered peace accord aimed at ending a violent conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands in 2025. The US is currently experiencing its most prolonged period of political violence since the 1970s. According to Reuters, more than 300 politically motivated violent incidents have occurred since Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
NDTV
a day ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Trump Calls Being President A "Very Dangerous Profession"
Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday reflected on threats to his life as he celebrated a court ruling that handed his administration sweeping power to pursue his policy agenda. Asked by a reporter about such threats, the Republican suggested that he is occasionally reminded of when he was grazed in the ear by a bullet at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13, 2024. "I get that throbbing feeling every once in a while," Trump said. "But you know what? That's okay. This is a dangerous business." He made the comments during a wide-ranging, impromptu White House press conference scheduled to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision that handed him a major victory by curbing federal judges' power to impose nationwide rulings that block his policies. On Friday, the businessman-turned-politician described the presidency as riskier than some of the most perilous professions. "You have race car drivers as an example, 1/10 of 1% die. Bull riders, 1/10 of 1%. That's not a lot, but it's - people die. When you're president, it's about 5%. If somebody would have told me that, maybe I wouldn't have run. Okay? This is, this is a very dangerous profession." Four of the 45 U.S. presidents have been assassinated. Several more presidents and candidates for the office have been shot. There have been several threats on Trump's life. Law enforcement officials said Trump also survived a September 15, 2024, assassination attempt while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect in that incident faces five federal charges and has pleaded not guilty. The July shooting suspect was shot to death by Secret Service agents. One person at the Pennsylvania rally was killed; two others were wounded. The United States has also separately said Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at one point attempted to assassinate Trump. Iran, whose nuclear facilities were bombed by U.S. forces last weekend, has denied the allegation. Trump, serving his second term in office, has pushed an expansive vision of presidential power, sharply attacked his political foes and vowed retribution against them. The United States is experiencing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s. Reuters has documented more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts since Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Donald Trump calls being president a 'very dangerous profession'
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday reflected on threats to his life as he celebrated a court ruling that handed his administration sweeping power to pursue his policy agenda. Asked by a reporter about such threats, the Republican suggested that he is occasionally reminded of when he was grazed in the ear by a bullet at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13, 2024. He made the comments during a White House press conference scheduled to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision that handed him a major victory(AFP) "I get that throbbing feeling every once in a while," Trump said. 'But you know what? That's okay. This is a dangerous business.' He made the comments during a wide-ranging, impromptu White House press conference scheduled to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court decision that handed him a major victory by curbing federal judges' power to impose nationwide rulings that block his policies. On Friday, the businessman-turned-politician described the presidency as riskier than some of the most perilous professions. "You have race car drivers as an example, 1/10 of 1% die. Bull riders, 1/10 of 1%. That's not a lot, but it's - people die. When you're president, it's about 5%. If somebody would have told me that, maybe I wouldn't have run. Okay? This is, this is a very dangerous profession." Four of the 45 U.S. presidents have been assassinated. Several more presidents and candidates for the office have been shot. There have been several threats on Trump's life. Law enforcement officials said Trump also survived a September 15, 2024, assassination attempt while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect in that incident faces five federal charges and has pleaded not guilty. The July shooting suspect was shot to death by Secret Service agents. One person at the Pennsylvania rally was killed; two others were wounded. The United States has also separately said Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at one point attempted to assassinate Trump. Iran, whose nuclear facilities were bombed by U.S. forces last weekend, has denied the allegation. Trump, serving his second term in office, has pushed an expansive vision of presidential power, sharply attacked his political foes and vowed retribution against them. The United States is experiencing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s. Reuters has documented more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts since Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
