Staff Reports
The blockbuster claims made by Tucker Carlson this week are exactly the kind of gut-punch Americans expect from a journalist willing to take on the permanent bureaucracy. Carlson says the FBI told the public there was “no online footprint” for Thomas Crooks, the man who tried to kill former President Trump, and now he insists he has the posts the bureau supposedly hid — which, if true, would be a national scandal of the first order.
We still remember the violence in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, when shots rang out from a rooftop and an innocent man was killed while the nation watched a rally turn into a crime scene. The attack left Americans shaken and raised obvious questions about motive and how a young man like Crooks could carry out such a brazen plot.
Carlson’s accusation is blunt: the FBI lied about Crooks’ digital trail, and he says he can prove it with posts that show a reckless descent into violent rhetoric. Conservatives who have watched the federal bureaucracy evade accountability for years should not be surprised by a cover-up theory, but they deserve proof — and they deserve answers from the agencies, not spin from their PR accounts.
The FBI’s “rapid response” account pushed back hard, saying flatly that “this FBI has never said Thomas Crooks had no online footprint,” a reply that only deepens the controversy because it shifts the debate from facts to which version of the FBI is on the record. When federal agencies respond faster than they explain, distrust grows, and Americans are left to wonder who is protecting whom.
Even figures normally friendly to establishment narratives are now publicly squabbling, with former insider Kash Patel dismissing some of Carlson’s framing while other conservative voices rally behind the host. That infighting proves the broader point: when the swamp doesn’t want daylight, it sends out its foot soldiers to muddy the water rather than release the documents.
There are more details that merit alarm — including reporting that Crooks’ body was cremated shortly after the attack, a move that conveniently forecloses independent forensic scrutiny and only fuels suspicion. When evidence disappears or is quickly rendered unavailable, ordinary Americans have every right to demand a thorough, independent accounting.
Congressional oversight committees must stop treating these episodes as political theater and start doing their jobs: subpoena the records, preserve the data, and hold accountable any law enforcement officers who misled the public. If the FBI mischaracterized the shooter’s online life, that’s not a mere press-relations mistake — it’s an assault on the public’s right to know and on the integrity of our investigations.
Patriots across the country should demand transparency, not excuses, and support journalists willing to push back against the deep state. Tucker Carlson is raising a flag; whether he’s right about every detail or not, the response from the FBI and the cascade of denials shows why Americans rightly fear a two-tier system of justice — one for the powerful and one for everyone else.
