![Six Years Ago, The Boyboy West Coast Met The Fairest Of Them All At The Club "You Was In the Club" Is a BOP.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/featured_items/icons/wide/000/025/759/Screen_Shot_2019-02-22_at_1.24.28_PM.png)
![Media Outlets Report That Trump Shooter Posted About Assassination Attempt On 'Gaming Site' Known As 'Steam,' Which Probably Isn't True A photo of Thomas Crooks, the attempted assassin of Donald Trump, and the Steam logo.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/news/posts/mobile/000/003/735/thomas-matthew-crooks-blogroll-1721329178544.jpg)
Move over "Hacker known as 4chan," there's a new bewilderingly out-of-touch description of a common internet forum in town.
Yesterday, reports circulated that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the shooter at Donald Trump's rally last Saturday, had posted a "final message" on a message board he frequented, a place described by some media outlets as a breeding ground for political dissent and dangerous rhetoric.
The name of this vile place? Steam.
![haker known as 4chan gene park](https://i.kym-cdn.com/news/images/desktop/000/002/264/Screenshot_2024-07-19_at_1.21.56_PM.png)
According to initial reports, Crooks had posted to Steam, "July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds," a supposedly grim warning for what he'd attempt. However, after a few hours of that story circulating, CNN reported that the account that made that comment was faked to appear to look like Crooks, and Crooks himself made no such remark.
In those intervening hours, however, Fox News whipped up an article attempting to tie Valve's gaming platform and marketplace Steam to Cooks' motive for the attack. They came up with an indie game on Steam called Mr. President!, a game in which the player plays as a bodyguard jumping in front of bullets aimed at a legally distinct parody of Donald Trump named "Ronald Rump."
Fox News admits that there is no evidence Crooks has ever played Mr. President! However, that didn't stop the outlet from spending much of its article basically explaining everything about the $10 comedy game in great detail for multiple paragraphs.
It seemed obvious to readers that Fox was trying to pigeonhole Crooks into a "lone gunman" archetype who was radicalized by dark corners of the internet.
The issue with their attempt is that Steam is incredibly popular and features over 100,000 games, making it bizarre that Fox would cherry-pick one game that they themselves admit Crooks never played to write an entire article about.
![Fox News' Steam article Fox News' Steam article](https://i.kym-cdn.com/news/images/desktop/000/002/265/Screenshot_2024-07-19_at_1.38.51_PM.png)
![The dredges of the story The dredges of the story](https://i.kym-cdn.com/news/images/desktop/000/002/266/Screenshot_2024-07-19_at_1.46.35_PM.png)
Other games Crooks may or may not have played on the vile "Steam" platform include Doki Doki Literature Club, Untitled Goose Game and Vampire Therapist.
Top Comments
martinprince12345
Jul 19, 2024 at 03:02PM EDT
Salnax
Jul 19, 2024 at 04:20PM EDT