The Pulled Commercial Featuring Donald Trump's Assailant

The gunman whom authorities say opened fire at former President Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, July 13, was featured in a now-controversial 2022 commercial for investment firm BlackRock.

On Monday, the company confirmed that Thomas Matthew Crooks was one of several Bethel Park High School students who appeared in the advertisement, which was pulled in the aftermath of the shooting. "In 2022, we ran an ad featuring a teacher from Bethel Park High School, in which several unpaid students briefly appeared in the background, including Thomas Matthew Crooks," read a statement issued by BlackRock to CBS MoneyWatch. "We will make all video footage available to the appropriate authorities, and we have removed the video from circulation out of respect for the victims."

As seen in a copy of the commercial shared by the New York Post, the commercial centers on economics teacher Brian DeLallo, who, at the time of the ad, taught the subject to advanced placement and honors classes at Bethel Park. He discusses the importance of financial well-being while BlackRock, for its part, emphasizes its role in managing pension plans for public school teachers in the U.S. As for Crooks, he is first seen early in the clip, listening to DeLallo's lecture, and he makes a second, similarly brief appearance toward the end while seemingly participating in a class discussion, though he isn't heard speaking in either scene.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was 20 years old at the time of the incident, was identified as the man who had fired multiple shots at the Pennsylvania rally, killing one person and seriously injuring two others before Secret Service agents gunned him down. One of the bullets grazed Donald Trump's ear, and while the former president was bloodied from the attack, he was otherwise unharmed, managing to pump his fist for the crowd to show he was alright.

Trump later took to his Truth Social platform to thank the Secret Service and local law enforcement for protecting him during the event. "I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country," his post read in part.

BlackRock's official statement also touched on the shooting itself. "The assassination attempt on former President Trump is abhorrent," the company stressed. "We're thankful former President Trump wasn't seriously injured and thinking about all the innocent bystanders and victims of this awful act, especially the person who was killed," 

The BlackRock ad featuring Thomas Matthew Crooks wasn't the only piece of media that was pulled following the events of July 13. As it features a scene where a sniper takes a shot at Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) while she delivers a speech, "The Simpsons" episode "Lisa The Iconoclast" was removed by U.K.'s Channel 4 from a scheduled marathon of Season 7 episodes. The scene in question hits a little too close to home due to the similar real-life attempt on Donald Trump's life, though it remains available to watch in full, unedited form on Disney+ at the time of writing.

Given how "The Simpsons" has supposedly "predicted" so many future real-world events in its 30-plus seasons on the air, there have likewise been false claims suggesting that the animated sitcom foretold an even darker outcome at the Pennsylvania rally.

Meanwhile, MSNBC made the decision to play on the safe side and remove "Morning Joe" from its Monday morning programming due to concerns that one of its regular left-leaning guests might make offensive comments about the former president. In lieu of the political roundtable show, the network opted to continue airing breaking news on the Trump assassination attempt.