Headline Roundup • July 16th, 2024
Fact Check: Trump Assassination Attempt Sparks Misinformation
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Glass shards? Multiple shooters? A "staged" assassination attempt? The shooting targeting former President Donald Trump on Saturday spawned a flurry of false or unfounded claims.
Was Trump Hit by Glass, Not a Bullet? No. Posts on X from reporters at Axios (Lean Left bias) and Newsmax (Right) quoted an anonymous "Pennsylvania police source" who said they believed Trump "was not struck by a bullet, but hit by glass fragments," purportedly from shattered teleprompter glass. No evidence of this emerged, and the Axios reporter deleted their post from X. Photos show a bullet whizzing past Trump's head.
Were There Multiple Shooters? Law enforcement officials believe the shooter worked alone.
"Staged" or "Allowed" by the Secret Service? There's no evidence of this. Elon Musk suggested agents' slow response to the shooter may have been "deliberate." Many questioned why the shooter wasn't neutralized sooner, especially as videos emerged of people in the crowd spotting him minutes before the shots were fired. Some also cited the shooter's ability to access a clear line and fire multiple shots at Trump from roughly 400 feet away, as well as his appearance in a BlackRock advertisement, as reasons to believe it was a staged assassination attempt.
Mark Violets: Claims on social media asserted that the would-be assassin was an "Antifa extremist" named Mark Violets. This is false.
Featured Coverage of this Story
AP
Conspiracy theories that the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was staged flooded the internet almost immediately after a shooting suspect opened fire on Trump as he spoke at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Some of the claims said Trump staged it himself.
"Donald Trump continues to play in our faces!! This was SO staged!!! If someone REALLY wanted to take him out, they wouldn’t use a BB Gun!!," one person posted on X a little over an hour after the shooting.
Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo/picture alliance
Among false narratives surrounding the assassination attempt of the likely Republican Party's presidential candidate, Donald Trump, are some related to the suspected shooter's identity.
Security agencies identified the attacker within hours of the failed attempt. The FBI has named the suspect as Thomas Matthew C., whose full name is not given here in accordance with the German press protections for suspects' personal rights.
The suspect was killed immediately after he fired at Trump's rally. Authorities told reporters that the suspect was not carrying identification and that they used DNA and other methods to confirm his identity.
...
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
A special guest invited by former President Donald Trump’s team to his Pennsylvania rally provided the Daily Caller News Foundation videos he took as gunfire erupted in a failed assassination attempt against the GOP’s presumptive nominee.
Benjamin Shrader, who is an event coordinator and CEO of Shrader Promotions LLC, was invited Thursday to Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Shrader provided videos to the DCNF that document the moments when a rally attendee was hit as several rounds were being fired at the crowd.
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