As soon as shots were fired at a campaign gathering in Pennsylvania and former President Donald Trump was taken off the stage, false claims about the event spread quickly on the world’s biggest social media sites.
Who ordered the shooting?
Some of the posts, which were written by elected US politicians, said that President Joe Biden had ordered what looked like a shooting at the gathering without any proof.
Others said without any evidence that the event was faked or shared posts that wrongly identified the shooter.
It’s not always easy to get the facts of an event straight after big news. The Secret Service, the FBI, the Pennsylvania state police, and the Justice Department have all said that they are still looking into the shooting, including the chance that it was an attempt to kill the president.
Experts warned people to be careful about spreading false information.
What we know so far
“There is always a lot of false or unverified information coming out during a fast-moving event,” said Graham Brookie, senior head of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which studies false information on social media.
Several politicians on X said that Biden or his campaign was “directly” responsible for what seemed to be the killing, but they didn’t give any proof.
Representative Mike Collins of Georgia wrote on X, “Joe Biden gave the orders.” Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who is a top candidate to be Trump’s running mate for vice president, said that the Biden campaign’s rhetoric “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas blamed someone or some people on the left but didn’t name them, for what happened at Trump’s campaign gathering.
Not Recognized
Collins, Vance, and Jackson did not immediately respond to requests for comments. However, according to the social media site’s data, more than 7.3 million people saw all of their posts on X on Saturday night.
Many people on the far proper use the forums X, Telegram, and Gab, where earlier posts called the shooter a man named Mark Violets and called him a “known Antifa extremist.” Antifa is the name of the loosely organized lefty movement. NBC News says the person who was wrongly identified in posts with a photo was Italian YouTuber Marco Violi, who has denied having anything to do with the killing.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: A DOUBLE ATTACK ATTEMPTED TO KILL TRUMP AT A RALLY IN PENNSYLVANIA
A video shared by the US tabloid TMZ seems to show the person who is thought to have attacked Trump’s rally lying on a roof with a gun before shots are fired.
The man, who seems to have long brown hair, is not seen shooting in the video that was made public.
However, there are a few quick gunshots and screams from people outside the camera.
The suspect in Trump’s murder attempt, who the FBI has named as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, is getting more attention.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS, WHO IS SUSPECTED OF HOOKING AT A TRUMP Rally
Crooks lived about an hour from Butler, where the shooting happened. He graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022 and won a $500 “star award” from the National Math and Science Initiative.
Unknown people say, “I think they hit him because the guy, he looks dead,” in a second video that shows a blurred body on the roof.
Trump is safe.
Trump left the Butler area while being watched by the Secret Service and later got to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Since Republican President Ronald Reagan was almost killed in 1981, this was the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party candidate.
It immediately made people wonder about the security of the Secret Service, which protects current and past presidents, including Trump.
The FBI said it was in charge of looking into the attack.
It was less than four months before the election on November 5, when Trump will run against Democratic Vice President Joe Biden again.
Most polls, including those by Reuters/Ipsos, show that the race is very close between the two.
Investors said the attack and Trump’s defiant reaction would probably make it easier for him to win back the White House. This coming week trades that bet on his victory will rise.
Trump will receive the official nomination for his party at the Republican National Convention, which starts on Monday in Milwaukee.
FOUR SHOTS AND THE PEOPLE DUCKS
Ron Moose, a Trump supporter at the gathering, said he heard four shots. “I saw the crowd go down, and then Trump ducked. He also did it real quick,” he noted. The Secret Service jumped in to protect him as soon as they could. In less than a second, they were all protecting him.
The BBC talked to a man who said he saw a man with a gun climbing up a roof close to the event.
The person who said they were an eyewitness but was not named by the BBC said that they and the other people with them started pointing at the man to get security’s attention.
The agency said the shots looked like they came from outside the area that the Secret Service was guarding.
FBI officials told reporters at a meeting late Saturday night that it was strange that the suspect was able to fire more than one shot.
There was no one from the Secret Service at that meeting.
