Donald Trump Alleged ‘Assassin’ Was Actually An Unarmed Protester Holding The Sign ‘Republicans Against Trump’
If you want to learn how to make a mountain out of a molehill, please contact the Trump campaign.
Late on Saturday night, the pro-Trump media was up in arms with allegations that someone had attempted to assassinate Trump at a campaign event in Reno, Nevada. According to their version of the story, “a man with a gun” had allegedly been subdued by a group of Trump supporters before the Republican nominee was himself escorted off stage by Secret Service agents.
“Secret Service agents rushed Donald Trump offstage on Saturday evening during a rally in Reno, Nevada after they determined a protester in the audience with a gun posed a threat to the Republican presidential candidate,” reported the Daily Mail.
Some of the best news media outlets were guilty of swallowing this version of events as the truth without being critical of it. Reports were furnished to the American public two days before Election Day without the whole information, without witness accounts of the incident, and without even a sincere attempt to understand what had really transpired in Reno.
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But now that the initial hysteria of Trump’s supporters has subsided somewhat, it is important that we discuss what really happened in Reno. As it turns out, the first person to fan the “assassination theory” was — you guessed it right — Donald Trump himself. It appears Trump was so calm after the incident because he knew it was nothing serious. And yet, the Republican nominee insinuated that his brave supporters had subdued “a man with a gun” after coming back on the stage. Before even having inquired about who the man was, Trump made up a lie which his supporters and campaign, as well as a section of American media, consumed with dangerous alacrity.
The furor of Trump’s supporters and pro-Trump media made it seem as if it was only a matter of time that someone attempted to assassinate Donald Trump for the great work he was doing for the future of the United States of America.
Minutes after Trump cooked up the gun idea, his social media campaign director Dan Scavino promoted a tweet saying that Trump had survived an assassination. His son, Donald Trump Jr., retweeted the same information, giving this baseless theory much traction, as reported by Think Progress.
The false Donald Trump assassination theory was disseminated quickly and purposefully, thanks to the efficiency of the Trump campaign. Unfortunately, and not unlike the manner in which Trump’s supporters love to turn conspiracy theories into facts, ill-informed voters began believing that someone had actually tried to assassinate Trump.
Until the fake assassin spoke himself.
According to the Guardian, the man behind the entire furor was Austyn Crites from Reno. A registered Republican, Crites wanted to vent his opposition of Trump and carried a placard to the event reading “Republicans Against Trump.” Soon after he entered the hall, he claims that he was punched, kicked and beaten by Donald Trump’s supporters for merely expressing his dissent.
“I had a sign that said ‘Republicans against Trump.’ It is a sign that you can just print off online.And then all of a sudden people next to me are starting to get violent; they’re grabbing at my arm, trying to rip the sign out of my hand,” Crites said.
Listen to the Reno man reliving the attack by Donald Trump’s supporters himself.
While this is not the first time that Donald Trump’s supporters have beaten up unarmed protesters at his rally, the way a silently protesting dissenter at Reno was turned into a dangerous assassin reeks of a new low even for the Trump campaign and his supporters.
[Featured Image by David Zalubowski/AP Images]
