Embattled US Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle’s refusal in her testimony before congress on Monday (Tuesday AEST) to rule out whether the 20-year-old gunman, who was shot almost immediately after he opened fire by her agents, acted alone, instead referring congressmen to the FBI, didn’t help the situation.
“They might as well just confirm that Crooks was part of an assassination plot right now,” right-wing influencer Kyle Becker told his 535,000 followers on X.
Trump-supporting accounts on social media at first celebrated the former president’s survival by poking fun at the women-heavy contingent of secret service, blaming a diversity equity inclusion drive for what was clearly inadequate protection.
Using artificial David Attenborough voiceovers, one of the female agents who struggled with her gun in the ensuing panic has been mocked mercilessly in viral memes as Pat the Lunch Lady and Secret Service Barbie
These David Attenborough videos never get old. pic.twitter.com/XJINI6oeNP
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 20, 2024
Whoever made this deserves an award 🤣🔊
— TONYâ„¢ (@TONYxTWO) July 16, 2024
“Secret Service Barbie†lmao pic.twitter.com/zcZiNXwVtD
The world’s richest man, X owner Elon Musk suggested the Secret Service’s incompetence could have been “deliberate” in the hours immediately after the event, encouraging the likes of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to conjecture it was a “failed coup” attempt by the loathed “deep state”.
It hasn’t helped that the Secret Service had denied “several” earlier requests to provide additional security for Trump, who naturally claimed he had “God on his side” at his Republican convention speech last week.
On the left, the fury at Trump’s poise and resilience in the moment, which generated the historic potentially election-turning photograph of him punching the air in defiance, has claims that the whole event was staged by Republicans (ignoring the fact a man was killed, Trump almost, and two people were seriously injured), or even Russia, as billionaire Democrat donor Reid Hoffman claimed.
It tells you something that the top advisor to Reid Hoffman, perhaps Biden's biggest defender in donor world, literally claimed that the assassination attempt against Trump was a Russian plot. https://t.co/VO6zE17kWuhttps://t.co/ZqZnIhBQN3pic.twitter.com/pg0a0GyeA5
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 17, 2024
Left-wing influencer Keith Olbermann continues to insist Trump wasn’t hit by the bullet, despite doctor’s reports to the contrary.
Ever since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, a big chunk of Americans refuse to believe the official versions of events. Expect July 13 to generate almost as much suspicion so long as the information vacuum surrounding Crooks’s motive, his lack of digital and social media footprint, and Cheatle’s refusal to explain what went wrong, remain outstanding.
A reminder that there is STILL no evidence Trump was hit by a bullet and STILL lots of evidence he's lying about it.
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) July 22, 2024
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The trusty adage to never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity has been lost amid the swirling conspiracy theories that have taken root following Thomas Matthew Crook’s attempt on Donald Trump’s life, among his supporters and detractors alike.