White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has hit out at suggestions that the latest attempted attack against Donald Trump was staged, describing conspiracy theories swirling on the internet as “crazy nonsense.”
Speaking days after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night, Leavitt was asked about the skepticism surrounding the event, which some online believe was set up to bolster Trump.
“There will be bite-sized clips that will go viral to the point where there are Americans in this country that believe that what happened Saturday night was staged. How does this White House tackle that with social media companies out there... to make sure that doesn’t get out of control?” asked Fox News reporter Aishah Hasnie.
Leavitt said this was “certainly a good question,” but admitted she didn’t have an answer.
“What I will say is it’s very important to us that we get the truth and the facts about this case and any case out there as quickly as possible, to dispel some of that crazy nonsense that you do see running rampant online,” Leavitt said.
“Hopefully, people will believe the truth rather than the lies and the conspiracies that so often do go crazy on social media.”
Conspiracy theories about the attack have swirled across the internet for days, both from the left and right.
Some posts claimed the shooting was orchestrated to boost sympathy for Trump, who has been under fire over everything from the Iran war, cost-of-living pressures, and the Epstein files.
Others latched on to a claim made by Leavitt before the incident, in which she noted there “will be shots fired tonight” when asked in a red carpet interview about Trump’s plan to roast the media in his speech.
And some pointed to Trump’s somewhat unfazed reaction to the shooting and his immediate bid to promote his ballroom in the aftermath. So too did multiple MAGA accounts, conspicuously posting in unison.
“Thank g-d Trump is building a ballroom,” dozens of tweets read, each one pushing the same type of support for the $400 million project.
Nonetheless, the alleged gunman, Cole Tomas Allen, made his first court appearance on Monday, charged with attempting to assassinate Trump.
According to a newly unsealed affidavit, the 31-year-old California resident made a hotel reservation at Washington’s Hilton Hotel, where the event takes place every year, for three nights, from Friday to Sunday.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanne Pirro told reporters he was armed with guns and knives that had been brought across state lines, as well as a manifesto that made clear that he was at the event to target administration officials
“He is very much aware that the President and the first lady entered the ballroom at 8 pm, and it was at 8:40 that he made a decision to rush the ballroom,” Pirro said.
“Any suggestion that he wasn’t there to do harm is absurd.”
But the attack has nonetheless continued to polarize the country, with Leavitt using her press conference to blame everyone from Democrats, the media and even talk show host Jimmy Kimmel for what unfolded.
“The left-wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed,” she added.
Notably, she did not mention attacks from the right, or the President’s own incendiary comments, such as his rhetoric celebrating the deaths of Robert Mueller and Rob Reiner, or his attacks on the press as “enemies of the people”.
