Posted on 06/09/2020 7:24:38 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
Commentators reacted with shock and disgust to President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theory that a 75-year-old man who was attacked and hospitalized by police last week “could be an ANTIFA provocateur.”
Two Buffalo police officers were charged with felony assault for shoving longtime activist Martin Gugino to the ground outside City Hall, resulting in Gugino hitting his head and bleeding from his ear. Gugino remains hospitalized, in “serious but stable” condition, according to his lawyer.
Donald J. Trump
Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?
Gugino’s lawyer responded to Trump’s tweet, asking “why the President of the United States would make such dark, dangerous, and untrue accusations against him.”
Commentators and journalists from both the left and right soon reacted as well with disbelief.
Peter J. Hasson
If he were trying to lose in November, what would he be doing differently?
“There was blood leaking from his head. It is visible on the video. He is still in the hospital,” noted NBC News correspondent Heidi Przybyla, while CNN’s Chris Cillizza questioned, “A 75 year old dude? Who started bleeding from his ear?”
Chris Cillizza
President Trump’s old friend Piers Morgan also weighed in on the comment, tweeting, “Shame on you, Mr Trump,” as Fox News contributor and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer declared, “The President’s penchant for trafficking in conspiracy theories is, politically speaking, going to ruin him. This is reckless. He doesn’t know when to stop.”
Piers Morgan
BREAKING: President of the United States spreads insane conspiracy theory nonsense to falsely smear 75-yr-old man brutalised by police & still in serious condition in hospital. Shame on you, Mr Trump.
Ari Fleischer
The President’s penchant for trafficking in conspiracy theories is, politically speaking, going to ruin him. This is reckless. He doesn’t know when to stop.
Erick Erickson
Please stop
Charles C. W. Cooke
He can’t stop. This is who he is. It isn’t schtick, or a tactic, or a political approach, or a mistake. This is who he is. It’s what he thinks, and how he thinks. He has for decades. Twitter shows us it, it doesn’t create it. https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1270345797578735618 …
Oliver Darcy
Drudge mocks Trump: "AARP-ANTIFA"
Jacob Siegel
Not taking the bait of Trump's tweets is generally good policy, but this is so despicable and sinister it merits an exception.
Joe Lockhart
Broken record playing again -- this man has serious mental health issues which we are ignoring as a country. This is well beyond playing partisan politics. He is living in a sick and twisted alternative universe. He's probably hearing voices at this point. But lets all ignore it
Bill Kristol
The president of the United States flat out defending police brutality--and not with the usual, "the police are under huge pressure, they've got to make split-second judgment calls" type of excuses, but with unabashed blaming-the-victim conspiracy theories.
Joshua Holland 🔥
If current trends persist, Republicans are going to nominate an actual tinfoil hat next time.
David Mack
this is beyond deranged
James Surowiecki
This is unbelievable in so many ways, including the fact that Trump for some reason thought it was smart to mention Gugino's age, just so we were all clear he's defending cops who shoved a 75-year-old to the sidewalk.
Lis Power
Here's the absolutely insane OAN report that Trump is referencing: "The latest tensions in the Buffalo police department could be the result of a false flag provocation by far left group antifa"
Ben Collins
The OAN conspiracy theory the president is livetweeting here was reported by an ex-Sputnik (Russian state media) reporter, who last month claimed coronavirus was a cover by George Soros, Bill Gates, Dr. Fauci, the Clintons and China for "population control."
David Frum
When this line of argument fails, Trump will retreat to his classic all-purpose excuse: "It was Obama who shoved the 75 year old man to the sidewalk and cracked his head."
Truth is hate to people who hate truth.
The guy had his own “riot helmet.”
The Left never learns. President Trump never makes such statements unless he knows that he says has evidence to back him up.
These commentators are delusional.
Not one of them mentioned the long history of the life-long agitator.
His deleted social media accounts confirm what Trump said.
Where are videos from the other angle showing his fall?
We have photos but, this lone man standing against “Tyranny” was filmed by only one person?
75 years is long enough to learn not to charge a group of police in riot gear clearing a street.
At what point did we lose common sense in America. If you walk to an advancing police force and ignore their warnings. Reach for their waist, too. Bad things will happen to you. How is this not obvious.
Trump the TweetMaster
with 81.9 Million followers and many others not listed
He Tweeted the Truth
Dims, Deepstaters, Rinos and others suitability stung.
What he doing getting in the cops faces? Sorry but that professional political whores are too gutless to stand for truth is their problem
6 police officers were murdered in the line of duty last week by these rioting scum. When any of these grandstanding political scum express even 1% of their attention to those deaths, to those families, to those memorial services, I might take them seriously again
Until then stop being such pathetic clowns your shameless propaganda whores
I read through the list and I somehow missed how the commentators were from “across the spectrum” of politics. They seem to be all leftwing crackpots, leftists, Washington Post “journalists” and a token Bush Republican.
Yep.
“Across the political spectrum” LOL!
All the way from the far commentators to the anti-Trump commentators.
Which, indeed, is the whole spectrum allowed in the media.
Other voices are not allowed.
And, shortly after the President made his statement about this guy he deleted ALL of his Social Media accounts. Obviously, the act of a perfectly innocent man just minding his own business when the cops for no reason at all pushed him to the ground.
He was shoved/pushed. Not stabbed. Not shot. Not beaten.
The guy has a very long history of Extreme Leftist activism / agitation.
Before he deleted his accounts several people went there and captured his extreme Leftist Activism posted on his accounts.
Deranged doesn't really come into it.
Trump doesn't usually throw something out that would be this politically charged if he doesn't already know his enemies will take the bait ... and that ... he's right.
First time I saw the guy get pushed it reminded me what soccer players do. And the blood thing is certainly weird!
Yeah and he doesn’t look at all like an old feeble man.
Did you see this rabbit-hole of a twitter thread?
Pretty damning.
https://twitter.com/RoscoeBDavis1/status/1270383505768316929
Daniel Burke
Martin Gugino is a a longtime peace activist who has worked with the Plowshares and Catholic Workers, the movement started by Dorothy Day
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