FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed during a marathon testimony on Wednesday that investigators still do not know if former President Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel during his attempted assassination.
But making this distinction doesn’t guarantee clicks, so let’s keep the headline from being too clear about it.
I think the FBI is saying they know where each round ends up and it’s not in a trajectory that could have injured Trump. But they can’t just say that to the Republican Congressman asking the question.
It’s a distinction without a difference. “Trump wasn’t injured by a bullet, he was injured by shrapnel from the bullet” doesn’t let the FBI or the SS off the hook for missing this kid before he started shooting.
Removed by mod
Nah, implying the US is a nazi regime is good.
They killed Clippy on the operating table.
I’m still mad they took clippy away.
The distinction here is hardly relevant.
It is relevant to history. You can either tell the Trump story that a bullet hit his ear, or you can say that he caught shrapnel.
The only way that would be relevant would be if there was a determination that the shooter was trying to do some kind of ad hoc false flag thing, as opposed to writing his own name into history. Everything we know at this point indicates that the latter is true, and the former is not.
Whether Trump’s injury was the result of a fired projectile or a piece of shrapnel, the injury was caused by an assassination attempt.
Whether Trump’s injury was the result of a fired projectile or a piece of shrapnel, the injury was caused by an assassination attempt.
We all know what really happened.
A trick he learned back in his WWE guest star days.
(This is meant as a joke, please do not be upset. I mean no disrespect to WWE fans.)
You know, it’s funny because the moment I saw the picture where you could see a little blood, I thought to myself “did anyone make sure he didn’t have a ketchup packet in his pockets?”
And sure enough, I’m never original…
I thought I was the only one whose first thought was that W wasn’t surprised on 9/11 when I saw the clip of him being informed. Turns out a LOT of people had that thought. 😂
Not a ketchup packet, a razorblade
The truth is still the truth, even if there is no material difference in the implications.
That’s true.
It’s also relevant because one of Trump’s current campaign statements is that he “took a bullet for America” which may be another lie.
It would certainly neuter that (over)statement, but I honestly wouldn’t go as far as to call that one a “lie” without some indication that he knew that it wasn’t a bullet he was hit by. I don’t think that even a reasonable person wouldn’t come to the conclusion that “Shots were fired, at me, now my ear is bleeding all over my face” as “I was hit by a bullet.”
I disagree.
The sheer number of lies he tells, what difference is one more? Especially an inconsequential one?
We’re all fairly sure it wasn’t the bullet, but glass, or shrapnel or whatever, but that buries the lede.
The point here is whether it was an assassination attempt or a false flag attempt (personally I think assassination) and that trumps own hateful rhetoric has created such a ridiculous scenario where this shit happens.
Because it’s always important to point out the hypocrisy of his fake patriotic bullshit. Every lie should be pointed out, to everyone who will listen.
But then you lose the bigger point that his rhetoric and horse shit has lead us here.
You’re too zoomed in.
except if the shooter was just shooting into the crowd and hit like a railing or something then it wasn’t an “assassination attempt” it was a mass shooting.
Frankly, it could be a mass-shooting anyway, simply one that had a high-profile figure as one of the targets. Apparently he had explosives in his car and some sort of remote detonation mechanism, so it was clearly about more than just Trump alone.
so it was clearly about more than just Trump alone.
Not necessarily. To my knowledge, we don’t know where any explosives would have been planted. He was seen wandering around the rally area a few hours before the rally. It’s possible at one point he thought he could plant some explosives near Trump’s podium or something so he gets taken out in the blast, and maybe abandoned that plan when he walked around and realized it wasn’t viable.
IMO, there’s nothing indicating he had any intents other than taking out Trump by any means available to him. Anyone else was probably either collateral damage in his mind, or “deserved it” for being Trump supporters in the first place. He may have decided that trying to snipe him from that rooftop was his most viable option, but it looks like he woke up that morning with at least two separate plans on how to go about it.
Fair. None of that speculation is inherently any better than the mass shooting speculation though, there’s similarly zero indication he had anything personal against Trump. He even had potential dem targets in his search history. There’s no sound evidence for anything so far, that I’ve heard at any rate.
Though I do think it’s a little far-fetched that what appears to be an intelligent engineering student is going to think sneaking over and planting explosives is going to be a viable plan. That’s a little video gamey.
It’s a lot video-gamey. Let’s be realistic…the United States Secret Service just got owned by a 20 year old kid camping in one of the windows from Nuketown. The kid looks like he got beat up for his lunch money last week. Whatever plans were gong through his head, the plan he ultimately settled on involved him climbing to the one rooftop that the Secret Service somehow missed and was somehow able to not get caught until he fired off half a dozen or so shots. Everything he did that we know of so far looks like something a newbie would do the first time they played COD.
We’ll of course never really know his true motives. Remember that despite all the speculation over political motives, Ronald Reagan’s would-be-assassin did it because he was trying to impress a teenage Jodie Foster. For all we know, this kid could have woke up that morning and believed that Trump was Gargamel and it was his responsibility to kill him in order to save Smurf Village. Why he suddenly wanted Trump dead remains a mystery especially since he was supposedly a long-time Trump supporter, but I haven’t seen anything to make me believe that his target was anything other than Trump himself, and maybe anyone who was just unlucky enough to be in the way.
Not really. I’ll give you a “for instance”. Few people know this story.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Arutyunian.
In this case, although in danger, Trump was being shot at by someone who couldn’t shoot.
The grenade landed 18.6 metres (61 ft) from the podium
Bush was thrown at by someone who couldn’t throw
Got WAY closer than 60ft though.
I remember watching that and losing my shit.
Of course at the time, it was because I was a teenager and “haha president almost got hit by a shoe”
Now it’s funny for different reasons, but still.
You know where “close” counts?
2 first downs is not exactly close.
Horseshoes, hand grenades, and
The Secretnuclear weapons.Welease The Secwet Weapon!!!
* Wewease
The grenade failed to detonate. Although original reports indicated that the grenade was not live, it was later revealed that it was. After Arutyunian pulled the pin and threw the grenade, it hit a girl, cushioning its impact. The red handkerchief remained wrapped around the grenade, and it prevented the striker lever from releasing.
No mention of it being “a training grenade [which] could not fire.” Source?
I think there’s essentially no limit to what the shooter’s motives could be. What was the Las Vegas shooter’s motive? What was the motive at Columbine? There’s a million possibilities. Narcissism, delusions, non-specific rage.
Sure, there’s one conclusion that seems simplest, which is that he shot at Trump but missed. And if he grazed Trump’s ear, that’s almost certainly true. But what if it comes out that the FBI finds that the closest shot was over 10 feet away from Trump? If that happens, I think we’d be fools to continue to assume it was an assassination attempt.
The smartest thing anyone could say at this point is “I don’t know”.
If it was shrapnel then it dispels the idea that if he’d turned his head just a few inches it would’ve been death.
And it makes the whole divine intervention thing seem less likely, but they are already reaching so hard anyways I’m sure they will just reach a bit further… it’s a cult after all.
If my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a bicycle, too.
I am confused. Are you trying to say that your grandma gets ridden a lot?
Only by necrophiliacs now.
I have to admit, in all seriousness, that Fred Gwynne and my own father look very similar.
That man will forever live in my memory saying “What is a yoot?”.
That fuckin chef on that good morning TV show. That clip is so funny
Or a car-hop at Sonic.
I mean, sure? But we are getting pretty far into “what if” territory that can never be known and doesn’t really matter. If he was hit by a bullet, or shrapnel from a bullet doesn’t change the fact he was injured by a shooter.
Yeah, this feels like a good headline more than useful information.
Clickbait?!? From The Daily Beast?!? Impossible!!!
The only interesting thing about it might be that it once again points out the hypocrisy of the right.
They mocked John Kerry as undeserving of his purple hearts, and wore fake bandaids because he was hit with shrapnel.
… it once again points out the hypocrisy of the right.
We could climb that pile into orbit.
Space elevator might be out of reach but the space mountain is real.
It’s an integral part of NASA’s plan to return to the moon.
It’s relevant to the folks who believe in divine intervention, isn’t it?
The folks who believe in divine intervention don’t care about what actually happens in reality in any case, so no, it’s not relevant to them, either.
I would think that the difference between it being a bullet vs a piece of glass would be the difference between divine intervention or not to many of them.
If logic worked on religious people, then there wouldn’t be religious people. They will just say the bullet WOULD’VE killed him, but god stopped it and only hurt him with glass. God can’t be proven or disproven, so those that want to see divine intervention always will.
If you’re someone who’s going to claim divine intervention, it’s to reinforce your own beliefs, and message to the people who hear you that you hold those beliefs. Glass vs. bullet isn’t going to matter.
People who believe in fantasy and fairytales aren’t going to be swayed by the nuance of fact.
I think what you’re trying to say is that “either way he still survived an assassination attempt”, which I agree with, but the details still matter.
It’s relevant in that Trump is probably dishonest again.
The situation is shocking enough if he was hit by glass in an assassination attempt, but they couldn’t resist lying and saying the bullet hit his ear.
Trump responded with a post on Truth Social while the hearing was still taking place, calling for Wray to resign—but not for anything he said about the assassination attempt. Instead, Trump lambasted the FBI director for claiming that he found his interactions with President Biden “uneventful and unremarkable.”
He’s such a batshit narcissist. And rapist. And a fraud. And a crook, a pathological liar, vain to the point of gruesome, and many other qualities that explain how he’s running the entire republiQan party.
He wants to be treated like royalty. Like a Tsar. Like Putin.
He was struck by…a smooth criminal.
Donny are you OK?
Are you OK Donnie?
Wanna be a baller, shot caller Twenty-inch blades on the Impala
A Secret service agent there said it was a piece of glass that sliced his ear which made a lot more sense with how it looks, and is in line with Trump’s retelling of the story at the RNC, (he heard a buzz go by) but it doesn’t really change anything from either side. Trump would have said Jesus personally blocked the bullet no matter what and getting hit by glass rather than a bullet doesn’t make it much less traumatic of an event to imagine for those of us with empathy.
If it was a bullet, he should be missing part of his ear. It would probably look like Holyfield’s ear post Tyson fight.
FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed during a marathon testimony on Wednesday that investigators still do not know if former President Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel during his attempted assassination.
There’s no way a bullet “grazes” an ear and it’s not obvious… He’d be legitimately missing cartilage, he was seen golfing days later without even a bandaid on it
I don’t think at any point any source has said he was shot.
Just that he was shot at, and came up with a bleeding ear.
Not saying he cut it himself, just that it probably got scratched at some point.
Due to Trump’s age and, well, just everything about him, he’s most likely on blood thinners. Which would make even a tiny scratch bleed like a motherfucker. It makes you bleed fast and takes forever to clot. A normal nick that barely bleeds normally would look like a murder scene
Add in the adrenaline and it’s really going to pump out.
The most logical explanation is (and always has been) a SS agent accidentally scratched his ear while he kept trying to stand up.
Beyond physical injury, Trump’s description of the event – along with Wray saying the FBI is unsure – really makes me lean toward it not being a direct wound.
Trump said he heard bullets “whizzing” by. A supersonic bullet directly next to your ear isn’t going to make a whizzing sound like on TV; there’s going to be a loud, distinct crack from the sonic boom as it passes by.
I fully believe Trump would be leaning into that hard if that’s what he’d heard. “It was like thunder next to my head. The loudest thunder. The greatest thunder you’ve ever heard. HUEG thunder.” It’s exactly the kind of thing he loves to play up.
I mean, the biggest reason is if he had an actual wound he’d be shoving it into every camera within a golf cart ride of him.
It would be all over the place. The only reason trump would cover it up, is if there was nothing there.
The most logical explanation is (and always has been) a SS agent accidentally scratched his ear while he kept trying to stand up.
There’s blood on his hand right after he touches his ear, before he even ducks down
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1e2q931/the_photograph_sequence_of_the_bullet_that_hit/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/us/politics/photo-path-trump-assassination.html
Who was he attempting to assassinate?
One conspiracy is that he was paid off to shoot up the rally and Trump would cut his ear WWE style to garner sympathy.
Edit: I do not believe in this theory btw
One conspiracy is that he was paid off to shoot up the rally and Trump would cut his ear WWE style to garner sympathy.
Emphasis: conspiracy theory.
Or that he hit his ear when the Secret Service tackled him.
Yeah, what if this whole thing was actually to kill Corey Comperatore.
The take-away here seems to be not that Herr Furher is stealing valor, rather, that he was standing adjacent to it.
Best photo of the ear we have right now, far as I can find:
Expand for bloody ear photo
Bloody ear photo with lines drawn on it
Photo of the same ear taken sometime on or before Jan 8 2019.
Armchair analysis: Maybe it sorta looks like some of the helix (both tubercle and crus sides) flesh is missing from a graze?
I don’t know what I believe, but it doesn’t matter. I just want the facts.
For some reason I remember initial reports saying glass struck him.
I bet any amount of money that he cut himself while he was down on the ground
He has blood on him before he even ducks down you dense wet cabbage.
It wouldn’t honestly surprise me. This is where we’re at.
Whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear is 100% irrelevant. He was the target of an assasination attempt. A piece of shrapnel could easily have taken him out just as much as the bullet itself. Whether he lived or died was far more determined by the position his head happened to be at that moment vs. whatever object actually struck him.
I thought people had concluded that it was a glass shard from the teleprompter that the bullet hit. Is that debunked?
Whom vs who of ballistics dissembling. If it was a chunk of teleprompter that nicked him the bullet must have been only slightly off.
Some of the footage shown on TV had something whizzing by in a still picture of the scene. This could be anything of course bullet or shrapnel or the thing I saw was simply fake.
