Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito harshly condemned conspiracy theories surrounding President Donald Trump’s assassination attempt as “crude” and “vulgar” on Monday.
Several accounts on X recently questioned the validity of Trump’s first assassination attempt in July 2024, including the initial reaction of the rally audience behind the then-presidential candidate. Zito said these rumors are “cut and paste” by people online, and the speculation within these statements “penetrates into the psyche.”
“But it is crude, it’s vulgar, it’s insulting someone’s husband, father, and son [who] died that day, right in front of me!” Zito said on the Hugh Hewitt Show. “And I saw two men gravely injured, and those bullets went right over my head. And it’s like people don’t understand the shell shock, right? People just stood there because you can’t believe it’s real.”
Zito added she is unaware there is “a handbook” on how to behave during an active shooting, and anyone who doesn’t follow it is “a liar.”
Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief who attended the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was killed while shielding his family from oncoming gunfire. Zito said earlier this month that Trump is still hit “very hard” by Comperatore’s death.
Zito published a book last year, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland, recounting her experience witnessing the attempt on Trump’s life last year. The book also details the second rally Trump held in Butler, a month before the 2024 presidential election.
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Political commentator and BASEDPolitics President Hannah Cox said on Monday she deleted her post on X highlighting the “oddities” of Trump’s assassination attempt. She said she took it down “because it was made flippantly” and didn’t “fully convey my stance” on it.
White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung also rebutted speculations on Trump’s assassination attempt, saying on X that anyone who thinks it was staged “truly needs to have their heads checked out.”
