Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Campaign Pushes Bogus Assasination Rumor

(CN) - Donald Trump's campaign briefly and erronously claimed on Saturday that the candidate was the victim of an assasination attempt after Secret Service agents briefly whisked him off the stage Saturday night after a protester and got into a fracas with Trump supporters at the foot of the stage.

The Republican presidential nominee had been speaking to supporters for several minutes inside the Reno-Sparks Convention Center when a man holding a "Republicans Against Trump" sing moved toward the front of the room. Someone in front of the stage shouted "gun" and a roiling disturbance ensued.

Two Secret Service agents quickly surrounded Trump and hustled him away.

In a statement, the Secret Service said the man had been apprehended and no weapon was found. It did not release the name of the protester or disclose whether he had been charged with a crime.

Returning to the stage moments after the man was escorted away, Trump said "Nobody said it was going to be easy for us, but we will never be stopped."

"I want to thank the Secret Service. They don't get enough credit. They're amazing," he said.

With that, Trump resumed his speech in which he described his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, as "the prime suspect in a massive, far-reaching criminal investigation."

"We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial," he said.

But the resumption of Trump's event didn't stop his campaign from painting what had occurred as much more than a disruption caused by a critic.

Trump's son and a top campaign aide falsely spread the rumor that an incident at a Nevada rally was an "assassination attempt" against the candidate even though no weapon was found.

Trump's son, Don Jr., and Dan Scavino, who runs Trump's social media operation, re-tweeted a message that read, "Hillary ran away from rain today. Trump is back on stage minutes after assassination attempt."

At Trump's next rally on Saturday, an appearance in Denver, a pastor, introduced as Father Andre Y-Sebastian Mahanna, also falsely called the Reno incident "an attempt of murder against Mr. Trump." Mahanna blamed the incident on the media for inciting hate against the Republican nominee.

Meanwhile Clinton herself was in Philadelphia, where she and pop star Katy Perry encouraged millennial voters to get out and vote.

"Tonight, I want to hear you roar," Clinton said, referring to Perry's hit song of the same name.

The Democrat's five-minute speech ahead of Perry's half-hour concert was warmly received.

Things were a little bumpier for the Clinton campaign in the battleground state of Florida, where a press bus for Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine was accidentally rammed by a police car near Tampa.

A Fox News reporter, Pat Ward, tweeted "Our press bus was just hit on the side at very high speed by what appeared to be a police car as we are in motorcade toward airport," shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...