'Biased and weaponized':Trump Jr. floats new FBI conspiracy theory after assassination try
Donald Trump Jr. and a Texas lawmaker are floating a new conspiracy theory claiming the Federal Bureau of Investigation will corrupt its own investigation into Thomas Crooks' assassination attempt against the presumptive Republican nominee.
Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) claimed Monday that the FBI could not be trusted to investigate the attempted attack on former President Donald in an X message read nearly 350,000 times in under two hours.
"My constituents are deeply concerned with the FBI conducting the sole investigation into the attempted assassination of President Trump," Gooden wrote. "They don't have faith in the current FBI leadership to get to the truth given how they have targeted President Trump with political witch hunt after witch hunt at the behest of Joe Biden."
Gooden called for a select committee to investigate the attack in a message quickly shared by the former president's eldest son.
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"Given how biased & weaponized the FBI has become in their action’s over the past decade," Trump Jr. replied, "I think this committee would be critical in making sure that Americans have some actual faith in the results of this much needed investigation."
These dual messages spurred a slew of responses from followers alleging without evidence that the FBI was not to be trusted, a cover-up was already unfolding, and that the federal government was implicated in the attempt.
This new theory arrives as experts raise serious concerns about the "dangerous" tone being set by Republicans critics fear will result in more, not less, political violence.
Much remains unknown about why Crooks, a 20-year-old community college graduate and registered Republican, decided to aim an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at the former President during a rally in Butler, Pa.
Crooks was killed by Secret Service agents after he wounded Trump's ear and fatally shot firefighter Corey Comperatore's life.
The aftermath spurred Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to condemn Democrats as "evil" and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) to suggest without evidence that President Joe Biden played a role.