A fifth of US voters think Donald Trump’s shooting could have been staged
A new poll has revealed one in three President Joe Biden supporters believe that the attempted assassination of Donald Trump was ‘faked’.
Social media has been rampant with conspiracy theories following the shocking shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania this weekend.
Morning Consult, a business intelligence company, released the results of their poll – and some of Trump’s own supporters also believe the same thing.
12% of those polled suspected the event was ‘planned’, and 33% of Joe Biden’s supporters thought it was a set up.
In a poll of all voters, regardless of political party, 20% said the ‘staged shooting’ theory was ‘credible’.
62%, however, said the shooting was legitimate. The remaining had no opinion on the matter.
As for who was to blame for the shooting, 38% said Trump had created the ‘surge towards violence in American politics’, citing the storming of the Capitol in 2021.
29% said the responsibility for the violence laid with Biden.
31% blamed the Republican party and 25% blamed the Democrats.
A plethora of conspiracy theories have emerged in the days following the assassination attempt.
Among the public figures using X to push questionable accounts of the events are Republican congressional representatives Mike Collins and Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as Senator Tim Scott.
Collins has said ‘Joe Biden sent the orders’ and called for the incumbent president to face charges for ‘inciting an assassination’, with Taylor Greene adding that Democrats have ‘wanted Trump gone for years and they’re prepared to do anything to make that happen.’
Scott, meanwhile, who has been touted as a potential Trump running mate, has said the shooting was ‘aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media’, with Nicole Shanahan, who serves as Trump opponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s running mate, blaming the Democrats and ‘legacy media’ for inciting the violence – despite her previous criticisms of Trump as a candidate.
Prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was previously ordered to pay out $1.5 billion (£1.2 billion) for spreading disinformation about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, has encouraged Elon Musk to ‘get to your bunker’ amid what he’s described as a ‘live coup’ by the ‘Deep State.’
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