Viral social media posts have circulated a snippet from a Good Morning America segment aired on Tuesday, and falsely claimed that a correspondent said that “the government” was behind the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. These posts inaccurately describe what ABC News’ chief justice correspondent, Pierre Thomas, said.
If you listen to the video, Thomas did not say “the government tried to kill former President Trump,” but rather that “the gunman tried to kill former President Trump.”
Thomas was introducing a segment featuring recently released bodycam footage from local law enforcement shortly after the would-be assassin fired on the former president during a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. “Our audience is about to see the frantic seconds in the moments after the gunman tried to kill former President Trump,” Thomas said on the broadcast. “It’s all caught on police bodycam video.”
The YouTube transcript of the Good Morning America segment also confirmed that Thomas had said “the gunman” and not “the government.”
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