A woman who sat behind Donald Trump when he survived an assassination attempt is raising suspicions among many who are calling her behavior strange.
Viral footage shows an unidentified woman — wearing sunglasses, a white shirt and a black hat — pulling out her phone as shots ring out during a protest in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
She did this while everyone – including Trump himself – was still on the ground in fear for their lives.
A post on X asking people to “keep a close eye” on the woman has been viewed more than 19 million times.
The images reinforce the conspiracy theories circulating after Saturday’s shooting.
Another viral post reads: ‘Shots ring out and her first instinct is to very, very calmly grab her phone and film the whole spectacle. Does that seem like normal behavior to you?’
A woman in a black hat who sat behind Donald Trump as he survived an assassination attempt is raising suspicions among many, who say her behavior was strange
Viral footage shows an unidentified woman — wearing sunglasses, a white shirt and a black hat — pulling out her phone as shots ring out at the rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday
Some X users even theorized that the woman “nodded” before the first shot was fired. One even called the woman “an accomplice,” without providing any evidence.
However, others claimed that the woman’s calm demeanor was due to the fact that the country has been experiencing mass shootings more often.
One social media user said: “Is this how desensitized we are to gun violence in America? Look at the woman in white with the black hat right behind Trump.
“Instead of taking cover or, I don’t know, protecting the child behind her, she grabs her phone and starts filming.”
Within minutes of the shooting, a sea of claims about the attempted assassination of former President Trump emerged. Some were bizarre, some contradictory. They reflected the terrifying uncertainties of the moment and the heated, polarized political climate in America.
The flood of speculation and conjecture that has emerged as Americans have turned to the internet for news of the shooting is the latest sign that social media has become a dominant source of information – and misinformation – for many, and is contributing to the distrust and anxiety that now drives American politics.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump gestures as he is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he is escorted off the stage
According to PeakMetrics, a cyber company that tracks online stories, Trump was mentioned on social media 17 times more often than average in the hours after the shooting.
Thomas Matthew Crooks
Many of those mentions were expressions of sympathy for Trump or calls for unity. But many others made unsubstantiated, fanciful claims.
Many of the more misleading claims that surfaced immediately after the shooting attempted to blame Trump or his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, for the attack.
Some voices on the left were quick to claim that the shooting was a false flag staged by Trump, while some Trump supporters claimed that the Secret Service had deliberately failed to protect Trump, at the behest of the White House.
The Secret Service on Sunday pushed back against claims on social media that Trump’s campaign had asked for increased security ahead of Saturday’s rally, prompting a no.
Videos of the shooting were quickly analyzed in partisan echo chambers as Trump supporters and opponents searched for evidence to support their beliefs.
Videos of Secret Service agents leading the crowd away from Trump before the shooting were used as evidence that it was an inside job. Footage of Trump’s defiantly raised fist was used to make the opposite claim: that the entire event was staged by Trump.
After the shooting that left a bystander dead on Saturday, detectives were searching for clues about what motivated Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, to carry out the shocking attack.
The FBI said it was investigating it as a possible act of domestic terrorism, but the lack of a clear ideological motive in the man shot dead by the Secret Service has led to many conspiracy theories.
According to the FBI, Crooks, who had bomb-making materials in the car he drove to the meeting, acted alone.
Investigators found no threatening social media comments or ideological views that could explain why he targeted Trump before the Secret Service put the presumptive Republican presidential nominee onstage in blood.
Trump said on social media that the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting, but advisers said he was in “great spirits” ahead of his arrival Sunday in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.
Two bystanders were seriously injured, while a former fire chief from the area, Corey Comperatore, was killed. The Pennsylvania governor said Comperatore, 50, died a hero by diving on his family to protect them.
