Americans are deeply skeptical of the official storyline of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, with a new poll showing just a third of them believe the gunman was acting alone and there was no broader conspiracy.
The TIPP/Daily Mail poll found 45% of those surveyed believe in the “larger conspiracy” and another 22 are unsure about what to think.
More than a quarter of people believe a second shooter was involved.
The FBI, which is conducting the official investigation into the shooting, has vehemently denied the second-shooter theory and said there is no evidence yet to suggest the 20-year-old man who took eight shots at the former president was anything other than a loner.
But those assurances ring hollow to a massive number of people, with Republicans more skeptical of the official line than Democrats.
Among Democrats, one prolific theory is that Mr. Trump “staged” the shooting himself, and managed to have himself grazed by a bullet, allowed one rallygoer to be killed, two others to be seriously wounded, and found a 20-year-old willing to take the fall — and be killed by countersnipers — in the process.
Another liberal theory holds that Mr. Trump wasn’t actually hit by a bullet and cut himself to create the bloody ear that has become part of the iconography of the moment.
Among conservatives, meanwhile, the fact that a shooter was allowed to climb a building to a rooftop with line-of-sight on Mr. Trump and get off eight shots fuels theories about a conspiracy to leave the Republican presidential nominee unprotected.
Yet another theory holds that in addition to the 20-year-old on the rooftop, there was a second shooter on a water tower.
The survey was conducted this month by TIPP. It included 1,488 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percent.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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