Trump claims 75-year-old man shoved by Buffalo police could be part of 'set up'
President Trump on Tuesday shared an unfounded theory that an incident in which elderly man was pushed to the ground by police in Buffalo, New York, during a protest over the death of George Floyd could be a "set up."
The president appeared to cite right-wing One America News Network (OANN) in making the incendiary claim, which comes amid a national debate over police brutality.
"Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment," Trump tweeted, appearing to refer to a report on OANN.
"I watched, he fell harder than was pushed," the president added. "Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?"
It happened June 4.
His "source" might as well be Alex Jones, but if anything like this were true wouldn't we have heard of it from police or government sources by now?
This story describes him as "a longtime peace activist", so it's accurate to describe him as leftish.
Nothing to substantiate the "antifa" label, though he might not have rejected it, or the accusation of sabotaging communications.
We wondered why he was approaching the police and what he had in his hands.
He appeared to have an object the size of a lunchbox in his left hand and a smaller object in his right.
This story in the NY Post says they are an ERT helmet and a cell phone.
The police were approaching a small crowd that had refused to disperse in violation of a curfew.
Given Gugino's reported views and eccentricity, he might have approached the cops to lecture them on the unconstitutionality, as he thought, of curfews.
Various forms of saboteur or setup accusations seem to have been the immediate twitter response to the event of the kind of right wing fake news sources the president loves.
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