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ABC News Correspondent Never Said ‘The Government Tried to Kill Trump’
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ABC News Correspondent Never Said ‘The Government Tried to Kill Trump’

Viral posts on social media incorrectly quoted Pierre Thomas.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. Donald Trump was hit in the ear in an assassination attempt by a gunman at the rally. (Photo by Rebecca Droke/AFP/Getty Images)

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.” 

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

Peter Gattuso is a fact check reporter for The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2024, he interned at The Dispatch, National Review, the Cato Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. When Peter is not fact-checking, he is probably watching baseball, listening to music on vinyl records, or discussing the Jones Act.

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