Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump – who was shot in the ear while hosting a Republican rally in Pennsylvania.
He was forced to duck cover as shots rang out as Trump spoke at Butler, Pennsylvania. He ran for cover and was immediately surrounded by Secret Service agents.
He immediately left the rally in a motorcade. The former president travelled to the key battleground state for his final push before the Republican National Convention commences in Milwaukee this Monday. Trump is angling to bolster his support base in this pivotal swing state.
While Putin acolytes stressed conspiracy theories over the shooting, Zelensky said: “I was horrified to learn about the shooting of former US President Donald Trump during his campaign rally in Pennsylvania. There is no excuse for such violence and it should have no place anywhere in the world.
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”Violence must never win. I am glad to know that Donald Trump is now safe and I wish him a speedy recovery. I also express my condolences to the relatives of the victim of this attack – a rally participant.”
Several Russian propagandists claimed Zelensky was parroting a US Democratic Party playbook. One Telegram channel said: “Biden, Obama, Pelosi, and other Democrats said exactly the same thing.”
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin’s leading woman propagandist Margarita Simonyan posted that “the US law enforcement authorities believe Trump’s shooter acted alone, Pennsylvania State Police said,” adding a sarcastic “well sure.”
She said: “When other ways to get rid of an inconvenient president have been exhausted, good old Lee Harvey Oswald comes into play…. watching America is like watching a TV series where the writers have long since run out of imagination and they repeat themselves from episode to episode, but you are already so used to the characters, like house slippers, and you continue to watch.”
Donald Trump assassination attempt
Pro-Kremlin Rybar Telegram channel highlighted the shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks from Pennsylvania. The channel said that “at the same time” there were previous rumours that the “shooter was allegedly Chinese.”
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The channel, which has 1.1 million subscribers and is run by former Russian defence ministry staffer Mikhail Zvinchuk, added: “The motives of this character have not yet been announced, but at the same time, American law enforcement officials argue that the threat to the life of Donald Trump has not been eliminated. That is, we can potentially expect additional arrests, although I do not rule out that as a result, only the killer will be promoted in the media.”
Prominent Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed that the US encourages incitement of hatred towards political opponents. She said: ” Exactly two months ago, I drew attention to the fact that in the United States they literally stimulate incitement of hatred towards political opponents, and also gave examples of the American tradition of assassinations and murders of presidents and presidential candidates.”
However, state TV prop-war propagandist Olga Skabeeva – also known as Putin’s ‘Iron Doll’ – said: “Aimed at the head, but pierced the right ear. Killed a man beside him. It seems that God himself is protecting Donald Trump.”
