U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed on Tuesday that an elderly man who was pushed by police and bleeding from the head, faked his fall.
“I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?” Trump asked on his massively followed Twitter account.
Two police officers in Buffalo, New York, were charged with assault after the incident last week in which protester Martin Gugino, 75, was pushed and fell straight backwards after approaching an advancing line of police in helmets and body armour.
Video showed blood pooling under the back of Gugino’s head as he lay motionless. He is still in hospital.
It wasn’t clear what Trump wanted to say by writing “aiming scanner” and that Gugino was “appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment.”
The president’s tweet was apparently based on watching a report on OANN, a right-wing television network that specializes in conspiracy theories and has become a favorite at the White House.
In that clip, OANN promoted the idea of a “false flag provocation by the far left group Antifa.” It claimed that “newly released video” showed Gugino “trying to scan police communication” with his phone.
The video only shows him holding his telephone in his right hand. Police scanner apps, which simply allow you to listen to radio traffic on police frequencies, are completely legal and common in the United States.
