A woman who was sitting behind Donald Trump when he survived his assassination attempt has sparked suspicion over her strange behavior.
Footage showing the unidentified woman — wearing sunglasses, a white shirt and a black hat — pulling out her phone as shots rang out at the Pennsylvania rally on Saturday has gone viral.
She did so while everyone else — including Trump — ducked down to the ground, in fear for their lives.
The images have added fuel to some of the crazy conspiracy theories being shared following Saturday’s shooting.
One post on X, asking people to ‘pay close attention’ to the woman, has been viewed more than 19 million times.
Another viral post reads: ‘Gunshots ring out and her first instinct is to very, very calmly pull out her phone and film the whole spectacle. Does that seem like normal behavior to you?’
A woman wearing a black hat who was sitting behind Donald Trump when he survived an assassination attempt is sparking suspicion among many, who say her behavior was strange
Viral footage shows an unidentified woman – wearing sunglasses, a white shirt and a black hat – pulling out her phone as shots rang out at the Pennsylvania rally on Saturday
Some X users even theorized that the woman gave ‘a nod’ before the first shot rang out – with one going as far as claiming that the woman was ‘an accomplice’, despite offering no evidence to support the wild allegation.
Others argued, however, that the woman’s calm demeanor was due to mass shootings being so common in America.
One social media user said: ‘Is this how numb we are to gun violence in America? Watch the woman in white with the black hat right behind Trump.
‘Rather than take cover or – I don’t know – protect the child behind her – She takes out her phone and starts recording.’
The attempted assassination of the former president has spawned a vast sea of claims — some outlandish — reflecting the frightening uncertainties surrounding the attack, as well as America’s fevered, polarized political climate.
That such wild speculation has exploded as Americans turned to the internet for news about the shooting is the latest sign of how social media has emerged as a dominant source of information — and misinformation — for many, and a contributor to the distrust and turbulence now driving American politics.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures as he is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he is taken from the stage
Mentions of Trump on social media were up to 17 times the average in the hours after the shooting, according to PeakMetrics, a cyber firm that tracks online narratives.
Thomas Matthew Crooks
Many of those mentions were expressions of sympathy for Trump or calls for unity.
But many others made unfounded, fantastical claims.
Many of the more specious claims sought to blame Trump or his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, for the attack.
Some voices on the left quickly proclaimed the shooting to be a ‘false flag’ concocted by Trump; while some Trump supporters suggested the Secret Service intentionally failed to protect Trump on the White House’s orders.
The Secret Service on Sunday pushed back on claims circulating on social media that Trump’s campaign had asked for greater security before Saturday’s rally and was told no.
Videos of the shooting were quickly dissected in partisan echo chambers and Trump supporters and detractors looked for evidence to support their beliefs.
Videos showing Secret Service agents moving audience members away from Trump before the shooting were offered as evidence that it was an inside job. Images of Trump’s defiantly raised fist were used to make the opposite claim — that the whole event was staged by Trump.
In the wake of the shooting that killed one spectator on Saturday, investigators were hunting for any clues about what may have drove Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, to carry out the shocking attack.
The FBI said they were investigating it as a potential act of domestic terrorism , but the absence of a clear ideological motive by the man shot dead by the Secret Service led conspiracy theories to flourish.
The FBI said it believes Crooks, who had bomb-making materials in the car he drove to the rally, acted alone.
Investigators have found no threatening comments on social media accounts or ideological positions that could help explain what led him to target Trump before the Secret Service rushed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee off the stage, his face smeared with blood.
Trump said on social media the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting, but advisers said he was ‘great spirits’ ahead of his arrival Sunday in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.
Two spectators were critically injured, while a former fire chief from the area, Corey Comperatore was killed. Pennsylvania’s governor said Comperatore, 50, died a hero by diving onto his family to protect them.