Fresh row erupted within conservative circles after ex-Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly questioned the assassination attempt on Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign.Greene was once a strong ally of Trump but now has joined a group of his supporters raising doubts about the shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Posting on X, she said, “President Trump, of all people, should be leading the charge” to uncover the full truth. “Why isn’t he?” she added. “That’s the question.”The attack took place on 13 July 2024, when a gunman opened fire during a campaign speech. The suspected shooter was Thomas Matthew Crooks who was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper right after he fired several shots towards the president. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear, while two others were injured. Local volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed while shielding his family.Images from the scene showed Trump raising his fist and shouting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as agents surrounded him. He later said he had been “saved by God” to “make America great again.”At the time, questions about the incident were raised by political opponents. However, MAGA bigwig Greene’s questioning is a different shift, with some of Trump’s own supporters now promoting theories that the attack may have been staged to gain political advantage over Democrats. No evidence has been provided to support these claims. Greene also directed attention to a post by Trisha Hope, a former Republican National Convention delegate from Texas. Sharing the post, Greene wrote: “Extremely important post worth the read and consideration. Corey Comperatore’s family deserves to know the truth about Matthew Crooks and what happened in Butler on July 13, 2024.”In her post, Hope said she found some things suspicious about the incident. She pointed to Trump’s statement that he would speak about the horrific event only once because it was “too painful.” She wrote, “When people tell a lie, certainly a big one, it is tough to keep all the details straight… In my opinion, Trump made that statement to stop any further conversation about what happened.”Hope also questioned why Trump did not “aggressively” criticise the Secret Service. After the incident, he instead praised agent Sean M. Curran, who was later appointed director of the agency, for risking “his life to help save mine from an assassin’s bullet.”A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) review later found security failures and confirmed that six agents were suspended following the attack.Hope further claimed that Trump’s images from the rally appeared unusually composed, and claimed the death of a person made the event seem more credible. “If you cannot look at this story, and use critical thinking skills and have at least some questions, you are the problem and we need you to snap out of it,” she wrote.Her claims went viral, with hundreds of responses within hours. Some users compared the response to the 1981 attempt on Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr., noting that agents immediately shielded the president.
