The New York Times is reporting on Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona’s lead role in propagating conspiracy theories about the two assassination attempts on Donald Trump. Unfortunately, they focus more on where he’s saying these things than on what he’s saying, so it’s hard to get a complete picture. On the first attempt, in Butler, Pennsylvania, Crane is raising the all-too-familiar prospect that there was a second shooter. Yet, there’s no explanation for why he’s conjecturing about this. Where are the reports of crossfire from the grassy knoll? Where’s the magic bullet? Where’s the Zapruder film?
In another echo of the JFK assassination, there are complaints about the handling of a corpse. Back in 1963-4, there were sketchy details about the murdered president’s autopsy, which were important because understanding the direction of fire (from the front, behind or both) was one of the most crucial investigatory questions. For the Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone shooter theory to hold, the autopsy had to show all the shots came from behind, so any evidence that the results had been gamed or altered was highly suspicious.
But for Rep. Crane, the problem is merely that the would-be assassin’s body was released to his parents after 10 days, and was reportedly cremated. It’s hard to see any equivalent relevance. The shooter was unquestionably killed by counter-sniper fire, and I can’t conjure any reason why the integrity of his autopsy would be key to understanding motive or proving any possible conspiracy.
Apparently, Crane is also raising the prospect that the shooter had help from the inside, perhaps from someone on Trump’s Secret Service detail. This, too, is reminiscent of questions raised about the JFK Assassination. And, in this case, we can at least see why the question should be investigated. One of the biggest mysteries in the case is how the shooter was able to get in position to fire. So far, the investigation has revealed overlapping examples of miscommunication, incompetency and blind luck as the most likely explanation, but inside help isn’t a facially farcical possibility. My only problem here is that there’s a difference between demanding a thorough investigation and making irresponsible suggestions without any evidence to support them.
As for the second attempt on Trump’s life, Crane is reportedly arguing that the would-be assassin “was an ‘asset’ of a foreign adversary who was being ‘handled.’” This isn’t as crazy a suggestion as it might sound for two reasons. First, the intelligence community has been quite open about the fact that they believe Iran wants to murder Trump in revenge for his order to kill Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in January 2020. As recently as September 24, Trump was briefed on the threat.
Second, unlike the Butler shooter who had no history of foreign travel or foreign contacts, the Florida would-be shooter (in another echo of Lee Harvey Oswald) traveled to Ukraine, where he was an ostensible supporter of their efforts to resist Russian occupation. He wanted to help facilitate bringing in Syrian and Afghan fighters to fight against Russia. It’s not unreasonable, then, to conjecture that he was recruited by some foreign power.
Of course, Iran isn’t the most obvious culprit in such a scenario, but Crane isn’t explicitly pointing the finger at Iran.
Asking questions is fine, but so far there really aren’t any red flags to suggest that either investigation is engaged in a cover-up. There’s no appearance that the facts are being contorted to fit pre-established theories of the cases. The one thing that has been clearly established is that the Secret Service did a poor job in Butler, and there has already been accountability for their failures. In these circumstances, there’s no good reason to be pointing fingers at supposed Deep State collaborators. or the Democrats or foreign adversaries. Crane is doing this to get attention and raise money, but it’s at the expense of tearing the country apart.
As a supporter of Trump, Crane should be more focused on his job as congressman and what he can do to help ensure that the government has the resources to protect VIPs and do thorough investigations. But one thing was always certain. When there are assassination attempts on a political leader who gained his following by promoting the Keynan Birther Conspiracy, his followers are going to go nuts with conspiracies about who was really behind the attempts. That’s unavoidable. Garbage in, garbage out.