By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An adviser to a Democratic megadonor apologized on Sunday for suggesting the possibility that the former Republican president Donald TrumpThe shooting was staged.
Democratic strategist Dmitry Mehlhorn is an advisor to billionaire Reid Hoffman who co-founded the social media platform LinkedIn and is a major donor to primarily Democratic candidates.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
Top leaders of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, including Republican Trump and the Democratic US President Joe Bidenhave called on the divided country to unite and maintain calm following the shooting of the former president.
Trump, who is running for president against Biden, was shot Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He has since said he is doing well, but the shooting left his face bloodied after his right ear was struck. One rally attendee was killed in the shooting, two others were wounded and the suspect was dead. The FBI said it is investigating the shooting as an attempted murder.
The shooting sparked a wave of unfounded conspiracy theories online. Some suggested the shooting was carried out by a shadowy “deep state” targeting Trump, while others claimed the shooting was staged to garner sympathy.
IMPORTANT QUOTES
News website Semafor reported that Mehlhorn said in an email to a number of sympathetic journalists and supporters that there was a possibility “that this 'shooting' was encouraged and perhaps even staged so that Trump could get the photos and profit from the negative reactions.”
Mehlhorn apologized on Sunday.
“Last night I sent an email that I now regret. I drafted and sent it without consulting my team. I apologized directly to them. I also want to publicly apologize, without reservation, for allowing my words to distract from the central fact of last night: political violence has taken yet another innocent American life,” Mehlhorn said.
“We must unite in condemning such violence in every case, without reservation. Any other subject is a distraction.”
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
