Fact-checking the Saturday night shooting attempt in DC

The shooting was staged, it's all over social media.

Well, here we go again.

Let's fact check what happened at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Before the event, his press secretary said there will be some shots fired tonight. Of course she did. The dinner is famously a comedy roast.

Here's our typical evening. Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep.

And no one likes taking shots at the press more than President Trump. Okay, but the shooter was able to get right through security. They did not designate this dinner a national special security event. Ah ha! But a government official says that tends to be for multi-day events with regular attendance by the president. The shooter was able to get to Trump. He did not. He raced through one checkpoint, but was stopped before he reached the ballroom. Okay, but what about the bets on Polly Market? People were able to bet whether or not someone would get kicked out, but that's not really that strange. Why did some people in Israel start looking up his name before the shooting happened? Okay, so you've printed off a Reddit post that includes a screenshot of a tweet showing

an alleged Google Trends graph. Yes, the best source of news. I looked this up today and searches for Cole Allen only trend after the fact in every country according to their time zone. Maybe Google is trying to help cover it up. Google Trends is part of the conspiracy now? What about that IDF shirt that the shooter was wearing?

There's no proof that that photo is real or of the one that shows him in a Pakistani rugby jersey. Pakistan?!

What's their angle?

The point is that AI could generate anyone wearing any shirt these days. Just ask AI Dave. I just do what I'm told. And these photos are not confirmed. But did you see how unsurprised Trump looked by the whole thing? I can't tell you what was going on in his mind, but I can point you to several instances lately where President Trump was not aware of what was happening around him. Like on Easter when he didn't seem to know that Melania had been standing next to him

for 15 minutes.

It was a big thing to our great first lady, who's here someplace, let's see.

What about that time traveler who wrote the shooter's name in a 2023 tweet? Time traveler? All I know is that his approval ratings were falling, so obviously he had to stage a shooting. So your argument is that because of President Trump's poor polling numbers, he staged a fake shooting in a room full of journalists. And as part of that planning, worked with Google Trends to cover their tracks, then, along with Israel, hired a 31-year-old teacher to take multiple trains from California to DC

to expertly fake an attempt to carry out a shooting, get arrested, and then take the fall. Not when you say it out loud in succession. It's important that left or right we stick to the facts. Just a few months ago people were furious with me for debunking alleged AI videos of Benjamin Netanyahu. Yeah, that wasn't me. Those were real videos. I remember that. We all thought he was dead.

While I have you, here are some other fact checks from recent days. Trump was looking pretty drowsy during this event. But this viral photo was edited to make it look even worse. Of course, there's the fake video too. I did generate that one. And finally, here is President Trump at an interview last night with 60 Minutes.

I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody.

A defamation trial found him guilty of sexual abuse. A defamation trial found him guilty of sexual abuse. A judge later clarified that what happened is commonly referred to as rape.