MSNBC brings the crazy to coverage of Trump assassination attempt

Hosts miss the point while openly questioning whether Trump was hit by a bullet

By Joe Concha

MSNBC once dubbed itself “The Place For Politics,” and trumpeted the slogan “Lean Forward.”

But after what we’ve heard out of that network over the past few days, and quite frankly, for the past two decades, MSNBC might as well call itself “The Place To Lean Forward Into Crazy Conspiracy Theories.”

On July 13, we witnessed what could’ve been one of the most horrific events in American history: A former and likely future president, Donald Trump, was speaking at an outdoor rally in western Pennsylvania on a hot Saturday afternoon when an assassin’s bullet struck his ear. Only a miraculous and perfectly timed turn of his head to read a chart prevented the bullet from entering Trump’s brain.

Trump, after grabbing his ear as if he’d been bitten by a giant mosquito, went down, and Secret Service agents swarmed him. A moment later, we saw the former president rise up and defiantly pump his fist to the crowd while imploring supporters to “fight, fight, fight.” His ear and cheek were streaked with blood.

Anyone who watched this — and that’s nearly everyone in the world at this point — would only logically conclude, having eyesight, hearing and a modicum of sanity, that Trump was, thankfully, not mortally wounded. They would also know that the key takeaway was that someone had just tried to kill him, and nearly succeeded. You would expect the reporting on such a dramatic a story that had written itself on national television would be sober, lucid and straightforward.

But over at MSNBC, that simply was not going to happen. Credibility, integrity, and the aforementioned sanity be damned.

Earlier this week, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, now a Trump-detesting MSNBC analyst, questioned on the air if Trump had even really been shot. Instead, he floated the conspiracy theory that the bullet hit a teleprompter, shattering the glass, and therefore Trump was only hit with glass and not an actual bullet.

“What about reports that it may not have been a bullet which wounded him but glass from the shattered teleprompter?” Steele asked.

In the same rant, Steele also demanded that Trump’s medical reports immediately be released to prove that his ear actually had been hit by a bullet.

Two days prior to Steele tossing out this theory, left-wing fact-check site Snopes had already debunked the teleprompter speculation, noting they were all intact after the incident. The network should’ve pulled Steele off the air for such irresponsible talk, but we’ve learned not to expect accountability from the network.

Enter Joy Reid, a primetime host with a long and storied history of lies and deceit, as documented here and here and here for starters, decided to take this one step further by implying that the whole assassination attempt was actually staged and choreographed for Trump’s political benefit.

“I have many questions! Like where are the medical reports?” she wrote on X this week. “What caused Trump’s injury, and what was the injury? Shrapnel? Glass? A bullet? Where were the three attendees who were shot seated or standing relative to Trump?”

“Why was Trump allowed to stand and pose for photos?” she also asked.

You get where all this is going: They’re saying that Trump was engaging in stolen valor. They’re missing the point that even if Trump was “only” grazed by a bullet, he nearly died as a nation looked on.

And they’re obviously not asking the right questions. Here’s a few, just in case they want to do some actual journalism:

—Why did the Secret Service allow Trump to take the stage when they knew for a full hour prior that there was an active threat near the scene?

—How did the Secret Service and local police not secure the one building with a line of site to the former president? Any firearms expert will tell you a headshot from 130 yards away with an AR-15 is akin to sinking a two-foot putt in golf. Had Trump not turned his head, he would likely be dead now.

—Why hasn’t Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle been fired yet? Why hasn’t any senior member or commander of this operation been fired yet?

—Why were so many security resources committed to an event held by first lady Jill Biden, when the threat level against Trump was infinitely higher?

—Why has the Secret Service taken so few questions on what happened that day?

The fact that all these things are barely being discussed on this so-called news network is stunning, even for MSNBC.

It’s no secret that many MSNBCers are infected with an incurable strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and have been since he announced his first run for the presidency in 2015. Their hatred has become so blinding that, amid one of the biggest stories of our lifetime, they have decided to sacrifice their own integrity and honesty for the cause of taking down Trump in November.

MSNBC should finally tell the truth and call itself “The Place to Lean Forward Into Conspiracy Theories,” now... and for the foreseeable future.

Joe Concha is a FOX News contributor who joined the network in 2020.