By now, we’ve all seen the horrific footage of 75-year-old Martin Gugino being shoved to the ground by two Buffalo, N.Y., police officers during a George Floyd protest Thursday. If you haven’t seen it, let me describe it for you using my third eye.
A 75-year-old man (or maybe a young man acting as if he’s 75) is seen walking (or he could’ve been running at 75-year-old man speed) to a group of officers all dressed to look like G.I. Joes. The 75-year-old man (or a regular man in a 75-year-old man bodysuit) appears to ask the officers a question. The officers, who are all in full-on Space Force regalia, can’t be bothered with old-man questions (in truth, it could’ve been a dad-joke question—and everyone hates those) so they push the old man (or fake old man) to the ground. A pool of blood (or fake blood) can be seen gathering around the old man’s (or young man pretending to be an old man’s) head. Police officers continue to walk by the old man as onlookers (possibly paid protesters) can be heard shouting, “He’s bleeding.”
Since the footage was released and went viral, two officers—Robert McCabe, 32, and Aaron Torgalski, 39—have been suspended without pay and have pleaded not guilty to the charges of second-degree assault, a felony, NBC News reports.
But now, the president of people who believe that mainstream media makes up lies on the White House because they don’t like the president has his own theory as to what happened on this day:
Yes, you read this correctly: the President of the United States is suggesting that Gugino is possibly an antifa operative who was working to block police radios, and I just...I don’t even know what to make of this. In fact, I’ve typed several times that the President of the United States believes that a 75-year-old man who was shoved to the ground by police, with blood pouring from his head, is really a secret agent for a political protest movement, and I don’t even know what to make of it.
It appears that Trump didn’t come up with this theory on his own, as it originated on a conservative blog The Conservative Treehouse, Axios reports. According to Axios, One America News Network (OANN), the network news channel that makes Fox News look like a legitimate news station, pushed the theory that Gugino was antifa without any actual evidence. OANN “reporter” Kristian Rouz, who is also a “Russian national who also writes for Kremlin-owned Sputnik” pushed the story that the 75-year-old man injured by police is secretly antifa.
From Esquire:
You may remember OANN from their various White House stunts, which often seem to be pre-coordinated with the president. One reporter from this distinguished news service attempted to defuse concerns about calling the novel coronavirus “the China virus” by asking the president if the term “Chinese food” is racist. Apparently, this was supposed to be clever. Notice in that clip how Trump spells out the OANN name for anyone who might be interested in tuning in for more of this. Symbiosis! In some cases, the president cannot help completely telegraphing that he’s instructed the OANN plant to ask him about something, because while he can do reality-show improv, the president is no good with fully scripted TV.
If you are confused as to why the president would push such a ridiculous theory, you aren’t alone. Gugino’s lawyer also wondered why the chief of dangerous white people would tweet out such a thing: