The leader of the free world can’t stop kicking this man while he’s down.
President Trump “does not regret” promoting a false conspiracy theory about a 75-year-old cancer survivor who split his skull open after officers shoved him during a recent protest against police brutality in upstate New York, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday.
In a briefing from the White House, McEnany said Trump was just “asking questions” when he posted a tweet on Tuesday that claimed the elderly Buffalo protester, Martin Gugino, may have been an “Antifa provocateur” trying to “scan police communications.”
“The president was asking questions about the interaction, and he has the right to ask those questions,” McEnany told reporters. “He does not regret standing up for that.”
Gugino, a longtime peace activist in the Buffalo area, remains hospitalized. The cops who shoved him have been suspended and charged with assault.
In this image from video provided by WBFO, two Buffalo police officers appear to shove a man who walked up to them on June 4 in Buffalo, N.Y. (Mike Desmond/AP)
A video of the shocking incident shows Gugino approaching a large group of officers during a George Floyd protest when a couple of them take a step forward and push him in the chest, prompting the septuagenarian to fall and slam the back of his head against the pavement. A pool of blood can be seen forming around Gugino’s ears in the video.
But Trump insisted in his Tuesday tweet that Gugino “fell harder” than he “was pushed” and questioned whether the video could’ve been “a setup.”
Pressed by a reporter as to how that claim made sense from a physics standpoint, McEnany said the president had “facts” on his side.
“The president raised several questions based on a report he saw,” McEnany said. “He was making no judgment, not condoning violence. He is standing back and saying, ‘We need to ask questions before we destroy lives and convict people.’”
Martin Gugino was apparently shoved to the ground by an emergency response officer during a protest in Buffalo. When Gugino fell, he appeared to hit his head on the cement, causing bleeding.
Kelly Zarcone, an attorney for Gugino, did not return a request for comment on McEnany’s remarks.
Earlier Wednesday, Zarcone said her client had been released into the rehabilitation wing of an upstate hospital and expects to be discharged within the next two weeks.
The report McEnany referenced was a segment produced by the far-right One America News network, which has a history of peddling unfounded conspiracy theories.
The One America News report offered no evidence for the claim that Gugino was spying on police, and the man’s friends and relatives say he has no affiliation to Antifa, a left-wing movement demonized by Trump and other conservatives. Notably, the reporter who produced the segment is a former employee of Sputnik, the Kremlin-controlled media outlet that the U.S. intelligence community says Russia used to interfere in the 2016 election.
Gugino’s friends remained flabbergasted by Trump’s continued conspiracy-mongering.
“I just can’t understand that someone seeing that video doesn’t feel compassion and concern for this victim of police brutality, but try to find some sort of way of blaming him instead,” Keith Giles, who’s known Gugino for over a decade, told the Daily News.
Booking photos of suspended Buffalo Police Department officers Aaron Torgalski (left) and Robert McCabe (right). (AP)
Giles said Gugino has struggled with cancer for a few years and was at a loss for words over Trump’s “Antifa” accusation.
“He’s a human being and a real person,” Giles said. “I would hope the president would step back and recognize that.”
For the fifth day in a row, Trump did not make himself available to take questions from reporters on Wednesday.
During a brief public appearance before a private event at the White House, Trump announced he plans to hold his first campaign rally in three months next Friday. He then griped about how media coverage about him is “almost 100% negative” before reporters were shepherded out of the room without being allowed to ask questions.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during Wednesday’s briefing. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
Pivoting away from Gugino, McEnany said during her briefing that Trump is stringently opposed to renaming military bases named after Confederate leaders.
“That is unacceptable to the president and rightfully so,” McEnany said.
Calls for renaming U.S. military bases honoring Confederate generals have mounted anew in the wake of mass protests over Floyd’s death at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.
