Former MSNBC host Joy Reid is once again stirring controversy, this time suggesting without evidence that the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania may not have been real. Fox News reports, appearing this week on Katie Phang’s YouTube show, Reid mocked Trump’s injuries and downplayed the severity of the shooting in Butler, which tragically took the life of one rallygoer, injured others, and could have killed the Republican frontrunner just ahead of the election.
Despite the public record and eyewitness testimony, Reid sneered that Trump supposedly has “magical doctors,” sarcastically questioning whether his ear “grew back” after being sliced by a bullet. She even mocked the medical bandages used by Trump’s team, suggesting his injuries were faked or exaggerated.
“He’s got these magical doctors who claimed that he was shot in the ear, but his ear, I guess, grew back,” Reid said. “He had a Dukal bandage on one minute, no bandage the next. We can’t get a medical record from this alleged assassination. He was supposedly shot. We have nothing. We’ve got no — we can’t even ask.”
Rather than condemning political violence, Reid appeared more concerned with attacking the media for not joining her in peddling suspicion around Trump’s health.
“We’re getting nothing. And the mainstream media isn’t demanding his medical records. They’re not demanding anything. They’re terrified of this man,” Reid claimed.
Phang joined in, trivializing the attack by comparing Trump’s wound care to a “Maxi Pad” and suggesting inconsistencies in what has already been confirmed by law enforcement as a very real assassination attempt.
Reid’s conspiracy-mongering didn’t stop there. She questioned whether Trump had actually been struck by a bullet, floated the idea of “glass” or “shrapnel” instead, and cast doubt on the Secret Service response — all while admitting she knew more about assassination attempts from over a century ago than what happened in plain view last summer.
While the FBI, Secret Service, and local law enforcement have thoroughly documented the case — including how the gunman, positioned on a rooftop, opened fire before being neutralized — Reid continues to muddy the waters with unsubstantiated speculation.
Her comments highlight a broader tendency among Trump’s critics in the media who, instead of condemning violence against political figures, they downplay or even mock the reality of what happened. Conservatives argue that such rhetoric encourages cynicism and minimizes the growing threat of political violence in America.
At the end of the day, Joy Reid’s conspiracy theories say far more about her disdain for Trump — and her willingness to abandon common sense — than they do about the facts of the assassination attempt.