Donald Trump Jr. on Monday defended spreading misinformation by retweeting false claims his father had survived an assassination attempt, saying in a radio interview that he was simply following news in real time and that he doesn’t delete tweets.
“I took heat for tweeting about it when I’m sitting there not knowing what’s going on — I’m following social media — and major and credible news organizations saying ‘there was a gun. There was a gun.’ I tweeted at the time,” Trump Jr. said on the “Joyce Kaufman Show” on 850 WFTL. “That was real time. They’re saying I’m supposed to go back and erase things off up my Twitter feed. I don’t do that. I put it out there and then it’s out there, watching it for hours. I put it out there at the time, but other people were saying, ‘hey there was a gun.’ That’s all I knew.”
Earlier in the interview, Trump Jr. said he found the incident “nerve racking” though “lucky it wasn’t anything.”
At a rally in Nevada on Saturday night, Trump was rushed off the stage by Secret Service because of fears there was a gun in the audience. Trump Jr. and Trump campaign social media adviser Dan Scavino both retweeted a Trump supporter who tweeted, “Hillary ran away from rain today. Trump back on stage minutes after assassination attempt.”
A spokesperson for the Secret Service said in a statement that an “unidentified individual” shouted “gun,” though no weapon was found after a “thorough search.”
Austyn Crites, the man detained briefly and led out of the rally by Secret Service, said the incident began after he had raised “Republicans Against Trump” sign.