Fact Check: Trump Attacked Again? Doctors Finally Give Answers on Trump Rally Mystery Illness
Was there another attack on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Arizona last week?
Officially, no — and three doctors who talked to a major media outlet said that any kind of chemical agent was unlikely to be involved in the type of injuries described.
According to KOLD-TV, a “handful” of individuals who sat behind the president at a Tucson, Arizona, rally on Sept. 12 said that they had experienced eye issues. Many of them were reported to be with a group called “Latinos For Trump.”
One of the individuals sought medical attention due to what she described as “unbearable pain.”
KOLD noted that, in multiple media reports, “the same attendee claimed a nurse asked her if she had been sprayed with chemicals.”
However, both the Tucson Police Department and Tucson Fire Department said they hadn’t received complaints “of any type of eye injuries or facial burning as described in some media reports.”
The fire department did note that it responded to over 40 heat-related calls before and after the GOP nominee spoke, leading to at least 10 people being admitted to the hospital.
That didn’t stop speculation on social media, however:
NEW: 20 Trump rally attendees in Tucson, Arizona who were on stage with Trump, fell sick with “mysterious symptoms.”
According to the Arizona Globe, members of “Latinos For Trump” were rushed to the hospital with a mysterious illness.
The individuals who were infected were all… pic.twitter.com/hGxP6FiDNh
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 19, 2024
🚨BREAKING: During Trump’s Tucson, Arizona, rally about 20 attendees reported becoming ill with mysterious symptoms such as blurry vision and swelling shortly after the rally concluded. pic.twitter.com/yJSmnt2VeQ
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 19, 2024
So, what really happened?
According to three doctors the U.K.’s Daily Mail talked to, the injuries likely had nothing to do with sabotage, despite the rally taking place just three days before an attempt on Trump’s life and two months after an initial attempt.
Instead, two said that the problem likely originated with the air conditioning units in the venue, while one blamed lighting.
The two-doctor majority behind the AC theory believed that it might be a problem with the system “either blowing too strongly and drying out attendees eyes or blowing a fine dust into their eyes that caused irritation and damage.”
“A third suggested, however, that it was most likely to be a faulty stage light that had caused the illnesses after blasting strong UV light onto the attendees throughout the one-hour and 18-minute rally,” the outlet noted.
The city seemed to side with the latter explanation, saying that the “attendees that were seated on the stage were looking directly into lighting per reports,” KOLD reported.
The Secret Service said that there was no known threat to Trump at the rally — and while they haven’t had the most stellar track record as of late, the Trump campaign didn’t indicate anything untoward happened in a statement, either.
“The Trump campaign has been collecting information. We remain committed to the countless patriots that attend our high-energy, high-impact rallies across the country,” it said in a statement, according to the Daily Mail.
Furthermore, the issue with any kind of saboteur trying to take out the president or his supporters via some kind of chemical agent, the doctors said, was that these symptoms presented in a delayed manner.
If there was some kind of pepper spray or other chemical weapon, those symptoms would be apparent immediately.
Of course, there’s the a heightened sense of alarm, given the two assassination attempts against Trump — one which killed a man in the audience at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.
In this case, however, any malicious intent seems to be unlikely, given how the injuries presented themselves and the most likely medical causes behind them. Nearly two weeks of investigation have yielded nothing in the way of any other likely answer to what introduced the eye injuries. Given those facts, it’s safe to say that any rumors of a third plot against Trump and his supporters is unfounded.
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