Justifying police violence, Trump lies about Buffalo man bleeding from ear after police attack

Martin Gugino, 75, hit the pavement and bled from his ear when a Buffalo, NY police officer shoved him violently, without provocation.

Impeached president Donald Trump tweeted today that this violent incident may not have happened at all, or was staged by an "Antifa" provocateur, and justifies violence by the police against Americans.

He is citing a disinformation segment from the right-wing disinfo TV channel OANN, based on some bullshit written on a conspiracy theory blog.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Here is the tweet:

Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN
I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?

Here's the truth.

President Trump is now accusing Martin Gugino, the 75 year old white man pushed to the ground by police in Buffalo, NY, of faking his fall and being a member of ANTIFA.

Gugino is a member of two nonprofits and part of the Catholic Worker Movement.https://t.co/73pKnFcTBv https://t.co/CBpvAp1aP7

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 9, 2020

We seem to be moving beyond the “fake news” argument to “fake videos” and “fake eyes” https://t.co/XIhkTf7jSH

— Devlin Barrett (@DevlinBarrett) June 9, 2020

If your uncle sent this to you on Facebook, you'd check with your aunt to make sure he was ok. pic.twitter.com/TDlqLYvFJm

— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) June 9, 2020

Here's the first half of the batshit OANN segment Trump just tweeted. It alleges the 75 year old man assaulted by Buffalo police officers was an antifa operative, based on a report from Conservative Treehouse. pic.twitter.com/CeMVyJcoh8

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) June 9, 2020

Is the president justifying police brutality? https://t.co/favjJLiLEA

— Charles Ornstein (@charlesornstein) June 9, 2020

And thus begins Tuesday.

"could be"

"appearing to"

"@OANN"

"could be" https://t.co/FytmgGaN3k

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) June 9, 2020

The OAN report is based on that article https://t.co/S5dtTXvGvX

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) June 9, 2020