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Donald Trump Jr. retweets 'assassination attempt' claim

Technically Incorrect: A Republican holds up an anti-Trump sign. Someone shouts "gun." The Republican candidate is rushed off stage. An assassination attempt?

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


Donald Trump being whisked away.

KCRA News/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

As assassination attempts go, this one seems to have had something lacking.

A gun, for example. Or even a threat.

Footage from Donald Trump's speech last night in Reno, Nevada, suggests that the Republican nominee was seen to be shepherded from the stage by Secret Service agents, who appeared to fear for his safety.

The candidate returned to the stage soon afterward, but some suggested this was an attempt on Trump's life.

The Reno Police Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Secret Service issued a statement, however, saying that someone in the crowd had shouted "gun," but no weapon was found. The man in question was apparently holding up a sign that suggested he was a Republican against Trump.

However, for Republican supporter Jack Posobiec, this was clearly an "assassination attempt."

His tweet was retweeted by, among others, Donald Trump Jr.

The oldest Trump child also retweeted a report that the man did have a gun.

The gunless assassination attempt is a new concept.

Fomenting panic, however, is not. Trump Jr. continued tweeting and retweeting about the (non?) event.

He thanked the Secret Service for its "never ending vigilance." He insisted that his dad had shown that "he will not be deterred."

Those of drier countenance might muse that the candidate's support of open carry ought to have led him to pull a gun on his alleged assassin, instead of being whisked away.

Neither the Trump campaign nor Trump Jr. immediately responded to a request for comment.

However, Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN on Sunday: "If you're Don Jr. and you're on a live TV set while you're watching this unfold, it's pretty rattling to think of what may have happened to your father, so I'll excuse him that."

The man holding the sign, Austyn Crites, gave an interview to the Guardian in which he claims he shouted that he didn't have a gun and was subsequently assaulted.

All of this is surely a fitting end to a campaign that many might look back on with unabashed nausea.

The fear-mongering, the Twittering, the corruption, the childlike name-calling, the division, the derision, the hate-mongering and the constant creation of uproar all merely serve to distract from anything that might reek of ideas or policy.

I wonder how many people on Tuesday will even remember what they're voting for, as opposed to what they think they're voting against.

The gunless assassination attempt.

screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

The Secret Service sees no smoking gun here.

screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET