Offering no proof, Trump alleges plane 'of thugs'
On the heels of his latest Fox News interview, questions Tuesday about President Trump’s claim that authorities were investigating an alleged plot involving people aboard a plane aiming to “damage” the Republican Party’s recent convention.
Offering no evidence and giving few details, Trump said this on Monday night on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle”:
“We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend and in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. They’re on a plane…”
(FOX NEWS HOST LAURA INGRAHAM):
“Where is this?”
(PRESIDENT TRUMP):
“I’ll tell ya some time. It’s under investigation right now.”
When asked by Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason on Tuesday to provide additional details, Trump said the plane had departed from Washington and was headed to (quote), “wherever,” and offered this:
“A person who was on a plane said that there were about six people like that person, more or less, and what happened is that entire plane filled with up with the looters, the anarchists, the rioters, people who were obviously looking for trouble. And the person felt very uncomfortable on the plane. This would be a person you know, so I will see whether or not I will get that person – I’ll let them know, and I’ll see whether or not I can get that person to speak to you.”
Trump has not said whether the individuals were headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, where the RNC held some of its events.
He also did not say which government agencies were investigating it and did not specify what kind of “gear” the individuals were said to be carrying.
In a separate Fox News interview on Monday, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said the U.S. Justice Department was investigating individuals who were paying others to travel around the country to take part in protests.
Trump’s assertion is similar to rumors posted on Facebook that NBC reported began circulating in June about men dressed in black disembarking on planes in Idaho that prompted local authorities to eventually denounce as untrue.
Trump is running for re-election on a “law and order” platform in the face of national opinion polls that show him trailing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
