FBI Now Says “Getting Shot” and “Getting Hit by Shrapnel” are Really the Same Thing

Previously: Conservatives Whine After FBI Director Says Shrapnel Could Have Caused Trump Ear Scratch

Whether or not “getting shot” and “getting hit by shrapnel” are the same thing is apparently a hugely consequential question for American conservatives.

Typically, “getting shot” and “getting hit by shrapnel” are considered two different things, which is why you hear about these two different things. However, saying that “getting hit by shrapnel” is actually just a different form of “getting shot” is probably true, I guess?

You are getting hit by a piece of a bullet.

However, the meaningful difference would be that if it was a piece of shrapnel that hit Trump’s ear, he was not saved from a bullet blowing his brains out, as a piece of shrapnel, even if it had hit him right in the head, would not have penetrated his skull.

Also, if it was shrapnel, that means the famous photo of the bullet is fake (which basically everyone had already concluded regardless).

AP:

Nearly two weeks after Donald Trump’s near assassination, the FBI confirmed Friday that it was indeed a bullet that struck the former president’s ear, moving to clear up conflicting accounts about what caused the former president’s injuries after a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally.

What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement.

The one-sentence statement from the FBI marked the most definitive law enforcement account of Trump’s injuries and followed ambiguous comments earlier in the week from Director Christopher Wray that appeared to cast doubt on whether Trump had actually been hit by a bullet.

The comment drew fury from Trump and his allies and further stoked conspiracy theories that have flourished on both sides of the political aisle amid a dearth of information following the July 13 attack.

Up until now, federal law enforcement agents involved in the investigation, including the FBI and Secret Service, had refused to provide information about what caused Trump’s injuries. Trump’s campaign has also declined to release medical records from the hospital where he was first treated or to make the doctors there available for questions.

Yes, well.

That’s interesting.

It’s been my assertion that Trump did not get hit by a bullet. The wound was not consistent with this, and the whole “turned his head at the last moment to avoid the only one of the 6 bullets that came anywhere close to hitting him” bit is too goofy. I think there were going to be more questions about why the wound was so consistent with a cut, rather than a bullet hole, and it seems clear that the “well, it was actually shrapnel” narrative fixes those problems.

If Trump cut himself or was cut by a Secret Service agent, that would be more or less consistent with a piece of shrapnel scraping his ear.

Probably, the most likely explanation is that he cut his ear before the event, then ripped off a bandage to cause blood to pour out. Ears bleed a lot. A small cut with a skin-colored bandage that could be pulled off when he heard the shots would explain everything that happened in a much simpler and believable way than either the bullet or shrapnel wound theory.

Further, we should note: it doesn’t even matter what the FBI says. They admit that they can’t even find all the bullets that were shot, and can’t trace their trajectory. They also say they don’t know which bullet (or shrapnel from which bullet) hit Trump’s ear.

It’s all, in my opinion, very ridiculous.