The View co-host Ana Navarro is pushing back on conspiracy theories that are swirling in the aftermath of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
During Monday’s Hot Topics segment of ABC’s daytime talk show, Navarro and her fellow panelists shared their reactions to learning that gunfire had erupted at Saturday’s annual black-tie event at the Washington Hilton. The sound of shots being fired prompted President Donald Trump and other executive members of his administration to be rushed out of the room while Secret Service agents apprehended the suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, who has now been charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
Navarro said that after the shock of the alleged attack wore off, she became disturbed by rampant online speculation that the shooting had been “staged” by the Trump administration.
“I don’t think that,” she said during Monday’s show. “Let me just be clear. I don’t think that.”
She continued: “But where are we in America? When [Ronald] Reagan was shot in 1981, nobody would have thought about that. And so I think people have to take stock of just the level of influence that misinformation, that the lies have had on the American psyche, that the first conclusion so many people reach because of the polarization and because of some of the things that our elected officials have done, frankly.”
Navarro, a Republican commentator, then criticized Trump’s statement given at a press conference after the shooting, in which he claimed that the shooting demonstrated why he needs his proposed $400 million White House East Wing ballroom.
“It’s crazy to me that one of the first things Trump did after this was… to go push for a ballroom,” she said, before bringing up the issue of gun violence. “I just think school children have as much a right to have safe schools as politicians do to have a secure ballroom.”
Recent data revealed that social media posts featuring the word “staged” experienced a huge spike of more than 300,000 posts over the weekend as unfounded rumors about the shooting were spread. It follows other baseless claims about the two other assassination attempts on Trump’s life.
The theories ranged from labeling the shooting as a “distraction” from the war in Iran to claiming it was planned to give Trump justification for his ballroom.
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There is no evidence to back up any of the theories. Police and government officials have shot down the rumors, with Trump saying on CBS News’ 60 Minutes that those spreading misinformation are “more sick than they are con people.”