Donald Trump Jr. was met with some red-hot MAGA wrath after rejecting conspiracy theories surrounding the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump Jr teased in an Instagram video that he would address the “fact versus fiction” related to the case of suspected gunman Tyler Robinson, during an episode of his podcast Triggered.
“We’re gonna get into all of the details of what I actually witnessed with my own two eyes,” Trump Jr said Wednesday, later noting that there’s a “big, big difference” between what he’s seen online and what has occurred during Robinson’s preliminary hearings so far.
“This thing is certainly, to me at least, much more cut-and-dried than I thought it was going to be. But again, I think we do have to take some time to separate out the noise from reality,” Trump Jr. said.
Robinson, 23, is charged with aggravated murder in last September’s assassination of the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder on the Utah Valley University campus. Hearings are being held this week to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to bring Robinson to trial.
Trump Jr. said he would discuss “all these things I had never seen before, video I’d not seen before, other evidence that really hasn’t been out there in the public domain for obvious reasons” on the new podcast episode Thursday.
His comments drew fierce responses from some of Kirk’s supporters who believe there is a larger conspiracy behind the conservative leader’s death. One theory is that Kirk wasn’t actually shot with a .30-06 caliber rifle, because there was no exit wound, according to the Daily Beast.
“Tell us the truth. Do you actually believe that charlie got shot with a 30-06. As a hunter, tell us with your whole chest you believe that?” one Instagram user wrote in the comment section of Trump Jr.’s video.
“Can you also explain on live how a 30.60 doesn’t leave an exit wound?” another user chimed in.
Others seemed less interested in hearing Trump Jr.’s explanation — and some commentators even said they felt let down by his rejection of their conspiracy theories.
“Sounds like you were out there with all the grifters of the Charlie King tragedy – no thanks, you’re not going to gaslight us,” one person commented.
“As a 3x Trump voter I am sickened by the betrayal you all have shown Charlie and our country. We the people are done buying the blatant lies. Charlie deserved so much better,” another user wrote.
One commenter simply wrote: “What happened to you Don,” while another declared: “Man have the Trumps been a giant f***ing disappointment.”
Meanwhile, Trump Jr. spent more than an hour on his podcast dissecting the trial, according to Daily Beast.
“The evidence to me seems even more overwhelming against Tyler Robinson than I ever actually would have thought…This one does not seem like a cover-up,” he said.
“I’ve been pretty damn conspiratorial on a lot of things and I think a lot of people, understandably, have been as well because they’ve seen the result of those things [and] they usually end up being right. This one to me—and I’m invested because Charlie was one of my closest friends for 10 years—does not seem that way.”
The judge in the case will decide at the end of this week hearings if prosecutors have enough evidence to bring Robinson to trial. Attorneys for Robinson have not commented on his guilt or innocence, but are trying to get the death penalty taken off the table.
