Trump's ex-doctor issues another statement in effort to end rally shooting doubts
Donald Trump's controversial former physician tried to put to rest lingering questions about the injuries the former president suffered in an apparent assassination attempt.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician, said last week that the bullet struck the tip of Trump's right ear, less than a quarter inch from his head, and opened a two-centimeter gash that could not be closed up with stitches. He issued another statement Friday after FBI director Christopher Wray suggested to a House committee that the injury could have been caused by shrapnel.
"There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet," Jackson said in a letter posted on Trump's Truth Social account. "Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else."
Jackson said he has reviewed the former president's medical records from his initial treatment at Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania and examined the wound himself, and he said both he and the doctors and nurses who treated him at the hospital all agreed the wound was caused by a bullet.
However, those medical records have not been publicly released and the doctors who treated him have not spoken publicly about his injuries.
Trump himself angrily pushed back on Wray's comments about his injuries, saying the FBI had never examined him, and attacked the agency for prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters and allowing vandalism by demonstrators protesting the Israel-Gaza war.
"No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard," Trump posted. "There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. The hospital called it a 'bullet wound to the ear,' and that is what it was. No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!"
However, doubts about the cause of his injuries persist.
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"He was totally, definitely, 100% hit by bullet and that's why we won't allow access to the actual hospital records or to the actual doctor who treated the actual injury," said A.J. Delgado, a former Trump 2016 campaign staffer turned outspoken critic.
"We must see Donald Trump’s official medical records," said Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY).
"Trump has only himself to blame for the controversy over what happened to his ear," said Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf. "Release the medical records, let an independent doctor provide an assessment and we can move on."
"Great news, journalists!!!" said legal expert Marcy Wheeler in response to his Truth Social post stating that the hospital had determined he was injured by a bullet. "Trump has given you cause to demand his medical records from the hospital in Butler (including the C2 scan results), and a waiver so the doctors can provide a press conference."