Fans and critics of President Trump are debating whether he stopped a mugging in 1991. The evidence for and against lives in a New York Daily News story — with a photo of The Donald.
Snopes.com’s Kim LaCapria of New York and site founder David Mikkelson came to the conclusion that the story is “unproven.”
Among the issues giving pause was an eyewitness account that said Trump never actually confronted the bat-wielding assailant.
Kathleen Romeo, 16, said she heard cries of “There’s Trump!” in a crowd of onlookers as he got out of his limousine.
“’A lot of people were surprised that he got out to see what was happening,’ Romeo said, adding that the bat-wielder ran off just before Trump actually appeared, and that Trump, ‘just looked around and went back into his limo,’” Snopes said, quoting the 1991 story.
At the time, Trump was quoted as saying: “The guy with the bat looked at me, and I said, ‘Look, you’ve gotta stop this. Put down the bat.’ I guess he recognized me because he said, ‘Mr. Trump, I didn’t do anything wrong.’ I said, ‘How could you not do anything wrong when you’re whacking a guy with a bat?’ Then he ran away.”
In 2016, revisiting the case, Mother Jones noted: “Surely not wanting to miss the concert, Trump left the victim in the care of ‘a man who appeared to be a doctor’ and headed off.”
“I’m not looking to play this thing up,” he told the Daily News. “I’m surprised you found out about it.”
Here’s what others said when they found out about it.
Remember the time Donald Trump saw a bat wielding mugger and ran after him and stopped him: pic.twitter.com/MLqZlwpvti
— MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) February 26, 2018
#MAGA #Parkland #BrowardCoward
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???? Yesss Leftists – Genetically-Superior, Stable Genius Trump CAN Back it Up – When He Decides to SLAM the Broward Cowards for Their Failures
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Jumped out of his Limo to Stop Mugging & Chase off Thug in 1991 … pic.twitter.com/cd2Ee6EYPp— Trey Von Dinkis (@Trey_VonDinkis) February 27, 2018
Fact check. I googled this. Apparently Trump’s limo pulled up and the mugger ran away. If it were true, Trump would make sure the world would know.
— Keith Yetman (@yetman_keith) February 27, 2018
Does anyone else think that the “witness” in the story about Trump stopping a mugging was named “John Miller”.
— Stigcicle (@HesNotTheStig) February 28, 2018
The Democrats and media would hate if you retweeted this! ????
An unarmed Donald Trump stopped the car and stopped a mugging in 1991. pic.twitter.com/1Nas34pusy
— Jack Murphy (@RealJack) February 28, 2018
#MAGA #Parkland #BrowardCoward
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???? Yesss Leftists – Genetically-Superior, Stable Genius Trump CAN Back it Up – When He Decides to SLAM the Broward Cowards for Their Failures
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Jumped out of his Limo to Stop Mugging & Chase off Thug in 1991 … pic.twitter.com/cd2Ee6EYPp— Trey Von Dinkis (@Trey_VonDinkis) February 27, 2018
The only witness corroborating “his” account is an unnamed source. The sole witness willing to identify themselves said the mugger ran away before trump opened the door to his car. But why wouldn’t you believe a man notorious for pretending to be his own publicist in the 90’s
— Andrew Meisner (@AMeisner32) February 27, 2018
No, I’m aware of this fraudulent story. Trump peddled in fake news even back in the day. Anyone with half a brain knew that the Bone Spur Billionaire did not jump out of his limo to stop a mugging when he wouldn’t even jump into a tank to defend his country.
— Political Discord (@PoliticalDiscor) February 28, 2018
People saying Donald Trump stopped a mugging in NY, yet he was the only witness?! And we know he is soo honest. Well in that case I use to fight crime all the time. I would go into phone booths and change into a cape and save people
— Jetpack Jimmy (@SlimSinclair) February 28, 2018