(Photo: Picture taken June 4, 2020. Jamie Quinn/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
New York State governor Cuomo and Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden both blasted president Donald Trump for spreading the right-wing lie the 75 year-old man now in hospital from injuries inflicted by Buffalo Police Department cops is a supporter of Antifa that had been planning to attack police.
Video taken on June 4 at Niagara Square in Buffalo, NYC shows two BPD cops dressed in riot gear push Martin Gugino, who is white, so hard he stumbles over backwards, hits his head on the pavement and begins to bleed profusely from his ear. None of the dozens of BPD cops advancing towards protestors bothers to assist Gugino.
The two cops that sent the peace activist and volunteer Catholic Worker to hospital where he was admitted in serious condition were later suspended from their jobs but not jailed. Their fellow BPD brothers supported their assault on Gugino.
On Tuesday, Trump threw his weight behind the false conspiracy theory Gugino is, in reality, a violent left-wing Antifa activist involved in a plot to attack police.
He tweeted Gugino, who was shoved by police, could be an ANTIFA provocateur. He said the 75 year-old Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications with his smartphone in order to black out the police equipment.
"I watched, he fell harder than was pushed," tweeted Trump. "Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?"
Trump's string of lies about Gugino, who is now in fair condition at a hospital, can be linked to a conspiracy blog aired Tuesday on One America News Network (OANN), a pro-Trump, racist, right-wing cable news channel more radical than Fox News.
New York State governor Andrew Cuomo loudly criticized Trump's tweet on Tuesday afternoon and demanded Trump apologize. How reckless, how irresponsible, how mean, how crude, said Cuomo of Trump's patently false claim. If there was ever a reprehensible, dumb comment, this is it. And from the president of the United States, he added.
"At this moment of anguish and anger. What does he do? Pours gasoline on the fire," said Cuomo.
Biden also hit out at Trump. He said his dad used to say there's no greater sin than the abuse of power. This applies to a police officer bloodying a peaceful protester or a President defending cops with a conspiracy theory he saw on TV.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York State said Trump continues to peddle conspiracy theories, this time about a peaceful protestor. She said she's not sure how this is supposed to bring Americans together. Hochul also criticized Trump's tweet as "sick."
