Michael Steele: You would think someone would inquire about Trump's medical report if for no other reason than Trump

[highplainsdem]

has not provided any medical updates or information, neither has the hospital that treated him. Outside of Trump telling us he’s “fine”, how severe was the wound? Did he loose part of his ear (bullets do terrible things to flesh)? How long for recovery? Will the wound require cosmetic surgery? What about reports that it may not have been a bullet which wounded him but glass from the shattered teleprompter? If I missed such reports from his campaign or the hospital please post. Thank you.

Link to tweet

[Blue Owl]

1. Now let's not go holding tRump to any regular standards here

Let’s let little Donny do whatever he wants without consequence…..

[LisaL]

2. My guess is that Trump wasn't hit by a bullet, which is why

he doesn't want it discussed.

[soldierant]

46. Mine too.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

52. I agree.

[canetoad]

66. Trying to piece together what the press isn't saying

The Daily Mail would've been all over this like a rash, with interview, videos, pix, diagrams, eyewitness accounts and so on. They are a scandalous rag, but good reporters of big events. What's wrong with them?

[BoRaGard]

78. No corporate reporters asking any questions at all

That is Beyond Peculiar

[Grins]

3. PTSD...? Happens to victims, too. NM

[Dear_Prudence]

10. Earlier today, my post on PTSD

Trump's mind damage, let the scrutiny begin

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219166457

[spanone]

4. Our esteemed media has no curiosity at all....Imagine the calls if it were Joe

[Cha]

69. Yesh, No investigative qualities At All regarding

the "Hitler" wannabe ... they're just a bunch of Heads paid big money to push the Dic and Slime Democracy.

[Emile]

5. Looking at him tonight he has a very sad face

like he is a troubled broken man.

[AZ8theist]

20. He's too unevolved to have actual human emotion.

Other than HATE, of course. Points to a 3rd grade level of intelligence.

[Emile]

70. I think he's sad because the TV ratings are horrible for his convention.

[Skittles]

27. oh FUCK him

HE HAS HELPED TO BREAK AN ENTIRE FUCKING NATION

[William Seger]

6. I'm still thinking he was hit by debris rather than a bullet

The main reason is that he said he heard it "whizzing" by. An AR-15 bullet travels faster than sound, and if one passes near you, the shock wave sounds exactly like a bullwhip. Passing that close to an ear, I suspect that it could even cause hearing damage. Flying debris, however, would be "whizzing."

[2naSalit]

15. The graze...

Is something my brain won't stop analyzing, it's too mild a wound for what he would have sustained if it were from an AR style weapon. I agree, there's some things that don't add up.

[Ms. Toad]

50. Are you suggesting that a bullet that would do no damage at all

if it passed his ear by without touching his ear, would blow his ear to smithereens if it was just a hairs-breadth closer - just because it barely touched his ear?

Physics doesn't work that way.

[hardluck]

51. How so?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

61. The exploding apple shots were centred on. This was a graze and the earlobe is flexible unlike apple cores. . nt

[Prairie Gates]

7. Trump got hit by debris, not shot

That's the only conclusion to draw from the refusal of the Trump campaign to release detailed medical reports and diagnoses from the hospital visit. The doctors would certainly be able to distinguish even a graze by bullet from lacerations caused by metal or plastic fragments.

Numerous police in his vicinity were also hit by debris and slightly injured.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Not logical. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. . . . . . nt

[Prairie Gates]

11. We don't have any evidence to the contrary

Hell, at least with Obama's birth certificate, there was a birth announcement. Here there's nothing. It's perfectly valid to conclude that the refusal to release details is meaningful in itself.

We just want to see the long form discharge report with diagnosis, and any tests or treatments. Is it too much to ask?

[Pototan]

23. Except that Trump is a liar.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, forgive me if I don't take Trump's word.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

34. We are not taking tRump's word. The photographs show a bullet and a bullet wound. . . nt

[Pototan]

54. That NYT picture does not show a bullet striking Trump

It shows a displacement of air and if that displacement was caused by the bullet, it could have missed by feet.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

56. It is a motion streak. Air shock waves go off at a diagonal. It is 100% consisten with the video. . . . nt

[Pototan]

58. Still could miss by feet

Debris struck officers just feet away from Trump. This could all be settled if we could just see the medical report. If some debris was removed from Trump's wound, and he knew about it and chose to tell a different story to embellish the event, that is a damaging account.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

60. What? You think you can catch tRump in a lie? That's it?

Better to spend time on Project 2025 and rights of women to healthcare than trying to make a complex "proof" that tRump lied again.

[Pototan]

62. In 2004, the repukes

destroyed Kerry's candidacy with the appearance of an exaggeration of his wounds in battle.

Lying to manipulate public opinion on such a monumental event as an assassination attempt could destroy Trump.

Project 2025 is convincing to high information voters, like you and me, but it doesn't move shit for the 10% of the electorate who make up their minds after Labor Day with little information. They vote mostly on emotion.

Let me point out to you some recent polling. 60% of Americans think we're in a recession, even though we are nowhere near one and the US economy under Biden is the envy of the world. A majority of American think the Stock Market performed better under Trump than Bidden, even though the opposite is true. They think crime is up, when in fact it is significantly down in almost every major city.

If Trump and his cult control the narrative, we have no chance. The events surrounding his injuries strikes at a visceral area and could move the needle to us if it is proven that Trump intentionally lied and exaggerated..

[Bernardo de La Paz]

64. Kerry is not tRump. You oblige tRump's desire to focus on the ear

When there are no lies, then even an allegation stands out.

When there are thousands of lies, one more or less makes no difference.

Forget about the glass, the bullet, and focus on the economy.

When you spin your wheels trying to catch tRump in some kind of lie about his wound, you are letting him and his cult control the narrative: the very thing you claim to want to avoid.

tRump wants you talking about his wound instead of the economy. You oblige. He theatrically wore an over-large bandage so that people would focus on his injury instead of focusing on the economy. So you focus on his wound.

[Pototan]

68. You're Betting that Trump's not lying

My money's down on the side that he is a liar.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

71. Nothing I wrote comes remotely close. I am betting the photographs aren't lying

Your title is a low-down cheap trick that says everything about you and nothing about me.

You can assert whatever you want about me. In this case you have written fiction.

If you want respect around here, don't try that trick on others. It damages your reputation to try it and it doesn't work.

[Pototan]

74. What are you talking about?

I have no idea why you are ranting.

I reread my post and see nothing in it that could be remotely offensive.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

76. You wrote that I believe tRump. That is a slur that you should self-delete. . . . . . nt

[Pototan]

80. Didn't you write this?

We are not taking tRump's word. The photographs show a bullet and a bullet wound. . . nt

You can say all you want about evidence that is not conclusive. The photo of the wound looks more like debris to me than a bullet wound. The only person saying definitively that the wound was caused by a bullet is Trump. The photo in the NY Times does not show the bullet striking Trump but shows it racing through the air with no depth perception. No one is saying there were no bullets fired. Several officers just feet from Trump were struck by flying debris and received only minor wounds.

The photos prove nothing one way or another, so anyone's assumption is as valid as anyone else's. So, we have Trump's word, and he is hiding the medical records. On top of that, he is being examined by that pill pushing quack, Ronny Jackson, so it's not that Trump wants to not reveal the results, it's that he wants to control them, like he did back in 2016 with Dr. Bernstein.

So, there is Trump's word and the doctors who initially examined his wound immediately after the shooting. Anyone who doesn't want those facts to come out and comes to the conclusion that Trump was struck by a bullet is taking Trump's word.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

81. Correct. I wrote "not taking tRump's word". And then you posted the slur that I supposedly was. Self-delete it. . nt

[Pototan]

82. And then pointed to inconclusive evedince

in order to take Trump's word.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

83. You just repeated the falsehood slur. Stop. . . . nt

[Pototan]

84. I'll let you have the last word

only time will tell.

[radius777]

67. You get it. Politics is about perception more than facts.

In a democracy lots of people vote, and many of them don't bother to check the facts, they just listen to whatever the media narratives are at the time. It's why the Comey thing sunk Hillary, because the media made it 'seem' bigger than it was. It's the 'seem' that those low info voters vote on. And as long as Trump is allowed to be unchallenged in that space he will always win those voters.

[Dorian Gray]

73. If people don't care that he raped E Jean Carroll

stole documents, lied about his rally sizes, refuses to pay people who work for him for the last 50 years, treats everyone like dog shit... lying about whether it was a bullet or debris that struck his ears is not going to move the needle. His lying is already baked in.

Also, he was still shot at. That doesn't change. I think it's a waste of time focusing on WHAT injured him.

[Dorian Gray]

72. Why does it matter if it was debris or a bullet?

Seriously, does it matter if it was debris instead of a bullet? The trauma of the event and fears of a bullet would all still be there.

I think it's being nitpicky about a detail that won't change anybody's mind, including his own response.

The mild "it makes him look more badass if it was actually a bullet" is annoying, but the pettiness of insisting he didn't go through anything bc it was debris isn't going to change minds that PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE SHOT AT (even Trump).

[Pototan]

75. It makes him a liar

on the most important event in this election.

[Dorian Gray]

87. But everyone knows he's a liar

his supporters know and don't care. We certainly already know that.

I think focusing on this is too small a thing. People won't care if it was a shard of glass or debris from the shooting rather than an actual bullet. It happened bc of a shooting, regardless.

[Pototan]

88. But to lie in this case

carries far more negatives for Trump.

[Dorian Gray]

90. I really don't think his voters

would care or be persuaded he wasn't bad ass if it was glass or other debris.

And we already think he sucks. I can't think he sucks more.

[Pototan]

92. We are never going to get "his voters"

and he won't ever get any of us. That's not the voters I'm talking about.

It's the 10% of the voters who have just a casual interest in politics and only tune in during major, impossible to ignore events. The ones who only watch a 30 second sound bite or only read the headlines. Things like an assassination attempt. Lying in this case in order to manipulate this portion of the public will have far more impact than any other lie Trump has told.

[Dorian Gray]

93. But he was actually shot at

I don’t think nitpicking whether it was the bullet or debris from stuff the bullet shot will make any difference.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. "from THE shattered teleprompter" -- No teleprompter was shattered. . . . nt

[Prairie Gates]

12. It need have nothing to do with a teleprompter

Are you denying that multiple police officers near Trump were hit by debris? That was widely reported. Several suffered minor injuries from flying debris.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. No. I am saying that no teleprompter was shattered. It is fiction to write "the shattered teleprompter"

When I write a well known fact that denies a fiction in the OP, I am not denying something else, I am only denying the one thing.

It is a cheap debating tactic to try to stuff words in the other person's mouth, and it doesn't work for good readers.

[Prairie Gates]

18. I agree that there was no damage to the teleprompter

The OP is wrong to say that. You don't need to acknowledge that there was flying debris that caused minor injuries to several poeople in Trump's immediate vicinity. Everybody knows that now. We can safely put the teleprompter argument aside and admit that there were other forms of flying debris that could have caused Trump's injuries.

In any case, until we see some form of documentation from a medical professional who treated Trump that is coded for GSW, we have zero evidence that he was shot or hit by a bullet.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. We have lots of evidence he was shot by a bullet

1. Damage is 100 % consistent with a bullet.

2. Damage is not like what shards of plastic do. They don't take chunks out.

3. No other damage on tRump other than from skuffling with the agents.

4. The bullet was photographed in flight just after it passed his ear.

[Prairie Gates]

24. 1, 2, and 4 are conjecture. 3 is not probative

What's the problem with releasing a medical report that confirms a gunshot wound?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. 1, 2, and 4 are photographic evidence. Not conjecture. The absence of records leads only to conjecture. . . . nt

[Prairie Gates]

33. The conjecture is about what these photos show

Again, what's the problem with releasing a medical report that confirms gunshot wound?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

35. Stop asking me about the records! It's not my legal right to release them !!!! That conjecture is all you got. . . nt

[Prairie Gates]

37. The Trump campaign should release medical records confirming gunshot wound

Why wouldn't they?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

38. Even you can figure out I am not the tRump campaign! . . . . nt

[Prairie Gates]

39. Sure

It's not clear why you put it so personally. My argument throughout is simply that they should release those records. I'm not sure I ever said that YOU should, which would be exceedingly odd.

[Pototan]

59. Isn't it odd that those here at DU

Last edited Wed Jul 17, 2024, 04:11 AM - Edit history (1)

are so sensitive about us calling them out for repeating Trump's account with no corroboration.

Myself, I need iron clad proof to believe a liar like Trump and rthe medical records of the attending doctor would provide that for me, as long as the doctor was not in the employ of Trump.

[Pototan]

25. 3 or 4 officers within feet of Trump had minor injuries

from flying debris. Maybe the debris wasn't from the teleprompter, but there was flying debris close to the liar.

[Sanity Claws]

13. Do we know who treated him?

Don't doctors ask about your medications and allergies to all patients who are alert but need emergency care? I have my doubts that 45 would honestly tell anyone what his actual medical condition is. At most he allowed them to dress the minor wound and He wouldn't say anything more. He probably went to Dr. Feel Good Ronny or another trusted MAGA type for treatment.

[SomedayKindaLove]

14. Docs can only share what patient allows

And if it was glass Trump doesn’t want anyone to know. Forbes ditched an article speculating on whether Trump being shot helps him with the black vote. Being shot and surviving fits Trump’s cult image better than just a little bit of glass in his ear.

[Skittles]

48. but the press ISN'T EVEN ASKING

it's BULLSHIT

[Murphyb849]

16. I am a nurse. If a bullet from AR-15 had pierced his ear...

He would have no ear.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. No. The ear is peripheral and the nick is peripheral to the ear. It is not like a core of an apple exploding

You may be a nurse, but physics rules.

The ear lobe is cartilage, not bone. Ear lobes are flexible. Ear lobes are thin, very little mass.

Apple cores are not flexible, so the shock waves propagate and explode out the back side. Everyone has seen photos of apple cores or watermelons hit by a bullet. Those fruit are shot center on. Those images stick in people's minds but are not applicable to an ear lobe.

[Zeitghost]

32. The wound is 100% consistent

With a grazing shot. It did not go through the ear.

1/4" over and he probably loses a decent piece of the ear, 1/2" over and he's dead.

[colorado_ufo]

42. Best response.

[Melon]

65. This is simply not true at all....

Last edited Sat Jul 20, 2024, 08:56 AM - Edit history (1)

I know that that gun control is part and parcel with the democratic message….but many of us are actually armed, participate in shooting sports, are avid hunters etc. I would say I’ve seen a very high number of bullet wounds to animals. Am extremely knowledgeable of 5.56 or .223 rifles. A hit to an ear looks like a pencil hole….or maybe a tear at the edge. It will remove a piece. The ear does not explode. It’s simply too thin.

The majority of ammo sold for Ar-15’s are fmj and don’t expand. Even a hollow point would not have any expansion hitting something as light as an ear. If it hit the top of the ear it would probably remove that piece or punch a hole.

[Pototan]

19. I think I've been posting this same question here

since the day after the shooting. It has resulted in some curious pushback.

If Trump is exaggerating the cause and severity of the injury, that could change the narrative.

I'm old enough to remember how John Kerry was vilified and ridiculed by the Republicans in the 2004 election by mere speculation of the possible exaggeration of his war wounds. Kerry volunteered and fought in Viet Nam, was wounded and the Bush campaign ran negative ads which. to this day, led to referring to unfair ads attacking a political as "swift boating".

What pisses me off is that they can lie about us, but we have people in our midst that are frightened to tell the truth about them. All we want is honest answers to real questions. We deserve transparency.

Of course, no one knows what the medical report might say, but my money is on "Trump is a liar".

[Prairie Gates]

22. The oddest was the poster who spent literally years debunking 9/11 truther nonsense

Saying, "Well, why does it matter if they find the bullet(s) or not?"

Huh? This is an attempted assassination of a former President, and it doesn't matter if law enforcement finds, like, all the evidence or not? In a fucking field, when they know what the trajectory, range, and type of weapon was? What in the hell?

[John1956PA]

31. Every effort should be made to find the rounds buried in the ground.

However, doing so may be difficult because the metal detectors will register bottle caps, coins and other metal objects which are artifacts from the decades of use of the premises for farm shows. I hope that the grounds are cordoned off until every remaining bit of evidence is uncovered.

[Prairie Gates]

36. Yes, I understand that crime scene analysis poses many challenges

The federal government damn near put TWA flight 800 back together after it was blown out of the sky over the ocean. I think that they can find a bullet amidst the Yuengling caps.

[Zeitghost]

41. Yes they can

And then what?

[Prairie Gates]

45. There are going to be inquiries and investigations

I think it's important to collect all the evidence from this crime scene, including the bullet that supposedly hit the former President. You think this evidence is not important and tells us nothing, and that no real effort should be spent in attempting to retrieve it? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but that seems to be your contention. I don't know what information this evidence could yield, but I think bullets and bullet fragments should be collected from crime scenes where one person was murdered and a presidential candidate was shot at and nearly assasinated? I don't think my position here - it's important to collect the evidence - is that controversial.

[Zeitghost]

47. Sure, they should look for any and all evidence

But some of that evidence may be very hard or impossible to find and may not be found at all and will not provide any real information. We know the caliber and type of ammunition used. It is not needed to identify the shooter or weapon used. It's entirely possible they may stop looking before it is found.

[Prairie Gates]

49. Maybe it will be a memento for an enterprising Ag Science student who happens across it

years from now.

Tra la! The assassination bullet!

[Zeitghost]

40. The bullet

Is going to be very hard to find and could be in pieces. Depending on what it hit after nicking Trumps ear. It's very possible it ricocheted or shattered.

And while it's certainly evidence. It's not likely to provide any useful information. We have the gun and the shooter is dead.

[Skittles]

29. seeing DUers ask how it matters

I mean, seriously, WTF

[doc03]

28. Many of us have been asking the same question. I have never seen

a incident like this when there was no news conference from medical personnel.

[Zeitghost]

44. When

Was the last time a slight wound requiring a stitch or two was the center of a major news story?

Generally when public statements are made by Doctors, the patient's condition is unknown and/or needs to be explained. That's not the case here, we all saw the damage and we all know the prognosis is a full recovery and the treatment is basic first aid skills for a cut most people are familiar with have even done themselves.

[doc03]

79. Don't forget it wasn't just TSF that was (shot?) there were other people. There are

mass shootings every few days but this one was witnessed by millions of people. I have
never heard anything about the others that were wounded. From what I have heard there
was one person killed and someone in critical condition and I think others were injured. Whenever
there is a mass shooting of national significance they always get some kind of statement from
the medical facility. If this was Joe Biden the Republicans would be demanding to know why it is
being covered up and Jim Jordan would be calling for an investigation.

[tornado34jh]

43. I'm very skeptical of what happened, specifically on how there appeared to be little damage to his ear

Supposedly the shooter was 125 yards or 375 feet away. Now I am not a gun expert, but if it was from a sniper rifle, which I assume is what he used, wouldn't even a graze cause quite a bit of damage? I just don't think such a high-powered rifle would create so little damage from that. Also, the alleged shooter was a Republican, but I heard people, even from my own family, say he voted for a "progressive candidate" So to me nothing about this makes any sense.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

55. Conduct a thought experiment millimetre by millimetre.

Imagine the bullet flying by one millimetre from his ear. His ear hairs feel air turbulence.

Now imagine it one millimetre closer. It will just skim the surface of the skin. It doesn't matter how much kinetic energy it is carrying, that energy will not get transferred en masse to the flesh. But the next pass one millimetre in will abrade the skin one millimetre deep. But while doing so, it is going to dump very little energy in a very little volume of flesh. It doesn't switch from no energy transfer to total energy transfer just going in one or even two millimetres. Yet we know that going through an apple core a lot of energy is transferred.

Now, a couple of millimetres closer. The earlobe is only a few millimetres deep before you reach the white cartilage. The mechanical force bulldozes the flesh out of the way above the cartilage -- a volume of flesh that is tiny, but . Again the energy is not transferred deep into the flesh.

For there to be enough penetration to blow off an ear, it would have to be half an inch closer to the skull. The exploding apple pictures that we are all familiar with are from deep penetration through the centre of the core. That is when a lot of the kinetic energy of the bullet is transferred to the apple, sending violent shock waves through it and exploding it. The earlobe is flexible, so it wobbles to absorb the energy. The apple core is inflexible, so the energy has nowhere to go so it explodes out the back. Even more to the point, the apples are shot head on; the earlobe was grazed on the outside.

As the bullet nicks his ear, the tiny bit of flesh in the way in the ear lobe between the skin surface and the cartilage -- that tiny bit of flesh is pulverized by the very fast bullet. But there are not massive shock waves propagated through the ear for two reasons. One: the cartilage is very flexible compared to bone or apple innards. Two: the volume of flesh impacted is so small getting nicked compared to the volume of the long tunnel a bullet drives through an apple.

By running the thought experiment of gradually bringing in the bullet tighter and tighter each time, we can see there is a series of increasing damages up to and including deep penetration / explosion. tRump just happened to be lucky and only get nicked, hence early in the series and only a tiny bit of damage.

[tornado34jh]

89. I see. Still, while I understand the HIPPA laws, with such a high profile person

You would think a medical doctor would state what his injuries are, however minor they are.

[The Roux Comes First]

53. It's (In My Mind, OK), Almost a Certainty That No Bullet Contacted the Dear Savior's Ear

For one thing, the damage would have been worse.

For another, it would have been foretold, either in those Mormon chronicles, or in the Q garbage.

[yagotme]

86. The round used was reportedly 5.56mm.

High velocity, small diameter. If the bullet grazed his ear at a depth of 2mm, the tip of the bullet isn't even making contact. A small furrow would be all that would show, approx. 2mm deep. The ear is flexible, and the flesh is not contained, and can stretch. A millimeter deeper, and the tip makes contact, but with the flexibility, and the speed, a small gouge is the result. Not enough tissue is present in the ear to disrupt the bullet, which causes energy transfer, and flesh disruption. If you shoot at an ear that is detached, you will only make a roughly .22 caliber hole in it, from a straight-on shot. Drumph's wound was from a bullet that basically traversed his ear, front to back, and only damaged the more protruding parts.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

57. TFG is low information

at all times, especially is it leads to making him look WEAK (vulnerable) at any moment always project strength, one of the dumbest things he ever learned, but his cult loves him for it and they are not smart enough or don't care enough to know better

Sounds like an official duty for Biden to look up and release to the public...Biden won't cause he is better then that, but he should

[ecstatic]

63. I'm so completely and utterly disappointed in *some members* of the news media

Fawning over the RNC and completely normalizing the convicted felon. It's really disgusting. I'm so disappointed and saddened. I couldn't even watch.

Ironically, if our worst fears are realized, they will be among the first to go, and I will not feel any sympathy at all for the enablers because they had the platform and ability to speak truth to power and opted not to.

While I'm still able to, I will do what I can to help those who fought to protect our democracy but that's it.

[BoRaGard]

77. Something is fishy

no medical reports?

What BS are the repubes up to this time?

[Buns_of_Fire]

85. I still believe that the only way to settle this once and for all

is to perform an autopsy. I know Rump says he's fine, but you know how that goes...

[senseandsensibility]

91. But we are told by many here that cheato doesn't have to answer

so it's not worth asking. BS of course.