Were the assassination attempts against Gerald Ford faked/staged?

[Fiendish Thingy]

If you answered “No”, please provide your proof below.

46 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes, of course they were staged.
	2 (4%)
	No, they weren't staged, that's just Kooky CT Nonsense.
	44 (96%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. I have no proof. I just don't think they were staged. It was a very different time and Ford was a very different

president.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. But without proof they weren't staged, how can we be sure?

At least that’s what I’m reading here on DU.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

6. All you can do is give it your best guess based on circumstances/people involved.

[Fiendish Thingy]

8. But guessing isn't the path to obtaining the truth

Getting to the truth requires verifiable facts, not molecules of information from which speculative meaning is extrapolated.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

16. Like I'm in any position to obtain "the truth"? I'm not. But I can speculate like hell if I want to.

So can everybody else.

[Fiendish Thingy]

23. Rampant speculation only makes the search for the truth more difficult

And speculation can take more than one form.

Less harmful speculation : “I wonder if…?” “I would like to know more about…”

Harmful speculation: “I don’t know, they haven’t told us, so it must be X”

[50 Shades Of Blue]

49. When it comes to the Trump administration? They deserve whatever speculation they get. Fuck 'em!

But you do you.

[Fiendish Thingy]

50. Rampant speculation does little to harm Trimp

But it does spread misinformation and further sow mistrust, which actually advances Trump’s agenda.

I prefer to stay firmly rooted in the reality-based community.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

55. That is speculation too.

[Fiendish Thingy]

58. It is evidence based fact

Scroll through the DU threads since the incident and count the number of AA denialist, Kooky CT nonsense-spreading threads.

Now count the number of threads on Epstein, gun violence.

Distraction achieved.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

61. "which actually advances Trump's agenda"

Your speculation. You can't prove it.

[Hey Joe]

56. Which is where this administration differs from you.

They are not part of the reality based community and we shouldn’t expect their actions to be based on reality or truth.
There was no social media back in the days of the Ford administration to propel lies or conspiracies, causing people to doubt their motives and actions.
What we have now is fertile ground for doubt.
Therefore we can expect nothing other than speculation and confusion.

[kacekwl]

65. Apples and onions.

We had an actual working government then compared to today.

[msongs]

2. no MAGA with high tech then

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. What kind of technology could be used now to fake an assassination that wasn't available in the 70's?

Describe how that technology might have been applied in each of the Trump incidents.

[Orrex]

48. LOL seriously?

Your question reveals that you are unaware of any technological advancement in the past half-century.

Tell you what--spend some time getting yourself up to date, and then get back to us.

[LeftInTX]

3. Ford didn't grift from them..LOL

People want to think they're staged because Trump grifts from these. But Trump grifts from everything.

Look at the event in Florida? Those things happen to almost every president. (And Trump wasn't even president at the time) Someone is always trying to get close with a firearm.


It happens.

[edhopper]

7. Doesn't mean the ones on Trump

weren't.

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. Of course, there is no proof they *were* staged

Only, as Rudy once said, theories that they were staged.

And theories alone is good enough for a lot of folks, whether it is election deniers or assassination attempt deniers.

But that still doesn’t make either Kooky CT true.

[Scrivener7]

9. Was Gerald Ford a psychopath who literally never told the truth in his life? Was Ford

so craven that he started a war for no reason that killed thousands? Was Ford responsible for the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of people because he hogtied the response to Covid? Was Ford best friends with a guy who raped hundreds of children? Was Ford a rapist?

Gosh. He wasn't any of those things. So I guess the comparison doesn't make much sense.

[BannonsLiver]

14. It's weird that these posts about Ford and Kirk are a thing.

I don’t think the dinner incident was staged. But I absolutely understand why people go there with him. He’s is a serial liar, and proudly evil, cruel and corrupt. So of course the perfectly normal, natural reaction from many people is going to be to question EVERYTHING. He’s earned that a million times over.

[Scrivener7]

15. I don't think the dinner incident was either. The ss didn't

act like lunatics and just did their jobs. They kept him covered as they hustled him out of the area in case there were more shooters. Unlike what they did in Butler.

And he didn't stage any fake heroics. Like he did in Butler.

[mb40]

45. I dont remember Ford inciting an insurrection either

or trying to overturn an election...maybe getting his SS to drive away with the VP so he couldn't certify election results. Silly, kooky, Pence why in the world wouldnt he trust Trump's SS?

[Walleye]

11. Gerald Ford was not a pathological liar

[Fiendish Thingy]

12. He was on the Warren commission

Do you believe that report was the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Did you notice that after the attempts on Ford’s life, nobody was talking about the Warren report? (Well, except Mae Brussels)

How convenient

Just one more manipulated distraction by the deep state…

[ColoringFool]

18. GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT--1975, Attempt #2. 1976, HOUSE SELECT

COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS.

1979, HSCOA CONCLUSIONS:

BOTH JFK AND MLK, Jr., WERE ASSASSINATED "LIKELY" AS RESULTS OF CONSPIRACIES.

"NOBODY WAS TALKING ABOUT THE WARREN REPORT"??????

United States House Select Committee on Assassinations - Wikipedia https://share.google/ELKoEaP7zE8Dp2wqS

[Fiendish Thingy]

24. See?!? I was right!

It took three years after the assassination attempts on Ford for the commission to release its report, so the staged attempts served their purpose- to delay and distract the public from that topic.

I am using the same logical constructs as the Trump AA denialists.

[Walleye]

53. I get your point. But there is a difference between a pathological liar and an ordinary liar.

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. Well, 20 "No" votes, and still no proof that the attempts on Ford's life *werent* staged.

I’d say the evidence is getting pretty strong for a false flag operation (actually two false flags).

They are going to have to rewrite the history books.

[ColoringFool]

17. Do You Live In An Either-Or World? Is Every Action From The Same Cause To You? I Demand.....

You offer proof of your answer.

[Orrex]

19. The cheerleaders don't need proof when they have The Official Story to cling to

[ColoringFool]

20. Yes, I get it. I'm not of their ilk. But the tone of the OP bugs me.

[Orrex]

21. Same; I agree with you.

Their shtick is to mock and belittle and deride and insult anyone who reaches a conclusion other than the one that the cheerleaders prefer.

[Scrivener7]

64. And this isn't the first topic where that shtick has been applied and a position has been defended

with insults and derision toward those who disagree. And history has conclusively disproved the position he was defending on those past topics.

[EdmondDantes_]

31. When you realize that's exactly what conspiracy theorists do, it's going to be awkward

If all the evidence points to one direction, refusing to believe that is clinging.

[Orrex]

35. Well, thankfully that doesn't apply to the Butler "assassination attempt"

nor to the WHCD "assassination attempt."

But please go on with your bad self.

[EdmondDantes_]

44. Sure it doesn't

Just like people swear it doesn't apply to flat earth and Bigfoot or Obama being a Muslim from Kenya, etc etc.

The people you accuse of clinging have facts and evidence and logic. You have a feeling that you're clinging to and that's it. But as you said, keep on with your bad self. Because clearly you aren't open to changing your mind because your gut feeling is all that matters.

[Sympthsical]

60. Remember Stephen Colbert making fun of the Right for "truthiness"?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[Orrex]

66. That's a false analogy and an attempted smear by false association

Not surprising, TBH.

The cheerleaders are saying "we have a series of facts and purported facts, given to us as part of The Official Story. Even though The Official Story has a number of holes and fails to address reasonable objections, we must believe The Official Story and attack anyone who doesn't swallow it as eagerly and as uncritically as we do."

The more skeptical among us, in stark contrast, say "The Official Story is full of holes, and in many ways it is directly at odds with observable reality. Therefore we question it, notwithstanding the personal attacks by The Cheerleaders."

clearly you aren't open to changing your mind because your gut feeling is all that matters.

I LOVE statements like that--they're so openly condescending that one can't help laughing in the face of whoever thought it a good idea to post it. It's a gaslighting attempt at argument by fiat, easily recognized for what it is.

[Fiendish Thingy]

25. That is precisely my point

The Trump AA denialists cannot cope with the uncertainty and lack of complete information following critical incidents such as this Saturday’s, so they simply make stuff up without a shred of evidence, and fill in their gaps of knowledge and understanding with speculative declarations presented as the absolute truth.

[Orrex]

30. Meanwhile the cheerleaders uncritically accept every claim made by the Trump adminstration

And they scold anyone who's less eager to accept The Official Story as matter of faith.

[Orrex]

22. Would Trump allow others to die for his own advancement?

If you answered "No," please provide your proof.

[MichMan]

26. Was the moon landing faked?

[Fiendish Thingy]

28. What do you think?

The proof is there, if you’re just willing to look for it…

[Ocelot II]

27. Trump said that only consequential presidents (like himself) are subject to assassination attempts,

so of course the attacks on Ford had to have been staged. The only consequential thing Ford ever did was pardon Nixon; otherwise he was kind of a nobody. Since he was not consequential, Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore had to have been Deep State plants, or something. Also, James Garfield was allegedly assassinated after only a few months in office, so that must have also been staged since he never had a chance to become consequential. He lived the rest of his long life under an assumed name in the south of France. Nobody knew this until now.

[Fiendish Thingy]

29. See, you get it...

…to paraphrase the late, great Scoop Nisker, “if you don’t like the truth, go out and make up some of your own”.

[Farmer-Rick]

32. Nope

I'll provide proof that the Ford assisnation attempts were real when you provide proof they were NOT real.

[Fiendish Thingy]

36. Wait, WHAAAT?!?

But I’ve been reading on DU for the past two days, over and over again, that the assassination attempts on Trump are presumed to be staged unless they can be definitively proven that they weren’t , so I thought the same standard of proof applied to all presidential assassination attempts.

[Farmer-Rick]

40. That's a might large brush

You are painting everyone with.

[Fiendish Thingy]

42. Not everyone

Just the folks spouting Kooky CT Nonsense.

[usonian]

33. Gerald Ford was staged.

Disney's attempt at animatronics.

Much higher tech nowadays, with even worse results.

[Fiendish Thingy]

37. Trump could never pull off "Puttin' On The Ritz".

Although he is a good example of a Song and Dance Man.

[usonian]

47. Putin on the Ritz!

Found! on Fine Art America.

Sometimes, the internet works OK.

[themaguffin]

34. If only there were a little more sarcasm

I don't get into conspiracy theories.

I did point out though that donnie who plotted a coup attempt would be above anything. Anything.
That's it. That's not unreasonable to say given the historic significance of a president plotting against the peaceful transition of power (before and after 1/6 - essentially he spent the entire time after that election plotting and attempting shit)....
yet my comment yesterday was responded by not well thought out sarcasm and a lot of straw men.

Oof.

[Fiendish Thingy]

38. A lack of a moral compass does not guarantee success

So, while he might wish something to happen, the laws of physics, logic, and his 50+ year record of failures repeatedly get in his way.

[themaguffin]

39. indeed

Last edited Mon Apr 27, 2026, 03:58 PM - Edit history (1)

...some people don't read and then reply... not a good look.

Next time read and then reply. The irony is that I was specifically calling out this very behavior from yesterday.

[delisen]

41. Different time......., different president, different congress,

different Supreme Court, different media………

[Fiendish Thingy]

43. You forgot different standards for judging truth and measuring reality

At Least,, that seems to be the case with AA denialists.

[CTyankee]

46. I don't remember. I'm old.

[RoeVWade]

51. Although it's not the question, I think of Trump as the most likely President to stage a fake scene of

just about anything to improve his career situation. I only thought of Ford as kind of boring. But that was also kind of meme back then. And Chevy Chase playing him as falling down or over things.

I don't personally think the shootings of Trump were faked.

So, no answer for what was asked.

[sop]

52. How about JFK's assassination?

Was it staged to make it appear Lee Harvey Oswald was the shooter? Was Jack Ruby ordered to silence Oswald? Were the shooters on the grassy knoll real, or fake? So many questions...

[scipan]

54. Occam's Razor. nt

[Fiendish Thingy]

57. Indeed

Occam’s Razor applies to Both the Ford and Trump attempts, but the denialists won’t acknowledge that.

[rampartd]

59. squeaky fromm still lives and walks free

she has written a book. manson might have wished he had cultists as loyal as trump's .

[EnergizedLib]

62. No

Proof? Every other White House occupant except the felon was sane - not perfect, not the greatest human beings, many may have had big egos, but they weren’t complete, raging, reckless psychopaths who flaunted narcissism to this extreme and constantly made everything all about themselves.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

63. For you, OP

?si=GLP63LbakIDY0ZNA


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