Still No Evidence Black Lives Matter Protesters Held Moments Of Silence For Dallas Killer

Looks like presumptive Republican nominee and sheriff’s star expert Donald Trump is back tossing out evidence-free, racially-charged conspiracy theories again.

Just like he did last year when he claimed he personally saw thousands of American Muslims celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11, Trump pushed for the notion of another group of minorities celebrating the deaths of those who protect and serve.

During Tuesday’s broadcast of The O’Reilly Factor, taped earlier in the day, the former reality TV star told his milkshake bartering partner that he had witnessed incidents of Black Lives Matter protesters honoring Micah Johnson, the man who shot and killed five Dallas cops. After Bill O’Reilly brought up the protests across the country in response to the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Trump said the following:

“I saw what they’ve said about police at various marches and rallies. I’ve seen moments of silence called for this horrible human being who shot the policemen…It’s very sad when somebody called for a moment of silence for this maniac that killed the five police, you know you just see what’s going on and it’s a very, very sad situation and hopefully it can be healed.”

After filming the interview, the spray-tanned billionaire(?) went to a rally in Indiana and reasserted that he had seen the fabled moments of silence. (Of course, with more gusto because he was in his element.)

“The other night you had 11 cities potentially in a blow-up stage. Marches all over the United States—and tough marches. Anger. Hatred. Hatred! Started by a maniac! And some people ask for a moment of silence for him. For the killer!”

The only problem is that there is no evidence to back up this claim. CNN host Chris Cuomo pressed Trump campaign co-chair and Jabba the Hutt cosplayer Sam Clovis on this matter Wednesday morning. While Clovis tried to dodge the question, he inevitably had to admit that he knew of no such incidents that have occurred. But, y’know, he has feelings that maybe something like that happened during BLM demonstrations.

ABC News researched this and all they could find was one person who published to two of his social media accounts, calling for a moment of silence. The person’s tweet got all of one like while his Facebook post really went viral, collecting an astonishing 14 likes. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has not responded to any requests for clarification.

If — and that’s a BIG IF — the media pushes on this issue, and grills Trump on this latest bogus claim, we’ll likely see the same shit as the 9/11 remark. His camp will find something that sorta, kinda, almost backs him up, but does not prove in the slightest that he saw the GRAND displays he swore happened. There will then be tons of obfuscation from the candidate himself, with his loyal surrogates and Trumpkins taking to the air to defend his statements.

We’ve been down this road before, This is what will happen. It’s a given. We already know it.

And, in the meantime, he’ll continue to send out these louder than dog whistle messages to his base. Because we know the very reason he’s saying this, just like we know why he said the 9/11 lie.