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Donald Trump Claims 'Some People' Called for a Moment of Silence for the Dallas Gunman
By Meghan Keneally, July 13, 2016
Donald Trump has spoken repeatedly about the fatal shooting of five police officers in Dallas, but one of his responses to the attack is now being called into question.
Trump has now said at least twice that some people have asked for a moment of silence for the shooter, Micah Johnson, who was killed when a police robot detonated a bomb near him.
During a Fox News interview, which was taped on Tuesday afternoon and aired later that evening, Trump mentioned the claim to Bill O'Reilly.
"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," Trump said.
Shortly after the Fox News interview aired on the East Coast, Trump appeared at a rally in Westfield, Indiana, where he made a similar claim.
While referencing the shooting, Trump said "some people asked for a moment of silence for him. For the killer."
ABC News has reached out to Trump's campaign for clarification on the remarks.
So far, ABC News has been able to find one person who posted on two of his social media accounts calling for a moment of silence.
The man's tweet was posted on the evening of July 8, hours after Johnson was killed during a standoff with Dallas police. The tweet was liked once and retweeted once. The matching Facebook post was liked 14 times.
ABC News has reached out to the man, who is not being identified, for comment.
Those two posts are being pointed to by a group called "Vets for Trump," whose Facebook page was launched in April and has 21 followers, as "proof that a moment of silence was called for Micah Johnson" after questions first arose about Trump's claims.
One of Trump's policy advisers, Sam Clovis, was questioned about the veracity of Trump's claims this morning on CNN. He said that he "personally had not" seen any calls for moments of silence.
"I've seen moments where I've seen in some of these demonstrations, I've seen there's a reverence paid to the shooter that is really startling. I think that is -- when you have a person who purposefully and with intent murders five police officers, that's terrible, and I don't think you should celebrate that in any way shape or form," Clovis said.
This is not the first time that claims made by Trump have been questioned. Earlier in the campaign, he said that he saw large groups of people in America cheering after the 9/11 attacks, though the claims were never officially confirmed.
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