Donald Trump has hit out at the director of the FBI after he said investigators did not know whether he was hit by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel.
Christopher Wray told the US House Judiciary Committee earlier this week that the FBI was still working to determine exactly what hit the former president’s ear during the shooting.
“My understanding is that either it [a bullet] or some shrapnel is what grazed his ear,” he said.
He added: “There is some question about whether or not it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”
But in a post on his Truth Social site, Donald Trump hit back, saying the “once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”
“FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress yesterday that he wasn’t sure if I was hit by shrapnel, glass, or a bullet (the FBI never even checked!)” he said.
“No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. The hospital called it a “bullet wound to the ear,” and that is what it was.”
He accused Mr Wray of wanting to crack down on “patriots”, while defending “Radical Left Lunatics” who burn the US flag.
“He was sure that Crooked Joe Biden was physically and cognitively ‘uneventful’ - Wrong!” Trump said of the FBI director.
“That’s why he knows nothing about the terrorists and other criminals pouring into our Country at record levels.”
Investigators earlier said that shooter Thomas Crooks had previously searched for other public figures before the assassination bid, and also searched online: “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?"
The online search is a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooter who killed US President John F. Kennedy from a sniper's perch in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Mr Trump, the Republican pick as presidential candidate in November, could face a tight race as polls showed the likely Democratic challenger Kamala Harris narrowing the gap.
Her swift emergence as the likely successor to President Joe Biden, 81, as the Democratic presidential candidate in the November 5 election has shaken up the race.
A New York Times/Siena College national poll published Thursday found Ms Harris has narrowed what had been a sizable Mr Trump lead.
Mr Trump was ahead of Ms Harris 48% to 46% among registered voters, compared with a lead of 49% to 41% over Mr Biden in early July.
