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LinkedIn’s co-founder Reid Hoffman has sought to clarify comments he made about Donald Trump before the assassination attempt against him, in which he said that he wished the former president was a “martyr.”
The internet entrepreneur said at an Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference last week, before the shooting incident at Trump’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, that he wished the presumptive Republican candidate for the White House was "an actual martyr” – a comment that then gained fresh attention after the assassination attempt.
Hoffman has since clarified his comments in a lengthy post on X, but this also has come as his political adviser came under fire for reportedly floating the idea that the assassination attempt could have possibly been ”staged.”
Hoffman wrote on X: “A point of clarification on a recent comment of mine that has been reported out of context.
“At a recent business conference, Peter Thiel said that my lawsuit work against Trump was ‘turning a clown into a martyr.’ In that context, I replied that I wished that Trump would martyr himself – meaning let himself be held accountable – for his assaults on and lies about women.
“Of course I meant nothing about any sort of physical harm or violence, which I categorically deplore. I meant and mean accountability to the rule of law, such as unanimous guilty felony verdict by 12 jurors on 34 counts and an $84 million judgment for slander and lies about his sexual assault.
“I am horrified and saddened by what happened to former President Trump and wish him a speedy recovery,” the LinkedIn founder added.
Hoffman has been a harsh critic of Trump and has also helped fund a civil rape lawsuit brought against the ex-president by E. Jean Carroll in 2023. The business mogul and Democrat megadonor also has in the past donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Nikki Haley in the Republican primary race.
As Hoffman explained, his comment came after Thiel, a fellow entrepreneur and high-profile backer of conservative causes, sarcastically thanked him at the business conference for funding lawsuits against Trump because they turned him into a “martyr,” Puck News reported on Friday.
Hoffman, who was on stage while Thiel was in the audience, then reportedly replied with his own sarcastic quip: “Yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr.”
A day after the assassination attempt, in which Trump was clipped in the right ear by a sniper’s bullet, the LinkedIn co-founder explained his comments that pre-dated the shooting, saying it was “abhorrent” what happened to the former president.
“There is no place for political violence in our society. Assassination is not only categorically wrong but is also the assassination of democracy. It is abhorrent that anyone has tried to assassinate President Trump. Everyone, on all sides of this election, should condemn political violence loudly and publicly,” he added in his statement on X.
However, the situation hasn’t quite ended there, as Hoffman’s political adviser is now under fire for comments he made after the assassination attempt.
In an email sent to journalists obtained by news website Semafor, Dmitri Mehlhorn reportedly wrote that one “possibility – which feels horrific and alien and absurd in America, but is quite common globally – is that this ‘shooting’ was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash.”
He added that another possibility is that “some crazy anti-Trumper in this chaotic moment decided to assassinate the former President.”
“I know I am prone to bias on this, but this is a classic Putin play and given the facts seems more plausible. Look at the actual shot. Look at the staging. Look at how ready Trump is to rally; this pampered baby s*** his pants when an eagle lunged at his food. Look at how quickly Trump protects himself at the expense of others, but showed few of those lifelong instincts in this moment. And consider how often Putin and his allies run this play,” he went on to say, according to Semafor.
“I know it feels yucky to discuss such a possibility. But in this case, the odds are so high, and the stakes so consequential, we must as[k] the question,” he added.
Mehlhorn said in response to a follow-up question from the website that his words were “not a public statement.”
In a later statement to Semafor, Mehlhorn went on to apologize for the comments he made and said that they should not distract from the fact that someone lost their life in the shooting that injured Trump.
“Last night, I sent an email I now regret. It was drafted and sent without consultation from team members or allies. I have apologized to them directly,” he wrote.
“I also want to apologize publicly, without reservation, for allowing my words to distract from last night’s central fact: political violence took yet another innocent American life last night. We must unite in condemnation of such violence in every instance, without reservation. Any other topic is a distraction. I am grateful that those injured last night appear to be on the path to full recovery. Again, I apologize, and wish I had reacted as thoughtfully as Reid Hoffman this morning.”
One spectator, identified as 50-year-old former fire chief Corey Comperatore by his relatives, was killed at Trump’s campaign event on Saturday during the shooting.
The shooting also injured two other spectators, who have not been identified.
The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by authorities. He reportedly used an AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle in the attack. No motive has yet been established for his actions.
After the shooting, Trump called on America to “stand united,” thanked God for preventing the “unthinkable from happening,” and said he would remain “defiant in the face of wickedness.”
