JD Vance, the 42-year-old Vice President of the United States, said that if Donald Trump had been killed in the 2024 assassination attempt, he might have thought it was a conspiracy. Vance said he would have "presumed that very obscure forces had eliminated" Trump, who at the time was a presidential candidate.
The Republican also stated that he might not have accepted even another Republican as the next president, saying that this would have "compromised the legitimacy of our entire political system".
Trump, 80 years old, survived the assassination attempt during a Republican rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. A bullet grazed his ear and a supporter was killed during the attack.
The shooter Thomas Crooks, 20 years old, had climbed onto a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to Trump and opened fire while he was speaking on stage. Crooks was shot and killed by officers at the event. Vance said many of Trump's supporters would have presumed that a conspiracy had occurred.
