Tucker Carlson just made the kind of claim that would dominate every cable news channel for a month — if the target were anyone other than the people legacy media protects. In an interview with Mario Nawfal on June 14, Carlson stated plainly that President Trump shut down the investigation into his own assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. His source? Former Secret Service agent and current media figure Dan Bongino.
Except Bongino says Tucker is lying. So buckle up.
Carlson's exact words: "I know that Trump shut down the investigation into Butler. Dan Bongino told me that." He went further, claiming that when he brought certain information to someone's attention — presumably related to the investigation — "he became a different person. He was clearly terrified." Terrified. That's the word Tucker used. Not concerned. Not cautious. Terrified.
Let that sit for a second. We're talking about the investigation into the July 2024 rally where 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, grazed Trump's ear, and killed Corey Comperatore — a father and firefighter who died shielding his family. An investigation into how that happened, who failed, and what was missed. And according to Tucker Carlson, that investigation got buried.
Now here's where it gets messy. Dan Bongino — who Tucker named as his source — came out swinging. Bongino called Tucker's accusations "seriously one of the most delusional things" and flat-out accused Carlson of "lying" about their conversation. Bongino even released text message exchanges to contradict Carlson's version of events. So either Tucker is making things up, or Bongino is doing damage control. Pick your poison.
Carlson also claimed to have possession of Thomas Matthew Crooks' social media posts — posts that the FBI under previous director Chris Wray's administration allegedly said didn't exist. If true, that's a bombshell on its own. The FBI told the American public the shooter had no meaningful social media footprint, and Tucker says he's got the receipts proving otherwise. Current FBI Director Kash Patel has not publicly commented on whether the Butler investigation is active or closed.
This story is getting almost zero coverage from mainstream outlets. Shocking. A major media figure accuses the president of shutting down the investigation into his own attempted murder, the named source calls him a liar on the record, and CNN can't find five minutes between their Trump-is-a-dictator segments to cover it.
Here's what bothers me. Why would a president shut down an investigation into someone trying to kill him? There are only two reasons. Either the investigation was going nowhere and it was a bureaucratic cleanup — boring but plausible. Or the investigation was finding something so explosive that burying it was preferable to letting it see daylight. Tucker clearly believes it's the second option. Bongino clearly wants you to believe Tucker is unhinged.
We still don't have a complete public accounting of what happened in Butler. We don't know how a 20-year-old with a rifle got a rooftop position within shooting distance of a presidential candidate. We don't have a satisfying answer for the security failures that day. And now two of the most prominent voices in conservative media are calling each other liars over whether the investigation into all of it was killed.
Somebody is lying. And whoever it is, the American people — and Corey Comperatore's family — deserve the truth more than either of these guys deserves to win a news cycle.