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By Martha McHardy
US News Reporter
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Donald Trump has responded after the FBI finally confirmed that the former president was hit by a bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.
"What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject's rifle," the bureau said on Friday.
Responding to the statement, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "I assume that's the best apology that we'll get from Director Wray, but it is fully accepted!"
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Trump's supporters also chimed in. "There are just no words to describe how disappointed I am in my country. Every day I am more ashamed. I can't believe I live in a country where the FBI director pushed a conspiracy theory that President Trump wasn't hit with a bullet. We are surrounded by demons," far-right activist Laura Loomer said.
Some law enforcement officials—including FBI Director Wray—had raised doubts over whether the former president had been hit with a bullet in the attack, which caused injuries to his ear.
"As I said, I think with respect to former President Trump, there's some question about whether or not it's bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear," Wray testified before Congress earlier this week. Newsweek has contacted the FBI via email.
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In an interview with The New York Post in the days after the shooting, Trump said that a bullet had hit him, taking a chunk out of his ear.
"The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle," he said. "I'm not supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be dead."
Trump's physician, Ronny Jackson, also confirmed that the former president was hit by a bullet, writing in a statement: "There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet."
"FBI Director [Christopher] Wray should have never played into Democrats lies and conspiracy theories suggesting it was a piece of glass or fragment that struck President Trump," GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X, posting Jackson's statement.
Following Wray's testimony to Congress, Trump had lashed out at the FBI director, reasserting that it was in fact a bullet that struck his ear.
"FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress yesterday that he wasn't sure if I was hit by shrapnel, glass, or a bullet.
"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 wrote.
"No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!"
The FBI is now seeking to interview Trump in its investigation of the assassination attempt to obtain a victim statement—a standard part of the investigation because he is a crime victim, according to a U.S. official.
The agency has previously made it clear it has always considered the shooting an attempted assassination of the former president.
"Since the day of the attack, the FBI has been consistent and clear that the shooting was an attempted assassination of former President Trump which resulted in his injury, as well as the death of a heroic father and the injuries of several other victims," the agency said in its initial statement released in response to questions about Wray's testimony on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
During his testimony, Wray revealed new details about the attack on Trump by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, including that he searched for details of the John F. Kennedy shooting from his laptop and flew a drone in the area near the rally two hours before the former president took the stage.
Crooks was shot and killed by Secret Service agents at the scene after the shooting.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday following the attack.
In her testimony to Congress, she said that the assassination attempt against Trump was "the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades."
Update 7/27/24 11.30 a.m. ET: The headline of this article was updated.
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