An absence of medical records or official accounts has stirred confusion, but a Times video and trajectory analysis indicates a bullet, not debris, wounded the former president.
People seem to be making a lot of distinction about whether it was the bullet or shrapnel from something the bullet hit. I don't see how it matters. Someone took a shot at him and got close enough that his ear got tagged. I hate the guy, but this is an academic distinction that doesn't really matter.
My personal conspiracy theory is that he wasn't hit by anything but instead a secret service agent accidentally hurt his ear when they piled on top of him.
It doesn't matter. Bullets are scary. Shrapnel is scary. What's really ridiculous is his refusal to participate in the investigation. He turned a nothing into a something.
I don't think it was that, but it was unclear whether he had been grazed by a bullet or hit by a piece of shrapnel generated when a bullet hit an object near him, and the campaign was far from transparent about it