Ford’s Theatre has angrily fired back at Donald Trump after he made what seemed to be allegations that the venue was somehow responsible for Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. During a short press gathering earlier this week, Trump had said, “Lincoln was shot on Ford’s Theatre’s watch… is all I’m saying. When you look at the facts…I’m going to Cinemark. Maybe that’s just me, though.”
Curator Ian Wood issued a short but pointed rebuttal:
“It’s simply, really. United States Presidents…We kept them safe…generally. Ford’s Theatre was built in 1833 and there have been 43 men elected President in this country. Outside of that one time, Ford’s Theatre has had a perfect record of keeping United States Presidents safe. And I guess there also was that time in 1893 where it collapsed and killed 22 people, but it wasn’t really being used as a theater at that point and none of them were Presidents, so that doesn’t really count, either. If you don’t count those instances, it’s arguably the safest theater ever built… worldwide.”
To those critics that point to the Lincoln assassination as a potential blemish on the record of Ford’s Theatre, Wood replied, “Shots were fired, mistakes may have been made, but he was alive when he left here. Talk to the Petersen House across the street about that.”