Schooled on Benghazi and Pizzagate, Trump team is heavy on conspiracy theorists
In the early hours of July 10, D.C. resident Seth Rich was fatally shot near his home.
Police said the 27-year-old Democratic staffer was probably the victim of an attempted robbery. But Monica Crowley, a Fox News analyst who recently joined President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team, suggested a different culprit: Hillary Clinton.
“Maybe, in fact, it wasn’t a robbery,” Crowley said Aug. 10 on “The O’Reilly Factor.” “Maybe there was something more sinister here. . . . The question going forward, I think for Mrs. Clinton, for everybody here, is what else is out there? Who has it? Whose life may be in danger?”
Those comments are typical of the perspective Crowley brings to her appointment as senior director for strategic communications for the National Security Council. But it’s not just her. Many of Trump’s highest-level appointees have a history of publicly promoting conspiratorial, outlandish and fringe beliefs, particularly about Muslims, the Clinton family and the environment — unproven narratives that remain stubbornly alive on the Internet despite being debunked by the mainstream media.
Those who promote such narratives include top Trump national security staffers, advisers and Cabinet designees, many of whom will enter the executive branch with long records of public statements from their careers as conservative commentators and politicians. Their open and shared tendency toward repeating false narratives, a more prevalent theme in this administration than previous ones, raises questions about what role debunked and discredited theories might play in Trump’s decisions as president.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powe...4e800ef2a63_story.html?utm_term=.bc23f9485adc
In the early hours of July 10, D.C. resident Seth Rich was fatally shot near his home.
Police said the 27-year-old Democratic staffer was probably the victim of an attempted robbery. But Monica Crowley, a Fox News analyst who recently joined President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team, suggested a different culprit: Hillary Clinton.
“Maybe, in fact, it wasn’t a robbery,” Crowley said Aug. 10 on “The O’Reilly Factor.” “Maybe there was something more sinister here. . . . The question going forward, I think for Mrs. Clinton, for everybody here, is what else is out there? Who has it? Whose life may be in danger?”
Those comments are typical of the perspective Crowley brings to her appointment as senior director for strategic communications for the National Security Council. But it’s not just her. Many of Trump’s highest-level appointees have a history of publicly promoting conspiratorial, outlandish and fringe beliefs, particularly about Muslims, the Clinton family and the environment — unproven narratives that remain stubbornly alive on the Internet despite being debunked by the mainstream media.
Those who promote such narratives include top Trump national security staffers, advisers and Cabinet designees, many of whom will enter the executive branch with long records of public statements from their careers as conservative commentators and politicians. Their open and shared tendency toward repeating false narratives, a more prevalent theme in this administration than previous ones, raises questions about what role debunked and discredited theories might play in Trump’s decisions as president.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powe...4e800ef2a63_story.html?utm_term=.bc23f9485adc