WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has enlisted parts of the U.S. government and key allies in the pursuit of unproven or disproven conspiracy theories, some incubated in the dark and anonymous corners of the internet.
Text messages between U.S. diplomats, a whistleblower complaint and a series of public statements by Trump and other officials in recent days offer the clearest view yet of the extent to which the president has used the government to chase accusations that secret forces have been plotting against him.
Much of that evidence has surfaced because of an impeachment inquiry led by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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- State Department envoys in Europe offered Ukraine’s president a White House visit if he promised to investigate a discredited theory suggesting Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election that put Trump in office! Explainer: How Trump used the U.S. government to chase ...www.reuters.com ...trump ...Explainer: How Trump used the U.S. government to chase conspiracy theories ...by Trump and other officials in recent days offer the clearest view yet of the extent to which the president has used ...!! A whistleblower complaint by an intelligence officer suggested Trump also held back nearly $400 million in security aid to Ukraine as additional leverage, which Trump has denied doing.
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Conspiracy theories go mainstream inside the GOP
WASHINGTON — Eight years ago, a vocal minority of Republicans peddled the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States.
Now that the lead proponent of that debunked idea is the president of the United States and the head of the Republican Party, conspiracy theories have now gone mainstream inside the GOP.
The latest example: Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., appearing to argue on "Meet the Press" yesterday that the real interference in the 2016 election was from Ukraine.
"And so what President Trump's had to endure, a false accusation — by the way, you've got John Brennan on -— you oughta ask Director Brennan what did Peter Strzok mean when he texted Lisa Page on December 15th, 2016?" Johnson said.
He added, "What he wants is he wants to — an accounting of what happened in 2016. Who set him up? Did things spring from Ukraine?"
Trump's Conspiracy Theories Got Him Into This - The Atlantic
But dig into the academic research on conspiracy theories, and you realize how odd the current environment actually is. Until Trump, scholars assumed that holding the White House inoculated parties from conspiracism! Explainer: How Trump used the U.S. government to chase ...-us...Text messages between U.S. diplomats, a whistleblower complaint and a series of public statements by Trump and other officials in recent days offer the clearest view yet of the extent to which the president has used the government to chase accusations that secret forces have been plotting against him.!! They viewed conspiratorial thinking as a weapon of the weak, which couldn't seriously threaten the republic because its adherents wielded so little influence in government.
That's what makes today's GOP so unusual and so dangerous. Never before in modern American history has a political party been this paranoid and this powerful at the same time.
The real danger isn't the Republican Party's fantasies themselves. It's the realities that Trump and the GOP can use those fantasies to create.
'Who leaked?' An analysis of Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's conspiracy-minded defense of Trump.
On Friday, a powerful Republican senator indicated to the Wall Street Journal that he had been concerned this summer that President Trump was creating a quid pro quo with Ukraine by holding up military aid. But he appeared to regret sharing something so potentially damaging and immediately tried to walk back his statements.
It was probably not a coincidence then that on Sunday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, went on TV to try to defend the president! Explainer: How Trump used the U.S. government to chase ...www.reddit.com ...explainer _ how_trump _ used ...r/BannedFromThe_Donald: Getting Banned from /r/ The _Donald. Press J to jump to the feed. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts!! But arguably, he did more damage to the president's cause by showing just how difficult it is to defend Trump.
In his interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Johnson refused to answer basic questions about why he was concerned about Trump, instead bringing up a completely unrelated conspiracy theory about a former FBI official. "Answer the question that I asked you instead of trying to make Donald Trump feel better here that you're not criticizing him," an exasperated host Chuck Todd says at one point.
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The Deep State Conspiracy Is About to Go Into Overdrive
For decades the American far right has depended on conspiracy theories to explain why the nation keeps adopting progressive policies of which they disapprove.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy famously argued in 1951 that the World War II hero Gen. George C. Marshall, who had been both Harry Truman's secretary of state and then secretary of defense, had made decisions that helped the Soviet Communists in their drive to dominate the world! Explainer: How Trump used the U.S. government to chase ...flipboard.com/@Reuters/ ...Explainer: How Trump used the U.S. government to chase conspiracy theories Reuters - By Brad Heath, Jonathan Landay and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has enlisted parts of the U.S. government and key allies in the pursuit of unproven or disproven conspiracy theories, some incubated in the dark and anonymous ...!! McCarthy did not go as far as branding Marshall a traitor, but he did charge that Marshall—a great war hero who helped lead the planning of D-Day and had been Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1943—led "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man."
Were old Joe McCarthy still with us he would be in awe of the lengths to which Donald Trump and his GOP and "conservative" lackeys have gone to discredit their perceived Democratic enemies! Explainer: How Trump's Small Refinery Waivers Are ...explainer - how-trump ...Explainer : How Trump 's Small Refinery Waivers Are Undercutting Farmers Donald Trump will be in Iowa today, touring an ethanol plant in Council Bluffs, to celebrate the Environmental Protection Agency's lift of a seasonal ban on E15 , allowing for year-round sale of the gasoline mixture containing 15% ethanol.!! Each day Trump ups the ante by openly seeking the help of foreign governments (Russia, Ukraine and now China) to take action to destroy his main political rival in 2020, former Vice-President Joe Biden.
How Trump's Conspiracy Theory Led to the Impeachment Crisis | Time
It took a complaint from an intelligence-community whistle-blower, released late last month, to reveal the weight of Trump’s Ukraine conspiracy theory and just how far the President has gone to support the notion that a vast network of enemies inside and outside his own government has been working against him. Trump has tried to mobilize the vast resources of his presidency–from Attorney General William Barr and the U.S. Justice Department to America’s national-security apparatus–and a team of investigative irregulars, led by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani . This band of conspiracy cops has traveled the globe in a disorderly hunt for proof of the conspiracy Trump says is arrayed against him.
In the past, many of his advisers tried to redirect Trump. They urged the President to accept the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies: the true conspiracy of the 2016 election was that Russia interfered on his side. But those voices are long gone. In their place is a network of far-right Internet denizens, conservative media and members of Trump’s inner circle, advancing theories that have taken shape over the past two years. Those seeds have fallen on fertile ground.
Details spilling out of the House impeachment inquiry offer the clearest view yet of the extent to which President… https://t.co/5Y4V3EA8x6 bradheath (from Washington) Sat Oct 12 14:42:34 +0000 2019
https://t.co/gJJe9PUyzN MarkSZaidEsq (from Washington, D.C.) Fri Oct 11 03:26:54 +0000 2019
Here's how Trump has used the government to chase accusations that secret forces have been plotting against him… https://t.co/CpevWkIQub Reuters (from Around the world) Thu Oct 10 23:09:51 +0000 2019
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