Donald Trump believes crazy conspiracy theories. He believes that Barack Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim. He believes that millions of illegal voters were responsible for his big popular vote loss. He thinks Ted Cruz’s father helped to kill JFK. He believes there is a secret deep state conducting a “soft coup” against his regime, that thousands of Muslims danced in New Jersey following 9/11, and of course that President Obama tapped his phones to listen in on his secret plans.
And those are just the conspiracy theories Trump has admitted to in public. Has anyone asked him about the moon landings? Nazi bases under the North Pole? Santa Claus?
It shouldn’t be surprising that Trump supporters are just as prone to wacko conspiracy theories as their leader. And now the alt-wrong is embracing a theory that says Russia never hacked the DNC … because America did it.
It didn't take even 48 hours for an online conspiracy theory to make its way from the reply section of the WikiLeaks Twitter account to the prime-time airwaves on Fox News and top conservative radio programs.
Here’s the start of the crazy train. A single tweet from a Glenn Greenwald, Julian Assange fan.
And while the speed of light may seem quickish, the speed of conspiracy is much, much higher. Now “conservatives” (which means whatever Trump says it means) are ready to absolve the Russians and blast those minions of the terrible deep state CIA.
No. I don’t. Seriously. I don’t. This whole thing is like finding Lizzie Borden standing over her parents with a bloody hatchet, then having someone call out “say, doesn’t that George Washington fellow also have one of those?”
But … evidence, logic, the next thing you’ll be expecting of Republicans is a belief in science.
The theory spread so fast conservative radio giant Rush Limbaugh had time to tout it on his show on March 7, when he denied Trump had any Russian campaign ties to Russia.
"The CIA has the ability to hack anybody they want and make it look like the Russians are doing it or make it look like the ChiComs are doing it or make it look like the Israelis are doing it," Limbaugh said, using a slang term for Chinese communists.
It’s wonderful how competent/incompetent the CIA is depending on how they’re needed to fit the theory of the moment. The CIA says Russia did it. It could be some fat kid in a basement, what does the CIA know? The CIA could have done it themselves. Yes, they are well known to be all powerful.
It’s not just Trump supporters inside America who love this theory.
It was picked up by Russian state-sponsored English media outlets like Sputnik, which gleefully mocked "evidence-free" accusations that Russia hacked the election, linking to tweets "chock-full of sarcasm and memes" about the CIA's capabilities.
And how do we know when a conspiracy theory has reached full, tossing a thousand seeds into the winds of madness, flower?
It breached fully into the mainstream when Fox News host Sean Hannity floated the idea on Wednesday, first on his radio show, then on his Twitter account.
"The CIA, according to these WikiLeaks leaks, uses stolen malware to attribute cyberattacks to nations like Russia," Hannity told radio listeners. "In other words, what they're saying is the CIA can actually blame Russia for an attack on an American, because they'll put their fingerprints all over the attack. Meanwhile it came from within."
Now Sean Hannity has taken his Twitter account private, meaning that only those he’s given permission can participate in his online lobster boil. Because while the CIA can magic-hack any server in the world, they absolutely can’t get past Sean’s Twitter security.
Hannity has lined up some of the world’s greatest experts to discuss the issue.
Retired Army Lietenant Colonel Anthony Schaffer, a torture advocate who has floated Benghazi and 9-11 conspiracy theories in the past, took it a step further, claiming he had unnamed sources described the conspiracy to him.
"Sean, we did it. Not me, but our guys, former members of NSA, retired intelligence officers used these tools to break in there and get the information out. That’s what the Democrats don’t want to talk about because it doesn’t fit their narrative," Shaffer said.
Anthony Schaffer would be the “Able Danger” guy—the guy who said his secret team had uncovered the 9/11 hijackers before the attack, but wasn’t allowed to tell anyone because of silly bureaucratic concerns. What did an investigation of Schaffer’s claims determine?
In December 2006, a sixteen-month investigation by the US Senate Intelligence Committee concluded "Able Danger did not identify Mohamed Atta or any other 9/11 hijacker at any time prior to September 11, 2001", and dismissed other assertions that have fueled 9/11 conspiracy theories.
That makes Schaffer the perfect go-to guy on this new theory. He’s also managed to concoct a theory that kept Congress going in loops for a year and a half. That’s valuable job experience.
"You're telling me this whole Russian story that the media has been running with for months and months and months — that it was our people that did it, and they put the fingerprints of the Russians on it?" Hannity asked.
"That's right," Shaffer said.
The next step is inevitable. Just keep your eye on Trump’s twitter feed … if he doesn’t take it private.