Famed Navy SEAL pushes back after Trump amplifies baseless bin Laden conspiracy theory
The response from the former Navy SEAL came after the president on Tuesday retweeted a QAnon-linked account that promoted a baseless conspiracy theory alleging that bin Laden is still alive and his body double was instead killed. The account has since been suspended. Trump retweeted another video on Wednesday promoting conspiracy theories about bin Laden’s death.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately comment.
O’Neill, a Trump supporter who was banned from all Delta flights in August after he published a photo of himself not wearing a mask in the cabin, pushed back against the conspiracy theory in several tweets.
“Shit. I just found out that I killed Osama bin Johnson. Drinks are on me, I guess…” O’Neill added Tuesday evening.
Bin Laden was killed in a 2011 raid by SEAL Team Six on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, ordered by then-President Barack Obama.
Trump, meanwhile, has attacked his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, over the bin Laden raid.
The president tweeted in September that Biden “opposed the mission to take out Osama bin Laden.” He wrote in a follow-up tweet that, “If it were up to Joe, bin Laden and Soleimani would still be alive,” referencing his decision to kill Iranian paramilitary commander Qassem Soleimani last year.
Biden was reported to be a skeptic of a possible raid, though the former vice president’s account of his advice to Obama has evolved.
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