‘You’re not someone’s crazy uncle’: Guthrie challenges Trump on conspiracy theory retweets
WASHINGTON – NBC moderator Savannah Guthrie prodded President Donald Trump Thursday during his town hall when talking about him retweeting conspiracy theories, saying he’s not just “someone’s crazy uncle.”
Guthrie pressed Trump on his penchant for tweets that spread disinformation, including one post he retweeted that contained a conspiracy theory that former Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama orchestrated a cover-up that included the Navy SEAL Team Six faking the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden.
“That was a retweet. That was an opinion of somebody and that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there. People can decide for themselves. I don’t take a position,” Trump said in defending his tweet.
“You’re the president,” Guthrie responded. “You’re not someone’s crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.”
Town hall: Trump refuses to condemn conspiracy group QAnon
The tweet stems from a QAnon-linked conspiracy theory. The account Trump shared the tweet from has reportedly since been suspended. The tweet baselessly alleged “Biden and Obama may have had Seal Team 6 killed” but that bin Laden was still alive, and the man killed in the raid lead by Seal Team 6 was a body double.
Trump then retweeted another video claiming top Obama administration officials conspired to bring bin Laden to Pakistan from Iran for “Obama’s trophy kill.”
There is no factual evidence behind these posts, nor is there any disagreement within the intelligence communities that Navy SEAL Team 6 killed bin Laden in a raid in 2011.
Trump’s tweets resulted in widespread criticism, including from Robert O’Neill, the retired U.S. Navy Seal credited with shooting the al-Qaeda leader.
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“Very brave men said (goodbye) to their kids to go kill Osama bin Laden. We were given the order by President Obama. It was not a body double,” tweeted O’Neill.
Trump continued Thursday that it was just “a retweet. I do a lot of retweets. And frankly, because the media is so fake and so corrupt, if I didn’t have social media … I wouldn’t be able to get the word out.”
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The president’s niece, Mary Trump, who has written a tell-all book denouncing her uncle, had a response to the “crazy uncle” comment.
Trump has retweeted followers of, and several posts from, the conspiracy group QAnon. Meanwhile, he has repeatedly insisted he doesn’t know much about it while sharing unfounded claims from its believers.
Guthrie asked Trump to condemn QAnon, which has been deemed dangerous by the FBI, several times during Thursday’s town hall.
The QAnon conspiracy theory baselessly claims that there is a “deep state” apparatus run by political elites, business leaders and Hollywood celebrities who are also pedophiles and actively working against Trump.
Trump maintained that he didn’t know much about the group, other than that they are “very much against pedophilia.”
After Guthrie pointed to QAnon’s false beliefs, Trump he said he couldn’t rely on her information to be fact.
“I just don’t know about QAnon,” Trump insisted, to which Guthrie responded, “You do know.”
“Haha, so cute,” Trump responded.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, Courtney Subramanian
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