WaPo: Trump retweets right-wing provocateur known for pushing false conspiracy theories

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Trump retweets right-wing provocateur known for pushing false conspiracy theories

By Samantha Schmidt August 15 at 7:53 AM

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Late Monday, after thousands of protesters flocked to Trump Tower for the president’s first trip back to the Manhattan penthouse in seven months, the president took to Twitter.

First, he wrote that it felt “good to be home.” Next, he retweeted a post from an eyebrow-raising Twitter account: that of right-wing provocateur Jack Posobiec, a supporter of President Trump known for advancing a number of conspiracy theories, such as those tied to “Pizzagate” and the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.

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Posobiec, who describes himself as a “Republican political operative,” celebrated the president’s retweet, thanking him on Twitter. But then he was faced with a barrage of tweets calling out his connections to far-right groups and ideologies.

Throughout the night, Posobiec pushed back against characterizations of him as “alt-right,” and said he has consistently disavowed white nationalists and displays of violence. He pointed out a “Rally for Peace” he helped lead in light of the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.).

That did not stop many critics on Twitter from lashing out

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Is It Time to Call Trump Mentally Ill?

Richard A. Friedman FEB. 17, 2017

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Earlier, in a Periscope video posted to YouTube, Posobiec spoke about the aftermath of the Charlottesville rally, claiming it had become “massive propaganda” for the left, and that the mainstream media was “fanning the flames of this violence.”

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Posobiec is a former Navy Reserve intelligence officer who has previously served as a leader of a pro-Trump grass-roots organization, and until recently worked for right-wing website The Rebel.

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But his name came into the news much earlier, particularly during “Pizzagate,” a conspiracy theory that claimed Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief harbored a child sex ring in a pizza restaurant in D.C. The bizarre falsehood spread through various Internet channels and social media, and ultimately led a gunman in December to fire an assault-style rifle as he searched the pizzeria, Comet Ping Pong.

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