Tag: conspiracy theories
Trump Touts Polio Shot, Then Falsely Links Vaccines To Autism

Trump Touts Polio Shot, Then Falsely Links Vaccines To Autism

During a Monday press conference, President-elect Donald Trump told reporters that despite concerns over Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his anti-vaccine pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the polio vaccine is safe.

“You’re not going to lose the polio vaccine. That’s not going to happen,” Trump said. “I saw what happened with polio. I have friends that were very much affected by that. I have friends from many years ago, and .. they’re still in not such good shape because of it,” the 78-year-old added.

The topic was raised due to reports that Kennedy’s lawyer filed a petition for the Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval of the polio vaccine. The deadly viral disease has impacted 12 million people worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease control, and an estimated 300,000 Americans are still living with mild to severe symptoms including fatigue, muscle weakness, and pain.

Kennedy will be on Capitol Hill this week to meet with senators and shore up support for upcoming confirmation hearings for his proposed role in Trump’s Cabinet. According to The Wall Street Journal, the notorious vaccine skeptic plans to downplay the topic entirely despite his public, controversial, and debunked views on vaccines and their effects. Kennedy will reportedly also promote Trump’s views on abortion and “talk up healthy food preventing chronic disease.”

Trump did express his long-standing skepticism about vaccine mandates during Monday’s press conference and promoted the false claim of a link between vaccines and autism.

“I don’t like mandates. I’m not a big mandate person,” Trump said. “You take a look at autism today versus 20, 25 years ago, it’s like, not even believable. So we’re going to have reports.”

When Time magazine named Trump “Person of the Year” on December 12, the accompanying interview noted that he and Kennedy Jr. would have a “big discussion” about child vaccines, and he claimed that “the autism rate is at a level that nobody even believed possible.”

Scientific research has debunked any association between vaccines and autism numerous times over the years.

Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, the supposed link between vaccines and autism remains a prominent point of contention for some crunchy to alt-right talking heads, with Trump and Kennedy among the most high-profile proponents of the debunked theory. Trump’s newest comments are likely to fuel the debate further, especially as vaccine hesitancy continues to rise.

This could have lasting implications on future public health policy, especially in the context of emerging diseases and the ongoing fight against COVID-19.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

January 6 riot

New Inspector General's Report Debunks January 6 Conspiracy Theories

The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Inspector General's Office has released a report detailing the "handling of its confidential human sources and intelligence collection efforts in the "lead-up" to January 6, 2021.

The report's release has inspired a variety of responses. Some MAGA Republicans view the report as proof that FBI agents, on January 6, 2021, ventured to the U.S. Capitol Building that day in the hope of making MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump supporters look bad.

But according to HuffPost reporter Michael Delaney, the report "debunks" claims the FBI engaged in illegal behavior.

In a December 12 tweet, Trump supporter Greg Price wrote, "BREAKING: The FBI had 26 confidential human sources at the Capitol on January 6, including four who entered the Capitol building and 13 who entered the 'restricted area' around the Capitol, according to a just released DOJ Inspector General report."

Vice-president-elect JD Vance, responding to Price's tweet, wrote, "For those keeping score at home, this was labeled a dangerous conspiracy theory months ago."

But Delaney tweeted that the report is a "debunking" of a conspiracy theory — not proof that it has any merit.

Delaney posted, " The underlying report here says there were no undercover FBI agents at the Capitol and that the informants had not been asked by the FBI to get involved, break laws, or incite the crowd. The report is a thorough debunking of the conspiracy theory Vance is describing."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

RFK Jr. and Sean Hannity

Fox Promotes RFK Jr -- Whose Lunacy Could Exact A Terrible Cost

Fox News irresponsibly championed notorious anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s potential role overseeing federal health policy in a second Trump administration. In the final days of the presidential campaign, the dire impact he could have on the American public has now come fully into view.

Fox hosts have spent the last 18 months building up in the minds of their audience members a wackadoo conspiracy theorist who has blamed self-described “cognitive problems” on having a literal worm in his brain as part of a play to return Donald Trump to the White House. The network promoted Kennedy as a potential spoiler in the Democratic presidential primary, then lavished him with praise when he ended his independent candidacy and endorsed Trump.

The network’s hosts even touted Kennedy’s health views as, in Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt’s words, “music to every mom’s ears,” while hiding from viewers his disturbing record of spreading unfounded claims falsely linking childhood vaccinations and autism and his attacks on the COVID-19 vaccine as “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” Kennedy’s advocacy reportedly helped drive down vaccination rates in American Samoa, triggering “one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent memory.”

Trump and Kennedy have both said in recent days that Kennedy will play a major part in a potential second Trump administration. Trump has said that Kennedy will be permitted to “go wild on health” and “go wild on the medicines,” while Kennedy has alleged the former president “has promised” him oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services and agencies under its purview, which include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

Kennedy’s public statements — and those of other Republican leaders about his potential role — suggest that the consequences could prove disastrous.

  • Kennedy’s “rising influence was reflected” in an appearance by Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick, who said on CNN he had come to doubt the safety of vaccines following a conversation with Kennedy and that he approved of Kennedy getting access to federal data about vaccines and making recommendations. Jerome M. Adams, who served as U.S. surgeon general under Trump, said in response, “It’s hard to implement your other political priorities if you’re busy dealing with a measles or polio outbreak.”
  • Kennedy said on social media: “On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.” Water fluoridation, which federal officials endorsed more than 70 years ago, strengthens teeth and reduces cavities, according to the CDC. A federal agency said earlier this year that there is “moderate confidence” in a link between fluoride levels double the recommended limit in drinking water and lower IQ in children.
  • Trump told a reporter on Tuesday that advising water systems to remove fluoride “sounds okay to me” and that he is open to banning vaccines.
  • Kennedy has reportedly recommended Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo to the Trump transition team as a potential candidate for HHS secretary. Lapado has fought with federal regulators over the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine and earned notoriety for spreading health misinformation and for his fringe associations.
  • Charlene Bollinger, a longtime Kennedy friend who recently said she is working with him to advise the Trump transition team, is a fringe commentator who describes cancer as “just an imbalance” and whose social media account endorsed threads praising Adolf Hitler and pushing claims about a “Jew World Order.”
  • Kennedy recently appeared in a pro-Trump ad for a group that works to oppose in vitro fertilization, which it has labeled “evil” and “immoral.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Mike Flynn's QAnon Cronies Will Be 'Special Advisers' In Trump White House

Mike Flynn's QAnon Cronies Will Be 'Special Advisers' In Trump White House

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has suggested that his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom he pardoned at the end of his first term, will be involved in his potential second administration, telling Flynn at a May 2023 event: “We’re going to bring you back.”

During an October 14 social media discussion that included QAnon figures, Ben Moore — a QAnon influencer known online as “Sun Tzu” — predicted that Flynn would be appointed as a “special adviser” to Trump during a potential second Trump administration, and Flynn would lead a “special advisory board” that “brings child traffickers to justice.”

Flynn and his group, America’s Future, have been increasingly tied to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Several QAnon figures and conspiracy theorists have served as advisory board members for the group, including Moore.

Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon has also floated the idea of Flynn in a second Trump administration.

During the October 14 discussion, held on X (formerly Twitter), Moore specifically floated himself and other America’s Future members for Trump's “special advisory board” — including QAnon-affiliated figures Brian Gamble and Liz Crokin, conspiracy theorist Lara Logan, and election denier Ivan Raiklin.

Later in the discussion, Moore even suggested using “nooses” against people who “try to take over our republic.”

BEN MOORE (QANON INFLUENCER AND AMERICA’S FUTURE ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER): I'm going to think big. I'm going to think proactively in this situation. Trump is going to get reelected one way or the other. OK? The people that have been on the forefront of this fight, exposing child trafficking, are going to be the forefront of the justice arm, the arm of justice. That's going to be people like Liz Crokin, Mike Smith, Brian Gamble. All right? Don't think for a moment that Gen. Flynn's not going to get appointed to a position to expose and to execute justice on these people. OK?

I know Ivan Raiklin. I love Ivan. Love Ivan. Had so many talks with him. And I know Liz has too, like, [UNINTELLIGIBLE] or someone — I literally talked to Ivan for four to five hours straight. Dude is one of the most brilliant guys I know. He's a Green Beret, and he's a lawyer. He's dangerous, he's deadly, he's effective. OK? But what I'm going to tell you guys is that people like Ivan Raiklin, Liz Crokin, Mike Smith, Brian Gamble, will be on the board of justice that brings child traffickers to justice. And Gen. Flynn will be leading the way. He'll be appoint to a position that does not need to be approved by Congress. Because if it's a position like national security director that needs to be approved by Congress, they're going to try to jam it up.

Trump is going to make him a special adviser, and then Flynn's going to have his team. And I'm going to tell you who's on his team. Everyone that's on the board of advisers for America's Future Project to Defend and Protect Children is going to be on Flynn's team. And they are the people that are awake, that know what the fuck's going on. Sorry for my language.

And there's — you guys have no clue. And I am being braggadocious right now. OK? I am predicting some things that are going to happen before it happens because I am confident. I know that God ultimately wins, and God is going to expose these people and people that have been laughed at, that have been just, you know, mocked, like Liz Crokin, Lara Logan, Mike Smith, they're going to be on this team that's going to be on this special advisory board that Trump has that's going to bring to justice these child traffickers.

And it's not going to be low-level child traffickers. It's going to be high-level. It's going to be the people that are in politics. It's going to be presidents of countries. It's going to be people that are in executive positions of countries around the world that are child traffickers. And people like Liz and Mike, who we can trust, because they've given it all, they've sacrificed everything for these children and for the republic, they're going to bring it to light. That's what's going to happen.

And so anyone that's listening, anyone with Media Matters, anyone with, you know, all these screwballs that are losers that are listening, that's going to happen. And there's nothing that can stop what is coming. So that's all I want to say. I know what's going to happen. I have it all mapped out, and I'll probably be on that team as well. So — and if I'm on the team, I'm doing it for free. I don't want to take any money from it. I just want to see justice. I want to see the children vindicated for fucking once, for fucking once. All these children that have been trafficked, I want to see them vindicated. I'm going to do it for free. If I get offered money, I'm going to decline any kind of payment. I just — I'm going to work for free. I'm going to work for free. So there it is.

X SPACE PARTICIPANT: I want to donate the ropes and the bullets. I'll donate the ropes and the bullets.

MOORE: No. Not the bullets, the nooses.

...

MOORE: The ropes and the nooses.

...

MOORE: I know what you're talking about, Stella, but it's the nooses. We're going old school on this. I am an advocate for everything that Ivan Raiklin says on this. And so just trust me. If you harm children and you try to take over our republic, there's going to be hell to pay.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Shop our Store

Headlines

Editor's Blog

Corona Virus

Trending

World