I suppose there have always been nuts and cranks on the fringes of our political life, but it is hard to recall a more bizarre trifecta of conspiracy freaks than the new team of Trump, RFK Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard. Yesterday, Trump added the other two to his so-called “transition team.”
Each traffics in their own brands of baseless disinformation claims, some of which overlap in Venn digram style; thus their alliance.
Among his many crazed allegations, Kennedy denounces the “CIA's takeover of the American press.”
As collated by NPR, “Wi-Fi causes cancer and "leaky brain," Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan. Antidepressants are to blame for school shootings, he mused during an appearance with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Chemicals in the water supply could turn children transgender, he told right-wing Canadian psychologist and podcaster Jordan Peterson, echoing a false assertion made by serial fabulist Alex Jones. AIDS may not be caused by HIV, he has suggested multiple times. There's no credible evidence for any of these assertions or for Kennedy's longest-running false claims: that vaccines cause autismand are more harmful than the diseases they're designed to protect against.”
Tulsi Gabbard, as reported by the Guardian, spread “a discredited claim about Hillary Clinton that previously saw Gabbard lodge then drop a $50m defamation suit in a new book” as she sought to be named Donald Trump’s running mate.
Gabbard accuses Democrats of making up “a conspiracy theory that [Trump] was ‘colluding’ with the Russians to win the election” in 2016.: “Hillary Clinton used a similar tactic against me when I ran for president in 2020, accusing me of being ‘groomed by the Russians’.”
Gabbard openly spreads Russian talking points against Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself in the war.
“While it is one thing for Gabbard to voice her own views, this becomes rather problematic considering her position as a Commissioned Officer in the US Army Reserve and the potential for her to serve Russian government interests as a useful idiot — a term often attributed to Lenin, and which describes a naïve person who can be used to further a political cause without necessarily properly comprehending it,” argues the Poland-based New Eastern Europe journal.
Meanwhile, of course, Trump is the Conspiracy Theorist in Chief, with his Guinness World Record of tens of thousands of lies, many of which revolve around the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection that he incited.
These three are indeed strange bedfellows.
HEADLINES:
New federal indictment filed against Trump in federal Jan. 6 case (WP)
CNN Lands Kamala Harris-Tim Walz Interview, Their First Since Becoming New Democratic Ticket (Deadline)
Trump Plans to Put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard on Transition Team (NYT)
American agents of misinformation: Tulsi Gabbard, Russian propaganda and article 88 (NEE)
Hundreds of former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers endorse Harris (WP)
Maryland Senate race in a dead heat, poll finds (Politico)
Judge orders pause on Biden program that offers legal status to spouses of US citizens (AP)
Trump and Harris Embody a Stark Partisan Divide on Fighting Poverty (NYT)
Zuckerberg says Biden administration pressured Meta to censor COVID-19 content (Reuters)
Why the Telegram app is at the center of founder’s arrest in Paris (AP)
Lowe's becomes latest company to dial back DEI efforts aimed at LGBTQ groups (NBC)
Iran’s supreme leader opens door to negotiations with United States over Tehran’s nuclear program (AP)
Polio Vaccines Arrive in Gaza, but Distributing Them Is the Next Challenge (NYT)
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, says the near-term risk of a broader war in the Middle East has eased off slightly after Israel and Hezbollah exchanged cross-border fire without further escalation. (Reuters)
Ukrainian pilots fly F-16 warplanes in combat for first time in fight against Russia (USA Today)
Russia warns the United States of the risks of World War Three (Reuters)
An Idaho man holds the world record for holding Guinness World Records. David Rush owns 181 world records — and counting. (AP)
Francis Ford Coppola: ‘I Have Nothing Left to Lose’ (Rolling Stone)
OpenAI could launch 'Strawberry' AI for advanced reasoning (Baha)
When A.I.’s Output Is a Threat to A.I. Itself (NYT)
Police officers are starting to use AI chatbots to write crime reports. Will they hold up in court? (AP)
‘I’m Trump All The Way,’ Says Man Who Will Die From Mishandling Fireworks Months Before Election (The Onion)
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