
Days after Fox News host Jesse Watters echoed Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert’s sentiments and suggested FBI investigation into alleged Russia election meddling is transforming into a coup against President Donald Trump’s administration, another Fox News contributor tried to float a dangerous conspiracy theory about the federal agency.
A Fox News guest host, Kevin Jackson, is making headlines for suggesting the FBI harbored a plot to assassinate the president before he took the office. To back up his unsubstantiated point, the panelist brought up one of the text messages sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok, which said “an insurance policy” would be necessary in case of a Trump victory.
“What was his intent, right?” Jackson asked. “Because that’s exactly what FBI Director, former FBI Director [James] Comey said when he was letting Hillary Clinton off the hook. And his intent, regardless of whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever, it was definitely something.”
Fortunately, “Outnumbered” host Harris Faulkner quickly jumped into action and expressed alarm at Jackson’s speculation, which prompted him to tone down his inflammatory rhetoric a bit.
“Well, I’m just saying, we don’t know what it was,” Jackson continued. “When you say, ‘We’ve got to make sure that this guy doesn’t get in at all cost,’ what does that mean? So I’m saying there’s a spectrum of what does it mean, but one thing that we know for sure, is that he was plotting in an election against a candidate, and there’s FBI fingerprints all over this.”
When Faulkner pressed that “no one has floated any sort of an idea” before, Jackson rebutted by citing “some social media stuff.”
“Oh, it’s been floated,” he exclaimed. “When I talk about this, I’m talking about social media stuff and, you know, that’s out there, I’m not talking about media sources.”
As another panelist Sandra Smith noted, there was “nothing credible” to Jackson’s claim — but the lack of evidence does not make it any less dangerous.
Given the current politically charged climate in the United States, where the president himself has been slammed for sharing debunked Islamophobic videos on his social media account, right-wing conspiracy theories like Jackson’s can have a dire effect.
A man went on TV today, and in front of an audience of millions of right-wing, heavily armed, brainwashed Trump supporters, proclaimed the existence of a plot by the FBI to assassinate Donald Trump.
— John Wright ???? (@TheWrightJohn) December 20, 2017
How can anyone doubt Fox News is trying to incite the second American civil war?
Fox News just aired a segment where a guest declared the FBI was plotting to assassinate Trump to prevent him from gaining the Presidency. This is where we're at. I hope you can sleep at night knowing you threw the election by cowering to Giuliani's people.
— Sandra (@SandyPaws) December 20, 2017
This is so far past insane. It's dangerous. https://t.co/MEEqbOSHzU
— Mindy Fischer Writer (@NastyMindy) December 20, 2017
Thumbnail/Banner Credits: Reuters, Chip East
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