Latest news with #conspiracyTheory
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Jen Psaki mocks Joe Rogan over MAGA white nationalist conspiracy theory and throws strays at new FBI leadership
On her MSNBC show Tuesday, host Jen Psaki mocked Joe Rogan while debunking a MAGA conspiracy theory propagated by the podcaster, which claims that the white supremacist group Patriot Front is actually the FBI. MAGA supporters have long advocated the idea that the Patriot Front is an FBI operation intended to amplify the perceived threat of white nationalist groups. Rogan endorsed this idea on his show as recently as March. Psaki, the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden, played a clip of Rogan claiming that the group disbanded as soon as Kash Patel took over as director of the FBI under President Donald Trump. The host of The Briefing with Jen Psaki then set out why she says the claim was actually false. In the clip, Rogan is seen saying that he and author Matt Taibbi saw a video of Patriot Front, who appear in uniforms with their faces covered, and march carrying flags, and he said he had yelled: 'They're feds!' 'Where's the fat people?' he continues. 'They're all, they're all wearing the same uniform. One guy's got a f***ing drum. Get the f*** out of here! These are feds! The day after Kash Patel gets in, they disband.' Psaki explains that Patriot Front splintered off from the white nationalist group that planned the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, back in 2017, and has since 'traveled all around the country spewing racist and antisemitic hate.' She continued: 'But rather than just condemn the group, right-wing conspiracy theorists and Trump allies have insisted that Patriot Front is actually just the FBI trying to make white nationalism seem like a bigger threat than it actually is.' Psaki noted that it is not just Rogan pushing the idea, but also Elon Musk, as well as multiple members of Congress, including firebrand Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. 'The core of the theory goes like this. The reason this group wore uniforms in mass was to hide the fact that they were secretly FBI agents, obviously,' said Psaki. 'And that once Kash Patel was in charge of the FBI, he would simply fire the agents involved, and the group would cease to exist. That's how it goes.' She then added that Patel was sworn into office in February, and yet this past weekend, Patriot Front held a rally in Kansas City. A further clip of local news footage was then played with the anchor saying: 'The group was in uniform, wearing tan hats, white masks covering their faces, Navy blue shirts, tan pants, and boots. Some were carrying shields.' He continued: 'The flags they carried included upside-down American flags, the Confederate flag, and a flag that identifies the group as the Patriot Front.' Psaki then quipped: 'Hmm, seems very much like Patriot Front still exists!' She then turned her attention to Trump's FBI leadership — Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino. 'I wonder how FBI Director Kash Patel will explain that one. See, FBI Director Patel and his number two, Dan Bongino, have a problem,' said Psaki. 'Both of them have spent years promoting conspiracy theories surrounding the FBI, but now they are actually in charge of the FBI. Now they are the dogs that caught the car.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Oklahoma to require schools to teach Trump's 2020 election conspiracy theories
Oklahoma's public school history teachers will soon be required to teach the disproved conspiracy theory that the Democratic Party stole the 2020 presidential election from President Donald Trump. The Republican-led state's new high school history curriculum says students must learn how to dissect the results of the 2020 election, including learning about alleged mail-in voter fraud, "an unforeseen record number of voters" and "security risks of mail-in balloting." Advancing Trump's debunked claims about his 2020 presidential election loss on young people is one of many changes made by State Superintendent of Education Ryan Walters, including requiring bibles in every classroom. The new curriculum also removed a prior proposal for lessons about George Floyd's murder and Black Lives Matter, and teaches as fact the hotly contested theory that COVID-19 emerged from a lab leak. More: Oklahoma schools superintendent: Bibles will be in classrooms despite lack of funding "These reforms will reset our classrooms back to educating our children without liberal indoctrination," Walters, a former history teacher, wrote in a post on X on April 29. "We're proud to defend these standards, and we will continue to stand up for honest, pro-America education in every classroom." The new curriculum was drafted by a review committee that includes Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based conservative think tank that created the blueprint for a second Trump term, known as Project 2025 and conservative talk show host Dennis Prager. Parents, teachers, Democrats, and even some Republicans in staunchly conservative Oklahoma, oppose the new social studies lessons. "Many of the late additions include historically inaccurate content and do not align with the inclusive, evidence-based approach that is essential to high-quality social studies instruction," wrote Heather Goodenough, the president of the Council for Social Studies, in a public statement. The Oklahoma Department of Education and Walters' office did responded to an inquiry from USA TODAY. Fact check: What's true about the 2020 election, vote counting, Electoral College Oklahoma's new history standards will start in the 2025-2026 school year. Students must be able to "identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of 'bellwether county' trends," the new standard reads. Teachers must adjust their current curriculum to teach the lessons. Former Democratic President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election with 306 electoral votes and a 7 million-vote margin in the popular vote. The right-wing myth that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump, sometimes called the "Big Lie," emerged from Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat. The allegations have been disproven through numerous audits and recounts in several states, court dismissals of lawsuits filed by Trump and his supporters, forensic audits of voting machines and partisan reviews. "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history," said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in a November 2020 statement. "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised." Some Republican lawmakers have also pushed back on claims of widespread fraud. "Nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale, the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP leader in the Senate at the time. Fact check: How we know the 2020 election results were legitimate, not 'rigged' as Donald Trump claims Trump's bogus claims of a stolen election incited his supporters' violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump continued to make false statements about the 2020 election throughout Biden's term, such as wrongly asserting in 2022 that a Pennsylvania court ruling in a case about that year's midterm elections held that the 2020 election was "Rigged." In the second 2024 presidential debate, Trump incorrectly asserted that none of the more than 60 cases he lost in court over the 2020 election were decided on the merits. In fact, 30 were. The accusations of electoral fraud have become very widely accepted by Republican voters although they're rejected by many Republican legal experts and GOP-appointed judges. About one-third of Americans still believed the election was stolen from Trump in Sept. 2023 and a majority of the believers are Republican, according to a survey of about 2,500 adults from the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization Public Religion Research Institute. Oklahoma's new social studies standards are welcomed by Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at the conservative nonprofit organization Defending Education. She said the move shows "the power of a state to transform its education through curriculum" and applauded Walters for "leading the way." "I'm very impressed with the fact that this is made specifically to create critical thinkers," Parshall Perry said in a Fox News interview. "And don't we need more of that in American education?" But not everyone in the GOP is on board. Mike Hunter, a former Oklahoma Republican attorney general, filed a lawsuit on behalf of five family members of students and two public school teachers against the Oklahoma State Department of Education and Walters for the move. They argue that Walters's state Department of Education did not follow proper protocol when passing through the new standards and are asking a judge to consider the new social studies curriculum "invalid, null and void." The lawsuit contends that the new curriculum "directly harms" students because the new standards "do not align with best practices and current understandings set by national organizations and experts in the field." The revised standards also create "a significant burden" on teachers because they are not "aligned with their current understanding of the subject matter" nor aligned with the information in the textbooks they use, the lawsuit argues. State Democrats previously called on lawmakers to reject the proposed new curriciulum. "Right now, the State Superintendent is not focused on improving education outcomes or increasing funding for our public schools. Instead, he's solely focused on boosting his own partisan political agenda with these social studies standards," said Cyndi Munson, a Democratic House Minority Leader in Oklahoma at a press conference. Oklahoma is a majority Republican and conservative state, with 51.7% voters registered as Republicans and 28.4% of voters registered as Democrats in January 2024. Trump received support from about 66% of Oklahoma voters in the 2024 presidential election, according to the Oklahoma State Election Board. Oklahoma Republicans make up an overwhelming majority of both the state Senate and House of Representatives. Oklahoma's Republican Governor Kevin Stitt appointed Walters to the helm of the state's education department in Sept. 2020. Oklahoma voters then elected him for a second term in November 2022. Walters previously taught as a history teacher in McAlester, Oklahoma for eight years and served as the chief executive officer of the nonprofit public charity Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, which runs education programs. Since Walters took over, he has inserted conservative values in Oklahoma's public schools. Many policies he's promoted and supported have ignited controversy across the state and the nation. The state's Department of Education is slated to mandate Bible lessons in its public schools this fall. A proposal to allow a religious charter school in Oklahoma, which opponents say violates the principle of separation of church and state, has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Walters has supported the idea of religious charter schools. This year, Walters has also tried to require families there to provide proof of U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status to enroll in public schools and he's said he plans to strictly enforce the Trump administration's directive to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programming in schools. Contributing: Daniel Funke, USA TODAY Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oklahoma will teach high schoolers 'Big Lie' about 2020 election
The Independent
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Elon Musk endorses conspiracy theory around Biden's cancer diagnosis
President Donald Trump's ally, Elon Musk, endorsed a conspiracy theory about former-President Joe Biden 's cancer diagnosis in a post on X. On Sunday night, right-wing podcast host Clint Russell took to X to accuse the Democrats of forging an 'evil' plan to get Biden elected into office and strategically drop out because of his diagnosis, to pave the way for Kamala Harris to take the reins. The former President was diagnosed with an 'aggressive' prostate cancer on Friday, according to a spokesperson on his behalf. 'So the plan was to run Biden, lie about his cancer and dementia, get him back in the WH, and then have him immediately step aside so Kamala's reign of terror could begin. 'All while trying to jail or kill DJT. Just making sure we're all on the same page, here. These people are evil,' the Liberty Lockdown podcaster scorned on X. Musk, who has become a recent figure of the past after he slipped away from his political duties with the Department of Government Efficiency, simply responded with a 'bullseye' emoji in a dart board, appearing to pledge his support for the bizarre claim. Other members of the Trump clan, including the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., leapt to X to make inaccurate claims. 'What I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???' the eldest tweeted on X Sunday. The businessman appeared to conflate former first lady Jill Biden's doctor of education (EdD) degree from the University of Delaware with a formal medical qualification. Another user, Grummz, went beyond to chime in on the conspiracy debate, writing: 'We came so close to total wipeout in the US. X would be gone, mass censorship the norm, and total woke takeover in gaming and movies. 'And quite possibly WW3. Count your blessings,' he added. Musk's short and curt response came in response to both men's ramblings.
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Wild conspiracy theory links Mountain Dew to 9/11 and other disasters - and the ominous event coming next
A wild conspiracy theory has emerged from the depths of the internet, claiming that new Mountain Dew flavors have foretold deadly disasters across the US. The unusual claim comes from content creator Maverick Bailey, known for his unconventional takes, who believes major events have strangely coincided with the launch of certain Mountain Dew flavors. 'It seems like every time they make a big push with a new flavor, it correlates with a certain event,' Bailey said during a recent interview. He pointed out that Star Spangled Splash was released in 2024, shortly before the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge —its patriotic name eerily echoing the national symbolism of the event. Similarly, hit shelves just three months before 9/11, with theorists drawing a connection between the flavor's name and the emergency alert status that followed the attacks. Bailey also connected other flavors to the Maui wildfires and t he global CrowdStrike blackout that crippled millions of Windows devices last year. Now, he's sounding the alarm over Mountain Dew's upcoming flavor, Baja Midnight, set to launch this summer. 'This new flavor could be referring to the Witching Hour, which is at 12:00,' Bailey shared in an Instagram video. 'My guess is that we are going to see something very weird, on a paranormal level, or something that is going to make us question everything.' He added that it could even signal a devastating cyber blackout. Mountain Dew commented on Bailey's Instagram video discussing the wild theory, saying: 'Keep your voice down.' While Mountain Dew made a joke about the theory, there is no evidence to support any of Bailey's claims Bailey shared his latest update on The Maverick Files, where he outlined connections he's drawn between Mountain Dew flavors and major disasters. He pointed to Code Red that launched in May 2001, just months before the 9/11 attacks—an event widely referred to as a 'Code Red' emergency. In 2019, Mountain Dew introduced Maui Burst, a pineapple-flavored soda. Bailey claims it foreshadowed the 2023 wildfires that devastated Maui. While the devastating event happened in 2023, years after the flavor hit shelves, Bailey and other conspiracy theorists are sure there is a link. A Facebook user shared an image showing a can of Maui Blast with the caption: 'No such thing as coincidence. He pointed to Code Red that launched in May 2001, just months before the 9/11 attacks—an event widely referred to as a 'Code Red' emergency 'It's not predictive programming. It's the script—they know it, write it, and implement it.' On August 8, 2023, high winds and dry weather caused wildfires to develop in Lāhainā, Upper Kula, Upper Makawao and Olinda on the island of Maui. These wildfires affected approximately 1,550 parcels and 2,200 structures and were one of the deadliest US wildfires in at least the past 100 years. At least 201 people were confirmed dead as a result. Bailey also linked the 2024 flavor Star Spangled Splash to the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, noting that Key wrote the 'Star-Spangled Banner.' The patriotic theme, he suggests, is no accident. On March 26, the ship suffered a power outage and crashed into one of the Key Bridge's support columns, causing the entire bridge to come down and killing six construction workers. Mountain Dew reintroduced its Pitch Black in 2023 for a limited-time and made it exclusive in October 2024. Bailey believes the flavor foretold the July 2024 CrowdStrike outage that caused widespread IT disruptions. He pointed out that Pitch Black, with its ominous name and dark branding, coincided eerily with what he called the 'biggest IT blackout of all time.' The CrowdStrike blackout affected more than eight million devices around the globe, shutting down airlines, airports, public transit, healthcare and financial services. Bailey's theory was discussed on the Sunday Cool podcast this month, which focuses on comedy and conspiracy theories. The hosts, Josh Hooper and and Andy DeNoon, also highlighted that Mountain Dew is owned by Pepsi that worked with the CIA in the 1970s. Worried that President Salvador Allende's socialist agenda could jeopardize PepsiCo's operations in Chile, then-chairman Donald Kendall contacted President Nixon directly. Following Kendall's requests, the CIA organized a plot to overthrow Allende, including providing arms to the Chilean opposition. 'Does the CIA work with Pepsi?' Hooper asked during the podcast. DeNoon replied: 'I think it is confirmed at this point.' .
CNN
07-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Persuadable: Back Up the Rabbit Hole
Persuadable: Back Up the Rabbit Hole The Account from CNN 37 mins What would you do if the person closest to you woke up believing something that sounded completely crazy? That's what happened to Stephen Ghiglieri when his then- fiancée, Katrina Vaillancourt, became a Q-Anon believer overnight. But their story is a hopeful one. In part two of Persuadable, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan explores one route out of conspiracy theory belief. Listen to more of Donie's conversation with Dr. Joe Pierre, author of False: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren't True, on YouTube. Read about Katrina Vaillancourt's book, ReQovery: How I Tumbled Down the QAnon Rabbit Hole and Climbed Out , here.
