Wingnut Claims Pizzagate Ring Put Contract On Steve Scalise (VIDEO/TWEETS)

By
Darrell Lucus
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It’s more or less an article of faith on the right wing fringe that the Democrats and the anti-Trump resistance are responsible for the shooting at an Alexandria park that critically wounded House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Some insist that the Democrats stirred up the shooter by “constantly lying” about Trump. Others claim that the New York Public Theater’s modern take on Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” is to blame; it featured a title character that bore a striking resemblance to Trump.


But one right wing pseudo-journalist offered what may be one of the looniest “explanations” yet for the Alexandria shooting. To hear her talk, it’s linked to Pizzagate.

People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch noticed that last Monday, father-and-son conspiracy peddlers Doug and Joe Hagmann invited right-wing blogger Liz Crokin on their show to discuss the Alexandria shooting. Watch here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI25ViLzI6I

You may recall that in 2015, Scalise faced calls for his resignation after it surfaced that he’d spoken at a David Duke rally more than a decade earlier. Well, Crokin claimed that the furor over the speech was just a smokescreen. She thought it was hardly a coincidence that the calls for Scalise to go started right around the time Scalise started working on legislation to combat human trafficking. She peddled similar claims in a post she made the day before coming on the Hagmanns’ show.


To hear Crokin talk, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and others involved in the trafficking ring supposedly based at the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant put a price on Scalise’s head “because of his work with sex trafficking.” She thought the stink about his speech to the Duke-linked group was fake news–forgetting that Scalise apologized for giving that speech after unconvincingly claiming he didn’t know Duke was a white supremacist.

But such little things as facts didn’t get in Crokin’s way.

“I just want people to really start critically thinking about all these ties between John Podesta, Congressman Scalise, sex trafficking–and actually, all the ties between everyone that is lashing out and targeting politicians such as Trump, Attorney General Jeffrey Sessions, who are publicly speaking out against sex trafficking and publicly working very hard to combat it. And if you start taking the microscope under these people that are speaking out the loudest against Sessions, Scalise, and Trump, you will find many, many ties to pedophilia.”

She went on to say that many of the Podesta emails obtained by WikiLeaks are “filled with pedophile code words.”

Hagmann fils thought there was a there there, saying that it was understandable that no one would want to heed Crokin’s call to “connect the dots” because many people think it’s just “too disturbing.” He and his father, as it turns out, have been among the loudest promoters of Pizzagate–or “Pedogate,” as Hagmann père calls it. Crokin agreed, claiming that the mainstream media are going to crash and burn in part because many prominent reporters have either been covering Pizzagate up or are active participants in the pedophilia wing.

As it turns out, the notion that the Pizzagate ring targeted Scalise has been floating around Trumpland for some time.

https://twitter.com/JennStarrTruth/status/882170737775132672

Later, Crokin claimed that when House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer bought pizza for Scalise’s Capitol Hill staffers, it wasn’t a gesture of sympathy. It was an announcement in capital letters that their boss had been targeted by the Pizzagate ring.

“If you don’t think there’s a tie there to sex trafficking, you’re a fool! Connect the dots! These people are joking, they’re laughing, they’re throwing the pedophilia in our faces. They’re sick, they’re evil. I mean, this is a pattern. They’ve used the pizza code. They’ve used the pedophile code. They’re wearing socks. They’re mocking their colleague about the rape and trafficking of children!”

Never mind that Pizzagate has been debunked several times over. Even Alex Jones has renounced it. When you’re promoting something that is too crazy for Alex Jones, you’re definitely out there.

But then again, Crokin has never met an alternative fact she didn’t like. She has fiercely promoted the conspiracy theory that Seth Rich was whacked by the DNC, doing so long after Fox News was forced to back down from its coverage of it.


This, ladies and gentlemen, is what passes for news among the 39 percent who are still under the delusion that Trump is making America great again.

(featured image courtesy Farragutful, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

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