Thursday night’s NBC News town hall saw network anchor Savannah Guthrie blast President Trump for sharing false conspiracy theories online, even going so far as to compare him to a “crazy uncle.”
Earlier this week, the POTUS retweeted baseless claims that Osama bin Laden’s death was a hoax involving Joe Biden and the Navy SEALS and that the terrorist leader is actually still alive today.
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This claim stems from the online theories of QAnon, posted by “researchers” claiming to decipher the messages of an individual named “Q” with access to classified military and intelligence operations.
Trump retweeted at least two QAnon-stemmed posts questioning the legitimacy of bin Laden’s death to his more than 87 million followers, resulting in widespread criticism from many, including Robert O’Neill, the retired U.S. Navy Seal credited with shooting the al-Qaeda leader.
“Very brave men said goodby to their kids to go kill Osama bin Laden,” O’Neill tweeted . “We were given the order by President Obama. It was not a body double.”
During Thursday’s town hall, host Guthrie brought up the QAnon conspiracy tweets and grilled Trump over his decision to retweet them.
“Why would you send a lie like that to your followers?” she demanded, to which Trump essentially dismissed the question.
“I know nothing about it — that was a retweet, that was an opinion of somebody,” he said. “I’ll put it out there, people can decide for themselves, I don’t take a position.”
However, the NBC host was clearly not satisfied with this answer.
“You’re the president,” she said, speaking over Trump. “You’re not, like, someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever.”
“Frankly, because the media is so fake and so corrupt, if I didn’t have social media — I don’t call it Twitter; I call it social media — I wouldn’t be able to get the word out,” Trump said. “And the word is–“
“Well, the word is false,” Guthrie interjected.
Following the town hall and Guthrie’s “crazy uncle” comment, the president’s niece, Mary Trump, chimed in on Twitter.
Earlier this year, she wrote the tell-all book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man , in which she denounced her uncle and branded him a bully.
Former Hillary Clinton adviser Philippe Reines reached out to Mary on Twitter regarding her response to the “crazy uncle” comment, prompting the POTUS’ niece simply and poignantly to reply , “Actually…”
