White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt took day trip from her taxpayer-funded briefing on Friday to advertise a right-wing podcaster who parrots lies and conspiracy theories.
The second got here as Leavitt was saying which outlet had been chosen by the Trump administration to sit down within the “new media” designated seat throughout the White Home occasion.
“So today we have the ‘Ruthless’ podcast. They humbly started by entertaining small audiences on Capitol Hill, but after four years this program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America,” Leavitt mentioned.
What Leavitt didn’t share was that one of many co-hosts of the Ruthless podcast, political operative Shashank Tripathi (aka “Comfortably Smug”) was concerned in a viral hoax that precipitated public fear throughout a lethal hurricane.
In 2012 as Hurricane Sandy hit New York Metropolis, Tripathi revealed a sequence of false tweets associated to the climate occasion. He claimed that the buying and selling ground of the New York Inventory Alternate had been flooded and was “under more than 3 feet of water,” that energy had been shut down in “all” of Manhattan, and that electrical utility Con Edison had shut off energy in the complete metropolis.
The posts had been all false. Following condemnation of his actions, Tripathi issued a public apology and resigned from the Republican congressional marketing campaign that he was engaged on on the time.
Legitimizing a determine like Tripathi is on model for Leavitt, who as soon as praised one of many individuals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 as a “hero,” and pushed a lie about $50 million in overseas help getting used for condom purchases in Gaza throughout her first briefing.
She additionally made clear that the Trump administration would use press briefings to lean on right-wing media shops whereas additionally hectoring the mainstream press.
Selling the “Ruthless” podcast echoes Donald Trump’s personal methods. The convicted felon has spent his years as a political determine embracing right-wing together with Fox Information and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. On the identical time, Trump assaults and even sues information shops for the sin of precisely reporting on him and his allies.
Trump has often mentioned that reporting vital of him shouldn’t be allowed and known as for licenses to be pulled and channels to be eliminated as a consequence. His press secretary’s actions present that she intends to additional execute on his imaginative and prescient.
