Feb. 26, 2020
Glenn Beck, Steve King Go Conspiracy Crazy Over DHS Official’s Death.
The death of a former Department of Homeland Security employee last week has caught the attention of prominent conspiracy theorists, who are pinning it on none other than Barack Obama’s deep state agents.
But so far, the people promoting the conspiracy theories—including Glenn Beck and Rep. Steve King (R-IA)—don’t really have any evidence that the death is even a murder.
On Friday, sheriff’s deputies in Amador County, California, found the body of Philip Haney, a former DHS employee, near an RV stop.
While Haney’s death is still under investigation, a sheriff’s press release said Haney had suffered a “self-inflicted” gunshot wound.
Even as all the evidence around Haney’s death points to a suicide, Trump allies in right-wing media and government were quick to claim he had been the victim of a sinister murder plot. On Twitter, King implied that Haney had been killed for speaking out against Obama.
“He was a target because of all he knew of Islamic terrorist coverups,” King wrote. “He insured his life by archiving data that incriminated the highest levels of the Obama administration. Phil Haney didn’t kill himself.”
Of course, it’s not unusual for a mysterious death to be folded into a broader conspiracy theory—with the still-unsolved July 2016 murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich as probably the most prominent recent example.
But it’s remarkable how fast prominent conservatives, including an elected official, have jumped to claiming that Haney had been killed in some elaborate murder plot.
To a large degree, it reflects the mainstreaming of conspiracy theory thinking within the GOP and conservative media apparatuses.
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