If there are two things Fox News’ Glenn Beck loves, it’s conspiracy theories and a good right-wing attack line on President Obama. So it’s no surprise that he embraced the conservatives’ current outrage over Obama’s use of a teleprompter, spending the first 10 minutes of his radio show today railing about it.
Beck being Beck, he took it a step beyond others’ complaints, declaring that Obama’s use of a teleprompter is evidence that he’s a “Manchurian candidate”:
So I mean, it really bothers me, this teleprompter. … It bothers me that this man doesn’t — this man is always on prompter. You want to talk about a Manchurian candidate — that’s it! Who’s writing every word for this man? [...]
Is it bothering anyone else but me? We have a fraud in office, at least that’s the way it feels to me.
Beck imagined the conspiracy theories that would have been lobbed against George Bush if he had relied on a teleprompter — and makes it clear he believes them about Obama. Listen here:
Within seconds, however, Beck reversed course and insisted he’s “totally fine” with the use of a teleprompter, and admitted, “I do use a teleprompter from time to time”:
I’m totally fine with him having a teleprompter. I really am. When he has an address to the nation, I have no problem. He’s doing a state of the union, he’s doing an oval office, he’s doing the beginning of a press conference, I have no problem. … So don’t get me wrong. I have no problem being on teleprompter. I mean, all of the words that I say on television, all of them, I’ve written.
Listen here:
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