Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is no stranger to extreme positions or conspiratorial thinking. But Paul sunk to a new low last night, using his Senate Twitter account to promote a false report from one of the world’s most noxious conspiracy websites.
Paul appeared amused by an article on infowars.com suggesting the National Weather Service is stockpiling ammunition:
Mad a/b the weather or bad forecasts? I wouldn't complain, Nat'l Weather Svc just ordered 46k hollow-point bullets http://t.co/rKWCCPVC
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 14, 2012
This story is false (a point that Business Insider, who also linked to the story, should correct). In reality, the ammunition was ordered by the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, but a clerical error in the paperwork indicated otherwise. Worse, the article that Paul linked to was published on the homepage of what the Anti-Defamation League calls “The Conspiracy King.”
Alex Jones, the popular radio host who runs InfoWars, routinely traffics in outlandish and pernicious conspiracy theories. Jones is an unapologetic 9/11 Truther who believes that something called the Bilderberg Group (which purportedly controls President Obama) is plotting to take over the United States while Federal Emergency Management Agency is planning to put Americans in concentration camps. Indeed, InfoWars’ story about the fictitious NWS ammo order is part of its broader focus on the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to wage war on the American population.
That a United States Senator would lend even a smidgen of credence to this conspiratorial nonsense is disgraceful. But perhaps we shouldn’t be a surprise: InfoWars’ biggest mainstream booster is Matt Drudge, one of the most influential news sources on the American right. Naturally, InfoWars’ story on the NWS ammunition order was Drudge’s top link yesterday.