Rand Paul Retweeted PizzaGate Conspiracy Theorist

Sen. Rand Paul twice retweeted an Islamophobic conspiracy theorist who has propagated conspiracy theories like Pizzagate. On Sunday, Jack Prosobiec praised Paul for an interview on Fox News in which the senator defended Trump for engaging with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Rand Paul is absolutely correct,” Posobiec tweeted. “How could we ever stop the cycle of hacking and counter-hacking without engaging directly with Russia?” On Monday, Paul retweeted Posobiec’s quote from Trump and Putin’s news conference in which Trump said he would “put peace above politics.” Paul added “Glad to hear it.” Glad to hear it. https://t.co/6IcAij85y4 — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 16, 2018 var rcrdTwitter = 1; Posobiec is a propagator of conspiracy theories and hoaxes. Shortly after Trump’s election, Posobiec filmed himself at Comet Ping Pong, the Washington pizza parlor that some on the far right alleged was the center of a child prostitution ring propagated by Hillary Clinton and other officials in the Democratic Party. The video has since been taken down and Posobiec has since tried to say he debunked the conspiracy. Posobiec also promoted a conspiracy theory the Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who was killed in 2016, had connections to the leak of committee emails. There has been no evidence that’s true. We need to get #SethRich trending! — Jack Posobiec🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) April 8, 2017 var rcrdTwitter = 1; Sergio Gor, Paul’s spokesman, did not respond to a request for comment. In 2016, Posobiec also verbally harassed former Clinton aide Huma Abedin asking if the Muslim Brotherhood was paying for her legal fees. He also crashed a performance of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that caused outrage when Trump was portrayed as Caesar, screaming “You are all Nazis,” and blaming them for the shooting of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise. Posobiec previously associated himself with white nationalist figure Richard Spencer. While he has since disavowed Spencer, in 2017 Spencer tweeted a photo of the two together at the Republican National Convention in 2016. Similarly, Doug Stafford, Paul’s chief political strategist exchanged tweets with Posobiec and Cassandra Fairbanks, another far-right activist. Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.