Tulsi Gabbard’s new conspiracy theory stokes MAGA extremism — and even violence

Donald Trump’s conspiracist base is restless these days, still irate that they never got the “Epstein files” they were promised. Futile efforts to keep the conspiracists happy have seemingly become the full-time job of multiple top-level law and intelligence figures in the administration. Over the weekend, FBI director Kash Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino tried to distract the MAGA masses by promising FBI investigations into a baggie of cocaine found at the White House in 2023 and, more disturbingly, the pipe bombs planted at DNC and RNC headquarters on January 6, 2021. Their efforts are about fueling baseless right-wing myths that President Joe Biden used drugs or that the FBI was trying to frame the January 6 rioters. Still, there is little reason to believe Patel and Bongino can do much to keep the MAGA base happy, especially as their “investigations” are unlikely to produce the desired evidence for the conspiracy theories. 

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Her latest foray in generating red meat to stoke the paranoia of Trump supporters isn’t just dishonest, but downright dangerous. Late last week, without the mainstream media noticing, Gabbard started pushing the flat-out lie that President Joe Biden was labeling Americans as “terrorists” because they opposed COVID-19 mitigation measures like masks and vaccines. Biden did no such thing, but by pushing this lie, Gabbard is, whether she intends to or not, encouraging the radicalization that does lead to domestic terrorism. 

Gabbard started stoking this conspiracy theory by declassifying a memo from federal law enforcement detailing the role that COVID-19 disinformation played in encouraging domestic terrorism. For those who bother to read the 2021 memo, the report isn’t surprising, but simply stating the obvious fact that far-right extremists “threatened or plotted violence against the healthcare sector and state and local government officials” in 2020. The memo anticipated that there could be another round of such violence in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 vaccine. But far from equating all anti-vaccine folks with terrorists, the memo was specific about the threat, noting that members of organized militias and white supremacist groups have been using anti-vaccine sentiment as an excuse for violent threats. The average anti-vaccination MAGA rube is not part of this memo. They may be disease vectors, but no, the FBI did not think they were terrorists. 

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Gabbard knows that Trump voters aren’t exactly the reading types, and they will never bother to read this memo. So she and her minions in the MAGA press have been pretending this document was a pretext by the Biden administration to go after Republican voters who didn’t break the law. On Fox News on Friday, she told Will Cain that this was an “ominous” plot by the Biden administration to target people for “using their First Amendment rights” and to label them a “domestic terror threat.”

This is a lie. The memo explicitly states, “The mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophical embrace of violent tactics may not constitute violent extremism and are constitutionally protected.” The document highlights the way that COVID-19 conspiracy theories are being used to encourage violence, so law enforcement is aware of the threats to schools, government officials, and healthcare providers to protect them. 

Gabbard keeps shamelessly lying about this. She retweeted right-wing pundit Michael Shellenberger’s declaration that “the Biden administration viewed millions of Americans as a terrorist threat.” She also retweeted Cain insisting that the Bdien administration labeled “some COVID-19 opponents ‘domestic violent extremists,'” as if it was their views on COVID-19 alone that drew the label. In reality, the memo clearly states that the focus is on people who are already a threat, such as militia members or white supremacists, and how they are using pandemic disinformation to justify violence. Gabbard’s conspiracy theory is spreading rapidly across the MAGA media and through social media influencers, with nary a one admitting that no one was actually arrested under Biden for mere speech. 

The same, of course, cannot be said of Trump, whose administration has been arresting innocent people for no other reason than their political opinions. Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk, Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, and Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi were all jailed in recent months for the non-crime of speaking out against Israel’s war on Gaza. All three are non-citizens, and the administration is claiming broad authority to deport them for their political opinions. Öztürk and Mahdawi have been released. Khalil is still fighting, worried Israel will kill him if he’s deported. 

This myth that Biden was targeting Republican voters for spreading COVID-19 disinformation functions as a distraction for the MAGA audience from their own culpability in Trump’s war on free speech. They can tell themselves that Biden did it first, and somehow that makes it okay for Trump to arrest people who have broken no laws, simply because they voice opinions he doesn’t like. Gabbard is cynically using the power of her office to put an official stamp of approval on this lie, all with a smug expression, knowing her audience wants to believe it so badly they won’t bother to learn the facts. 

But this conspiracy theory isn’t just an immoral rationalization of Trump’s assault on free speech. By putting this out there, Gabbard is also encouraging more violent extremism. As with Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters, Gabbard’s actions send the message that the administration will shield domestic terrorists and other dangerous people by minimizing their actions. Extremists are more likely to take violent action if they believe they have official support like this. 

Gabbard’s conspiracy theory also creates a victim narrative that extremists can use to justify violence. Her story is that they are innocent people unjustly targeted by the nefarious Biden administration. Having been recast as victims, any violence they commit now can be narrated as “self-defense” against the imaginary Democrats coming for their free speech rights. If this seems hyperbolic, it’s a good time to remember that Trump’s false claims that the election was “stolen” from Republican voters inspired the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Gabbard is no doubt aware that her dishonesty isn’t just gross, but dangerous. She either doesn’t care, or, like Trump, finds it useful to keep feeding the delusions of the scariest people in the MAGA movement.