Former Sheriff David Clarke is hyping conspiracy theories again. This time, he’s claiming that students who survived the vicious shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school were being influenced by billionaire George Soros to promote gun control.
And like his admirer, President Donald Trump has done far, far too many times on Twitter, he made this silly statement on that particular site:
The well ORGANIZED effort by Florida school students demanding gun control has GEORGE SOROS’ FINGERPRINTS all over it. It is similar to how he hijacked and exploited black people’s emotion regarding police use of force incidents into the COP HATING Black Lives Matter movement. pic.twitter.com/XDZ3bcwF6F
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) February 20, 2018
This isn’t the first time that the former Milwaukee County Sheriff has made off-the-wall statements. He previously claimed that Black people deal drugs because they are “uneducated,” and “lazy.” He also claimed they were “morally bankrupt.” He seems to really have something against the Black Lives Matter movement — claiming the group touts a “hateful ideology” and characterizing them as a terrorist group.
Clarke’s latest tweet is significant because he’s scheduled to speak this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). But CPAC recently bounced Dinesh D’Souza from the roster of speakers after he insulted students who survived last week’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in disgusting tweets.
Adults 1, kids 0 https://t.co/24iqKtnTxy
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) February 20, 2018
Worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs https://t.co/Vg3mXYvb4c
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) February 20, 2018
The latter tweet was a retort aimed at the survivors who were disappointed when Florida’s state legislature struck down a measure banning high-capacity magazines and some semi-automatic rifles.
CPAC quite rightfully removed D’Souza from the lineup and responded to Twitter user Rafael Shimov’s question:
Hey @ACUConservative might want to cancel @DineshDSouza at CPAC right about now.
Will you draw a line at one of your speakers openly mocking child survivors of Florida school shooting? #CPAC2018 pic.twitter.com/zmpBayIFrh
— Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) February 20, 2018
Hey Rafael, this is #FakeNews. @DineshDSouza is not a speaker at #CPAC2018. You are seeing an archived speaker profile and we are taking down his archived picture. His comments are indefensible. https://t.co/k5mhN639JI
— CPAC 2018 (@CPAC) February 21, 2018
Left-leaning billionaire Soros is a frequent target of right-wing conspiracy theorists. Tuesday morning in an interview with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, conservative commentator and former Republican congressman Jack Kingston blamed Soros for the student protests, saying in essence that having survived such a terrifying experience, the teenagers wouldn’t have it together enough to organize protests, Newsweek reports.
And right-wing rags like Breitbart and The Washington Times continually attack Soros, saying he’s behind the anti-Trump movement and claimed he was responsible for the Women’s March. In 2016 an image appeared on social media sites claiming that Soros hoped to “bring down the United States” by providing funds to “Black hate group,” referring, once again, to Black Lives Matter.
Fortunately, Snopes got wind of this and did some research, and found that the image was false.
“Aside from the suspicious lack of documentation for this alleged Soros quote, it’s highly unlikely that the billionaire would be so open and candid about a plan to fund “Black hate groups,” manipulate the black community, and bring down the United States in a newspaper interview,” Snopes reported. “(It also makes little sense for Soros, one of the world’s richest people and most successful capitalists, to be motivated to dismantle the nation that is home to the planet’s largest economy.)”
Quite obviously, and especially when it comes to Soros, perhaps Clarke has been drinking the right-wing Kool-Aid for too long.
In this video from 2017, Clarke describes Black Lives Matter and Occupy members as anarchists.
Featured image via YouTube video.