Rachel Maddow Trashes the Right’s Eric Holder Gun Nut Conspiracy Theory

Last updated on February 7th, 2013 at 07:19 pm

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Rachel Maddow called out the 2nd Amendment conspiracy nuts pushing the Fast and Furious, and also reminded the left of why they can’t ignore Fox News.

Here is the video from MSNBC:

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Maddow described the right’s theory that the Fast and Furious program was an intentional conspiracy against the Second Amendment, “This is crazy, right? The theory here is that the Obama administration sold too many guns in order to create gun violence, in order to cause revulsion in the American people about the horrible thing those guns are doing, in order to make people feel more positive about gun control, so then they could get away with taking everybody’s guns away secretly. Someday, after they stop selling all the extra guns to get there. They’re being super lax in gun control as a conspiracy in order to be super tough on gun control.”

Rachel Maddow explained how one right wing conspiracy theorist spread his theory on Fox News and then fed it to Republicans in Congress, which became the basis for the Issa House investigation, and the contempt vote on Eric Holder.

Maddow said that to people who watch Fox News see this as feasible and understandable. She said the right is hard wired to believe stuff like this, and right is susceptible to conspiracy theories like this in their closed loop right wing media.

She said the right believes that Obama is coming for their guns because he hasn’t. Maddow closed by once again explaining to the left that this is why Fox News and the right wing media are an important phenomena in American politics.

Millions of people listen to things like the crazy Fast and Furious conspiracy theory, and more importantly Republican politicians build their whole agenda based around what gets the masses aroused on Fox News, talk radio, and right wing websites.

Some on the left claim that we should just ignore the right. Ignore Fox News, ignore Rush Limbaugh, ignore the right wing websites, as if creating a bubble of our own and sticking our heads in the sand will make them magically go away.

What happened in the House yesterday is evidence of why we can’t ignore the chatter from the right. These conspiracy theories are the Republican Party right now. Sure the whole Fast and Furious thing was completely nuts, but it is a problem because there is nothing out there to counter it.

The right has been babbling about Fast and Furious for years, but the mainstream media rarely did anything to debunk them. The conspiracy theory was allowed to fester and grow, and now it has become a contempt vote on the floor of the full House against the Attorney General of the United States.

It is definitely crazy, and it is also a reminder of why we can’t ignore and not counter the ramblings of the right.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association