Fox News Goes Full Metal Tin Foil Hat with Claim Obama Blackmailed Petraeus

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:02 am

Fox News has taken their conspiracy claims for impeachment to new crazy places by claiming that Obama blackmailed Petraeus in order cover up Benghazi.

Here is the video from Media Matters:

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Steve Doocy said, ‘Clinton and Petraeus both have got to testify. That’s just all there is. Otherwise the investigation would not be an investigation. It would not be complete. Also, we told you earlier that Bill Kristol had sources in the testimony that Petraeus gave on September fourteenth, and apparently Mr. Petraeus said, do you want the party line, or do you want the real truth…To some it does look like you know, was he going along? Was he doing the what’s in the best interests of national security, or was he, and some feel this, was he being blackmailed by the White House to toe the company line? Those are the things that can only be found out if you ask him directly.”

This has all the hallmarks of a Fox News conspiracy theory. Message delivered by the morning propaganda team at Fox and Friends? Check. The use of the phrases to some it does look like, and some feel this? Check. The absolute absence of any facts? Check. Anonymous sources from fellow News Corp employees? Check.

In case it wasn’t obvious where this is going, Rush Limbaugh explicitly stated it yesterday on his radio show, “And this Benghazi story, it finally has legs, lots of legs. Have you seen ’em in Tampa? Broadbeam, Broadwell, whatever her name is. You know, the one good thing, folks, about all of this is that a sex scandal might make some people finally hear about Benghazi, because the media is all over this. It is a sex story that they just can’t ignore. And even the lowest of the low-information voters might finally hear about what happened in Benghazi because of this. That’s why I said, you know, words and policy, we kind of exhausted it. We’re just gonna have to wait for events to overtake the regime.”

The right is hoping that the sex scandal will hook the American people, and then they will be outraged when they learn about Benghazi.

The right is still clinging on their delusion that they can take Obama down if the American people learn the “truth” about Obama. To the absolute surprise of no one, the far right has responded to Obama’s reelection by redoubling their efforts to destroy him. The right wing media is trying to invent a connection between Petraeus and Benghazi because they still believe that Benghazi is their golden ticket to Obama impeachment.

Impeachment is what this is all about. The right wing media is trying to string together enough random facts to give the House Republicans “cause” for impeachment. This Petraeus/Benghazi/Obama conspiracy theory is the deepest manifestation yet of the right’s collective mental illness over the defeat of Mitt Romney.

These people really believed that the polls were skewed, and that they were going to win. They are dreaming of impeachment, because for them the election isn’t over. They are still looking for a way to win.

They have not learned a thing from the 2012 election.

The only that has changed after Obama’s election is that the right is even more obsessed with the destruction of President Obama.

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