Dangerous When Cornered

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Coming off today’s hearing Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing appeared on Lou Dobbs show this evening pushing a noxious set of bananas conspiracy theories about George Soros controlling the State Department and the FBI.

These may sound funny or loopy. But they are right out of the propaganda mills of Hungary’s Viktor Orban and other rightist anti-Semitic movements in Eastern Europe. Indeed, it’s basically the same set of conspiracy theories which led to Judicial Watch’s Chris Farrell being banished from Fox a year ago.

I was the first one to highlight what he’d said and what was behind it. That was also on Lou Dobbs show. Farrell’s rhetoric and theories were identical to those which had only a short time earlier inspired the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

DiGenova and Toensing didn’t use the same “Soros-occupied State Department” line which is a reference to stock phrases used in neo-Nazi and white supremacist literature. But it’s the same argument, with the same origins.

Latest Editors' Blog
  • |
    November 20, 2024 12:27 p.m.

    I want to add a quick addendum to today’s Backchannel about Democrats saying “no” to interest groups. This comes out…

  • |
    November 20, 2024 9:57 a.m.

    Let me return to something I wrote about yesterday and said I’d return to: Adam Jentleson’s piece in the Times…

  • |
    November 20, 2024 9:08 a.m.

    Here’s a morsel of news that shows you how far we’ve come over the last eight years. Donald Trump made…

  • |
    November 20, 2024 9:07 a.m.

    Due to scheduling conflicts, the newest episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast will be released Thursday. We’ll be back to…

Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: