President Donald Trump jumped into the deep end of conspiratorial waters on Monday night during a friendly interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, spinning tales about people in “dark shadows” pulling Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s strings and a plane full of “thugs” in “black uniforms with gear” looking to “do big damage” at the Republican National Convention.
After spending much of the first half of the interview fear-mongering about Black Lives Matter protesters, going so far as to say the name of the movement is “discriminatory” and “bad for Black people,” the president then suggested that shadowy figures and far-left activists are controlling Biden.
With Trump claiming the former vice president isn’t in control of “anything,” Ingraham asked the president who he thought was “pulling” Biden’s “strings” and whether it might be former Obama administration officials.
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“People you’ve never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows,” Trump replied, prompting a confused and worried Ingraham to quickly interject.
“What does that mean—that sounds like a conspiracy theory,” the pro-Trump star wondered aloud. “Dark shadows, what is that?”
The president reasserted that these were people Ingraham hadn’t heard of, adding that they were “people that are controlling the streets” before spinning a fantastical story about a planeload of armed activists apparently looking to disrupt the RNC.
“We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend, and in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that,” Trump breathlessly exclaimed. “They’re on a plane.”
Interrupting himself to let Ingraham know that “it’s under investigation right now” and that he’ll tell her more “sometime” in the future, the president continued his tale.
“But they came from a certain city and this person was coming to the Republican National Convention,” he declared. “And there were like seven people on the plane like this person, and then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage!”
Ingraham wanted to know if they were planning to come to Washington, prompting an excited Trump to reply: “This is all happening!”
The Fox News host then asked Trump if he knew where the money was coming from to fund the activists and “how it can be tracked.”
“It’s coming from some very stupid rich people that have no idea that if their thing ever succeeded, which it won’t, they will be thrown to the wolves like you’ve never seen before,” the president concluded.
Shortly after the Ingraham interview aired, the Trump campaign tweeted a clip of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) telling Fox & Friends about his belief that Black Lives Matter protesters who confronted him outside the White House last week were flown in from other cities.
The campaign, apparently, believed this constituted proof of the president’s story.
“My feeling is there is interstate criminal traffic being paid for across states lines,” Paul said of the protesters. “They flew here on a plane, they all got fresh new clothes, and they were paid to be here. It is a crime to do that and it needs to be traced.”
The Kentucky senator, who was heckled but not touched by Black Lives Matter activists after Trump’s RNC speech on Thursday, has since called for an investigation into who is funding protesters’ activities, claiming it is a criminal matter.
