Donald TrumpDonald Trump has been retweeting a conspiracy theory that Osama Bin Laden was not assassinated in 2011 but it was his ‘body double’ that was killed.
From The Daily Beast:
President Donald Trump backed a budding conspiracy theory on Tuesday that four Americans were killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack to cover up the blood-sacrifice of Navy SEALs and the “fact” that Osama Bin Laden is still alive, marking what is perhaps the president’s strangest brush yet with far-right conspiracy theories.
Trump’s promotion of the new Benghazi conspiracy theory, which is fast gaining traction on the far right, came in the form of a retweet of a QAnon believer pushing the claim.
The president’s backing helped push the tweet about Benghazi above 14,000 retweets. Trump retweeted another video about the conspiracy theory later on Tuesday night, marking the second time he had promoted the Benghazi claims on Twitter.
The bizarre theory, which is outre even by the standards of the right’s usual Benghazi claims, also alleges that Osama Bin Laden’s body-double, rather than the terrorist mastermind himself, was killed in 2011.
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One of the Navy SEALS who actually went on the mission to kill Bin Laden responded:
Very brave men said goodby to their kids to go kill Osama bin Laden. We were given the order by President Obama. It was not a body double. Thank you Mr. President. Happy birthday @USNavy
— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) October 13, 2020
Shit. I just found out that I killed Osama bin Johnson. Drinks are on me, I guess…
— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) October 14, 2020
The QAnon account retweeted by the president today that accused Barack Obama of accidentally killing Osama Bin Laden's body double is now suspended.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) October 14, 2020
Trump just retweeted a conspiracy theory that Obama was colluding with Iran to stage bin Laden’s killing. Yes, the same guy who has the nuke codes.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 14, 2020