Mr. Shaman
Seer
October 24, 2016 - "Here's the thing: Trump didn't come out of nowhere now," Obama said Thursday. "For years, Republican politicians and far-right media outlets have been pumping out all kinds of toxic, crazy stuff."
Obama went through a litany of conspiracy theories that have been pervasive throughout his presidency. The movement doubting his birthplace. Fears he wanted to "steal everybody's guns." The idea he wanted to "declare martial law."
"I say all this," the president said, "because Donald Trump didn't start all this. Like he usually does, he just slapped his name on it, took credit for it, and promoted the heck out of it."
The president had a point. Trump's rise was no accident; rather, it was a natural outgrowth of a growing and influential faction of conservative media that for years fed the Republican base a steady diet of fringe theories masqueraded as news.
And Republicans allowed it to happen, as Obama noted.
"They just stood by and said nothing, even though they knew better, while their base actually started believing some of this stuff," he said.
