Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh promoted a fringe conspiracy that suggests the Christchurch, New Zealand Mosque massacre may have been a false flag attack carried out by a “leftist” to “to smear” right-wingers.

“The terrorist had published a manifesto and the manifesto includes the claim from the terrorist shooter that he’s not a conservative, that he’s not a Christian,” Limbaugh said on the air today, hours after at least 49 people were killed and dozens injured. “He identifies as an eco-fascist, and he adds that he disagrees with Trump on politics.”

Limbaugh conveniently ignored the shooter’s other comments about Trump — in which he praised the president “as a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.”

“In addition to all of the emotion you have over the sheer shock, terror, and horror of it all, then you realize you’re going to face a whole day of the politicization of it,” he continued. “You realize you’re going to face a whole day of Donald Trump being blamed for it, or you being blamed for it, or things you believe in being blamed for it.”

Later in the segment, after attacking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s (D-NY) call for action on gun control, Limbaugh explained the false flag theory:

“There’s an ongoing theory that the shooter himself may, in fact, be a leftist who writes the manifesto and then goes out and performs the deed purposely to smear his political enemies, knowing he’s going to get shot in the process. You know you just can’t — you can’t immediately discount this. The left is this insane, they are this crazy. And then if that’s exactly what the guy is trying to do then he’s hit a home run, because right there on Fox News: ‘Shooter is an admitted white nationalist who hates immigrants.'”

Limbaugh was repeating a conspiracy promoted on online, fringe cesspools, like 4chan’s /pol/ and the /r/The_Donald subreddit, during the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Listen above, via The Rush Limbaugh Show.

H/t Media Matters for America.

[image via screengrab]

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