Trump’s media uses Clinton house fire to invent totally bonkers conspiracy

Firefighters in Chappaqua, New York, responded to what was described as a “small fire” in a building owned by Bill and Hillary Clinton Wednesday afternoon. The fire was put out within 25 minutes and was not located in the home where the Clinton’s live.

But those details didn’t stop right-wing media pundits from spinning the event into a full-fledged conspiracy theory.

While firefighters were still responding to the incident, conservative websites and pundits were already suggesting the cause of the fire: burning the evidence. What evidence? Well, that part isn’t entirely clear. What is clear, however, is that right-wing pundits had their narrative and they weren’t about to let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

Gateway Pundit devoted a whole article to the incident, asking if the fire was proof that the Clinton’s were “burning the evidence,” while conservative radio personality and occasional Fox News guest Mark Simone echoed Gateway Pundit, asking, “are they burning the evidence?”

Other right-wing media personalities suggested that Wednesday’s fire, which took place in a building used by Secret Service, not by the Clinton’s, was evidence of a cover-up stemming from the FBI’s email investigation — an investigation that was closed well over a year ago, with no charges resulting from the probe.

National Review’s senior political correspondent Jim Geraghty also chimed in, invoking a previous conspiracy theory floated by Trump to craft a new conspiracy theory about the cause of Wednesday’s fire.

Never one to miss out on a good conspiracy theory, Alex Jones’ Infowars jumped in the ring with an entire article devoted to the lunacy.

According to the Infowars article, the fire provided evidence of the Clinton’s coziness with the Church of Satan.

“Oddly enough, this news comes just hours after the Clintons’ daughter Chelsea tweeted a Happy New Year’s message to the Church of Satan in a bizarre interaction,” the article said.

The timing of all of this is notable — but not for the reasons suggested in right-wing media circles. It comes amid a new wave of chaos in the White House, ranging from a Twitter war over nuclear buttons to a public war of words between Trump and former chief strategist Steve Bannon, set against the backdrop of an escalating Russia investigation.

Desperate for a distraction, right-wing media turned to their favorite shiny object: Hillary Clinton’s emails.

As longtime Hillary Clinton adviser Adam Parkhomenko pointed out, the right wing’s collective hysteria over the incident looks an awful lot like a coordinated attempt to distract from the imploding Trump presidency.

“Trump supporters are using a small fire that broke out in a Secret Service facility to distract from the dumpster fire engulfing the White House,” Parkhomenko told Shareblue Media.

It’s going to take a lot more than a small fire to distract from that 5-alarm blaze.