Ten days ago, a gunman stormed the Comet Ping Pong family pizza joint in Washington D.C. and opened fire. He’s now facing up to ten years in prison on federal charges, and General Michael Flynn — the appointed national security adviser for the Trump administration — has finally decided that it was a bad idea to promote the batsh*t crazy conspiracy theory of Pizzagate.
Yes, it took this long for a member of the impending presidential cabinet to realize that tweeting fake news about Hillary Clinton and a non-existent child sex ring was not a good look. So, Flynn quietly deleted his tweeted link to a TruePundit story that read, “U decide — NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w Children, etc…MUST READ!” Well, you know the drill with deleted tweets … they never go away.
Trump national security advisor Flynn's son a Cernovich & Alex Jones fan (like his dad) & currently arguing w/ Jake Tapper about "Pizzagate" pic.twitter.com/Fyq0vUNWt5
— Amzi (@AmziQureshi) December 5, 2016
Employees Comet Ping Pong have been threatened for months over this insane conspiracy theory, and the incident of gun violence showed just how dangerous fake news can be. This didn’t stop Flynn’s son from continuing to tweet denials that the gunman was in no way connected to Pizzagate, despite an early announcement by law enforcement that the gunman had stated his intention to “investigate” the conspiracy. And an interview with the shooter revealed even more about how he was definitely inspired by the theory.
Flynn Sr.’s tweet shall also be preserved in the web archive, but it’s notable that he deleted at all. Generally speaking, neither the president-elect nor his family deletes even their most controversial tweets, so Flynn must have really been feeling the heat. And for good reason.