A Canadian man who sent direct messages to a California congressman admitted in the messages that he was radicalised and driven to hate Democrats by US media figures on the right, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, a podcast host.
Rep Eric Swalwell shared a lengthy exchange with a man he identified as Jeremy Marshall in a series of tweets on Thursday; in the messages, Mr Marshall opens by telling the Democratic lawmaker that he should be “shot” for allegedly committing treason.
After being pressed on the issue at length by the congressman himself in private messages, Mr Marshall relented, stating that he didn’t really believe that Mr Swalwell should be shot and had merely been driven to make angry comments by criticism of Mr Swalwell from several sources. He identified right-wing media circles as being a source for misleading or false claims about the congressman, and in particular cited their repeated false claims about an incident in which Mr Swalwell was targeted by a Chinese spy, and for which he was cleared of any suggestion of wrongdoing.
Mr Marshall went on to apologise after Mr Swalwell showed him a comment from an FBI official stating as such, and noted that he had not seen that particular fact of the story covered in right-wing media.
I “really got dragged down a rabbit hole”, Mr Marshall admitted, before laying the blame on the shoulders of Mr Rogan and Mr Carlson: “[O]ne was Joe Rogan, probably the most influential”, he said, and added, “...
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