After NBC talent and viewers alike criticized the network for airing a competing town hall with President Donald Trump against Joe Biden’s ABC town hall (which replaced the debate that Trump backed out of), moderator Savannah Guthrie didn’t waste her chance to challenge the president on some of his views. At one point, the Today co-host took Trump’s online presence to task, specifically a retweet of a conspiracy theory that Biden plotted to have the team of Navy SEALs who took out Osama bin Laden killed. “I know nothing about it,†Trump claimed, going on to add, “That was a retweet, that was an opinion of somebody, and that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there, people can decide for themselves, I don’t take a position.†But Guthrie challenged him. “I don’t get that. You’re the president — you’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever,†she said, saying out loud what’s been on all of our minds. Trump then went on, turning the exchange into a rant about his perceived media bias.
But the day after the town hall, Trump proved Guthrie right by engaging in real Crazy Uncle Behavior on Twitter yet again. On Friday morning, he retweeted a post from the conservative “satire†website the Babylon Bee, and appeared to engage with it as fact. The story, headlined “Twitter Shuts Down Entire Network to Slow Spread of Negative Biden News,†riffed on Twitter’s blocking of a controversial New York Post investigation on Biden’s son Hunter. “Wow, this has never been done in history,†Trump wrote around 6 a.m. ET, among dozens of tweets that morning. “This includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T.†By “Big T,†he later clarified, he meant Big Tech, “which should have been properly pointed out in Twitter’s Fake Trending Section!†— because that’s, of course, what we all call it. The only thing that’s “never been done in history†when it comes to this is a sitting president openly spreading conspiracy theories and literal fake news online.