The far-right on Thursday fumed at the FBI in the aftermath of the Florida high school shooting, suggesting that the bureau’s previous investigation into Russian meddling had detracted from the agency’s core duties and allowed the massacre to happen.
The scapegoating of the law enforcement agency was prompted by a YouTuber telling news outlets, including CNN, that he had alerted the FBI in September about a comment left on one of his videos which said, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” That comment was left by an individual going by the same name of the suspected Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter.
“The FBI was too busy trying to undermine the president to bother with doing it’s [sic] freaking job,” tweeted Kurt Schlichter, a columnist for the conservative news website Townhall.
Schlichter’s tweet was liked on Twitter by President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
The FBI in recent months been in the cross hairs of the right, which has strongly criticized the agency for its previous handling of the investigation into Russia’s influence on the 2016 election campaign and any possible connections with the Trump campaign.
The FBI declined to comment on the matter. Robert Mueller took over the Russia investigation in May, months before the FBI was alerted to the suspicious Internet activity from a user with the same name as the suspected shooter in September. While Mueller’s team has drawn on some resources from the FBI to assist the Russia investigation, the involvement of FBI agents is far too small to likely impede the bureau’s efforts to prevent mass shootings.
Yet that didn’t stop the anti-FBI talking point from being pervasive on the far-right Thursday morning.
Jack Posobiec, a pro-Trump Internet personality notorious for spreading conspiracy theories online, tweeted, “The FBI spent more time going after General Flynn for a legal phone call than Nikolas Cruz for a reported school shooter threat.”
“The FBI were repeatedly warned about the last few school shooters. Imagine if the resources wasted on the phony Clinton investigation and even more phony Russia collusion witch hunt had been used properly. Democrat CYA paranoia is getting your children killed,” echoed far-right personality Stefan Molyneux, seemingly referring to the FBI’s former investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Joe Biggs, another far-right personalty, wrote on Twitter, that the FBI “did nothing” because the agency was “to [sic] busy doing hood rat stuff with their hood rat friends.”
The Gateway Pundit, a far-right website known for peddling misinformation and conspiracy theories, added to the chorus. One story on the website said, “Perhaps if the FBI had not been so bogged down with the nonsensical Russia investigation they would have had the time to investigate the report and prevent this tragedy.”
And on the popular “The Donald” sub-Reddit, the top link on Thursday morning read, “The FBI would like to apologize for not following up on the pre-shooting tips received about this guy.. they’ve been a little preoccupied with investigating fake Russians and tapping Trump associates. Maybe one of the other 17 intelligence agencies could have helped.”
It has become common for talking points to crystallize in far-right corners of the Internet before making their way to higher echelons of the media and government. Trump has previously retweeted Posobiec and figures like him, and White House social media director Dan Scavino trafficks in these circles on the Internet. st for comment.
— CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed reporting to this story.
