Remember the wingnut sheriff who told Fox News that the Bundy militia was planning to use women as human shields?
Former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack now says he wasn’t part of that, but that’s certainly not how it appeared at the time.
TPM: I saw your comments about strategizing to put the women up at the front, in case they did start firing it’d be women who were getting shot. I wanted to ask where you got that idea in the first place and why you thought it was a good idea.
MACK: I never thought it was a good idea. I was kind of surprised by the fact that they did. The mistake I made was it was never a strategy. It was never strategized. It was never talked about. The women just did it. I was never privy to that, so I thought they did strategize that. I thought that would be the only way they would send women up to the front.
Here’s what Mack told Fox News earlier this week:
MACK: We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front. If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.
Mack now claims it wasn’t a planned strategy and that he simply assumed that was the case.
If that’s true, why did he add that they wanted the world to see women getting shot first? Did he assume that too, or is that what he wanted? Was that part of the plan? Was it part of his plan?
TPM’s interview with Mack covered a wide range of topics and, among other things, Mack says he wants the NSA to “stop doing the illegal wiretapping and monitoring every fax and computer and phone transmission.”
MACK: I would love the IRS to stop violating the constitutional rights of Americans. Stop the random audits. Stop the monitoring. Stop the checking, putting innocent people in prisons like they’ve done for decades. I would love the NSA to stop doing the illegal wiretapping and monitoring every fax and computer and phone transmission.
As you’re well aware, the NSA does not illegally wiretap or monitor every fax, computer, and phone transmission.
Being a part of the militia movement more or less requires tinfoil attire, but this particular fantasy has been given credence by Greenwald and Company and his colleagues at The Guardian.
The radicalization of this pet issue was seen coming miles away. Telling people that the government has direct access to their every thought with no oversight was not only a lie; it was irresponsible. The wrong kind of people are going to internalize that even if it is thoroughly debunked.
Congratulations on the Pulitzer for “public service.” The public service you’ve provided is handing unwarranted and unfounded credibility to the worst kind of people who are literally aiming their weapons at federal agents.
(ht Thomas Soldan)