Simon Marks has news for the Trump conspiracy theorists

Things got even more troubling over the course of this weekend with events in Washington at the Press Gala which is one of the reasons why Simon Marks joins us. I mean I think we've used the word extraordinary 670,000 times when discussing events in the United States of America in the last 18 months but this is one of those occasions when there is no other word really extraordinary and rather horrible Simon., and I think perhaps in a bizarre way, James, inevitable.

I mean, given what we now know about the extraordinarily lax security that was in place around that Hilton Hotel on Saturday night. I mean, and in a way also lucky that something far worse did not occur. Because you have to remember that at that event on Saturday night, you basically had the entire line of succession and the President all in a basement ballroom of a massive concrete structure above them.

And it is already apparent that the suspect in this case, who's going to be making his first court appearance here a little bit later today, had absolutely no difficulty whatsoever bringing his weapons into that hotel a little bit earlier in the week, booking a room in the hotel after traveling from California to Washington DC via Chicago. And in the words of the Wall Street Journal, which has done an extraordinary job overnight

of really probing what was taking place security-wise at that hotel, it was easier to get into the dinner than many big sports events and concert venues. They also quote Jason Pack, a former FBI official, who says that the suspect didn't beat the security plan the night of the dinner, he beat it the day he made the hotel reservation, which is just an absolutely staggering revelation. Now the suspect

clearly, from everything that we have read about him and everything that we are learning hour after hour, his own writings that were apparently sent to family members, to his employers, left in the hotel room, some of them clearly indicate a deeply troubled individual who was critical of the Trump administration, who made claims against the Trump administration, accusing some of its senior figures of sexual crimes,

but, and then of course made that extraordinary effort to charge through the metal detectors that were the only metal detectors in place and were only being used to screen people who were trying to get to the dinner in the basement that at the time was already underway with 2,000 people there. He never stood a chance of getting off the ground floor of the hotel, he never stood a chance of getting to the ballroom, but it is also apparent from the lax security that existed that a much more coordinated,

planned and well-orchestrated effort to attack that hotel at a time when America has no shortage of enemies on the world stage and is at war could have potentially wiped out the president, the vice president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and two of the next people out of the first six people in that line of succession. So there are major questions here and you know this idea that security was reviewed for the royal visit well of course it was and

President Trump is saying well but it's all going to be okay because they're coming to the White House and that's the most secure facility in the city and oh and by the way this underscores the need for us to build the ballroom doesn't of course underscore the need for us as a country to engage in any serious commentary or discussion about gun control we immediately go to we need to build the ballroom because it's going to be more secure than the Hilton Hotel up the road

I mean that only goes so far given the public engagements outside the White House that the King and Queen will be engaging in here in Washington DC, in New York, in Virginia, and then back in Washington between now and Thursday. So massive questions arising out of what

took place on Saturday night. Are there any answers? I mean, I've been struck, you may have been across this already, but as I was reading into the events of Saturday night and of course links present themselves to other reports and I hadn't realized how widespread and how deep the conviction was that the last assassination attempt on Donald Trump was some sort of false flag or some sort of conspiracy theory.

That's really taken hold in MAGA circles. That's not, I mean, one wouldn't expect it necessarily from liberals or critics of Donald Trump, but his own fan base seemed to believe increasingly that that was some sort of fake. This is more grist to the conspiracy theory mill, isn't it? Oh, I think we are going to look back on this event over the weekend at the point at which the conspiracy theory mill in this country went

completely mainstream. I mean if you take a look at the hundreds possibly by now this morning thousands of comments that have been attached to our own YouTube channel the LBC official YouTube channel, and some of the coverage that we provided over the weekend of the attack, the attempted attack on that Hilton Hotel and therefore on the dinner down in the basement. I mean, you're hard to, you'd be hard pressed to find a single person who has added a comment to that YouTube channel

that believes that this was anything other than a hoax. Now, in order to believe that it was a hoax, you also have to believe that in some way it was in President Trump's interest to throw the Klieg lights back on the issue of Jeffrey Epstein. Because in the writings of this gunman, he talks about his outrage at

policies put in place by the White House and alludes to allegations of sexual misconduct saying he is no longer willing to allow a traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. He doesn't use Donald Trump's name but take a listen to what happened on CBS 60 Minutes last night when Donald Trump was being interviewed by Norah O'Donnell.

He also wrote this. I'm no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What's your reaction to that?

Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're horrible people, horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody. I'm not a pedophile. Excuse me, excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with all the stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let's say, Epstein or other things.

But I said to myself, I'll do this interview and they'll probably, I read the manifesto, he's a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things. And I was never- Mr. President, these are the government's words. Excuse me, excuse me.

You shouldn't be reading that on 60 Minutes. You're a disgrace, but go ahead, let's finish the interview.

Now, if you believe that this whole thing was a hoax, you also have to believe that on the eve of the king and queen arriving in the UK, in the United States, President Trump wanted to find himself on television denying that he is a rapist or a pedophile. And that is, even for a conspiracy theorist, that's a massive stretch. But you're absolutely right to talk about the revival

of conversation about what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, that first assassination attempt. Even Tucker Carlson and his brother in that podcast where Tucker Carlson breaks entirely with Donald Trump found themselves discussing the Butler assassination attempt and suggesting that it needs another look, intimating that perhaps it was not what it was portrayed to be at the time. And the irony is, of course, that Trump has done more than anybody to create this ecosystem

where conspiracy theories can flourish. He still lies through his teeth about the results of the election that Joe Biden won. Those lies seem to be coming back into the light again now. And he continues to spread all sorts of nonsense and conspiracy theories about all sorts of people so I mean it's ironic but it's also dangerous. Yes, very dangerous I mean he is clearly hoist on his own petard at this point because people across the political spectrum and remember the conspiracy theorists if you drew a

Venn diagram between MAGA supporters and conspiracy theorists, you'd find quite an intersection there. But now conspiracy theories are being embraced by Donald Trump's critics, partly on the basis that well, you know, you put conspiracy theories into the public domain, what source for the goose is source for the gander. But what this really means ultimately is that those commentators out there who say, even now we're going to view the two terms that President Trump spent in office as an aberration.

And that in some fashion, once this is all over, America is going to snap back to some semblance of normalcy. That is going to be very difficult in a post-truth country, which this already largely was, where now conspiracy theories fueled by the ability of AI to create instant images as people were doing on Saturday night

after the dinner, entirely false storylines being promoted by the use of AI created videos, it takes the country down an unbelievably dangerous path. And he has shown the way, I mean he has kicked those doors down through which the entire country now passes, as you point out Simon, without any guarantees of an easy return to how things were before. And no doubt we'll be speaking to you, the best

thing that can happen in the context of the Royal visit is nothing, right? The best thing that can happen is that I talk to you tomorrow or on Wednesday and say, any big events, anything notable? Has he done a Pearl Harbour? Has he done a Zelensky? And you just go, no, it's all gone off quite calmly, really. The only way this is a win over the next four days is if it is rancor free and President Trump does not talk to or is not goaded

into talking to some of the propagandists here, many of whom have White House press passes, who will constantly be seeking to ask him whether he'd like to take a pop at the Prime Minister while the King is on American soil. Or his own son. Or Harry. They might, because they brought Harry into it recently as well. Sure, absolutely, yes, exactly. Wow. So, Simon Martz there almost wishing that he doesn't have anything to report

exactly. Wow. So, Simon Martz there almost wishing that he doesn't have anything to report

on in the course of the next four days.