Robert Mercer and Conspiracy Theories

Mercer Was A Noted Conspiracy Theorist

Mercer Allegedly Insisted That Bill Clinton Was Involved In A Drug-Running Scheme And Murdered His Political Opponents

Mercer Allegedly Insisted That Bill Clinton Participated In A Secret Drug-Running Scheme With The C.I.A. While He Was President. According to the New Yorker, “In 1993, Patterson, at that time a Renaissance executive, recruited Mercer from I.B.M., and they worked together for the next eight years. But Patterson doesn’t share Mercer’s libertarian views, or what he regards as his susceptibility to conspiracy theories about Bill and Hillary Clinton. During Bill Clinton’s Presidency, Patterson recalled, Mercer insisted at a staff luncheon that Clinton had participated in a secret drug-running scheme with the C.I.A. The plot supposedly operated out of an airport in Mena, Arkansas.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Mercer Reportedly Said That He Believed The Clintons Murdered Their Opponents. According to the New Yorker, “‘Bob told me he believed that the Clintons were involved in murders connected to it,’ Patterson said. Two other sources told me that, in recent years, they had heard Mercer claim that the Clintons have had opponents murdered.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Mercer Allegedly Argued That Those Outside Of The Immediate Blast Zones Of Nuclear Bombs Dropped At Hiroshima and Nagasaki Were Made Healthier By The Radiation

Mercer Allegedly Downplayed The Dangers Posed By Nuclear War. According to the New Yorker, “Another onetime senior employee at Renaissance recalls hearing Mercer downplay the dangers posed by nuclear war. Mercer, speaking of the atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, argued that, outside of the immediate blast zones, the radiation actually made Japanese citizens healthier. The National Academy of Sciences has found no evidence to support this notion.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Mercer Reportedly That Those Outside Of The Immediate Blast Zones Of Nuclear Bombs Dropped At Hiroshima And Nagasaki Were Made Healthier By The Radiation. According to the New Yorker, “Another onetime senior employee at Renaissance recalls hearing Mercer downplay the dangers posed by nuclear war. Mercer, speaking of the atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, argued that, outside of the immediate blast zones, the radiation actually made Japanese citizens healthier. The National Academy of Sciences has found no evidence to support this notion.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Robert Mercer and Civil Rights

Mercer Opposed Civil Rights

Mercer Reportedly Argued That The 1964 Civil Rights Act Was A Mistake

New Yorker: Mercer Argued That The 1964 Civil Rights Act “Was A Major Mistake.” According to the New Yorker, “Mercer, for his part, has argued that the Civil Rights Act, in 1964, was a major mistake.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

New Yorker: A Former Employee Claimed That, “Mercer Asserted Repeatedly That African-Americans Were Better Off Economically Before The Civil-Right Movement”

New Yorker: A Former Renaissance Employee Claimed That, “Mercer Asserted Repeatedly That African-Americans Were Better Off Economically Before The Civil-Right Movement.” According to the New Yorker, “According to the onetime Renaissance employee, Mercer has asserted repeatedly that African-Americans were better off economically before the civil-rights movement. (Few scholars agree.)” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Mercer Allegedly Claimed There Were No White People Who Were Racist And That Black People Were Racist

New Yorker: Mercer Allegedly Claimed, “There Are No White Racists In America Today, Only Black Racists.” According to the New Yorker, “He has also said that the problem of racism in America is exaggerated. The source said that, not long ago, he heard Mercer proclaim that there are no white racists in America today, only black racists.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Mercer Was The Sole Donor Behind A Million-Dollar Islamophobic Ad Campaign Attacking Plans To Build An Alleged Mosque In New York

Mercer Was The Sole Donor Behind A Million-Dollar Islamophobic Ad Campaign Attacking Plans To Build An Alleged Mosque In New York City

New Yorker: Mercer Was The Sole Donor Behind A Million-Dollar Advertising Campaign Attacking A “Ground Zero Mosque”

New Yorker: Mercer Was The Sole Donor Behind A Million Dollar Advertising Campaign Attacking A “Ground Zero Mosque.” According to the New Yorker, “In New York, reporters discovered that Robert Mercer was the sole donor behind a million-dollar advertising campaign attacking what it described as a plan to build a ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ in Manhattan. The proposed building was neither a mosque nor at Ground Zero. The ads, which were meant to boost a Conservative Party candidate for governor, were condemned as Islamophobic.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

The Proposed Building Was Neither A Mosque Nor At Ground Zero

The Proposed Building Was Neither A Mosque Nor At Ground Zero. According to the New Yorker, “The proposed building was neither a mosque nor at Ground Zero. The ads, which were meant to boost a Conservative Party candidate for governor, were condemned as Islamophobic.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

The Mercer-Funded Ads Were Condemned As Islamophobic.

The Mercer-Funded Ads Were Condemned As Islamophobic. According to the New Yorker, “The ads, which were meant to boost a Conservative Party candidate for governor, were condemned as Islamophobic.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Robert Mercer and Breitbart

Mercer Was A Main Stakeholder In Breitbart News

Mercer Was A Main Stakeholder In Breitbart News

Mercer Was A Main Stakeholder In Breitbart News. According to the New Yorker, “In 2012, Caddell gave a speech at a conference sponsored by Accuracy in Media, a conservative watchdog group, in which he called the media ‘the enemy of the American people.’ That declaration was promoted by Breitbart News, a platform for the pro-Trump alt-right, of which Bannon was the executive chairman, before joining the Trump Administration. One of the main stakeholders in Breitbart News is Mercer.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Mercer Invested $10 Million Into Breitbart News

Mercer Invested $10 Million Into Breitbart News. According to the New Yorker, “On top of this nonprofit spending, Mercer invested in private businesses. He put ten million dollars into Breitbart News, which was conceived as a conservative counterweight to the Huffington Post. The Web site freely mixes right-wing political commentary with juvenile rants and racist innuendo; under Bannon’s direction, the editors introduced a rubric called Black Crime.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

New Yorker: Mercer “Poured Millions Of Dollars Into Breitbart News.” According to the New Yorker, “Adopting the strategy of Charles and David Koch, the billionaire libertarians, Mercer enlarged his impact exponentially by combining short-term campaign spending with long-term ideological investments. He poured millions of dollars into Breitbart News, and—in what David Magerman has called ‘an extreme example of modern entrepreneurial philanthropy’—made donations to dozens of politically tinged organizations.” [New Yorker, 3/17/17]

Breitbart Courted Racist, Alt-Right Audiences

Breitbart Courted Racist, Alt-Right Audiences. According to BuzzFeed, “In August, after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville ended in murder, Steve Bannon insisted that ‘there’s no room in American society’ for neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and the KKK. But an explosive cache of documents obtained by BuzzFeed News proves that there was plenty of room for those voices on his website. During the 2016 presidential campaign, under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart courted the alt-right — the insurgent, racist right-wing movement that helped sweep Donald Trump to power. The former White House chief strategist famously remarked that he wanted Breitbart to be ‘the platform for the alt-right.’” [BuzzFeed, 10/5/17]

Bannon Referred To Breitbart As “The Platform For The Alt-Right”

Bannon Said Breitbart Was “The Platform For The Alt-Right.” According to BuzzFeed, “In August, after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville ended in murder, Steve Bannon insisted that ‘there’s no room in American society’ for neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and the KKK. But an explosive cache of documents obtained by BuzzFeed News proves that there was plenty of room for those voices on his website. During the 2016 presidential campaign, under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart courted the alt-right — the insurgent, racist right-wing movement that helped sweep Donald Trump to power. The former White House chief strategist famously remarked that he wanted Breitbart to be ‘the platform for the alt-right.’” [BuzzFeed, 10/5/17]

Vox: Breitbart Featured “Lurid, Fearmongering Coverage Of Minority Groups”

Vox: Breitbart Featured “Lurid, Fearmongering Coverage Of Minority Groups.” According to Vox, “So what is Breitbart’s oeuvre? Well, it’s the kind of site that has an entire category of articles called ‘black crime.’ It once reported a photo of an old Adidas shirt as evidence that Islamist terrorists are sneaking across the Mexican border. It has referred to conservative writer Bill Kristol as a ‘renegade Jew.’ This is the norm, not the exception: One of Breitbart’s key distinguishing features today is lurid, fearmongering coverage of minority groups, particularly African Americans and Muslims. On one level, the significance of a publication like Breitbart taking over the GOP is obvious: The Trump campaign is, to an unprecedented degree, openly catering to racists and xenophobes.” [Vox, 8/24/16]