Thankfully, there were no injuries on Sunday when a conspiratorial gunman took it upon himself to enter into Comet Ping Pong pizza in Washington D.C. for a bout of “self-investigation.” It’s the “what” he was looking into that has many people worried this morning; the gunman — 28-year-old Edgar Welch — was convinced that the pizza shop was harboring an elaborate child sex abuse ring in the basement spearheaded by Hillary Clinton and her Democratic cronies. The bizarre suggestion was invigorated earlier this year when people attempted to read too much into references of “pizza” found in the hacked emails of John Podesta.
The lunacy of the whole thing, and the seriousness of the suggestion that a piece of fake news could drive someone to point a rifle at an employee in the shop, drove the conversation on CNN’s New DayMonday. Anchor Chris Cuomo sharply criticized the gunman, who was arrested promptly by police after firing one shot into the floor of Comet Sunday.
“You have to look at the actor,” he offered Monday. “He’s either mentally ill or really stupid,” suggesting that the absurdity of whole conspiracy itself is so unfounded so as to drive the potential for violence.
New Day cohost Alisyn Camerota called this seeing “the real time, real life consequences,” of fake news manifesting itself in real life.
CNN Media Critic Bill Carter added, “These things are preposterous fabrications.”
The gunman in Sunday’s event sent off a flurry of panic inside the pizza shop. A bartender working later recounted, “His demeanor was bizarre, in that if you come in to a place to eat, you ask for a host or grab a seat at the bar. Didn’t make any eye contact, didn’t talk with anybody.” Law enforcement seized three weapons from the 28-year-old before his arrest.
Watch above via CNN.