Semafor reports Texas plastic surgeon Keith Rose was “patient zero” for one of the worst conspiracy theories chewing MAGA to pieces in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.“In the hours after Charlie Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, his executive producer Andrew Kolvet took a call in the hospital where Kirk’s body still lay,” reports Semafor writers Ben Smith and Shelby Scott. “On the other end of the line was an occasional guest on the Charlie Kirk Show, Keith Rose, a Texas plastic surgeon and former military doctor who doubles as a geopolitical and intelligence commentator on conservative podcasts.At the time of the call, Trump’s FBI had failed to identify or capture Kirk’s killer, so perhaps it should have been a surprise when Rose told Kolvet that two other conservative media figures, Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, had actually been the assassin’s original targets, and could still be next.Where was Rose getting his info? “He had picked [it] up,” reports Semafor. But that lack of sourcing did not stop Kolvet from sending the info along to Owens.“I passed along the information to her because who wouldn’t, given the extraordinary circumstances and everything that had happened that day,” Kolvet said in a statement to Semafor. What followed was a battalion of “paranoia and finger-pointing,” which “has consumed the American right,” reports Semafor.“A death that, for a moment, seemed to unite the right instead cut rifts in the movement that have deepened since the Iran war began,” said Semafor. “And Rose’s call to a still-grieving Kolvet may be the match that lit a still-burning pyre of conspiracy theories and unfounded charges of an Israeli plot against the murdered conservative icon.”Within weeks, Semafor said Owens was on her show and “amplifying claims about a potential Israeli government role in Kirk’s assassination,” claiming without evidence that assassin Tyler Robinson didn’t act alone.“[Kolvet] called me from the hospital and said it was supposed to be me, and I was on his list, and so was Tucker Carlson,” Owens told Semafor. Kolvet didn’t tell her where he’d gotten the information, she added.Kolvet later piled more kindling to the fire, claiming he’d met Rose in DC and “saw a written dossier further detailing Rose’s allegations, a document that Rose indicated would be passed on to President Donald Trump’s aides,” according to Semafor. But an administration source told Semafor: “The allegations made by this individual were handed to the administration, and every actionable lead was run down and could not be proven.”Rose, himself, denies being the source of the lie, telling Semafor: “I have no idea what you are talking about” before clamming up and refusing to speak further.But rumors burn bright in the MAGA word, and Kolvet spread Rose’s claim far and wide, making it “the first of a torrent of claims and counterclaims shared by conservative commentators after Kirk’s death.”“The conspiracy theories got louder after Kolvet shared text messages in which Kirk had complained about pro-Israel donors with Joe Kent, who resigned as Trump’s counterterrorism adviser over Iran, and other fellow conservatives,” said Semafor.Eventually the flame got high enough for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having to openly deny Israel’s involvement in Kirk’s death.
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