Republican front-runner Donald Trump appeared on one of his favorite radio shows and added fuel to the conspiracy theory that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered, saying that one of the details of his death was “pretty unusual.”
During the February 15 broadcast of The Savage Nation, Michael Savage told Trump that Scalia might have been “murdered.” When Savage asked Trump if he would support “the equivalent of a Warren Commission” to investigate Scalia's death, he replied that he “just heard” that “they found a pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow. I can't tell you what -- I can't give you an answer.” Brian Tashman of People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch flagged the segment. From Savage's interview with Trump:
SAVAGE: Donald I need to come back to the topic we've been all screaming about here which is Scalia, was he murdered? I know it's pretty brutal to say that and I'm not wanting to drag you into this but this is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. I went on the air and said we need the equivalent of a Warren Commission, we need an immediate autopsy before the body is disposed of. What do you think of that?
TRUMP: Well I just heard today and that just a little while ago actually -- you know I just landed and I'm hearing it's a big topic -- that's the question. And it's a horrible topic, but they say they found a pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow. I can't tell you what -- I can't give you an answer. You know usually I like to give you answers but I literally just heard it a little while ago. It's just starting to come out now, as you know, Michael.
SAVAGE: Well I've been covering it for an hour and a half, there's a lot more to it than that. There was no medical examiner present, there was no one who declared the death who was there, it was done by telephone from a U.S. marshal, appointed by Obama himself. So let me not try to drag you into something you haven't studied because I don't think it would be fair to you and to the audience. I think after you look into these facts, Donald, you yourself will have to come to some different conclusions than you may think.
Savage later claimed that Scalia “was found dead under suspicious circumstances and now this character in the White House who nobody with a rational mind should trust is trying to railroad Loretta Lynch down our throats -- that came out today -- as his number one choice. Can you believe this?” Trump replied with amazement that Obama would want to nominate Lynch.
In the minutes prior to Trump's appearance, Savage suggested that the government is “corrupt enough” to kill Scalia and declared that his death “stinks to high heaven.”
Trump is a regular guest on Savage's program and told him last month, “I appreciate your support, you've been so amazing.” He's also said Savage has “common sense.”
Savage is one of the country's most extreme radio personalities. The Cumulus Media-syndicated talker has called autism “a fraud, a racket,” said PTSD and depression sufferers are “losers,” advised people not to get flu shots because you can't trust the government, theorized liberals have been driven insane because of seltzer bubbles, claimed President Obama was intentionally trying “to infect the nation with Ebola,” and once told a caller he was a “sodomite” who should “get AIDS and die.” He's endorsed Trump, saying he believes “he can win. Two, I believe he can save America.”
Conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones has also been suggesting that Scalia was murdered. “My gut tells me they killed him and all the intellectual evidence lays it out,” Jones said. Despite his fringe conspiracy theories, including that the government was behind the 9/11 attacks, the Trump campaign has been courting Jones and his audience.