Beck smears White House official Christina Tchen in pursuit of anti-Soros narrative

Written by Jocelyn Fong

Published

Responding to reports that George Soros criticized the Obama administration, Glenn Beck said on his Fox News show: “The left wants to you believe that somehow or another that this is proof that Obama and Soros are not connected. But that is ridiculous because [Soros] is where everything comes from.” To support this claim, Beck launched a baseless and sloppy allegation: That Soros planted Christina Tchen -- who is reportedly being considered for Michelle Obama's chief of staff -- into the White House. With a photo of Tchen posted on his black board, Beck said:

BECK: How do you explain the four times Soros has visited the White House? How do you explain that during some of those visits he brought with him, what? A date? Christina Tchen, this woman. Obama meets with Soros. And he brings with her -- brings with him her. Guess who she is now the new chief of staff for? Her [Michelle Obama]. I mean, hello? Soros' influence is everywhere, unless that's just really bad luck again.

Actually, according to the visitor logs, a George Soros has visited the White House five times during the Obama administration. The records state that on one of those occasions, Soros visited “Tina Tchen” with 141 other people.

As usual, this is a case of Beck fudging the facts in order to string together a sweeping narrative about the "puppet master." There is simply no evidence that Tchen accompanied Soros to the White House (or anywhere else) or that Soros somehow placed her into the office of the first lady. In fact, Tchen already works at the White House, as the Director of the Office of Public Engagement, where she's been since the beginning of the Obama administration. Prior to that, she was a “veteran lawyer at a premier Chicago law firm” and also fundraised for Obama's Senate and Presidential campaigns, according to WhoRunsGov. But somehow Beck concludes that George Soros is the reason she's got a job at the White House.

During the segment Beck also claimed that the Tides foundation “comes from” George Soros. In fact, Tides said that Soros' Open Society Institute provides “well under five percent of our total contributions” and that Soros has only provided funding to the Tides Foundation relatively recently.

If accuracy was a priority for Beck, he would have so little to say.

From the November 18 edition of Glenn Beck: