A guide to Vance debate adviser Monica Crowley’s extreme conspiratorial theories in 2024

Crowley has pushed conspiracy theories about Walz and Nazi ideology; COVID-19; Trump assassination attempts; Haitian migrants; the “Great Reset”; mass shootings; and more

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

Trump running mate and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) has reportedly been preparing for his upcoming vice presidential debate with Monica Crowley, a right-wing commentator and Trump campaign surrogate who also contributed to the Project 2025 transition plan for the next Republican administration.

Crowley has attacked Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Vance's debate opponent, with incendiary rhetoric, including claiming that he views “chaos, death, and destruction as necessary tools to advance the revolution” and arguing that his ideology is the same as “what Nazi Germany did with the Jews.”

Crowley, who worked in the Trump administration as an assistant Treasury secretary, has a long history of extreme rhetoric. (Media Matters also documented her extreme commentaries on abortion.) This year alone, she has continued to push a number of conspiracy theories and toxic remarks. They include: 

Crowley: Tim Walz is “a fully committed Marxist” who views “chaos, death, and destruction as necessary tools to advance the revolution”; Walz’s ideology is “what Nazi Germany did with the Jews.” On August 6, shortly after Harris picked Walz as her running mate, Crowley went on an extended rant about the Minnesota Democrat’s alleged extremism. At one point, she said: “Marxists view the chaos, death, and destruction as necessary tools to advance the revolution. That's who Tim Walz is.” She later compared Walz’s ideology to “what Nazi Germany did with the Jews and others, dehumanized them, turn them into pigs, and in Walz's word, cows. You dehumanize people.” 

Monica Crowley on Tim Walz

From the August 6, 2024, edition of The Monica Crowley Podcast

MONICA CROWLEY (HOST): Marxists view the chaos, death, and destruction as necessary tools to advance the revolution. That's who Tim Walz is. This is not just some, you know, kindly, kind of left governor in Minnesota. This is a fully committed Marxist who is fully invested in the left's deliberate destruction of our country. 

… 

He takes all of his marching orders from the teachers unions and the crazy bosses like Randi Weingarten. And he has attacked his fellow Minnesotans, the ones who work and live on farms as, quote, “mostly rocks and cows.” So that is reminiscent of Hillary, the basket of deplorables, and Obama, clinging to your guns and your religion. 

This is what these Marxists think of you. This is exactly what they think of you. They have absolute contempt for you. You can see it in the way they handle Donald Trump and also the January 6 defendants. And frankly, you and me. They do everything possible to dehumanize us. This is what communists do. This is what totalitarians, dictators, tyrants do throughout history. They dehumanize their fellow human beings because that makes it easier to destroy and ultimately to kill them. 

This is what the Soviet dictators did. This is what the Chinese communists did and continue to do. This is what Nazi Germany did with the Jews and others, dehumanized them, turn them into pigs, and in Walz’s word, cows. You dehumanize people. It makes it easier for you to destroy and ultimately exterminate them. 

Tim Walz also loves China. He has spent his entire career cozying up to the Chinese Communist Party, so he never met a CCP operative that he didn't like. And he's got a ton of other ethical issues, etc. So guys, this is where we are with the Democrat ticket.

Crowley claimed that there is a sprawling “deep state” that has been trying to destroy Donald Trump through COVID-19 (“released on purpose”), “rigged” elections, and the recent attempt on his life. In Crowley’s telling, there is a large conspiracy of deep state operatives who have been trying to destroy Trump for years. Their actions against Trump include: the “rigged election” in 2022; the “election crimes” of 2020; the events of January 6, 2021; COVID-19, which was “released on purpose”; and the assassination attempt in July. Crowley stated on her July 22 podcast: 

From the July 22, 2024, edition of The Monica Crowley Podcast

MONICA CROWLEY (HOST): They are on a relentless jihad to destroy Trump, from the Russia hoax to two fake impeachments to the rigged election in 2022 to January 6 to COVID, which was released on purpose to shut down the global economy, to shut down the U.S. economy, to cripple Donald Trump going into 2020, to justify the early voting, the mass mail-in balloting, the ballot harvesting, all of the election crimes that they engaged in in 2020. COVID was released on purpose. They had it all set up. You think the deep state are a bunch of dummies? No, they're brilliant people. They're spies and they're also evil. So from all of this, through January 6, through the raid on Mar-a-Lago, through the assassination attempt. All of it, all the lawfare, through the bullets flying on July 13. All of this is the system trying to stop Donald Trump. 

Crowley has repeatedly suggested that the deep state has tried to assassinate Trump. Crowley’s remarks that the deep state attempted to destroy Trump “through the assassination attempt. … through the bullets flying on July 13” was not an aberration. Crowley has suggested in other instances that the deep state has been trying to assassinate Trump. 

  • On her September 17 show, she said “the system” has “now twice” tried to take out Trump, and “when you realize that there are elements of your own government that are at war with you, it's a horrifying concept.” She added: “When the system is desperate, it's like a cornered rat. When the system is desperate, it lashes out. And this is why you're seeing multiple assassination attempts against Donald Trump.”
  • During her September 5 show, Crowley said: “I thought that the system was more creative. And believe me, they are. But when you start seeing retreads of stuff that worked in the past, like assassination attempts. I mean, they tried to JFK DJT. This time it didn't work.” 
  • During an August 29 interview, Crowley and Trump discussed the possibility that the Pennsylvania assassination attempt was an “inside job.” 
  • On her July 23 show, while speaking with “intelligence, security and special ops professional Brian O'Shea,” she said: “You suggested that this was intentional, that this was perhaps an inside job. And I think the more we see, the more it clearly it looks like that. That the government trained this guy, that the government brought him in to carry this out.” 
  • While speaking as a guest on a show on July 22, she claimed: “When they accuse Donald Trump of being an existential threat to democracy, that lays the rhetorical foundation for the assassination attempt on him. Because if you're an existential threat, it's justified removing him, physically removing him. And Lord knows they've tried everything to this point. So the assassination attempt on Donald Trump actually was the final attempt by the deep state to marginalize him, to set him aside, both physically and politically, because over the last nine years, nothing else has worked.” 

Crowley claimed Haitian migrants “have a completely alien culture, do not speak the language, don't abide by our rules, are not assimilating in any way. … Yes, they're eating the cats and the dogs.” Crowley has promoted the racist conspiracy theory that Haitian migrants are eating pets, which has been heavily advanced by Vance. She stated: “Yes, they're eating the cats and the dogs.” She has also spoken about Haitian migrants with bigoted language, claiming that people have been “dropping 20,000 Haitian migrants who have a completely alien culture, do not speak the language, don't abide by our rules, are not assimilating in any way.” From the September 19 edition of her podcast:  

From the September 19, 2024, edition of The Monica Crowley Podcast

MONICA CROWLEY (HOST): Dropping 20,000 Haitian migrants who have a completely alien culture, do not speak the language, don't abide by our rules, are not assimilating in any way. And Springfield has been forced to absorb all of them. And with that, all of the negative consequences that come with a mass migration like this with no guidance or infrastructure support, including, yes, they're eating the cats and the dogs. They're eating the pets, as Trump said.

Crowley claimed that Democrats are trying “to flood the country with illegal immigrants in order to collapse the system, get a permanent Democrat voting majority.” Crowley has pushed the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, the white nationalist trope which claims that Democrats are purposely replacing people in the country with nonwhites. Crowley said on her podcast on April 10: 

From the April 10, 2024, edition of The Monica Crowley Podcast

MONICA CROWLEY (HOST): Guys, if their job is to flood the country with illegal immigrants in order to collapse the system, get a permanent Democrat voting majority, and get in line with the Great Reset, which requires the erasure of borders, then yes, they are in fact doing their job. 

The “Great Reset” is a sprawling conspiracy theory that essentially alleges that global leaders are trying to enact an authoritarian one-world government.  

Crowley portrayed mass shootings as a way that the deep state is trying “to distract you.” During her podcast on February 15, Crowley referenced recent mass shootings and brought up “speculation that a lot of this stuff is a big distraction enterprise.” She also said, “When we say ‘wag the dog,’ it's not just national security and wars that they're setting up to distract you.” 

She added: “I don't know. I don't know. But there is a lot going on under the surface.” She also said: “I know it's very difficult to process this idea that your own president wants something to happen or will arrange for something to happen.” 

From the February 15, 2024, edition of The Monica Crowley Podcast

MONICA CROWLEY (HOST): Here's where the even darker part comes in. Biden and his team desperately want something to happen. There's a lot of talk about false flags.

...

There were a number of shootings, including at Kansas City, a big parade for the Super Bowl victors. One person dead, I think 11 children shot and wounded. There was another shooting in — I believe it was in Atlanta at a high school, another shooting at a mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. 

You know, there is speculation that a lot of this stuff is a big distraction enterprise. So when we say ‘wag the dog,’ it's not just national security and wars that they're setting up to distract you. It's all this other stuff. I don't know. I don't know. But there is a lot going on under the surface. And that's what I'm here to bring you. And I know it's very difficult to process this idea that your own president wants something to happen or will arrange for something to happen so that they have a reason to leverage mass surveillance, justify continuing that and mass censorship before the election. Crack down on your freedoms like they did in 2020. They leveraged COVID. I think they launched it on purpose. And they’re looking for something else now even if they have to create it to leverage mass surveillance and mass censorship before the election. 

Crowley: “I've been trying to come up with different scenarios that they can spring on us, including possibly expiring Joe Biden.” Crowley interviewed musician John Rich during her September 19 show about what could happen in the coming weeks of the campaign. The conversation shifted to discussing if Kamala Harris didn’t fare well politically in the race and was removed, prompting Crowley to speculate about “different scenarios that they can spring on us, including possibly expiring Joe Biden.” 

From the September 17, 2024, edition of The Monica Crowley Podcast

MONICA CROWLEY (HOST): You've given me a new nightmare to worry about, because I, you know, I think like they do and I've been trying to come up with different scenarios that they can spring on us, including possibly expiring Joe Biden. So then you've got the death of a president and that knocks out 10 days of media coverage. You’ve got a state funeral. You've got Kamala as the incumbent president. You’ve got a sympathy wave voting her in like you saw with Lyndon Johnson in ‘64 after the JFK assassination. I mean, there are a million things that could happened between now and then.

Crowley: The “regime” needs “the chaos. That's why they set up false flag operations. That's why they do all of this January 6 frame-up.” Crowley claimed during her July 30 program that the “regime” has “set up false flag operations” and called the January 6 insurrection a “frame-up.”

From the August 6, 2024, edition of The Monica Crowley Podcast

MONICA CROWLEY (HOST): If you're worried about your basic life necessities, then you are distracted by that and you are not paying attention to what the regime is doing. They need the chaos. That's why they set up false flag operations. That's why they do all of this January 6 frame-up. All of this stuff is being run out of and by the regime. Again, the institutions that are supposed to protect you and we're all supposed to be on the same side, those institutions are deliberately targeting you, destabilizing your country, memory-holing your recent history. Minimizing it and erasing it along with erasing your borders. 

Crowley has already alleged that Pennsylvania is stealing the 2024 election. As Media Matters previously documented, Crowley said on her September 5 podcast:

MONICA CROWLEY (HOST): Every action that the regime and the system takes now needs to be questioned because it's all geared to the result on November 5. We might not even know the results the night of November 5. You have big states like Pennsylvania already warning you, “Hey, guys, yeah, we're not going to have results on election night.” And the reason, of course, is clear because they’ve got to figure out how many votes they need to make up to defeat Donald Trump. This is — they are running the exact same playbook that they ran in 2020 and that they were too late in the game in 2016 to stop Donald Trump and America First.