Steve Bannon spreads conspiracy theory that Uvalde shooting is linked to the southern border and drug cartels

Written by Justin Horowitz

Published

Former Trump aide Steve Bannon is using his War Room: Pandemic podcast to spread a baseless conspiracy theory that the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, is somehow linked to drug cartels and immigration at the southern border. 

Bannon is not citing any evidence to support his unfounded claims, which echo his long-standing anti-immigrants rhetoric and fervent support for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

During an interview with former Trump adviser and right-wing media personality Gina Loudon on May 31, Bannon asserted that the Uvalde shooting “is going to be tied to the open borders.” 

Loudon later agreed with Bannon’s statement, claiming, “If our wall had been built and if we had the rule of law enforced, this shooting would never have happened and these children and adults would be alive today.”

On June 1, Bannon baselessly suggested that the method the gunman used to obtain the money to purchase assault weapons “is tied back to the trafficking of human beings, guns, and drugs” at the southern border.

From the June 1, 2022, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room: Pandemic 

BEN BERGQUAM (REAL AMERICA'S VOICE CORRESPONDENT): You know, the left talks about intersectionality -- we're at the intersection of the invasion of our country and the evil wokeness that is destroying our country. This is, right here to my left is where the trains come through that drop off illegal aliens. This, behind me, is the neighborhood that ... the demon killer grew up in. And right is where all of these illegal aliens have been jumping off trains going into this community. It's all connected. People need to understand that. It's all connected. What's coming up through our border, the invasion on our country, the destruction of our policing by the woke left, it's all connected. The BLM [Black Lives Matter] movement, it's all connected. 

STEVE BANNON (HOST): Hold it, hold it, hang on, hang on. You had an interview with the mayor, you were there two weeks before the shooting, the guy tells you we've had in the last academic year -- the academic year -- we had 48 lockdowns. 

...

Forty-eight lockdowns, all because of cartels. All because of the cartels. The thing is out of control and I'm telling you, how he got the cash is tied back to the trafficking of human beings, guns, and drugs. You wait for it -- they're all walking around, mumble tank, I don't know how he got 8,000, I'll tell you how he got 8,000, tell me the cash business that's blowing through town. It's not the Wendy's he was working at. It's not flipping burgers, at, what, $4 an hour. OK? That's not where he's making 8,000 and 10,000 in cash money to buy those guns and to buy the ammo and to get the ammo that quick. How did he get it that quick? 

...

BERGQUAM: I think we're onto something, Steve, and we're going to continue chasing it. 

All of these accusations are linked to Bannon’s ultranationalism and support of a white ethnostate.