The
Palmer Report is a hyperpartisan The
Palmer Report typically uses
anonymous Secret Service sources and its articles give the impression that Trump is about to go to prison or be
deposed. It is regarded as a
political propaganda outlet or left-wing
disinformation. Articles from the
Palmer Report were shared almost exclusively by Hillary Clinton supporters during the 2016 presidential election. The
Palmer Report received five million
unique visits per month over the course of 2017. Some of the
Palmer Report's most widely shared stories include the conspiracy theory that then-
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell funneled "Russian money" to Trump and falsely claimed 5,000 Trump votes in Wisconsin were disqualified. During a
recount in
Waukesha County, a story from the
Palmer Report spread online, alleging that election officials were double-counting votes for Trump. The source of the story was an unverified
Facebook post.
Election officials dismissed the story, and the
Wisconsin Elections Commission found no evidence for the allegations. The story was shared close to 40,000 times on social media. Statistician
Andrew Gelman compared the
Palmer Reports claims of
election rigging to claims made in the
National Enquirer, and wrote that "the basis for these accusations is more perceived unfairness than actual statistics". During the
2017 Syria missile strikes ordered by Trump, the
Palmer Report suggested, without evidence, that Trump spared the runways of the Shayrat airfield due to Russian collusion.
MSNBC host
Lawrence O'Donnell echoed a
Palmer Report conspiracy theory that
Syria's chemical weapon attack was orchestrated by the Russian government in order to allow Trump to appear distant from Putin. The story contained no evidence. In April 2017, the
Palmer Report falsely claimed that the
FBI had intelligence that Russia was
blackmailing Republican Representative
Jason Chaffetz. The evidence for the claim came from a tweet from
Louise Mensch, who, in turn, cited unnamed sources.
Snopes found no evidence for this claim.
Ned Price, former special assistant to Obama, promoted the false claim on Twitter. The article pointed to a "report" from a tweet sent by a user with 257 followers. A few years later, Tribe acknowledged he made "a mistake" and did not realize the
Palmer Report "was as unreliable as it is." In May 2017, Senator
Ed Markey was forced to backtrack a false claim that a
grand jury had been impaneled in New York in relation to the
Special Counsel investigation; the source for the claim was the
Palmer Report and Mensch's blog, according to one of his aides. The
Palmer Report also pushed a conspiracy theory that the Trump administration's
travel ban against Chad was connected to the Niger ambush. In October 2017, the
Palmer Report published a story claiming that
Jared Kushner had "secretly" flown to
Saudi Arabia "ahead of his possible arrest", citing a
Politico article. The cited
Politico article debunks the
Palmer Reports own story since it stated that Kushner had actually departed on a diplomatic trip two days prior to the announcement that
Robert Mueller's team would begin issuing indictments in relation to the Special Counsel investigation and that Kushner returned to Washington, D.C. to celebrate his wife
Ivanka Trump's birthday before anyone had been taken into custody.
Snopes rated the
Palmer Reports story as false.
2018–present During the 2018
Kavanaugh hearings, the
Palmer Report and others falsely claimed that attorney
Zina Bash, who is of Mexican and Jewish descent, flashed a "
white-power" symbol. Journalist
David Harsanyi said the
Palmer Report and others were "conspiracy-mongering in much the same way
Alex Jones is conspiracy-mongering". Following a speech Trump delivered on January 8, 2020, concerning an
Iranian missile strike at American bases and other hostilities with Iran, the
Palmer Report incorrectly claimed that a
general standing behind Trump gave a "horrified look" when Trump mentioned
hypersonic missiles. The
Palmer Report also incorrectly claimed that by acknowledging the missiles, Trump leaked "
classified information". A video of the speech shows no general giving a horrified look and it is a well known fact that America possess hypersonic missile technology. In August 2020, the
Palmer Report "[led] the charge" against MSNBC host
Chris Hayes after he reported on the
Tara Reade sexual assault accusations against Biden. The
Palmer Report commented, "I won't stop going after Hayes until he retracts his false story or he's off the air." According to
The Daily Dot, "All Hayes did was address the story. But Biden supporters... are throwing their arms up at a member of the media for covering it, demanding he be fired, calling it fake news, and searching for conspiracies, refusing to interrogate that a candidate who has a history of making women uncomfortable could do something like that." In December 2020, the
Palmer Report falsely reported that
Colin Powell had urged
Michael Flynn to be put on "military trial for
sedition". == Accuracy and ideology ==