The next time someone tells you that fake news and conspiracy theories don’t cause any harm and aren’t taken seriously by anyone, be sure and direct them to what happened Sunday at a pizzeria in Washington, D.C.

Some background: General Michael Flynn, who has been announced at National Security Advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, along with his son, went on Twitter and spread a story they took from far-right wackjob Alex Jones which alleged Hillary Clinton and a campaign ad were running a child sex ring out of the Comet Ping Pong pizza parlor in Washington. This led a man to fire shots into the pizzeria Sunday afternoon.

Today on the MSNBC show Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough said Flynn should apologize for spreading lies which helped incite violence:

“He has left a trail of crap behind him with retweets, retweeting something about Jews, retweeting something about Muslims, retweeting fake news. He needs to clean this up. He needs to step up and clean this up.”

But Scarborough was far from finished, pounding his fist and angrily adding:

“He needs to apologize to Americans. He is in one of the most important positions in the White House. On Jan. 20, he needs to apologize for what he has done, unrelated to this fake news story but with the other fake news stories, the retweets about Jews, the retweets about Muslims.”

Panelist Mark Halperin agreed with Scarborough, noting:

“It shouldn’t just be, ‘I’m sorry,’ or, ‘I was careless.’ He needs to explain all of this in a way that’s detailed, because again, he’s not subject to Senate confirmation. He’s about to have a very big job. He’s not responsible for his son, but he’s responsible for himself.”

Of course, waiting for any member of the Trump team to apologize is about as productive as waiting for a bear to stop crapping in the woods. Flynn should be dumped by the President-elect and hung out to dry. He is a danger to the country and our allies.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org