The Right-Wing Ran Absolutely Wild on the US-Canada Border Car Crash

On Wednesday, a well-to-do middle-aged couple died when their speeding Bentley crashed and exploded in a speculator fireball at a United States-Canada border crossing. But as is so often the case, this tragedy quickly dovetailed in real-time with right-wing misinformation about terror attacks and anti-immigrant bigotry.

It’s a playbook that’s unfortunately become extremely commonplace in the window that’s experienced following a major event.

On Wednesday, shortly before noon, a Bently drove into the Rainbow Bridge border crossing in Niagara Falls, New York, at a high speed, it lost control, was launched into the air, and exploded when it made contact with some of the infrastructure. The two in the vehicle were declared dead and for a short while, flames raged at the crossing, causing a dramatic scene. A person working at the crossing was injured but suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Information regarding the incident was scarce for several hours following the incident, with the main bit of on-the-record information coming from the FBI, who said they were investigating and coordinating with other law enforcement agencies. The explosion had set off a lot of speculation online about whether it was a terrorist attack, and then it was seemingly confirmed, as Fox News declared that law enforcement sources told them that the incident was a “terror attack” and that explosives were found on the scene.

Fox News, of course, wasn’t the only one to get in on the action. As journalists and researchers waited for more information to become available,  fringe-right users jumped at the chance to use the event to push agendas. X, Elon Musk’s platform formerly known as Twitter, used to have several guardrails including verification and strict moderation and was actually seen as useful in times of breaking news. Today it’s become practically unusable for verification and is a key vector for pushing misinformation.

Laura Loomer, a far-right personality, quickly declared the attack terrorism and went to work spreading the idea as far as she could. In long posts proliferated with all-caps, she called it  “a terrorist attack today at the US-Canada border” and demanded the government do something about it. Robert Spencer, an anti-Muslim activist, pushed the notion that an Iranian passport was found at the scene ( the driver was from New York state.) Spencer did eventually correct the record, Loomer, however, did not.

Right-wing politicians actively got in on the act. U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy took to X and wrote about how he believes there should be more security at the northern border and ridiculed political rival Chris Christie for disagreeing with him. North of the border, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre used the incident during question period when asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau what he would do to secure the border. (It’s unclear what Canadian officials can do to slow American motorists.)

The couple in the vehicle was a husband and wife who were leaving a casino they went to after their plans to attend a KISS concert were scuttled.

This was reiterated by the FBI who said in a statement that their investigation revealed no “terrorist nexus” or “explosive materials.” This would have come as a shock to a Fox News viewer, however. After the incident Fox News slowly walked back their claims as more information became public.

The idea that this was a terrorist attack had already spread far and wide, as  figures who make a living off the culture war, like Charlie Kirk and Benny Johnson, made hay off the incident. Johnson, who has over two million followers on X, tried to churn up some conspiratorial thoughts about the incident asking “What information did the intel community already have prior to the Buffalo car bombing that made them issue a terror warning” referring to a bulletin warning of possible violence relating to the Israel Gaza conflict. Kirk meanwhile used the incident  to ask why democratic politicians haven’t been impeached for allowing “hundreds, maybe thousands, of terrorists crossing our border.” Kirk did correct the record, but Johnson did not.

Small bit Canadian counterparts to Johnson and Kirk likewise got in on the action. One so-called right-wing media figure even called for Trudeau to resign once “the dust settles” and claimed he was told the explosion was a result of a  “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.” Many other smaller users on X posted similar things that were spread far and wide—a wide swath of them have just moved on to other subjects rather than admit they were wrong to their followers.

Of course, even after the truth came out–a New York businessman crashed his $300,000 car after spending time at a casino after a planned Kiss concert in Toronto was cancelled–some figures continue to push the crash as a terror attack. And thanks to the fact we live in a post-truth world, the notion that this was a terrorist attack but that the government manufactured a cover story to protect minorities has started to take hold among the conspiracy crowd—even if in some cases it’s being coached in irony.

“Nothing to see here - it was just 2 rich adults in a nice car driving 100 mph and purposely ramping to their suicidal deaths because they were mad at a KISS concert being canceled,” wrote CatTurd2, one of Elon Musk’s favorite users, who has over 2 million followers.

“It definitely wasn't terrorism though.”