It’s happened. He’s officially lost it. Our favourite political nutjob, Clive Palmer, let loose in an interview with our favourite TV nutjob, Karl Stefanovic, on Nine’s Today show this morning, taking aim at News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch of trying to brainwash Australians through his media outlets, and accusing Murdoch‘s ex-wife Wendi Deng of being a Chinese spy.
Palmer‘s threats came in a tirade when he was asked about a piece by journalist Hedley Thomas appearing in Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper today, titled ‘Why we need to worry about the real Clive Palmer‘, which questions Palmer‘s qualifications and past claims, alleges that he is “not a professor, not an adviser to the G20, not a mining magnate, not a legal guru and not an advocate for freedom of speech” and suggests “He’s probably not a billionaire”.
After refusing to answer any of Thomas‘ accusations (who he describes as “just an apparatchik of Rupert Murdoch in New York” and “like Black Caviar with a broken leg”), Palmer goes on to take aim at Murdoch‘s ex-wife “You know Rupert Murdoch‘s wife Wendi Deng is a Chinese spy,” Palmer said. “She’s been spying on Rupert for years, giving money back to Chinese intelligence. Read the truth about it. She was trained in southern China.”
Palmer suggests that Deng‘s ‘spying’ was why Murdoch “got rid of her”, and the irony of him going on to say “this guy (Murdoch) wants to control Australian politics” appears to be lost on the real-life Dr Hammond. He continued to take digs at Kevin Rudd for importing Barack Obama‘s media team from the US, and even Stefanovic himself, telling him to “lift his game”. Why, exactly, and to what level Karl needs to lift his game, remains unclear. Palmer also spoke to David Koch on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program today, repeated his claims that Wendi Deng was a Chinese spy, and
announced that “Murdoch will be sued by me today and will be brought to
Australia to answer these questions in the Supreme Court,”.
Palmer‘s insane ramblings (funny how the only difference between a Prime Ministerial hopeful and a conspiracy-mad asylum escapee yelling at you on the street is just a few hundred million dollars) would previously have been nothing more that what Palmer is best at – eyebrow-raising comic relief in an otherwise dull and depressing election campaign. But as dissatisfaction with the major parties mounts, polls are showing that the Palmer United Party could (actually, in real life) secure the sixth senate seat in Queensland (not quite the ten that Palmer insisted they’ll get in the interview, but you know, aim high and all that), and this guy could actually hold a modicum of power.
Palmer‘s words left Stefanovic (and everyone else) completely baffled. After an interview like that, Karl could probably use a beer.
