Desperate to deflect from Donald Trump’s outrageous suggestion that someone should assassinate Hillary Clinton, Fox News has been trying to make pathetic political hay over the fact that the Orlando shooter’s father was seated behind her at a rally.

It’s such a ridiculous conspiracy theory, I can only think that folks at Fox are so enamored of its “Obama's a secret Muslim” dog whistle that they want to keep using it against Hillary Clinton.

As Media Matters explains, there are only two possible explanations for Seddique Mateen to have been seated behind Clinton:

1 It was an accident. A low-level staffer grabbed Mateen from the crowd and put him in that position without realizing that Mateen was the father of the Pulse shooter, positioning him as part of what “a longtime Republican presidential campaign advance staffer described as a ‘tapestry’—an area where a diverse group would be seated to reflect wide-ranging support for the candidate.”

2 For some nefarious purpose, the Clinton campaign made a conscious, deliberate decision to highlight the support of Mateen during a speech in which Clinton paid tribute to his son’s victims.

“It makes no sense for the Clinton campaign to intentionally associate itself with a man who has a history of anti-gay comments and whose son killed dozens of gay people,” Media Matters further notes.

Yet, that is exactly what one of Fox's favorite Islamophobes, Brigitte Gabriel, argued last night, with a little help from host Trish Regan.

“What the heck is going on” Regan asked, deliberately raising suspicion, “that the Hillary campaign somehow missed that this guy was seated there. Do you believe that?”

BRIGITTE GABRIEL: No, I don’t believe it one bit because her advance team knows exactly who is sitting behind her. These people are handpicked, and there is no way they did not know that he was sitting there. As a matter of fact, I don’t doubt it that they even positioned him in there because they wanted to appeal to the Islamic vote. So the fact that she is denying that she knew he was there is total baloney. 

Memo to Gabriel: I’m willing to bet that with a candidate like Trump, Hillary Clinton already has a lock on the Muslim vote and doesn’t need to pander. Furthermore, it speaks volume about Gabriel that she thinks cozying up to Mateen would appeal to most Muslims.

But, having insisted the Clinton campaign deliberately sat Mateen behind the candidate, Gabriel gave herself some anti-Clinton insurance just in case she was wrong.

GABRIEL: And even though if she did not know—if she’s saying I really did not know, what does that say about her carelessness? She is running for president. So she is endangering her position and the presidency of the United States by having the father of a terrorist who killed 49 Americans sitting just feet from her. That speaks volumes about the lack of attention to security details surrounding her and her lacksadaisy (sic) operations. Just like what she did with the emails. Hosting State Department e-mails on her personal server. 

That's just as ridiculous. It's not as if Mr. Mateen is a terrorist or that seating him at a rally meant that Clinton endorsed anything about him. In fact, she specifically disavowed his support..

Predictably, Regan did not challenge a word Gabriel said nor anything she suggested.

Watch it below, from the August 9 The Kelly File.