Insider Newsletters Still Struggling to Make Interview Fetch Happen

Posted on by Josh Marshall

The Beltway demand for Kamala Harris to do her ninth or twentieth “substantive” (read: mainstream media) interview is reaching a fever pitch in the wake of Harris’ campaign announcing a new round of podcasts, Late Night and influencer interviews coming right after her appearance on 60 Minutes. Yesterday’s Politico’s Playbook captured the mood in a newsletter edition that managed to be both catty and frivolous, a churning mix of trying to make “fetch” happen and “debate me, bro” hectoring. Yes, she’s doing a bunch of interviews, they announced. But sorry lady, they just ain’t the right ones …

Continue reading “Insider Newsletters Still Struggling to Make Interview Fetch Happen” → 

Trump Invokes The Ghastly Racist Trope Of Genetic Inferiority

Posted on by David Kurtz

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

‘Bad Genes’

In a campaign that Donald Trump has centered on race ever since the biracial Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, the former president continues to ratchet up the toxicity of his rhetoric as the election approaches.

After he and his running mate JD Vance targeted Black Haitian immigrants legally residing in Springfield, Ohio, culminating with a campaign stop there last week, the former president began repeating nonsensical claims about Black immigrants from the Congo.

Then in a new level of vitriol – that echoes some of the worst racism that history has to offer – Trump suggested Monday that some immigrants are genetically inferior:

As Philip Bump notes, it’s not the first time Trump has invoked his baseless theory of genetic differences as part of a broader racist appeal to his audiences.

The dehumanizing of immigrants is nothing new for Trump, either. The not-so-subtle shift to focusing on immigrants of color, while facing off against an opponent with Black and South Asian heritage, is new to this campaign cycle, but it of course reminiscent of his deep foray into birtherism during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Trump’s Deep Anti-Semitism On Full Display, Too

To mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Donald Trump trafficked in a patented mix of anti-Semitism and narcissism:

  • “I did more for the Jewish people than anybody — and it’s not reciprocal,” Trump complained to Hugh Hewitt.
  • In the same interview, Trump falsely claimed that he had visited Gaza in the past.
  • To make matters worse, a Trump campaign aide pushed back against the insinuation that Trump had lied about visiting Gaza by claiming Gaza is “in Israel” and Trump had visited Israel. Ergo?

Abortion Watch

Several new developments, all with consequences for women’s health and the 2024 election:

  • Georgia: Georgia Supreme Court reinstates state’s 6-week abortion ban
  • Texas: The Supreme Court Punts Again On Emergency Abortion Care
  • Florida: DeSantis Threatening Jail Time for Running Abortion Rights Ads in Florida

BREAKING …

The FBI probe of the sexual assault claims against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh were constrained by the Trump White House, according to a new report to be released today by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a fierce opponent of Kavanaugh’s 2018 nomination.

SCOTUS Begins Its New Term

By The Numbers

Kamala Harris takes a lead in NYT/Siena poll for the first time, pulling ahead of Donald Trump among likely voters nationwide 49%-46%.

Tampa Faces Catastrophic Hurricane Milton

The long-feared direct hit on Tampa by a major hurricane – the likes of which hasn’t been experienced in more than a century, during which time development of the bay area exploded – seems nearly inevitable as Milton approaches from the west across an exceptionally warm Gulf of Mexico, according to forecasts from the National Hurricane Center.

Tampa’s unique geography makes it the major U.S. city most vulnerable to a storm surge. The current storm surge warning predicts 10-15 feet of water above normally dry ground in and around Tampa, which is dotted with canals, inlets, and channels that make vast areas of residential and commercial development vulnerable to inundation.

In terms of flooding potential, we’re talking Katrina and Sandy levels of potential inundation. Whether Milton, which deepened Monday into one of the strongest storms on record in the Atlantic basin, leaves a similar trail of destruction and loss of life as those two historic storms will depend in part on how successful today’s continuing evacuation of the west central Florida coastline is. It’s not a survivable storm surge for those who remain.

Evacuating large areas of a major urban area is neither simple nor easy, and in some ways we need to be honest with ourselves that it’s not entirely possible. The logistics are difficult, the communications challenges hard to overcome, and the sheer number of old, infirm, immobile, and those without means makes it a sobering reality that while it’s easy to call for a mass evacuation, it’s nearly impossible to execute one.

If you’ve not lived on the Gulf Coast, it’s difficult to describe how little time you have to decide whether to call an abrupt halt to normal life and shift into hurricane mode. Do you skip class or work today or wait and see until tomorrow? Do you cancel that long-awaited doctor appointment, that much-needed treatment, or that scheduled surgery? What about that deadline at work, or your contractual obligation to a client, or the much-needed service your business provides? These are agonizing decisions that might be easier if they came once a lifetime or once a decade, but they now come more often, sometimes multiple times a year.

The Tampa region is still picking up the pieces from the record storm surge that Hurricane Helene brought as it brushed by on its way to landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida two weeks ago. The second major storm in as many weeks makes it both more challenging to prepare for the second storm and more daunting to recover in its aftermath.

If you have loved ones in the Tampa area, urge them to leave. The pain of regretting your decision to stay after it’s too late to leave is exquisite, especially if you have children, elderly parents, employees, or others depending on you to make good decisions. You do not want to spend the rest of your life carrying the burden of a bad decision with no escape hatch.

Too Much Irony To Bear

Exclusive

WSJ:

Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death,” walked out of a U.S. prison almost two years ago in a trade with Moscow for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner. Now he is back in business, trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.

Meet The TheoBros

A good introduction to the world that JD Vance comes from via Mother Jones. If you’ve been following TPM’s coverage of Christian nationalism, you’ll see some familiar characters and overlapping lineages:

So Gross

Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!

DeSantis Threatening Jail Time for Running Abortion Rights Ads in Florida

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Florida has become the state where elements of a future, second-Trump-presidency America already come into view. We’re seeing some of these things happening right now in Florida. The example I’m about to share with you legitimately shocked me. (That’s a high bar.) It’s about the pro-choice ballot amendment which would restore Roe protections in Florida if it gets the support of 60% of voters. As in most other states, getting to 50% isn’t that difficult. 60% is much harder. To head off even the chance that the ballot initiative might hit that challenging high bar, the state of Florida is already spending a substantial amount of tax payer dollars campaigning against the initiative. Now we learn that the state is quite literally threatening jail time for the employees of stations that agree to run one of the ads for the pro-choice amendment. You heard that right — not sue under some claim of defamation but actual criminal charges.

When I first read this I thought it was one of those civil suits. Opposing campaigns will occasionally do this to scare stations out of running their opponent’s ads. I’ve never seen a state government do it, but particularly litigious campaigns occasionally do. But it’s not a civil suit. They’re threatening criminal charges.

A few fact points to explain what’s going on.

Continue reading “DeSantis Threatening Jail Time for Running Abortion Rights Ads in Florida” → 

The Supreme Court Punts Again On Emergency Abortion Care, With Lives On The Line

Posted on by Nicole Lafond

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a Texas emergency abortions case, further muddying the waters on what doctors in states where the procedure is outlawed should do when faced with patients in dire need of medical care — and raising more questions about what exactly the high court thinks it is doing on this topic.

Continue reading “The Supreme Court Punts Again On Emergency Abortion Care, With Lives On The Line” → 

Are You Experiencing Vibe-o-Chondria?

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Over the weekend a number of people, independently, asked me if there was some shift in the presidential campaign, some shift in the vibes, some shift in the polls, etc. When I asked what prompted the question, it was usually chalked up to a number of articles over the weekend suggesting that Harris’ campaign is faltering or stalled or somehow blowing the election. The through-line through most of this commentary is that Harris’ campaign is too risk-averse or not running an aggressive enough campaign, which she needs to be doing. There are actually some so-so polls out this morning. But we’ve been in a period of small ups and downs for about a month. So I wanted to tell you what I told these people.

Continue reading “Are You Experiencing Vibe-o-Chondria?” → 

Right-Wing Election Denialism Reaches An Astonishing New Low

Posted on by David Kurtz

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

Is West Virginia Gonna Secede If Kamala Harris Wins?

It’s been our editorial policy for some time not to overemphasize legislation at the state level that has merely been introduced. Dozens if not hundreds of whacky and extreme things are proposed each year in state legislatures but have no real chance of ever passing. Sometimes they amount to little more than gussied up press releases. But every once in a while something comes along that is so representative of the political moment that it’s newsworthy in its own right, even if it never goes anywhere.

Take, for instance, the resolution that four GOP lawmakers introduced Sunday in the special session in West Virginia. It’s as extreme as anything I’ve seen in the last few years. The proposed resolution, inter alia, calls on West Virginia not to “recognize” the results of the 2024 presidential election if “election fraud in any state was a major reason that resulted in a candidate for President obtaining a majority in the Electoral College.”

“Election fraud” is defined in the text very broadly to include a laundry list of bogus right-wing claims ranging from non-citizen voting to “prosecutions for apparent political motives.” By this definition, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing prosecution of Donald Trump could be sufficient grounds on its own for West Virginia to refuse to recognize a victorious Kamala Harris as the legitimate president.

One Democratic lawmaker in West Virginia called the proposed resolution “WILD.”

As secessionist as it would be for a state to refuse to recognize the legitimately elected president (an epic irony considering West Virginia’s own history of breaking away from Virginia rather than secede from the Union and join the Confederacy), it’s another section of the proposed resolution that takes it a whole new level of twisted conspiracizing.

After declaring that “the current Democrat-led regime, has utterly failed, and continues to fail, in a suspicious manner, in its absolute duty to adequately protect the Republican nominee for president,” the draft resolution declares:

That, the State of West Virginia will not recognize any election of the Democrat candidate for President during the 2024 election cycle if the Republican presidential or vice-presidential candidate is assassinated, seriously injured during an assassination attempt, incarcerated, de facto eliminated or barred from the ballot in any states, or is the subject of legal actions that preclude their effective campaigning …

In addition to seeming to contemplate a do-over election if a single strand of Donald Trump’s hair is amiss, the proposed resolution again suggests that the prosecution of Donald Trump – even at the state level – would be grounds to ignore Harris’ election victory because those prosecutions constitute “legal actions that preclude … effective campaigning.”

I’m being only a little tongue-in-cheek about the secessionist vibes of the resolution. Here’s the actual language the proposed resolution uses to prescribe what happens if any of its provisions are triggered: “the Legislature will be called into special session by the Governor to consider actions to preserve the Freedom of our People.”

If West Virginia secedes, does that mean it reverts to becoming part of Virginia again? I have so many questions.

Election Denialism Still Front And Center For National GOP

  • Sunday on ABC: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) refuses to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
  • Sunday on NBC: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) refuses to concede that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

New Harris Ad Zeroes In On Jan 6

A new digital ad from the Harris campaign concludes with this line: “And next time, there will be no one to stop him”:

MUST READ

Timothy Snyder on Trump’s Hitlerian month of September.

Photo Of The Year

EXCLUSIVE

Trump allies are threatening to retaliate against government contractor Deloitte because one of its employees shared with the WaPo private texts between himself and JD Vance in which Vance was critical of Trump.

To be clear, Deloitte just happens to be the guy’s employer and had no involvement in the text exchanges, their release, or JD Vance’s since disavowed criticisms of then-President Trump.

Quote Of The Day

Kamala Harris, responding to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR), who said last month that her kids keep her humble but Harris has nothing to keep her humble: “I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble.”

2024 Ephemera

  • NYT goes there: Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age
  • WaPo: Vance says Trump administration would end funding to Planned Parenthood
  • WSJ: Trump’s Plan Boosts Budget Deficits by $7.5 Trillion, Double Harris’s Proposal

Hurricane Helene Disinformation Is Out Of Control

While responding to the immediate catastrophic effects of Hurricane Helene, public officials are also being forced to contend with widespread and persistent disinformation that is hampering relief efforts:

  • Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) took to X/Twitter and called it a “relentless vortex of disinformation, dialed up by bad actors and platforms like X.”
  • HuffPost: North Carolina Republican Pleads To End Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories About Helene Disaster Recovery
  • Brian Beutler: MAGA’s Hurricane Helene Lies Are A Trial Run For The Election

One Year Anniversary of Oct. 7 Attack

  • The U.S. government warned of a heightened risk of terrorist attacks within this country on the anniversary of the Hamas massacre of Israelis.
  • AP: “The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, released Monday on the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel.”
  • Matthew Duss: Joe Biden Chose This Catastrophic Path Every Step of the Way

And The Grift Goes On

BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA – OCTOBER 05: Performer Lee Greenwood sings as Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump takes the stage during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds on October 05, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters plan to buy Bibles for every public school classroom looks, sounds, and smells like another Trump grift. The bid documents for the acquisition of 55,000 Bibles restricts which specific books are eligible for purchase, The Oklahoman reports. A Bible supplier which carries 2,900 versions of the Bible tells the newspaper that none of them met the bid criteria.

Which Bibles are eligible? According to the newspaper:

But one Bible fits perfectly: Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, endorsed by former President Donald Trump and commonly referred to as the Trump Bible. They cost $60 each online, with Trump receiving fees for his endorsement. 

Another potential contender? “[T]he We The People Bible, which was also endorsed by Donald Trump Jr. It sells for $90.”

Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!

The Supreme Court Returns For A Culture War Term

Posted on by Kate Riga

The 2024 Supreme Court calendar could double as a Fox News primetime lineup: homemade guns, trans rights, minors’ access to porn. 

And tucked between the flashier cases, right-wing and corporate plaintiffs seek further wins from their allied justices, willing helpmates in their quest to dismantle the administrative state and snuff out the power of federal agencies. 

Continue reading “The Supreme Court Returns For A Culture War Term” → 

The Weekender: Throwing Down the Gauntlet for SCOTUS

Posted on by Josh Kovensky

Hello, it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕

The Brooks Brothers Riot 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 …

There’s a curious reference several pages into the Jack Smith filing that was unsealed this week, which provided the fullest account yet of Trump’s effort to coup his way out of losing the 2020 election.

It’s to the 2000 Brooks Brothers Riot, an event that Smith characterized as a “violent effort” to block vote-counting in Florida after the 2000 election. On its face, Smith was using the riot as an analogy for aspects of what happened in 2020: just as a Trump staffer allegedly replied to a mention of the riot by exhorting a “colleague” to start one, so did Trump later exhort his followers to riot to stop the count of electoral votes in Congress on January 6.

But it may mean something else, too.

Smith wrote the filing as a “motion for immunity determinations.” It’s a response to the Supreme Court’s July decision largely siding with Trump in broadening the President’s immunity from prosecution for ostensibly official acts to a level approaching that of a monarch. For the trial court, the remaining question is, which of the actions detailed in the indictment falls outside of the SCOTUS ruling? What did Trump do to stay in power in 2020 that constituted a private act?

The argument of Smith’s filing is that Trump’s actions to overturn his election loss were so egregious and so far outside the perimeter of immunity as defined by the Supreme Court that the judge should find that they were private acts, and therefore prosecutable.

It’s the level of detail in Smith’s filing, in particular, that throws down the gauntlet for the high court.

Assuming this version of the case makes it up to the Supreme Court again for review on immunity grounds (Trump is virtually guaranteed to appeal any adverse rulings on this), the justices will be faced with the prospect of saying that all of Trump’s actions in the run-up to and during January 6 are outside the realm of what’s prosecutable. That includes him egging on the crowd to attack Mike Pence, the fake electors scheme, the pressure on the state legislatures, and much more, as laid out in detail by Smith.

This is what brings me back to the description of the Brooks Brothers Riot. Of the justices currently on the court, Justices Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Roberts all advised the Bush campaign in some form or another on the 2000 election fight. By including the reference to the Brooks Brothers Riot, Smith tied the violence of Trump’s 2020 election theft attempt back to the 2000 election. I’m open to interpretations here, but given his audience, it’s striking as a particularly sharp way of calling out the same people who will have final say over the case.

Here’s what else TPM has on tap this weekend:

  • The go-to defense for Republicans who want to avoid questions related to January 6 is that the topic is a media fixation no one else wants to talk about. Unfortunately for them, Trump himself still really wants to talk about it, Emine Yücel writes.
  • Khaya Himmelman unpacks the various legal challenges to the Georgia Election Board, which may block some of the Trump-backed activists’ more damaging rules before Election Day. 
  • Emine Yücel takes a look at the Trump campaign’s fury that JD Vance was sort-of fact checked during the debate. 

Let’s dig in. 

Republicans Really Want Everyone To Forget About Jan. 6. — But Trump Just Can’t Let It Go.

Undoubtedly, the final topic of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate was one of the strongest moments for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D). Sen. JD Vance (R) had to reap what he sowed after he tried to dodge a question on the peaceful transfer of power.

“[Trump] is still saying he didn’t lose the election,” Walz said after a lengthy back and forth on Jan. 6. He then turned to Vance and asked the inevitable question: “Did he lose the 2020 election?”

“I’m focused on the future,” Vance replied, attempting to move on to a point about the COVID pandemic and content moderation.

“That is a damning non-answer,” Walz replied in response to Vance — creating one of the highlight moments of the night.

Vance’s non-answer and punt to focusing on “the future” is in line with what most Republicans seem to want desperately to do as they seek to memory hole Jan. 6. (I’m sure many would kill for a “Men In Black” neuralyzer right about now). Among them is House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), who helped Vance prep for the debate.

When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if they discussed how to answer the inevitable 2020 election question ahead of the debate, Emmer tried to hold the line with a similar non-answer.

“Listen, he answered it. You don’t like the answer, but he answered it,” Emmer said. “This is something that you folks in the media want to focus on on a regular basis. The American people, and thank goodness JD Vance and Donald Trump, are focused on the election and how to fix the country.”

During the interview, Collins also pressed Emmer about the fact that he signed on to a lawsuit to invalidate election results in four states, as well as the fact that he later, apparently, changed his mind and voted to certify the election.

“What are you doing talking about something that’s four years ago?” Emmer responded.

Emmer, Vance, and much of the GOP have a big problem, however: The leader of their party is constantly talking about 2020.

“I didn’t rig the 2020 election, they did!” Trump screamed on Wednesday night in a Truth Social post.

If I may say, that doesn’t sound like the words of a man focused on the future.

The Latest Legal Challenge To The Rogue Georgia Board

The Democratic National Committee and the Georgia Democratic Party sued the MAGA-aligned Georgia state election board this week over yet another rule that could potentially delay the certification of the upcoming election results in the state. 

The rule, which passed on September 20 in a 3-2 vote, requires election workers to hand count the number of ballots cast in addition to a machine tabulation of the results in each precinct. 

Supporters of the rule, as previously reported by TPM, claim that it will, in the language of the rule’s proposal, “ensure the secure, transparent, and accurate counting of ballots by requiring a systematic process where ballots are independently hand-counted by three sworn poll officers.” The rule, however, is based on debunked and baseless conspiracy theories about vote tabulation machines from the 2020 election. 

“Putting 11, maybe 12 new rules into play days before Election Day is a grift. We are setting up our counties to fail. Why do we know they are going to fail? Because they are telling you that,” Georgia Democratic state Rep. Saira Draper said about the new rule, per the Washington Post.

The plaintiffs argue in their lawsuit that the board lacks the authority to approve a rule like this  close to an election, and are asking that the court declare the rule invalid. 

“If the Hand Count Rule is allowed to go into effect, the general election will not be orderly and uniform — large counties will face significant delays in reporting vote counts, election officials will struggle to implement new procedures at the last minute, poll workers will not have been trained on the new Rule because it was adopted too late, and the security of the ballots themselves will be put at risk,” the lawsuit argues. 

This is the second legal challenge mounted by Democrats against the board’s recently approved rules. 

The Democratic National Committee and the Georgia Democratic Party are also asking a Fulton County judge to issue a declaratory judgment that makes clear that county officials must certify election results despite the enactment of two additional rules that both have the power to delay certification. 

On August 6, the board passed a rule that gives the board the power to not certify the results of the election until after a “reasonable inquiry” into any discrepancies in the voting process at the county level has been conducted by election officials. The rule, experts told TPM, is intentionally vague, never defining what constitutes a “reasonable inquiry.”

Another rule, passed on August 19, gives election board members the authority “to examine all election-related documentation before certifying the results.” 

Judge Robert McBurney held a hearing in this case earlier this week, during which lawyers for both Democrats and the board agreed that certification must happen by the state-mandated deadline, which this year is 5 p.m. on November 12. Despite agreement about the certification deadlines, the plaintiffs argued that a declaratory judgment is still necessary because the rules themselves cause enough uncertainty to potentially prevent a county official from certifying. 

Words of Wisdom

“When they fact-checked Sen. Vance and shut off his mic — I thought that was pretty alarming, especially since the rules they agreed to were not to fact check the candidates on the stage but they just could not help themselves.”

That’s Donald Trump’s campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt responding to a question about what stood out to her during the Tuesday night vice presidential debate. 
 

If anything, Tuesday night’s fact-checking was sparse and almost completely ineffective. The moderators allowed Vance to run them over several times, letting him completely take control of the narrative and yank viewers into an alternate MAGA reality. At some moments, however, it seemed like the moderators could not help themselves, and they offered up a few sentences to bring us back to reality. 
 

We’ve seen this again and again over the past decade. Giving Trump and his MAGA proxies air time without fact checking the disinformation they are so eager to spread is extremely dangerous and has consequences. We’re still watching the “Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating your pets” line play out in the worst way possible — and that was fact checked. That’s the only “alarming” thing I see here.

5 Types Of People Who Spread Conspiracy Theories They Know Are Wrong

Posted on by John Light

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.

There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a number of people sharing conspiracies online who don’t believe their own content.

They are opportunists. These people share conspiracy theories to promote conflict, cause chaos, recruit and radicalize potential followers, make money, harass, or even just to get attention.

There are several types of this sort of conspiracy-spreader trying to influence you.

Coaxing conspiracists: the extremists

In our chapter of a new book on extremism and conspiracies, my colleagues and I discuss evidence that certain extremist groups intentionally use conspiracy theories to entice adherents. They are looking for a so-called “gateway conspiracy” that will lure someone into talking to them, and then be vulnerable to radicalization. They try out multiple conspiracies to see what sticks.

Research shows that people with positive feelings for extremist groups are significantly more likely to knowingly share false content online. For instance, the disinformation-monitoring company Blackbird.AI tracked over 119 million COVID-19 conspiracy posts from May 2020, when activists were protesting pandemic restrictions and lockdowns in the United States. Of these, over 32 million tweets were identified as high on their manipulation index. Those posted by various extremist groups were particularly likely to carry markers of insincerity. For instance, one group, the Boogaloo Bois, generated over 610,000 tweets, of which 58% were intent on incitement and radicalization.

You can also just take the word of the extremists themselves. When the Boogaloo Bois militia group showed up at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, for example, members stated they didn’t actually endorse the stolen election conspiracy, but were there to “mess with the federal government.” Aron McKillips, a Boogaloo member arrested in 2022 as part of an FBI sting, is another example of an opportunistic conspiracist. In his own words: “I don’t believe in anything. I’m only here for the violence.”

Combative conspiracists: the disinformants

Governments love conspiracy theories. The classic example of this is the 1903 document known as the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” in which Russia constructed an enduring myth about Jewish plans for world domination. More recently, China used artificial intelligence to construct a fake conspiracy theory about the August 2023 Maui wildfire.

Often the behavior of the conspiracists gives them away. Years later, Russia eventually confessed to lying about AIDS in the 1980s. But even before admitting to the campaign, its agents had forged documents to support the conspiracy. Forgeries aren’t created by accident. They knew they were lying.

As for other conspiracies it hawks, Russia is famous for taking both sides in any contentious issue, spreading lies online to foment conflict and polarization. People who actually believe in a conspiracy tend to stick to a side. Meanwhile, Russians knowingly deploy what one analyst has called a “fire hose of falsehoods.”

Likewise, while Chinese officials were spreading conspiracies about American roots of the coronavirus in 2020, China’s National Health Commission was circulating internal reports tracing the source to a pangolin.

Chaos conspiracists: the trolls

In general, research has found that individuals with what scholars call a high “need for chaos” are more likely to indiscriminately share conspiracies, regardless of belief. These are the everyday trolls who share false content for a variety of reasons, none of which are benevolent. Dark personalities and dark motives are prevalent.

For instance, in the wake of the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump, a false accusation arose online about the identity of the shooter and his motivations. The person who first posted this claim knew he was making up a name and stealing a photo. The intent was apparently to harass the Italian sports blogger whose photo was stolen. This fake conspiracy was seen over 300,000 times on the social platform X and picked up by multiple other conspiracists eager to fill the information gap about the assassination attempt.

Commercial conspiracists: the profiteers

Often when I encounter a conspiracy theory I ask: “What does the sharer have to gain? Are they telling me this because they have an evidence-backed concern, or are they trying to sell me something?”

When researchers tracked down the 12 people primarily responsible for the vast majority of anti-vaccine conspiracies online, most of them had a financial investment in perpetuating these misleading narratives.

Some people who fall into this category might truly believe their conspiracy, but their first priority is finding a way to make money from it. For instance, conspiracist Alex Jones bragged that his fans would “buy anything.” Fox News and its on-air personality Tucker Carlson publicized lies about voter fraud in the 2020 election to keep viewers engaged, while behind-the-scenes communications revealed they did not endorse what they espoused.

Profit doesn’t just mean money. People can also profit from spreading conspiracies if it garners them influence or followers, or protects their reputation. Even social media companies are reluctant to combat conspiracies because they know they attract more clicks.

Common conspiracists: the attention-getters

You don’t have to be a profiteer to like some attention. Plenty of regular people share content where they doubt the veracity, or know it is false.

These posts are common: Friends, family and acquaintances share the latest conspiracy theory with “could this be true?” queries or “seems close enough to the truth” taglines. Their accompanying comments show that sharers are, at minimum, unsure about the truthfulness of the content, but they share nonetheless. Many share without even reading past a headline. Still others, approximately 7% to 20% of social media users, share despite knowing the content is false. Why?

Some claim to be sharing to inform people “just in case” it is true. But this sort of “sound the alarm” reason actually isn’t that common.

Often, folks are just looking for attention or other personal benefit. They don’t want to miss out on a hot-topic conversation. They want the likes and shares. They want to “stir the pot.” Or they just like the message and want to signal to others that they share a common belief system.

For frequent sharers, it just becomes a habit.

The dangers of spreading lies

Over time, the opportunists may end up convincing themselves. After all, they will eventually have to come to terms with why they are engaging in unethical and deceptive, if not destructive, behavior. They may have a rationale for why lying is good. Or they may convince themselves that they aren’t lying by claiming they thought the conspiracy was true all along.

It’s important to be cautious and not believe everything you read. These opportunists don’t even believe everything they write — and share. But they want you to. So be aware that the next time you share an unfounded conspiracy theory, online or offline, you could be helping an opportunist. They don’t buy it, so neither should you. Be aware before you share. Don’t be what these opportunists derogatorily refer to as “a useful idiot.”

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Top Execs Exit Trump Media Amid Allegations of CEO’s Mismanagement and Retaliation

Posted on by John Light

This article first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Former President Donald Trump’s media company has forced out executives in recent days after internal allegations that its CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company, according to interviews and records of communications among former employees.

Several people involved with Trump Media believe the ousters are retaliation following what they describe as an anonymous “whistleblower” complaint regarding Nunes that went to the company’s board of directors.

The chief operating officer and chief product officer have left the company, along with at least two lower-level staffers, according to interviews, social media posts and communications between former staffers reviewed by ProPublica. The company, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, disclosed the departure of the chief operating officer in a securities filing Thursday afternoon.

ProPublica has not seen the whistleblower complaint. But several people with knowledge of the company said the concerns revolve around alleged mismanagement by Nunes. One person said they include allegations of misuse of funds, hiring of foreign contractors and interfering with product development.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Trump Media did not answer specific questions but said that ProPublica’s inquiry to the company “utterly fabricates implications of improper and even illegal conduct that have no basis in reality.”

“This story is the fifth consecutive piece in an increasingly absurd campaign by ProPublica, likely at the behest of political interest groups, to damage TMTG based on false and defamatory allegations and vague innuendo,” the statement said, adding that “TMTG strictly adheres to all laws and applicable regulations.”

Trump Media’s board comprises a set of powerful figures in Trump’s world, including his son Donald Trump Jr., former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the businesswoman Linda McMahon, a major donor and current co-chair of Trump’s transition planning committee.

Nunes was named CEO of the company in 2021, with Trump hailing him as “a fighter and a leader” who “will make an excellent CEO.” As a member of Congress, Nunes was known as one of Trump’s staunchest loyalists.

After the internal allegations about Nunes were made at Trump Media, the company enlisted a lawyer to investigate and interview staffers, according to a person with knowledge of the company.

Then, last week, some employees who were interviewed by the lawyer were notified they were being pushed out, the person said. The employees being pushed out include a human relations director and a product designer, along with Chief Operating Officer Andrew Northwall and Chief Product Officer Sandro De Moraes. The person with knowledge of the company said Trump Media asked the employees to sign an agreement pledging not to make public claims of wrongdoing against the company in exchange for severance.

On Thursday afternoon, Northwall posted on Truth Social announcing he had “decided to resign from my role at Trump Media,” adding that he was “incredibly grateful” to Trump and Nunes “for this opportunity.”

“As I step back, I look forward to focusing more on my family and returning to my entrepreneurial journey,” the statement said.

De Moraes now identifies himself on his Truth Social bio as the “Former Chief Product Officer” of the company.

Some word of the departures became public earlier this week when former Trump Media employee Alex Gleason said in a social media post that “Truth Social in shambles. Many more people fired.”

Trump personally owns nearly 60% of the company. That stake, even after a recent decline in the company’s stock price, is worth nearly $2 billion on paper, a significant chunk of Trump’s fortune. He said last month he was not planning to sell his shares. What role Trump plays, if any, in the day-to-day operations of the company is not clear.

Since it launched in 2021, the company has become a speculation-fueled meme stock, but its actual business has generated virtually no revenue and Truth Social has not emerged as a serious competitor to the major social media platforms.

Among Nunes’ moves as CEO, as ProPublica has reported, was inking a large streaming TV deal with several obscure firms, including one controlled by a major political donor. He also traveled to the Balkans over the summer and met with the prime minister of North Macedonia, a trip whose purpose was never publicly explained by the company.

Trump Media has a formal whistleblower policy, adopted when the company went public in March, that encourages employees to report illegal activity and other “business conduct that damages the Company’s good name” and business interests. Do you have any information about Trump Media that we should know? Robert Faturechi can be reached by email at robert.faturechi@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 213-271-7217. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.