“Raging Moderates” co-host Jessica Tarlov unpacked the rise in conspiracy theorists on the left Wednesday with Vox Media’s Astead Herndon.
A recent poll from Manhattan Institute Survey found that 46% of Democrats believed that President Donald Trump’s July 2024 assassination attempt was orchestrated. The pair also noted that similar conspiracies surrounded the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday.
“It’s a great time to be a nut case,” Tarlov said on her podcast.
“It’s mostly these new entrants into the coalition, who think the craziest stuff. Everything from 9/11 was an inside job, moon landing faked, etc,” she added.
Vox Media’s editorial director and host of “America, Actually” told Tarlov that these conspiracy theorists on both the left and right are not as “fringe” as traditional media may think.
“I remember being at an Ivanka Trump event being with all of these well-to-do Georgia ladies, and everyone was talking about machine fraud and that conspiratorial, ‘Biden stole the election,’” Herndon said.
“This is becoming more mainstream — obviously that culminates in Jan. 6,” he added.
Herndon noted that liberal conspiracy theorists have been increasing in size, but they are not yet 1-to-1 with Republicans. The political analyst said that the conspiracies began with the 2024 election, then after the Charlie Kirk and Butler shooting, have “exploded” in the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner.
“I think it’s somewhat a function of our institutional trust loss,” he said. “People have stopped believing in institutional media, and I think some of that has led to conspiracy rising.”
Watch the episode of the “Raging Moderates” here.
