Brendan Nyhan: ‘Donald Trump Has Become the Conspiracy Theorist in Chief’

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NYHAN: "That's what's so remarkable about it, Brian. He -- Donald Trump has become the conspiracy theorist in chief. He's in the most powerful office in the world and he's promoting conspiracy theories. They usually are used by the powerless and directed against the powerful. But instead, he's weaponizing them from the highest office in the land, and leveraging the intense partisanship of American politics to do it. It's a dangerous combination and it's not one we've seen in contemporary American politics before. It's much more like countries we see abroad where authoritarian leaders use conspiracy theories to avoid accountability for their actions. And I think that's a worrisome comparison. As I often say on Twitter, what would you say if you saw this in another country? The comparisons that come to mind are not our fellow democratic leaders. And --"