1. True Lies
On The Focus Group this week, Sarah heard from lots of voters—Republicans and Democrats—who think the latest alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump was not on the level.
A number of these people—again, both Republicans and Democrats—also seemed to think that maybe some of the other alleged assassination attempts were not on the level, either.
On the one hand, my reflex is to correct these voters’ misapprehensions. Because they say some crazy stuff.1 For instance: One guy (a Republican) said he was skeptical about the narrative surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner because he believes that when the president is at a hotel, the hotel is emptied of guests. And the Washington Hilton was full of guests on the night of the WHCD.
That is absolutely not the way presidential security works. The Washington Hilton is always full of guests for the WHCD. This guy is open to a conspiracy theory because of something he believes that is just flat-out, 180 degrees wrong.
On the other hand, why should we spend energy trying to change people’s minds on this stuff? Maybe we should, I dunno, encourage them? At least tacitly? Or is that a Bad Thought?
Let me give you the case for letting the Trump conspiracy theories flower.