Tonight’s debate and Trump’s discussion with Tucker are likely to be cesspools of lies — but lies don't turn off Republican voters
23 August 2023
'Act of open hostility': Trump to team up with Tucker Carlson instead of attending GOP debate
I can’t come up with any reason to watch tonight’s Republican primary debate in Milwaukee or Tucker Carlson’s interview with Trump atop Trump’s capacious ego. But I do confess to a certain ghoulish curiosity about which event will feature more gargantuan lies.
Research shows that Republican voters are much more willing than Democratic voters to believe outright lies — not just Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud in 2020 or of prosecutorial witch hunts now, but all manner of whoppers.
Republican voters are more susceptible to health-related misinformation than Democratic voters, for example. On a new poll from KFF, Republicans were on average 20 percent more likely to believe false health claims, such as the debunked idea that the COVID vaccine has caused thousands of deaths in otherwise healthy people. (Nearly half of Republicans think that’s true. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a natural base among Republican voters.)
Republican voters are also more likely to believe false claims about gun violence, about the economy, about climate change — even about geography. And they’re far more susceptible than Democratic voters to conspiracy theories of every kind.
So today’s Office Hours question: Why is this? Why are Republican voters more apt to believe all sorts of lies than Democratic voters?
Please let us have your thoughts.