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Stop me if youve heard this before: Donald Trump is unhappy about the outcome of a proceeding. So despite a complete lack of evidence, he spends months claiming a concerted conspiracy against him, masterminded by his nefarious political opponents. He says this many dozens of times, despite firm denials from key figures and even some Trump allies. And by the end of it, 4 in 10 Americans come to believe in the vast left-wing conspiracy.

It happened with the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. Its now apparently happened with the idea that President Biden was behind Trumps recent conviction in Manhattan.

A new CBS News/YouGov poll gets at a question Ive been hoping someone would ask for a while. It gauged just how many Americans buy into the still-baseless idea that Biden had something to do with the successful charges against Trump in Manhattan.

Turns out, its 43 percent and 80 percent of Republicans. Those are the percentages who agree that the charges were brought because of directions that came from the Biden administration, rather than merely by prosecutors in New York.

A clear majority of Americans, 57 percent, dont believe this. But the idea has taken hold in Trumps base.

To be clear, there is no real reason to believe this. The theory largely rests on the fact that former top Justice Department official Matthew Colangelo joined the investigation in 2022. But Colangelo had previously worked alongside Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) in the New York attorney generals office, where he had worked on Trump-related investigations before. Its about as circumstantial and speculative as you can get.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last week firmly denied, under oath, that he had sent Colangelo to Manhattan. He denied any contact with Colangelo since he joined the D.As office.

Beyond that, this theory was also firmly rejected in recent weeks by no less than former Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina, who worked on Trumps defense early in the Manhattan prosecution. He called the idea silly and ridiculous.

Joe Biden or anyone from his Justice Department has absolutely zero to do with the Manhattan district attorneys office, Tacopina said in an MSNBC interview, adding: We know thats not the case, and even Trumps lawyers know thats not the case.

People who say that, Tacopina told MSNBC, its scary that they really dont know the law or what theyre talking about.

By Tacopinas formulation, 4 in 10 Americans have no idea what theyre talking about.

Of course, it wouldnt be the first time Trumps base has come to believe something like this, despite the lack of evidence:

Voters often come to believe wacky things that excuse their allies and implicate their foes. But the degree to which these things have become articles of faith on the right literally bears no modern precedent.

And the similarities between the Biden-Manhattan theory and the stolen election fever go well beyond the surface level. As then, Republican lawmakers dont go as far as Trump in alleging an established conspiracy, but they do make a point to seed suspicion. Trump will say there are millions of fraudulent votes; they merely raise concerns about mail ballots and election procedures. He will say Biden was behind the Manhattan prosecution; they will merely raise questions about Colangelo.

Even at last weeks hearing with Garland, though, Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) briefly conceded that this was a mere theory.

You might not have had anything to do with that, Fry told Garland, but the perception is and the American people perceive that the Department of Justice is intimately engaged with this.

We now have a number we can attach to that perception: 43 percent. Its just that, as with so many of the above numbers, its largely based on one piece of highly circumstantial and dubious evidence: Trump said so.

Link:
80 percent of GOP believes Trump's Biden-Manhattan conspiracy theory - The Washington Post