“U.S. intelligence agencies have identified domestic extremists with grievances rooted in election-related conspiracy theories, including beliefs in widespread voter fraud and animosity toward perceived political opponents, as the most likely threat of violence in the coming election,” NBC News reports.

“It has been nearly four years since a parade of judges dismissed wild claims from Donald Trump and his associates about hacked election machines and a year and a half since a leading machine company obtained a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News over the debunked conspiracy theories,” the New York Times reports.

“But Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and his closest allies are again trotting out the theories as part of a late-campaign strategy to assert that this year’s election is rigged — although this time Mr. Trump’s campaign appears to be largely acting behind the scenes.”

“J.D. Vance not long ago described conspiracy theories as the feverish imaginings produced by ‘fringe lunatics writing about all manner of idiocy,’” the AP reports.

“That was before he became a rising star in Republican politics.”

“The Ohio senator and GOP’s vice presidential nominee has in recent years declared that the federal government deliberately allowed fentanyl into the United States to kill conservative and rural voters. He has praised Alex Jones, a well-known conspiracy theorist who claimed the deaths of 20 young children in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.”

Washington Post: “Led by Trump, Republicans have increasingly embraced groundless allegations that were once relegated to the political fringes, ensuring they are part of the party’s message to voters in the final, critical months of this year’s election.”

“Their approach has been on vivid display lately, from the debate stage in Philadelphia to other high-profile public appearances to social media — where false information has spread quickly and Trump has been posting a stream of artificial intelligence-generated images of himself with pets supposedly under threat. In the process, they have perpetuated pernicious stereotypes about immigrants and others that critics have called dangerous.”

“In just days, a bizarre and baseless claim accusing Haitian migrants of eating pet cats in Springfield, Ohio, went from an obscure Facebook post in a private group to a talking point by Republican Donald Trump during Tuesday night’s presidential debate,” Newsguard reports.

“The journey of the viral claim from vague, third hand gossip among Ohio neighbors to the presidential debate stage — where it was broadcast to 67 million people — is as stunning as the claim itself, according to those who started it all…”

“The interviews reveal just how flimsy and unsubstantiated the rumor was from the beginning — based entirely on third hand hearsay. Yet it quickly gained traction and, remarkably, found its way to Trump’s lips on a national stage.”

NBC News: How a fringe online claim about immigrants eating pets made its way to the debate stage.

Axios: “It should come as no surprise that Trump, the country’s chief election denier and a champion of the anti-Obama ‘birther’ movement, is susceptible to conspiracy theories.”

“But as Trump has gotten older, the rabbit holes have grown deeper and more radical — a backdrop to his distrust of the media and refusal to accept that he lost the 2020 election.”

“The result — on display as he falsely claimed immigrants are eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio — is a candidate who’s become a walking liability for his own campaign.”

CNN: Trump is drowning in the misinformation swamp he helped create.

“Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist who posted last year that 9/11 was an ‘inside job,’ joined Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in New York and Pennsylvania on Wednesday as he commemorated the anniversary of the attacks,” the AP reports.