Brendan Nyhan

Marshall on “stolen” elections: Then and now

Via Politico’s Ben Smith, Josh Marshall correctly casts doubt on online rumor-mongering about the Democratic primary election in New Hampshire being stolen. But as I pointed out last October, he made a similarly unsupported claim of a stolen election, accusing former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell of “helping steal the 2004 election” — a claim that is not backed by credible evidence.

Unfortunately, his post in October is part of a recent and uncharacteristic pattern of Marshall making misleading and unsupported claims that reinforce liberal conspiracy theories. He shouldn’t be surprised to discover now that his readers are drinking the Kool Aid.