Vance provides the wrong defense for spreading ugly misinformation

Towards the end of Barack Obama's term, an interviewer noted that the right had targeted him with all sorts of silly conspiracy theories and asked the Democratic president if he had a favorite. Obama didn't hesitate: the first thing that came to mind was Jade Helm.

In case anyone has forgotten, US military officials organized training exercises for around 1,200 people in areas from Texas to California in 2015. Somehow, right-wing activists got it into their heads that the exercises, called “Jade Helm 15,” were part of an elaborate conspiracy theory involving the Obama administration, the Pentagon, Walmart, and some “secret underground tunnels.”

The far-right's fears made no sense, and the president at the time apparently found the whole thing quite amusing. But an underappreciated aspect of the story was that a number of Republican officials – including senators, governors and members of the U.S. House of Representatives – at least pretended to take the conspiracy theories seriously. Texas Governor Greg Abbott even felt it necessary to order the Texas Guard to “monitor” the military exercises – just in case Obama was up to something sinister.

When Republican officials were asked to explain their interest in obviously ridiculous claims, they invariably responded the same thing: their supporters and voters took this nonsense seriously, so they were compelled to do the same.

All of this came back to me this week. My MSNBC colleague Ja'han Jones summed it up like this:

Yes, earlier this week, the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate actually posted a social media message in which Vance wrote, “Months ago, I raised the issue of illegal Haitian immigrants draining welfare and generally causing chaos throughout Springfield, Ohio. Reports have been that the pets of people who do not belong in this country have been kidnapped and eaten. Where is our border czar?”

All of this was completely insane, even by the standards of 2024. The Haitians in Springfield are in the country legally; they've been there for decades; and there were no actual “reports” of the immigrants stealing and eating pets. The nonsense spread like wildfire on the right, but it had no basis in reality.

Yet people like conspiracy-theorist billionaire Elon Musk and Republican Senator Ted Cruz – whose penchant for reckless disinformation seems limitless – seized on the right’s racist rhetoric and treated the crazy theory as legitimate history.

Just like Vance.

And why, pray tell, has a candidate for national office decided to lend his voice to a conspiracy theory that is both racist and ridiculous? NBC News asked Vance's team.

In other words, it was a repeat of the Jade Helm dynamic: A bunch of hysterical people told the senator that the ludicrous theory might be true, so instead of relying on facts, Vance acted as if the absurd claims had merit and deserved to be expanded upon in more detail.

Whether he fell for a hoax or cynically went along with the absurdities is irrelevant: Vance was told to take ugly nonsense seriously, and he did.

The idea of ​​applying critical thinking never came up. The vice presidential candidate is not a leader, but rather a follower of angry conservatives who saw racist garbage on Facebook.

In theory, Vance could apologize for his role in this fiasco. In practice, those waiting for an expression of remorse from the Ohio Republican will likely have to wait a very long time.