‘Release the video’ is mostly a way to extend the conspiracy theory

There are at least two reasons that baseless claims about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband spread so quickly.

One is that the confessed attacker had espoused conspiracy theories that have broadly infected the political right, from claims about the 2020 election results to QAnon. That the federal government has been warning for years about the path from things like QAnon to political violence was ignored; instead, there was a rush to blame the violence on something less closely attached to standard right-wing rhetoric.