Partisan loyalty compelled Republicans to affirm the Benghazi conspiracy claim over the facts

Evidence

Every Republican felt compelled to affirm, for instance, the allegation that Hillary Clinton conspired as secretary of state to cover up the details of the 2012 attack on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, in which ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed. The partisan imperative to attack Clinton overwhelmed the need to both get at the facts and speak truth about them. This is undiluted partisan reticence. Representatives accommodated themselves to conspiracism’s malignant normality. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 330

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the dynamics of elites condescending to false claims rather than rebutting them, though cross-cutting.
• XREF: connects to: Conspiracist claims now align symmetrically with partisan identity on both sides — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 36; Partisan identity skews which conspiracist claims people credit — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 36; Conspiracism causes a deeper rift than partisan polarization — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 293 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Partisan identity skews which conspiracist claims people credit #corroborates (0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 36
• Republicans in the Trump era regularly issued accusations they knew might be untrue. #corroborates (0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 107
• Conspiracist claims now align symmetrically with partisan identity on both sides #expands (0.75) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 36
• Partisan bias charges escalated into a coup conspiracy narrative #exemplifies (0.72) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 91
• Partisan false memories of real events follow ideological bias #corroborates (0.72) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 83
• Ideologically aligned false news is remembered far more by partisans #corroborates (0.72) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 83
• Conspiracism causes a deeper rift than partisan polarization #expands (0.70) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 293