Former President Donald Trump’s baseless claim during the last presidential debate that immigrants in a small Ohio town are abducting and eating pets provided a sample of the bizarre hoaxes and conspiracy theories that right-wing media have been promoting ahead of the 2024 election. Conservative media are clearly relying on amplifying a slew of falsehoods to muddy the political landscape, and political experts have warned that such misinformation “poses an unprecedented threat to democracy in the United States.”
