The conservative Drudge Report website hyped a blog post speculating about Las Vegas massacre conspiracy theories written by a right-wing fringe congressional candidate.
Michael Snyder, a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho, is the author of books and novels about the apocalypse, and he also operates the prepper website "The Coming Economic Collapse" -- where he posted "16 unanswered questions about the Las Vegas shooting that the mainstream media doesn’t want to talk about."
The article, which was also posted on the suspected Russian propaganda outfit Zero Hedge, where it was then linked on and tweeted out by the Drudge Report.
Snyder's speculation was a mixture of possibly unanswerable questions about motive and several questions that have already been answered, along with still others that investigators are still probing.
His questions, like many internet-age conspiracies, rely heavily on already debunked leads generated in the chaos of a breaking news event.
“Were there additional shooters?" Snyder asked, linking to a YouTube video that has since been removed by the user. "A taxi driver clearly captured video of an automatic weapon being fired out of a lower level window."
Others were made up without any evidence to back them.
"Why was a country music festival chosen as the target?" Snyder wondered. "Was the goal to kill as many Trump supporters and other conservatives as possible? And is there evidence that Stephen Paddock was connected to Antifa in any way?"
Investigators aren't sure why the gunman chose the country music festival, but it appears he may have targeted events in Chicago and Boston, as well as an earlier event in Las Vegas, before Sunday's mass shooting.
Snyder, who describes himself as "100 percent pro-gun," was identified last month as the source of a rumor that Hurricane Irma could turn into a Category 6 hurricane -- which does not exist.
The candidate has a strong following nationwide among the religious right, but he's not very well known in Idaho.
