How Did Trump Win? Republicans Claim Hillary Clinton Runs A Sex Ring, Don't Believe Russian Election Hacking Reports

President-elect Donald Trump pulled off an electoral victory in November with his promises to make America great again, something Democrat Hillary Clinton failed to convince the majority of the nation she could do. However, a new poll released Tuesday showed a “fake news” report could also have aided Trump in his race for the White House against Clinton.

The latest poll from The Economist/YouGov found almost half of Trump supporters believe the “Pizzagate” scandal that linked Clinton’s campaign and manager John Podesta to a pedophilia ring. Belief in the scandal crossed party lines. Overall, the poll also found that more than a third of American adults said the scandal is “probably” or “definitely” true. Only 29 percent of those polled said the conspiracy is “definitely” not true.

All told, 46 percent of Trump voters said they believe “Pizzagate” to be real, even though it didn’t begin from a reputable source and was instead birthed on message boards on sites like 4chan and Reddit before spreading on social media sites Twitter and Facebook, the New York Daily News reported.

The poll was conducted after a North Carolina man went to a Washington, D.C. pizzeria, the one at the center of the Pizzagate scandal, armed with a gun earlier this month. He was reportedly attempting to investigate the purported conspiracy theory. He cited “Pizzagate” as his reason for “self-investigating.”

The poll also found only one in five respondents said they believe Russia hacked the 2016 election to ensure a Trump victory, while another one in five said they believed the CIA and FBI’s reports about election hacking were “definitely not true.”

That result was divided along political affiliations. Almost 87 percent of Clinton voters said Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee in support of Trump, while eight in 10 Trump voters refused to believe the government findings.