They repeat rumors about who he is - the nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm, possibly.
One motive for people to repeat rumors that frighten them is in the hope of finding that it is wrong.
I don't like to repeat rumors until I've had the story straight.
I repeated rumors and innuendos that I heard in the course of the campaign.
There were also repeated rumors about an increase in the Federal Reserve's discount rate, the interest it charges on loans to banks.
"Hildemara, I don't think you should be repeating slanderous rumors."
She had just been repeating rumors, she said, when she told the police that the boy with the glass eye had killed Doughboy.
"I repeated rumors and innuendoes that I heard in the course of the campaign," he said.
Balera," her husband said in disgust, "you're just repeating wild rumors.
However, Ballot repeated rumors and was a sloppy historian.