Jenny Beth Martin
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7 22 this seems thin</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see TP Patriots</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See Jan 6</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">new 12/16</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see ideol entre, TP (poster?)
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNP ginni?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">ginni j6 depo: no conversation w/ jenny post election?</span>
</font></p><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">seth a</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/breaking-news-new-revelations-indicate">https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/breaking-news-new-revelations-indicate</a></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">extensive on Ginni</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">eg</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But her role went deeper, and beyond C.N.P. Action. Dustin Stockton, an organizer who worked with Women for America First, which held the permit for the Ellipse rally, said he was told that Ginni Thomas played a peacemaking role between feuding factions of rally organizers “so that there wouldn’t be any division around January 6.”</font></font></font></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">“The way it was presented to me was that Ginni was uniting these different factions around a singular mission on January 6,” said Stockton, who previously worked for Bannon. “That Ginni was involved made sense — she’s pretty neutral, and she doesn’t have a lot of enemies in the movement.”</div><div>...</div></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In fact, observes the Times, by December 2020 “a number of longtime friends and associates of the Thomases were involved in efforts to overturn the election results or helping plan the January 6 rallies”</b>—a group that went well beyond Eastman, Bannon, and Mitchell. From Turning Point USA (on whose advisory board Ginni Thomas had served) sending buses of insurrectionists into Washington on January 6, to the heavy involvement of the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Tea Party Patriots, a far-right group with which Mrs. Thomas “had long ties” that was “headed by</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><b style=""> Jenny Beth Martin, </b><b style="">a fellow Council for National Policy </b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">activist [with Thomas]”, Ginni’s political allies seemed to be in all the positions of authority and influence in the days and weeks before the January 6 attack—consistent with the job she’d set for herself starting in early 2019 in the Oval Office, namely ensuring that it was largely people of her selection in Trump’s political orbit.</span></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><p segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: small; --tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><strong style="--tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">Caroline Wren</strong><span style="--tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">, the top aide of top Trump adviser (and then-secret </span><strong style="--tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">Donald Trump Jr.</strong><span style="--tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;"> fiancée) </span><strong style="--tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">Kimberly Guilfoyle</strong><span style="--tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">, told Dustin Stockton that Jenny Beth Martin’s group and </span><strong style="--tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">Women for America First</strong><span style="--tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">—the latter the insurrectionist outfit behind the January 6 event that incited the attack on the Capitol—were only able to work together because Ginni Thomas, who’d served as an </span></span><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); --tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">“early Tea Party activist</span>”</strong><span style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> with</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Women for America First leader </span></span><strong style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Amy Kremer</strong><span style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">had worked diligently to make that cooperation possible.</span></span></font></p><p segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: small; --tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">Without Ginni Thomas, the </span><span style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">Times</span><span style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;"> indicates, the </span><strong style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;">“years[-long]…bitter legal dispute”</strong><span style="--tw-translate-x:0; --tw-translate-y:0; --tw-rotate:0; --tw-skew-x:0; --tw-skew-y:0; --tw-scale-x:1; --tw-scale-y:1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness:proximity; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: ; --tw-ring-offset-width:0px; --tw-ring-offset-color:#fff; --tw-ring-color:rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow:0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored:0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ;"> between Kremer and Martin would have made their cooperation impossible—and thus the <b>January 6 White House Ellipse event that launched an insurrection a non-starter.</b></span></font></p></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/165984/10-people-destroying-democracy">https://newrepublic.com/article/165984/10-people-destroying-democracy</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anne Nelson/April 18, 2022</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>10 People You’ve Never Heard of Who Are Destroying Democracy</b>
They’re sowing disruption and disinformation, and they have their eyes on 2024.
Democracy in Peril
[Will the Democrats Fight to Save Democracy?
10 People You’ve Never Heard of Who Are Destroying Democracy
The Six States That Could Determine Whether Republicans Steal the 2024 Election
View All ]
In
recent years, America’s democracy has faced countless challenges. Some
seemed to materialize out of thin air, but many have been the fruit of
secretive networks such as the 40-year-old Council for National Policy.
Here are 10 individuals who have sown the seeds of disruption and
disinformation—and who are setting their sights on the 2024 presidential
election.
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Larry Arnn
President, Hillsdale College</b></span>
For
decades, Michigan-based Hillsdale has served as an academic partner for
the religious right. The college has had a close relationship to the
Council for National Policy, the secretive Christian right umbrella
organization that directs so much right-wing activism, through Arnn and
his predecessor, George Roche III (who left in a cloud of scandal).
Hillsdale’s major donors have constituted a who’s who of the radical
right, including the Koch network and leading figures from the CNP. Arnn
has expanded <b>Hillsdale’s role as a platform for the CNP’s network</b> of
megadonors, fundamentalist activists, and media outlets, providing their
policy prescriptions with a thin veneer of academic respectability. The
college enrolls around 1,500 students, but its leaves an outsize
footprint in political messaging. Its highly politicized publication
Imprimis is sent to more than six million recipients. Hillsdale operates
the Kirby Center in Washington, D.C., where it has groomed young
conservatives at the Capitol Hill Staff Training School, run by the
Leadership Institute (see Morton Blackwell, below). Hillsdale is also
playing a role in the current disruption of public education, which has
been used for political leverage in Virginia and beyond. In 2020, Donald
Trump appointed Arnn chair of the 1776 Commission, to promote a
“patriotic” rebuttal to the 1619 Project’s racially inclusive approach
to U.S. history. Hillsdale has led an ongoing campaign to politicize
public schools, promoting anti–critical race theory campaigns and
assisting in the launch of “affiliate” charter schools in 11 states.
<b>Joe Seales
CEO, Right Side Broadcasting Network</b>
RSBN
serves as the equivalent of a Trump-specific C-SPAN that has carried
nearly every Trump speech, rally, and town hall since July 2015, as well
as full coverage of the pro-Trump Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC). It also broadcasts a show called The Right View, with
Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump. On January 6, it livestreamed Trump’s
speech inciting the march on the Capitol, and it gave live coverage to
the Florida “Freedom Rally to Show Support for President Trump and
January 6th Political Prisoners” a year later. In July 2021, RSBN was
temporarily suspended by YouTube, but the network looked to its own app
and the new pro-Trump platform Rumble to continue to carry Trump’s
rallies. The radical right has been assiduously constructing a parallel
media system in recent decades. RSBN, Rumble, and Trump’s new Truth
Social platform complement other media initiatives, ranging from
traditional fundamentalist broadcasters like American Family Radio to
social sites like Gettr and Parler, in the ongoing construction of an
alternate political reality for millions of followers. In March 2022,
after the height of the Ottawa truckers’ protests, RSBN promoted a
truckers’ convoy roundtable hosted by Representatives Matt Gaetz and
Marjorie Taylor Greene, and it has offered ongoing amplification of
Trump’s false election fraud claims. We can be sure that whatever Trump
fabricates for future news cycles, RSBN will be repeating it.
<b>Neil Patel
Co-founder and publisher of The Daily Caller</b>
The
Caller website was launched in 2010 by Patel and Tucker Carlson, his
college roommate, with a $3 million investment from Patel’s fellow CNP
member Foster Friess. (Carlson served as editor in chief until 2016 and
left the publication in 2019, when Patel bought him out.) The site
claims more than 20 million monthly readers, and the Daily Caller News
Foundation licenses its content free of charge to almost 300 outlets.
Patel has used the site as a platform for voices of the radical right,
including Jason Kessler, the white supremacist who organized the
Charlottesville rally, as well as climate denial and disinformation,
such as a falsified “nude” photo of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The site
favors members of the CNP, including Supreme Court spouse Ginni Thomas
(a Caller “special correspondent”) and Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk.
The Daily Caller has recently launched a Facebook video platform called
American Voices, with three million followers, that partners with media
platforms of the religious right. It also boosts Carlson’s Fox News
broadcasts. The Caller’s YouTube channel features additional Carlson
content, comedy and sports programming, as well as regular attacks on
Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci, and CNN. It has given ample space to Trump’s
false claims of election fraud, and positive coverage of voter
suppression legislation.
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><b>Jenny Beth Martin
Co-founder and CEO, Tea Party Patriots</b></span>
Martin
launched the Tea Party Patriots in March 2009 in collaboration with<b> Amy
Kremer and Mark Meckler, with funding from FreedomWorks, </b>a “grassroots
service center” founded with Koch backing. The Tea Party Patriots spent
the Obama administration organizing various “spontaneous”
anti-government, anti-tax rallies. Martin, Meckler, and Kremer also
joined the CNP; by 2020, Martin had risen to the executive committee and
Meckler to the status of Gold Circle member.
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Martin’s Tea Party
Patriots became the meeting ground for the secular Koch brothers and the
Christian nationalist CNP.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">She became the go-to woman for organizing
campaigns, including political canvassing and public protests. Martin
was a key point person for the CNP in Trump’s reelection campaign. In
April 2020, she organized “100 Business Executives” in support of Trump,
along with fellow CNP members Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks and Lisa
Nelson of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).</span><b> Trump
acknowledged Martin by name in his speech before the CNP on the eve of
the 2020 GOP convention.</b> On November 4, 2020, Martin announced that her
organization was going to hold <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“Protect the Vote” rallies in swing
states</span>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">On December 30, she tweeted that she would be speaking at the
January 6 Stop the Steal rally: “We must demand Congress to challenge
the Electoral College votes and fight for President Trump!” (Martin was
present at the rally, but didn’t end up speaking.</span>) Most recently, Martin
has spoken out in support of the<b> Canadian truckers</b>’ protest. “We are
all truckers now,” she told The Hill in February.
<b>Simone Gold
Founder, America’s Frontline Doctors</b>
Gold
was an emergency physician in Los Angeles who was tapped by the CNP
leadership to serve as a point person for a massive Covid disinformation
campaign. The plan was advanced on a conference call in May 2020, while
the pandemic was first raging, and after Trump held his increasingly
erratic press conferences that included CNP president William Walton and
Trump aide Mercedes Schlapp. The goal was to use physicians to persuade
the public that the economy could be opened up in time to benefit the
Trump campaign. Gold began a series of appearances on media platforms
run by CNP members, disparaging the idea that Covid was a “huge medical
crisis,” pushing the false hydroxychloroquine “cure,” and attacking
Anthony Fauci.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b> On
July 27, 2020, Jenny Beth Martin introduced Gold and a dozen colleagues
standing before the U.S. Supreme Court building, repeating a litany of
falsehoods about the virus</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Their
statements, livestreamed by Breitbart News, quickly went viral, and the
video was enthusiastically retweeted by Donald Trump.</span> On January
6, Gold joined the mob that breached the Capitol. She was recorded in
the Rotunda denouncing the Covid vaccine as “an experimental biological
agent deceptively named a vaccine.” She was charged with violent entry
and disorderly conduct (she pleaded guilty in March and will be
sentenced in June). <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Over
2021, she appeared in a series of “Health and Freedom Conferences”
across the country, sharing the bill with Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell,
and Mike Lindell. In 2020, she set up a profitable online prescription
service for bogus Covid “cures.”</span>
<b>Morton Blackwell
Founder and president, the Leadership Institute</b>
Blackwell,
Paul Weyrich, and Richard Viguerie were young Goldwater activists when
they joined forces in the 1960s. Together, they helped to create a
constellation of conservative groups, including the CNP umbrella
organization and its partner CPAC. Blackwell took on the task of
training future generations of right-wing political candidates and
activists. His Leadership Institute, launched in 1979, claims that it
has trained more than 200,000 people over its history, many of them in
county- and state-level sessions in battleground districts. The courses
include fundraising, speechwriting, social media, and candidate
development. Graduates of the institute include Mike Pence,
Representative Jim Jordan, and Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe.
The institute’s training is ongoing, especially in contested states. In
2021, the GOP, noting that it needed to net only five congressional
districts to take the House, targeted 47 districts, five of them in
Texas. That year, the Leadership Institute blanketed Texas, scheduling
around 40 training workshops between March and November 2021—many months
before the midterm elections. The national Democrats, in contrast, have
tended to enter the state campaign arenas a few months or even weeks
before the elections, offering minimal training on the ground, limited
digital campaign tools, and poorly coordinated data. The institute’s
menu of courses reflects the right’s current initiatives, including
School Board Campaign Training and a School Board Activist Workshop.
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>
Cleta Mitchell</b>
Attorney</span>
Mitchell
is a longtime member of the CNP board of governors. More recently, she
appeared on panels at 2020 CNP meetings speaking on “Election Integrity:
Securing the Ballot Box” and “Election Integrity: Action Steps.”
Mitchell also serves on the board of directors of the Bradley
Foundation, run by fellow CNP board member Richard Graber.
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following
Biden’s victory, Mitchell tweeted that the Georgia recount was “A
FAKE!!!” She traveled to Georgia as a volunteer legal adviser for
Trump’s campaign and helped to file a December 2020 lawsuit challenging
the returns. According to The Washington Post’s Robert O’Harrow Jr., “On
December 30, Mitchell wrote to [then–White House chief of staff] Mark
Meadows and offered to send some 1,800 pages of documents purporting to
support claims of election fraud.” On January 2, Mitchell took part in
Trump’s infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger,
of whom Trump famously demanded, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” The
call was leaked, and when Mitchell’s role was disclosed, she was
obliged to resign from her position at the Foley & Lardner law firm<b>.
But Mitchell continues her work through her strategy sessions at the
CNP, her board membership at the Bradley Foundation, </b>her Apple podcast
Who’s Counting?, and her <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">November 2021 appointment to the Board of
Advisors of the federal Election Assistance Commission</span>, which certifies
voting systems—including voting machines—and advises local officials on
compliance with federal regulations.
<b>Richard Graber
CEO, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation</b>
This
Milwaukee foundation has assets of some $900 million. Graber is a
member of the board of governors of the CNP, while CNP election
strategist Cleta Mitchell is one of the foundation’s 11 board members.
The Koch network and the DeVos family philanthropies may have received
more attention, but the Bradley Foundation’s strategic, longtime focus
on state-level politics has allowed it to make a major impact, using its
home state of Wisconsin as a laboratory. In 2012 to 2013, the
foundation spent more than $8 million on a network of groups promoting a
right-to-work law also supported by then-Wisconsin Governor Scott
Walker (a fellow CNP board member) and attacking Wisconsin trade unions.
The resulting right-to-work law crippled the unions and contributed to
Wisconsin’s shift from a Democratic to a swing state. In 2021, the
Bradley Foundation earmarked $600,000 for the American Legislative
Exchange Council’s voter management campaign software and other
activities, bringing its ALEC contributions to $5.4 million over the
previous decade. In 2020 and 2021, the foundation gave $200,000 to the
Claremont Institute. Claremont has played a critical role in the radical
right’s promotion of false claims of fraud and the efforts to rewrite
voting laws in advance of the 2024 elections; John Eastman, who drafted
the infamous six-point memo used by Trump to challenge the Electoral
College on January 6, is a Claremont senior fellow. The foundation also
contributed $300,000 to the Public Interest Legal Foundation (chaired by
Cleta Mitchell) and $175,000 to the Heritage Foundation’s election law
initiative, both of which promoted Trump’s false claims of fraud.
<b>Lisa Nelson
CEO, American Legislative Exchange Council</b>
Nelson
came to ALEC in 2014 after previous stints on Newt Gingrich’s staff and
at GOPAC, the Republican state and local political training
organization. ALEC was co-founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, also a
co-founder of the CNP. ALEC convenes corporate sponsors and Republican
state legislators to “collaborate” on model bills—including legislation
to oppose environmental regulation and gun control. In April 2020, The
Washington Post reported that Nelson, Jenny Beth Martin, and Adam
Brandon were leading an effort to organize a group of businesspeople to
help Trump “jump-start” the economy in the depths of the Covid epidemic.
Nelson continued her efforts over 2020 and doubled down after the
Biden’s victory. From December 2 to 4, 2020, ALEC hosted a secret
“process working group” for Republican state legislators, election
commissioners, and attorneys to develop strategies on election oversight
and redistricting. In July 2021, ALEC hosted and financed an “academy”
under the rubric of the “Honest Elections Project” in conjunction with
its annual meeting, with panels featuring Cleta Mitchell and other CNP
strategists. Nelson offered a preview of their project to rewrite
election laws at the CNP’s May 2021 meeting: “We’ve been targeting our
efforts on those states that have had issues—Pennsylvania, Michigan,
Arizona, Florida to a certain degree.” Currently, Republicans control 30
state legislatures, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. If successfully implemented, the
independent state legislature initiative could determine the outcome of
the 2024 elections, regardless of the popular vote.
<b>Daniel J. Schultz
Attorney and founder, Precinct Strategy</b>
Schultz
was an early proponent of the idea that Republican-controlled
legislatures could overturn election results—later promoted as the
“independent state legislature doctrine.” In some interpretations,
Republican-controlled state legislatures could nullify the popular vote
and send their own electors to put Trump in office. The key to his
strategy? Purging from the Republican Party inconveniently ethical
officials like Brad Raffensperger, starting at the precinct level. “We
can take over the party if we invade it,” Schultz told Steve Bannon on
his podcast in February 2021. Over the following months, there was a
surge in candidates for precinct chairman positions across the country.
Schultz has pointed to the strategy’s success in Arizona as a model.
ProPublica reported that in one Maricopa district, the precinct roster
grew by 63 percent in less than six months. Schultz’s website asks: “Can
we get 3/10 of 1% of the 74 M Trump America Firsters to Become
Republican Precinct Committeemen? To TAKE OVER The Republican Party? To
Save the Republic?” He points out that precinct committeemen are the
ones who elect the state party leaders and are the only ones who can
vote to endorse primary candidates; in some states, they are the only
ones who can nominate candidates to fill vacancies in state
legislatures. The logic is that full slates of pro-Trump precinct chairs
could guarantee pro-Trump candidates on the Republican state-level
ballots in 2022, who could be activated to enact the independent state
legislature doctrine in 2024—subject to judicial review. Donald Trump
approves. On February 27, 2022, he issued a statement endorsing
Schultz’s project.
Anne Nelson @anelsona
<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
Anne Nelson is
the author of Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the
Radical Right</span>. She has taught at Columbia University for over 20 years
and is currently a research scholar at Columbia’s Saltzman Institute of
War and Peace Studies.
Read More: Magazine, May 2022, Politics, The
Soapbox, Feature, Democracy, January 6, Republican Party, Donald Trump,
Right Wing Extremism
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</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/01/13/capitol-riot-donors-tea-party-patriots/">https://theintercept.com/2021/01/13/capitol-riot-donors-tea-party-patriots/</a></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hERE ARE THE DONORS TO TEA PARTY GROUP THAT HELPED ORGANIZE PRE-RIOT RALLY DONORS TO THE Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that helped organize the January 6 rally preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, include the Jewish Community Federation and late billionaire Republican donor Sanford Diller, according to a 990 form submitted to the IRS by the tax-exempt nonprofit in 2019.</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the right-wing organization was listed on the March to Save America website alongside groups like Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action (an affiliate of Turning Point USA), and Women for America First, according to a report last week from Documented, a watchdog group that investigates corporate influence. The March to Save America website is down, but archived versions list several participating organizations. Supporters of President Donald Trump gathered for a mass event outside the Capitol last week, aiming to coincide with challenges to Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The rally culminated in a mob attack on the Capitol that left five people dead.</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Tea Party Patriots’ tax filing was obtained by Eli Clifton, the a senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who shared it with The Intercept.</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A screenshot of a tax filing showing donations to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that organized the “March to Save America” rally that led to the Capitol insurrection. Screenshot: Obtained by Eli Clifton</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a statement, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said her group did not fund the rally and denounced the violence that followed it. “Neither Tea Party Patriots Foundation, Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, nor Tea Party Patriots Action spent any money on the rally,” Martin said. “We condemn the violence. We are shocked, outraged, and saddened at the turn of events on January 6. One of the reasons we revere our Constitution is that it created a framework that allows for the resolution of political conflict in a peaceful manner.”</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Intercept sought to reach out to people listed on the form. The form lists a person named Lewis Stahl and a man by that name is in prison for tax evasion. There was no available contact information for the Will Moose Fund or the John 3:16 FDN.</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DonorsTrust, a little-known organization that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into right-wing causes over the years and given wealthy contributors the ability to do so anonymously, donated to the Tea Party Patriots a total of $103,000, according to the filing. DonorsTrust has bankrolled a range of causes in the conservative movement, from climate change denial to the right’s attacks on organized labor. Wealthy conservatives use these tax-exempt charities and similar organizations — known as “donor-advised funds” — as a go-between to pump money into controversial groups and causes since they can direct their donations without legal obligations to name their donors. (DonorsTrust did not respond to requests for comment.)</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund was among the biggest donors on the Tea Party Patriots list, giving the group a total of $100,000. The Jewish Community Federation, which also functions as a donor-advised fund, previously contributed $15,000 to Turning Point USA. In a now-deleted tweet, Charlie Kirk, leader and founder of Turning Point USA, claimed that Turning Point Action would be sending more than 80 buses “full of patriots” to the Washington rally.</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of the Tea Party Patriots donation, the Federation said in a statement, “This was a grant made in 2017 by the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund to support a donor’s philanthropy. We conducted due diligence prior to approving the grant to ensure the grantee was a qualified 501(c)(3). We have not received a grant request for this organization since 2017.”</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">while the donations from these funds aren’t direct, donor-advised funds still have the power to vet contributions. “Donors can only make non-binding recommendations” from their fund, according to JCF’s fund policies, and “they cannot control when and how the Federation will make grants nor control decisions about which grantees will receive funding.”</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The form said a person named Tad Taube donated $70,000 to the Tea Party Patriots, and a philanthropist from the San Francisco Bay area with that name did not respond to requests for comment. John Binkley is listed as giving $29,000. John Binkley from Alaska, a Republican former state senator who launched a failed gubernatorial run and served as one of the state’s three electors to the Electoral College, denied that he had made any donations to any Tea Party groups. <b>And Sanford Diller, a billionaire Republican donor who died in February 2018, made the second-biggest contribution on the list at $150,000.</b></font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Martin, the Tea Party Patriots co-founder, tweeted late last year that she would be speaking at the “Stop the Steal” rally and promoted the event in the weeks leading up to it. She called for “peaceful” protest as the rally became violent. <b>A few hours earlier, Martin had tweeted, “We will not allow them to steal this election!” </b>— though the tweet did not name the perpetrators.</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Tea Party Patriots, which was formed in 2009 and describes itself as the “nation’s largest grassroots Tea Party organization,” is funded by two nonprofits and a political action committee.</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">ginni ali hubs?</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/how-ginni-thomas-and-the-shadowy-council-of-national-policy-advanced-a-disinformation-campaign/">https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/how-ginni-thomas-and-the-shadowy-council-of-national-policy-advanced-a-disinformation-campaign/</a></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">b<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">efore Trump loyalists stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas took to Facebook in the early morning hours that Wednesday; there she urged people to tune into the so-called Stop the Steal rally held on the grounds of the White House. “LOVE MAGA people!!!!” she</span><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/ginni-thomas-donald-trump-clarence-thomas-capitol-riot.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> posted</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">, adding minutes later, “GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU STANDING UP or PRAYING.”</span></font></font></font></p><div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Though her affinity for caps-lock commentary may suggest otherwise, Ginni Thomas is an influential right-wing activist respected in conservative politics. The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> she has made her own mark on the Republican Party with lofty positions at Turning Point USA, the Heritage Foundation, The Daily Caller, and the Council for National Policy,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a highly secretive organization whose members include some of the most powerful conservatives and right-wing players in the country.</span></font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Respected though she may be in conservative circles, Ginni Thomas’ connection to extremists is nothing new.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2010, she led Liberty Central, a think tank she founded to appeal to Tea Party supporters and</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120312040422/http:/www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/147464/tea_party_think_tank_headed_by_clarence_thomas'wife_makes_common_cause_with_militia_guru_larry_pratt/?page=entire" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> to serve as the connective tissue</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> between “Tea Party groups and the new citizen activists,” as she claimed in a</span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121016051804/http:/www.humanevents.com/2010/06/26/conservative-spotlight-liberty-central/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> 2010 interview</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">. That group’s sponsors included the <b>Gun Owners of America—a radical alternative to the NRA—and its gun-rights extremist leader</b></span><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/larry-pratt" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"><b> Larry Pratt</b></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">, who addressed white supremacists at a 1992 gathering in Colorado and appeared to call for war against the U.S. government in 2010. The far-right Catholic group</span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2011/06/8_reasons_justice_clarence_thomas_must_step_down/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> Tradition, Family and Property</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">, known for being virulently anti-LGBTQ, anti-woman, and anti-democratic, was also linked to Ginni Thomas’ think tank from its inception. </span></span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ginni Thomas’ zeal for the Stop the Steal campaign and its followers, a mob of whom would later storm the Capitol in an act of domestic terrorism, is notable in and of itself—her husband sits on the highest court, after all—but it’s also disconcerting for another reason: She is the latest in a string of <b>Council for National Policy </b>members—and an authoritative voice at that—who has supported the Stop the Steal movement</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.'[twt]</span></font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">since the inception of this latest incarnation of the Stop the Steal campaign on Nov. 4 by lead organizer<b> Ali Alexander,</b> who himself was a member as recently as 2017, according to membership rolls</span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7273336-CNP-Membership-Directory-September-2017.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> obtained by the watchdog group Documented</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">, it has received support from CNP members. In fact, the <b>tacit support of key CNP members for challenging the 2020 presidential election results may have been the</b></span><b><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/pence-to-speak-to-secretive-council-for-national-policy-friday-cnp-members-involved-in-saturdays-stop-the-steal-rally/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> impetus</a></b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><b> for Alexander’s decision to begin the campaign to overturn the results of the presidential election by peddling disinformation</b>. </span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Formed during the Reagan administration, CNP holds closed-door meetings and instructs members to not discuss the council’s work or its membership, though, over the years, membership rolls have been leaked to the press. Those rolls have shown the organization to be home to a couple hundred</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> marquee names in the conservative movement, Christian right, and right-wing fringe: Current members include Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch and Tony Perkins of the religious-right Family Research Council; former members include Trump’s former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The CNP has a close relationship with the Trump White House—s</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">o much so, that at the <b>superspreader Rose Garden event to celebrate the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, “there were more Council for National Policy members present there than there were members of the White House staff and members of Congress combined</b>,”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> said Anne Nelson, author of the “</span></span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/29/774133071/shadow-network-offers-a-lesson-on-the-american-rights-mastery-of-politics" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">,” a book about the CNP. And on the eve of the Republican National Convention, Trump gave a big speech to the Council for National Policy, calling it as his “flagship address,” a rare public event for the council, Nelson said.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><b>Nelson describes the CNP’s main role as providing “coordination, rather than direction” to its members, which include executives of such right-wing outlets the Salem Media Group and The Daily Caller. </b>Ginni Thomas, Nelson points out, is on the board of governors of CNP Action, the lobbying arm of the secretive organization. In May 2019, <b>Thomas and Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell provided an update on the Conservative Action Project</b>,</span><a href="https://documented.net/the-council-for-national-policy/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> </a><a href="https://documented.net/the-council-for-national-policy/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">CNP’s 501(c)(4) arm</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">that holds weekly meetings, and laid out their strategy for the coming year with a</span></span><a href="https://documented.net/2020/10/documented-publishes-internal-videos-from-cnp/?vimeography_gallery=9&vimeography_video=470515080" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> slide presentation to CNP members</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">, which included messaging about building a robust infrastructure on the right and protecting Trump. </span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">In the days leading up to the Jan. 6 mayhem, and on the day itself, the connection between CNP and Stop the Steal—and the campaign’s influence on the White House—became more apparent. </font></span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">On Dec. 30, Right Wing Watch posted a</span><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trump-lawyer-cleta-mitchell-signs-letter-by-hard-right-leaders-urging-gop-senators-to-contest-swing-state-electors/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> report </a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">about a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://conservativeactionproject.com/conservatives-to-u-s-senate-protect-the-republic/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> letter</a></span></b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b> sent by the Conservative Action Project to Senate Republicans urging them to “contest the electoral votes” from “Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona</b>”—the battleground states Biden won</span>. That letter may have not mentioned Stop the Steal by name, but it asked senators to do exactly what Stop the Steal was demanding of Republican members of Congress: to reject electoral votes in favor of Biden. </span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Those signees included<b> Cleta Mitchell,</b> Trump’s lawyer (who was on the</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> infamous phone call</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> when Trump asked that Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger “find 11,780 votes”); Tom Fitton, an CNP executive committee member whose Judicial Watch group constantly spouts voter fraud conspiracy theories; <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Jenny Beth Martin,</span> co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots and columnist for The Washington Times; <b>Tony Perkins, former CNP president and leader of the Family Research Council; Kenneth Blackwell, </b>former Ohio secretary of state and member of CNP Action’s board of directors; and William L. Walton, current CNP president. All were revealed as CNP members in a leak of CNP’s September</span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7273354-CNP-Membership-Directory-September-2020.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> 2020 membership directory</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">. </span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">A</span><a href="http://conservativeactionproject.com/conservatives-call-on-state-legislators-to-appoint-new-electors-in-accordance-with-the-constitution/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> Dec. 10 letter</a></b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> posted on the Conservative Action Project website,</span><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/12/11/conservative-activist-leaders-call-for-an-end-to-democracy/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> reported by Alex Kotch at Exposed by CMD</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, asked state legislatures in battleground states to “exercise their plenary power under the Constitution and appoint clean slates of electors to the Electoral College to support President Trump,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” and that the House and Senate only recognize the electors of those states that do so. Again, this was the same demand state legislators and Congress members were hearing from Stop the Steal activists. Kotch reports that the letter links to a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">document that, according to metadata embedded in the file, was created by none other than <b>Cleta Mitchell, calling for a “constitutional remedy” to reject votes for Biden.</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The signatories included some of the same names that appeared on the Dec. 30 letter,</span> in addition to <b>Ed Martin, a leading Stop the Steal organizer and CNP member whom Alexander has thanked for his</b></span></span><b><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/what-to-expect-from-the-trump-%e2%80%8bfans-and-bullies-coming-to-dc-this-week/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> “mentorship”</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> in organizing the Stop the Steal campaign. </span></b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two days before the Jan. 6 rally, CNP member Charlie Kirk, who leads the youth-oriented group Turning Point USA, shared a video from Women for America First’s Kylie Jane <b>Kremer</b> advertising the rally and told his followers that his organizations, TPUSA and Students for Trump, had funded more than 80 buses to attend the rally.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> “The historic event will likely be one of the largest and most consequential in American history,” Kirk wrote. “The team at @TrumpStudents & Turning Point Action are honored to help make this happen, sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president,” he said in the since deleted tweet,</span></span><a href="https://www.dailydot.com/debug/charlie-kirk-delete-tweet-buses-capitol/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> uncovered by Daily Dot</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Kirk’s Students for Trump co-chair is Ryan Fournier, a Stop the Steal organizer who spoke at the Jan. 5 rally on the same stage where speakers advocated</span><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/christian-nationalism-and-threats-of-violence-at-pro-trump-rally-on-eve-of-electoral-college-certification/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> rebellion</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">. </span></span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">While a viral claim that Ginni Thomas funded the buses herself appears</span><a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ginni-thomas-buses/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> to be false</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">, <b>Ginni Thomas has been linked to the group in the recent past, serving on Turning Point USA’s advisory council in 2019, along with fellow</b></span><b><a href="https://twitter.com/anelsona/status/1347974504618758150?s=20" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> CNP members</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> Foster Friess, Adam Brandon, and former Ohio congressman Bob McEwen.</span></b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On Jan. 5, speakers took to Freedom Plaza for a Stop the Steal rally designed to prime attendees for the big day. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Among the speakers was<b> Peter Navarro</b>, a fringe right-wing economist who</span></span><a href="https://vimeo.com/470515015" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> spoke at the May 2019 CNP meeting</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">. and who serves as an assistant to the president and director of the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/people/peter-navarro/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy</a>. On the stage at Freedom Plaza, Navarro peddled voter fraud conspiracy theories and urged activists to stay angry,</span><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/christian-nationalism-and-threats-of-violence-at-pro-trump-rally-on-eve-of-electoral-college-certification/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> declaring to the assembled crowd</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">, “We will take this back.” </span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Jan. 6, Ginni Thomas told her Facebook followers to watch the event convened by groups working in concert with the Stop the Steal campaign, dubbed the “Save America Rally,” on the right-wing <b>Right Side Broadcasting</b>, </span>one of the few networks to cover the gathering. The massive rally, at which Trump would incite his supporters to bring their wrath to the Capitol, was led by the groups March for Trump and the Kremers’ Women for America First. </font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Amy Kremer, who was listed as a member in a</span><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/cnp_redacted_final.pdf" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> 2014 CNP membership directory</a><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/05/17/council-national-policy-behind-curtain" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> obtained</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> by the Southern Poverty Law Center, was among the first speakers. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>Jenny Beth Martin, the CNP executive committee secretary <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-meeting-the-council-for-national-policy-arlington-virginia" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">whom Trump thanked</a> in his speech to CNP this summer</b>, was another. She brought with her Simone Gold, who is now</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><a href="https://twitter.com/NickSawyerMD/status/1347988045597872128/photo/1" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> sought by the FBI</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> after she appeared to be part of the crowd that</span><a href="https://twitter.com/FBIMostWanted/status/1347537094479003648" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> stormed the Capitol</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> following her speech on the main stage, as seen on social media.</span></span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">After the Capitol insurrection, Ginni Thomas either deactivated or deleted her Facebook account, likely unhappy that</span><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/ginni-thomas-donald-trump-clarence-thomas-capitol-riot.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> reporters noted her enthusiasm</a></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><b> for a movement what would launch a riot.</b> Josh Hawley, one of the senators who led the charge to contest electors’ votes in the Senate,</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/11/why-josh-hawley-is-top-list-gop-lawmakers-getting-backlash-over-capitol-riots/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> charged ahead</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> even as other lawmakers backed off in light of the violent consequences wrought by the disinformation campaign designed to delegitimize the outcome of the presidential election. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“Shadow Network” author Nelson</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><a href="https://twitter.com/anelsona/status/1345744002558160897" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> noted</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> that, throughout his career, Hawley was groomed by CNP affiliates.</span></span></font></font></font></p><figure id="attachment_525322" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-525322" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; max-width: 100%; width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">[pix
</font><figcaption id="caption-attachment-525322" class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Ali Alexander and other “Stop the Steal” activists at Dec. 15, 2020 press conference (Image from NTD livestream posted on Epoch Times YouTube channel.)</font></figcaption></font></font></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The Stop the Steal disinformation campaign wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without CNP support. When on Nov. 4, Ali Alexander floated the idea of rebooting the Stop the Steal campaign, which in its prior iteration was focused on the outcome of the 2018 mid-term elections, baselessly claiming that the election had been stolen from Trump, he called on key CNP members including Tom Fitton, Amy Kremer, Ed Martin, and Charlie Kirk.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">“Because Ali Alexander is a fairly veteran operative, he managed to get a lot of people on board very quickly,” said Stephanie Lamy, a French information warfare researcher with</span> the advocacy group<a href="https://danaides.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> Danaides</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">. <b>“Although he was a fairly marginal actor, he managed to have a big reach because he knew which people to rely on. And that was a lot of the CNP.”</b></span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b>Once he began to be successful, Lamy said, the White House seemed to have taken note.</b></font></span></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Right Wing Watch <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/pence-to-speak-to-secretive-council-for-national-policy-friday-cnp-members-involved-in-saturdays-stop-the-steal-rally/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> about CNP members’ connection to Stop the Steal on Nov. 13—the same day <b>Vice President Mike Pence was set to address CNP attendees in Virginia.</b> CNP convened that meeting, Nov. 12-14, “to strategize on how to challenge the election results,”</span><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/11/06/operatives-tied-to-council-for-national-policy-organizing-protests-alleging-voter-fraud/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> according to</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Exposed by CMD reporter David Armiak</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">. At the meeting, a panel dedicated to the election results and the ensuing legal battles featured Cleta Mitchell, J. Christian Adams, a known</span><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trump-appoints-voting-rights-act-critic-and-voter-suppression-advocate-to-u-s-civil-rights-commission/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> voter suppressor</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"> who leads the Public Interest Legal Foundation, and the Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky, a leading proponent</span> of<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/29/the-voter-fraud-myth" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> the voter fraud myth</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">. </span></span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The following day, Stop the Steal organizers held the first of three major rallies in Washington, D.C., with speakers peddling disinformation and violent rhetoric on the main stage—a day that ended in violent skirmishes between Proud Boys and counterprotesters, foreshadowing the violence to come.</font></span></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">“Most people don’t realize that disinformation has an aim, and that aim is to have real life impact. So what we saw with Stop the Steal, it had a real-life impact as of the 6th of November [the date of one of the first Stop the Steal rallies], and it kind of culminated with these terrorist threats and a breach of the Capitol,” said Lamy, the French disinformation researcher. “And it’s still ongoing,” she continued. “The CNP hasn’t finished manipulating anger and personal grievances.”</font></span></font></font></p><div class="at-below-post addthis_tool" data-url="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/how-ginni-thomas-and-the-shadowy-council-of-national-policy-advanced-a-disinformation-campaign/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;"><div class="tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; border-top: 5px solid rgb(239, 243, 243); margin-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 1em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: 700;">Tags:</span> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/ali-akbar/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Ali Akbar</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/ali-alexander/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Ali Alexander</a><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/amy-kremer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Amy Kremer</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/charlie-kirk/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Charlie Kirk</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/clarence-thomas/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Clarence Thomas</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/cleta-mitchell/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Cleta Mitchell</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/ed-martin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Ed Martin</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/ginni-thomas/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Ginni Thomas</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/hans-von-spakovsky/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Hans von Spakovsky</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/j-christian-adams/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">J Christian Adams</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/jenny-beth-martin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Jenny Beth Martin</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/kellyanne-conway/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Kellyanne Conway</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/ken-blackwell/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Ken Blackwell</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/kylie-jane-kremer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Kylie Jane Kremer</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/peter-navarro/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Peter Navarro</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/ryan-fournier/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Ryan Fournier</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/steve-bannon/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Steve Bannon</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/tom-fitton/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tom Fitton</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/tony-perkins/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tony Perkins</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/william-walton/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">William Walton</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/capitol-insurrection/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Capitol Insurrection</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/disinformation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Disinformation</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/stop-the-steal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Stop the Steal</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/council-for-national-policy/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Council for National Policy</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/gun-owners-of-america/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Gun Owners of America</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/tea-party/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">tea party</a> <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/women-for-america-first/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Women for America First</a></font></font></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">omg fury?</span></font></font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9/20 </font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/</font></a></font></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" /></font></font></p><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On July 27, a dozen physicians posed in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">, dressed in white lab coats with “America’s Frontline Doctors” stitched over the pocket. The group’s chief spokesperson was Dr. Simone Gold, an emergency physician from Los Angeles. They were introduced by Jenny Beth Martin, the <b style="">founding CEO of Tea Party Patriots,</b> as participants in the “White Coat Summit.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The doctors made spirited arguments for the use of hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for Covid-19 and against wearing masks and imposing lockdowns—all running counter to the recommendations of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</span><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn1" name="ftnref1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[1]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Although the event was billed as a “press conference,” few journalists attended. A video posted by a bystander showed only a handful of attendees, most of them dressed in tourists’ shorts and T-shirts. But the event was livestreamed by Breitbart News and quickly went (so to speak) viral.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">There was a rapid backlash. Much of the media attention focused on<b> Dr. Stella Immanuel,</b> one of Gold’s cohort. Following the press conference, the Daily Beast posted a video of Immanuel, who is also a Pentecostal preacher, delivering a sermon claiming that various female ailments were caused by sexual visitations from “demons.”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Immanuel has since disappeared from the America’s Frontline Doctors online roster, but the group has continued to get traction. On August 10, Pat Robertson’s show on the Christian Broadcasting Network carried an interview with Simone Gold and an endorsement of her hydroxychloroquine cure. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On August 21, Alex Jones’s NewsWars carried an interview with another member of America’s Frontline Doctors, Mark McDonald. McDonald—a child psychiatrist—<a href="https://www.newswars.com/frontline-doctor-silenced-by-youtube-and-facebook-speaks-out-about-hydroxychloroquine/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">maintained</a>, “If all Americans had access to hydroxychloroquine, the pandemic would essentially end in about 30 days.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Science has shown otherwise. Despite early hopes last spring, there is mounting evidence that hydroxychloroquine is a problematic—and even dangerous—treatment for Covid-19. One expert with firsthand knowledge is Nick Sawyer, an academic emergency physician in Sacramento, Calif. In July he <a href="https://cdn.ymaws.com/californiaacep.org/resource/resmgr/docs/lifeline/2020/lifeline_magazine_summer2020.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">wrote</a> an article for <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Lifeline,</em> the publication of the California chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, describing his harrowing two weeks of service in the Covid wards of Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. Sawyer was part of a team of California doctors dispatched by Governor Gavin Newsome to offer emergency assistance at the epicenter of the epidemic, at the height of the New York City outbreak.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sawyer is now dealing with the spike in cases in California, this time with the benefit of four months of additional Covid research. “The science on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating Covid-19 is settled—multiple high-quality studies have shown that it shows no benefit,” he notes. Far more concerning, Sawyer says, is its potential harm: “Hydroxychloroquine can cause unstable cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death.” Over recent months, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, and other organizations have issued <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/joint-statement-of-the-american-medical-association-american-pharmacists-association-and-american-society-of-health-system-pharmacists-on-new-fda-action-to-remove-emergency-use-authorization-of-medications-to-treat-covid-19-301082292.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">warnings</a> that the drug should be withdrawn as a Covid-19 treatment. “It’s irresponsible for America’s Frontline Doctors to continue to push this medication on the unwitting American population,” Sawyer states.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why, then, would Gold’s band of physicians continue its campaign to pitch the treatment to the public? Simone Gold has repeatedly described her group as a “grassroots organization” acting in the service of its patients.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn2" name="ftnref2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[2]</a> In fact, it has been a highly orchestrated effort, months in the making, assembled by conservative Washington insiders in direct consultation with the White House, with the goal of reopening the economy in time to benefit Trump’s reelection prospects—regardless of the toll in human lives.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The first public mention of the initiative may have been a <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Washington Post</em> story on April 13, as the virus raged across New York City and Covid-19 deaths passed the 20,000 mark.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn3" name="ftnref3" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[3]</a> The <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Post</em> reported the creation of a new conservative coalition “pushing for the White House and GOP lawmakers to push back against health professionals who have urged more caution.”<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> The leadership was listed as Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation, Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks, and Lisa Nelson of the American Legislative Exchange Council. <b>A fourth individual, Jenny Beth Martin,</b> i</span>s the founding director of the Tea Party Patriots. She would play a key role in organizing the events to come, including the doctors’ Washington “summit” in July.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Brandon, Nelson, and Martin are all prominent members of a secretive organization called the Council for National Policy, </b>a shadowy coalition that coordinates initiatives among conservative megadonors, political operatives, and media owners, many of them Christian fundamentalists (see “<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/nelson-shadow-network/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">Holding Democracy Hostage</a>”).</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Post</em> story quoted an interview with <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Richard Viguerie, a co-founder of the CNP,</span> on the mission of the initiative: “The sooner we get the economy going and back up, the better it’s going to be for conservatives and Republicans in this election year. . . . Conservatives feel the government has overreacted, and it’s got to end.</b>”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn4" name="ftnref4" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[4]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The new coalition, called Save Our Country, officially debuted on April 27, as U.S. Covid deaths approached 55,000.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn5" name="ftnref5" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[5]</a> <b>Headed by economist Art Laffer,</b> its maiden press release featured quotes from Brandon, Nelson, and Martin</span>. “The long-term consequences of a prolonged societal shutdown outweigh the damage done by the virus itself,” Martin stated. “We must immediately reopen the economy.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn6" name="ftnref6" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[6]</a> Earlier that week, <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</em> reported that the Save Our Country coalition’s members were mobilizing their networks for state-level rallies, filing lawsuits, and commissioning polls, all to counter the lockdowns: “<b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nonprofit</span> groups including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots</b> have used their social media accounts and text and email lists to spread the word about protests across the country.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn7" name="ftnref7" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[7]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the state-level protests turned out to be of limited utility, and the group began to look for new avenues. In April, CNP Action, the lobbying arm of the CNP, began a series of weekly conference calls to discuss Covid strategy. On May 11—as U.S. Covid deaths reached 74,270<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn8" name="ftnref8" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[8]</a>—one of the calls was intercepted and <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2020/05/19582/coalition-pro-trump-doctors-forming-defend-president%E2%80%99s-covid-19-blunders" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">published</a> by the Center for Media and Democracy and the Associated Press.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Among the participants were CNP President William Walton, CNP member Nancy Schulze,<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn9" name="ftnref9" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[9]</a> and Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Schulze, the wife of former nine-term Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Dick Schulze, opened the call with a warning that two-thirds of the American people were wary of reopening the economy. But, she added, “Doctors are seen by the American people—they have a 92 percent trust rate with the American people according to polling. . . . There is a coalition of doctors, doctors’ coalition, who are extremely pro-Trump, that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health care, and<b> these doctors could be activated for this conversation now for reopening. NOTE RWI NICHE SLEEPER CELLS]</b></span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“The one thing the left does give credence to, in that they tend to be motivated by a secular worldview, the one thing that they do appreciate and listen to is science, and we have doctors that have the facts, that lived this themselves, that are in the trenches, that are saying it’s time to reopen</b>,” Schulze continued. “I’ve been working with them for three years. There’s a coalition of doctors . . . including the most respected doctors in this country, that are ready to speak if somebody will just call on them.</span>”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walton told her, “We need to not just make the economic argument,<b> we need to make the health argument, and we need doctors to make that argument, not us</b>. THIRD PARTY TOBACCO PR BS And so that would be great if you, if we could tee that up.”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schulze said she’d be happy to put him in touch “with any and all of these doctors, and I have submitted 27 of these doctors’ names to the campaign for the doctors’ coalition that they’re in the process of building.”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mercedes Schlapp asked Schulze if she had spoken with Hannah Castillo, director of coalitions for the Trump campaign. </b>“I know they’ve been working on building that coalition. I know they’re going through the vetting process right now. As long as you have the names, that would be helpful. . . . Those are the type of guys we want to get out on TV and radio to help push out the message.”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schulze replied, “I’ve been working with Hannah for over six weeks now, so they already have been vetted. But they need to be put on the screen.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn10" name="ftnref10" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[10]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Dr. Simone Gold, a 54-year-old emergency physician from Los Angeles, was ready for her close-up. On April 22, Gold had tweeted a stand-up of herself wearing a white “Emergency Dept.” coat, in front of Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai hospital emergency room, suggesting that concerns over the virus were inflated. She pointed out that the hospital “parking lots are empty, the emergency department volume is down, the patient census is down, and that’s really in most of the areas I’ve been to</span>.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn11" name="ftnref11" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[11]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On May 7, she brought a more explicit anti-lockdown message to a program on the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Whiskey Politics</em> show on Salem Radio, part of the massive Salem Media conglomerate owned by two leading members of the Council for National Policy</b>.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn12" name="ftnref12" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[12]</a> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It was headlined “DR. SIMONE GOLD GOES PUBLIC! What the Government WON’T Tell Us About COVID-19.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“It’s not at all clear that overall, that social distancing is going to make a huge impact,” Gold said.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn13" name="ftnref13" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[13]</a> “We’re all acting like as though there’s a huge medical crisis. There’s a medical issue, we should handle it responsibly, but what’s going on in our country now is a terrible legal crisis. Our constitutional rights are being trampled on right and left.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn14" name="ftnref14" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[14]</a> Gold later added, “There’s always viruses . . . but I’m not sure that it’s front-page news.”</span><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn15" name="ftnref15" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[15]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Guardian</em> reported that over the same period, the Save Our Country coalition spent $50,000 on videos on social media platforms “targeting independents and Republicans with the message that Covid-19 mostly hits the elderly to minimize risks for others.”</b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; transition-duration: 300ms; transition-delay: 0ms; transition-property: color;">[16] GUK</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">On May 19—as U.S. Covid deaths reached 84,640<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn17" name="ftnref17" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[17]</a>—the CNP’s doctors coalition (billed as “A Doctor A Day”) made its debut with an open letter to Donald Trump signed by “500+ doctors” (a number that was later revised to over 800). <b>“In medical terms, the shutdown was a mass casualty incident,” it stated. “It is impossible to overstate the short, medium, and long-term harm to people’s health with a continued shutdown.” The lead signatory was Dr. Simone Gold.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On June 16—with U.S. Covid deaths approaching 110,000<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn18" name="ftnref18" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[18]</a> and the U.S. economy in freefall—the Save Our Country coalition published an open letter to President Trump and Leader McConnell, urging “that the multi-trillions of dollars of federal government debt spending in the wake of the Coronavirus come to a stop</b>.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn19" name="ftnref19" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[19]</a> Twelve of the 20 signatories (among them Brandon, Nelson, and Martin) were members of the CNP, including CNP President William Walton and Executive Director Bob McEwen.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The push to reopen the schools became a full-court press. On July 7, Trump assembled a White House meeting on the subject. Jenny Beth Martin spoke as both the CEO of Tea Party Patriots and “as a mom.”</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Mr. President, you were right, and I hope you will trust your instincts,</b>” she told Trump. “America is not meant to be shut down. And we have to reopen schools this fall. I’ve been in touch with almost a thousand doctors from around the country. I helped Dr. Simone Gold spearhead a letter to you signed by 800 physicians and surgeons who talked about the side effects of the lockdowns. I’ve done a second letter with over 150 doctors, 240 nurses, 330 educators, 70 national groups, and thousands of parents and concerned Americans who want to see schools reopened.”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A video of Martin’s statement appeared, billed as “Mom Gives Unexpected Speech Directly to Trump” without naming her or her affiliation. It was posted on various social media platforms, including Glenn Beck’s YouTube channel, The Blaze (where it clocked over 400,000 views as of August 4)</b>.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn20" name="ftnref20" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[20]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Dr. Simone Gold was now preparing to join <b>Jenny Beth Martin </b>on center stage. On July 22, Gold warmed up for her appearance on <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Charlie Kirk Show,</em> with over 157,000 YouTube subscribers</span>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <b>Kirk, a member of the Council for National Policy,</b> heads a group called Turning Point USA, which recruits right-wing campus activists. (Donald Trump addressed its Youth Action Summit last December, and Donald Trump Jr. is quoted on its website stating, “I’m convinced that the work by Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk will win back the future of America.</span>”)<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn21" name="ftnref21" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[21]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The introduction for Kirk’s show summed up the case Gold and her colleagues would make over the coming weeks: <b>“Charlie is joined in studio by board-certified emergency physician Dr. Simon [sic] Gold, who says nearly everything we’ve been told about the Chinese Coronavirus is a lie. </b>She and Charlie take a deep dive into the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and why the U.S. government is barring physicians from prescribing the drug—endangering potentially 100,000 lives, at least. Charlie also takes on Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, asking if Dr. Gold challenges the effectiveness of wearing masks. Dr. Gold makes a stunning and factual assertion about the death rates and who exactly is to blame for what she believes is one of the biggest lies ever perpetrated against the American people.” <a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn22" name="ftnref22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[22]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Gold’s “stunning assertion” was the often-repeated claim that doctors were falsifying death certificates, speculating without foundation that they were inflating Covid-19 cases by “20 to 30 percent.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn23" name="ftnref23" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[23]</a> Gold also asserted, “Masks are really foolish, they don’t do anything. . . . There’s zero scientific justification for the mask</span>.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn24" name="ftnref24" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[24]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jenny Beth Martin emphasized a social media campaign from the start. Her Tea Party Patriots website posted the program of the White Coat Summit, offering the participating doctors a two-hour session devoted to expanding their social media reach: “YouTube and other social media vastly exceed television news as the information source for most Americans. Interviews and Q/A with social media personalities with large followers is the best way to talk to Americans. Doctors who want to answer questions from these modern journalists will have the opportunity.”</font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">By the time Jenny Beth Martin hosted Gold’s White Coat Summit on July 27, U.S. Covid-19 deaths had skyrocketed to over 136,000</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></b><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn25" name="ftnref25" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[25]</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> The physicians’ presentation carried a lethal stew of misinformation. Dr. Bob Hamilton, a pediatrician from Santa Monica, assured viewers, “Children are not passing [the virus] on to their parents or their teachers.” (A few days later, the CDC released a report on a massive transmission event in June at a Georgia summer camp, with a median age of 12</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn26" name="ftnref26" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[26]</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">)</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Dr. Richard Urso—an ophthalmologist—praised hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for the virus, </b>but it was not clear that Urso had ever had any significant experience treating Covid-19 patients. Another speaker was Dr. Daniel Erickson, a Bakersfield physician who co-owns an urgent care facility. In April he had been censured by the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine for his “reckless and untested musings” opposing stay-at-home orders and promoting the conspiracy theory about doctors misattributing deaths to Covid-19</span>.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn27" name="ftnref27" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[27]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The social media strategy paid off. Gold and her colleagues’ video, livestreamed on Breitbart News, reportedly reached 185,000 concurrent users.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn28" name="ftnref28" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[28]</a> <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</em>’ Kevin Roose reported that over its six hours on Facebook, it was the second-most-engaged post on the platform, with 14 million views.</b><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn29" name="ftnref29" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[29]</a> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">(The audiences for network news broadcasts, by comparison, range from 9 to 12 million.) A few hours after the presentation, President Trump tweeted the video to his 84.5 million followers. Donald Trump Jr. told his 5.3 million Twitter followers, “This video is a much [sic] watch!!! So different from the narrative everyone is running with.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn30" name="ftnref30" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[30]</a> Trump redoubled his support at his press conference the following day, stating “I think they’re very respected doctors.</span>”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn31" name="ftnref31" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[31]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But major social media platforms reacted with relative speed. Facebook took the group’s video down a few hours after it was posted, and Twitter and YouTube followed suit, all three on the grounds that the video violated their Covid-19 misinformation policies.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn32" name="ftnref32" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[32]</a> Twitter took the unusual step of suspending Trump Jr.’s account for 12 hours.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Gold had built the original America’s Frontline Doctors website on a SquareSpace platform, but <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">SquareSpace took it down</span>. Gold rebuilt the website (omitting Stella Immanuel of “demon sperm” renown) and started raising money through PayPal and fundly.com. The doctors’ program also remained on the Tea Party Patriots site.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>There was an additional reaction to the doctors’ “frontline” Covid credentials. MedPageToday, a peer-reviewed medical news site, was unable to find evidence that any of America’s Frontline Doctors in Washington had served in “frontline” emergency rooms during the Covid epidemic</b>.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn33" name="ftnref33" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[33]</a> Simone Gold came under additional scrutiny. Her initial <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Whiskey Politics</em> introduction described her as a “frontline doctor” in an “inner-city emergency room” that treated “150 patients a day,” but neither her LinkedIn profile nor other available sources listed the emergency room in question. Her personal website (taken down amid the controversy but archived) described her as a “<b>Concierge Immediate Needs Physician” working in “C-Suite Medicine</b>.”<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn34" name="ftnref34" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[34]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On July 29, Cedars-Sinai, the backdrop for Gold’s Twitter video, issued a disavowal stating, “Simone Gold, MD, has not worked with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center or any of its offices or affiliates since 2015</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For three weeks in late 2015, Dr. Gold was employed on a per diem basis by Cedars-Sinai Medical Network, a component of Cedars-Sinai. She worked during this brief time in a network urgent care clinic. Dr. Gold is not authorized to represent or speak about any information on behalf of Cedars-Sinai.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The sharecare.com “Find a Doctor” site stated that “Dr. Simone Gold, MD, is a[n] emergency medicine specialist in Los Angeles, CA. and is affiliated with Centinela Hospital Medical Center.” But on July 31, Centinela Hospital posted a statement reading: <b>“Simone Gold, MD, is not credentialed as part of the Centinela Medical Staff, as she resigned her position here a number of years ago. Dr. Gold was never employed here as we don’t employ our physicians.”</b><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn35" name="ftnref35" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[35]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Also troubling was American Frontline Doctors’ repeated suggestion that patients should demand hydroxychloroquine from their doctors for Covid-19. The medication has been an important treatment for lupus and other autoimmune diseases, but the publicity around its application to Covid has created an ongoing shortage with devastating consequences.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Much of the mainstream coverage of America’s Frontline Doctors was devoted to Stella Immanuel’s “demon sperm” sermon, but alternative platforms were another story.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Simone Gold was reaching a vast new public and was now celebrated as a victim. On July 30, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson interviewed her on his nightly program. The crawl stated, “Doctor Censored by Big Tech Has Now Lost Her Job” (though that job was never specified)—echoing Trump’s executive order on Big Tech censorship released the previous day.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn36" name="ftnref36" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[36]</a> (Carlson’s show is currently the highest-rated program on cable television, with an audience of over 4.3 million</span>.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn37" name="ftnref37" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[37]</a>)</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Glenn Beck’s multi-platform media operation, The Blaze, covered the story on his radio program and posted the Tucker Carlson video on its website on July 31, with a companion piece repeating her case for hydroxychloroquine</b>.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn38" name="ftnref38" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[38]</a> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A similar report was posted the same day on CNS News, founded by Council for National Policy Executive Committee member L. Brent Bozell III.</span><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn39" name="ftnref39" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[39]</a> (<b>MediaPost recently named CNS News as the country’s fastest-growing conservative website, with more than 8.3 million unique visitors in June and over 1,000 percent gain in year-over-year unique visitors</b>.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn40" name="ftnref40" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[40]</a>)</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pat Robertson’s CBN.com averages over four million unique visitors each month. Add these to Alex Jones’s August 21 coverage—as well as legions of subsidiary platforms—and you have a deadly misinformation campaign that’s reaching tens of millions of voters, most of them off the radar of the national news media.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emergency physician Nick Sawyer is disturbed by the implications for medical practitioners. The America’s Frontline Doctors campaign, he says, “violates two of the primary principles of medical ethics. Medical ethics has four major principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice. As hydroxychloroquine offers no clinical benefit and may be harmful, it violates the first two tenets. Further, their statements place actual frontline physicians treating patients with Covid-19 in conflict with patients’ right to autonomy.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Patients have the right to make decisions regarding their medical care, but as more and more patients are asking—if not outright demanding—that physicians prescribe hydroxychloroquine to them, it places these physicians in a position where they are faced with an ethical dilemma. We respect patients’ right to autonomy, but we are not willing to allow them to demand a treatment that is not helpful and may be harmful. In sum, America’s Frontline Doctors are introducing additional havoc into the already complex Covid-19 pandemic.”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of the publication deadline for this article, neither Jenny Beth Martin or Simone Gold had responded to requests for comment.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The day after Gold’s Washington presentation, U.S. Covid-19 deaths stood at 140,309; they swelled to 147,653 only a week later.<a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn41" name="ftnref41" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[41]</a> Less than a month later, on August 21, Donald Trump addressed the Council for National Policy at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City, his last major address before the Republican convention. In his opening remarks, he thanked several figures from the CNP, including Jenny Beth Martin, “for your tremendous leadership of the CNP. You’ve done a fantastic job.”</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As of that Friday, over 174,000 Americans had died of Covid-19. That number continues to climb.</b><a href="https://washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-deceit/#ftn42" name="_ftnref42" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition: color 300ms ease 0ms;">[42]</a></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7rem; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Anne Nelson is the author of </span>Shadow Network: Money, Media, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> She is the recipient of the Livingston Award for journalism and a Guggenheim Fellowship for historical research. </span></font></font></font></p></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</span></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.the GUK .com/us-news/2020/apr/18/coronavirus-americans-protest-stay-at-home</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many pix</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Thousands of Americans backed by rightwing donors gear up for protests</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservative activists to demand governors lift stay-home orders – and movement has been driven by wealthy conservative groups</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adam Gabbatt</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> @adamgabbatt</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Sat 18 Apr</b> 2020 06.00 EDT...</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of the rallies have been inspired by a protest at the Michigan state capitol.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Many of the rallies have been inspired by a protest at the Michigan state capitol. Photograph: Matthew Dae Smith/AP</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thousands of people are preparing to attend protests across the US in the coming days, as a rightwing movement against stay-at-home orders, backed by wealthy conservative groups and promoted by Donald Trump, continues to take hold.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservative activists are demanding governors lift orders designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, despite the recommendations of public health officials. Trump, who has clashed with Democratic governors over how soon to reopen the US economy, tweeted his support on Friday, in an unprecedented endorsement of civil disobedience by a sitting president.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of the planned rallies have been inspired by a protest at the Michigan state capitol on Wednesday, which was attended by thousands.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2:09</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Armed protesters demand an end to Michigan's coronavirus lockdown orders – video</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet while organisers claim the protests are grassroots- and people-driven, a closer look reveals a movement driven by traditional rightwing groups, including one funded by the family of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The rallies have drawn comparisons to the Tea Party movement, which sprang into life in 2009 following the election of Barack Obama and was driven in part by Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by rightwing donors Charles and David Koch.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As with the Tea Party, the anti-stay-at-home movement has been promoted by a rightwing media eager for the economy to reopen, including Fox News which on Friday aired a segment on protests in Virginia, Michigan and Minnesota. Two minutes later, Trump tweeted to his 77.4 million followers the need to “liberate” those states.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1:40</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b> 'They seem very responsible to me': Trump defends anti-lockdown protesters </b>- video</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A majority of Americans support the lockdowns, with a Pew Research Center poll finding that 66% are concerned state governments will lift restrictions on public activity too quickly. But protests, helped by media coverage, have spread around the country.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The two groups behind the “operation gridlock” rally in Michigan on Wednesday have ties to the Republican party and the Trump administration.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Michigan Freedom Fund, which said it was a co-host of the rally, has received more than $500,000 from the DeVos family, regular donors to rightwing groups.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The other host, the Michigan Conservative Coalition, was founded by Matt Maddock, now a Republican member of the state house of representatives. The MCC also operates under the name Michigan Trump Republicans, and in January held an event featuring several members of the Trump campaign.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Absolutely the Michigan event was a huge inspiration and it was a huge success,” said Evie Harris, organizer of a ReOpen Maryland protest planned for the state capitol on Saturday.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“That was the model for our event.”</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thousands drove to the Michigan state capitol in Lansing, while the Michigan Freedom Fund purchased Facebook advertising to promote the rally. Protesters, many waving Trump campaign signs, honked their horns and chanted for Governor Gretchen Whitmer to end the stay-at-home rules.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The protest was covered exhaustively by the rightwing media.<b> Harris said her Facebook following grew from “700-800 people” to more than 15,000 members following the Michigan rally, inspiring her to organize “Operation Gridlock Annapolis” for Saturday.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Harris said her group had support from some elected officials in Maryland, but declined to name them.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While ReOpen Maryland might not have funding from rightwing advocacy groups, it appears to be linked to at least four other “reopen” organizations.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Government mandating sick people to stay home is called quarantine,” ReOpen Maryland said. “However, the government mandating healthy citizens to stay home, forcing businesses and churches to close is called tyranny.”</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That text is identical to text on Facebook pages calling for rallies in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Virginia. ReOpen Virginia aims to hold its own “gridlock” rally on Wednesday – again inspired by the conservative-funded Michigan event.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite ReOpen Virginia billing itself as a “grassroots group of people and small business owners”, founder Kristen Lynne Hall said the idea for the protest came from the organizers of the “Lobby Day” demonstration earlier this year.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">That demonstration was organized by the <b>Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights group</b> that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to politicians.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hall, who said Candace Owens, a rightwing activist and favorite of Trump, had been in touch to discuss the event, said the president’s tweet about “liberating” Virginia was “great”.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It could be spreading the movement,” she said. “Any support is appreciated right now.”</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A decade ago, the Tea Party movement billed itself as “grass roots”, despite receiving money from the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and the conservative organization FreedomWorks.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jenny Beth Martin, who founded the Tea Party Patriots group, promoted this week’s Michigan protest. The Tea Party Patriots also supported the protest, in messages to its 200,000 Twitter followers.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog, said the similarities between the Tea Party and ReOpen movements went further, with rightwing media boosting both.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fox News ran favorable coverage of the Michigan rally and hosts including Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro endorsed the protest.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Fox gave the Tea Party a phenomenal amount of attention and promotion,” Gertz said. “It really sort of boot-strapped it to another level, and made it a political force, and we see something similar happening with these anti-stay-at-home order movements.”</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gertz said he was not “simply” concerned with “the conservatives having a strong election the next time out”.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s a real chance for devastating consequences with regard to the coronavirus,” he said.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> ===</font></font></font>
<a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/the-tea-party-movement-is-alive-and-well-and-we-saw-trump-coming-214469"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/11/the-tea-party-movement-is-alive-and-well-and-we-saw-trump-coming-214469</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hmm bs?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> an <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/tea-party-pacs-ideas-death-214164" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease; text-decoration: none;">article</a> POLITICO published this summer, a former employee of a PAC alleged that the “Tea Party is dead,” claiming that bogus PACs had swallowed up the energy and money formerly driving the grassroots movement.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In fact, last week’s election showed that exactly the opposite is true: With the victory of Donald Trump, the values and principles that gave rise to the tea party movement in 2009 are finally gaining the top seat of power in the White House.</b> </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over these past eight years, Tea Party Patriots—the organization that I run—along with our loyal, patriotic American activists have fought many battles, some successfully and some failures. But all of them have kept alive the values and principles that brought us together in the first place
Despite everything—all the efforts of the establishment in both parties who have tried to destroy and marginalize the movement, the efforts of the Obama IRS to crush the tea party groups through a years-long targeting scandal; the theft of countless dollars by scam artists who fleece money from well-meaning donors; the derision and name-calling by the media, academics, and pundits—the tea party movement is quite alive and well. And we prevailed in this election.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the “smart people” in both political parties are still scratching their heads about the how the results could possibly have been so far from what they expected, those of us who have been tilling the fields of the movement these past eight years are not the least bit surprised. Over that time, Tea Party Patriots has held webinars every Sunday evening except on holidays with hundreds of local leaders participating, discussing how to move forward on our issues. That’s over 400 Sunday night calls, along with dozens of Monday conference calls with local tea party activists during the congressional session and countless teletownhalls featuring various national leaders.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We take our direction, exclusively, from the grassroots. Armed with weekly feedback from, involvement with, and approval of our grassroots supporters, Tea Party Patriots developed an agenda including immigration reform that respects the rule of law, fiscal sanity, and repealing Obamacare--the same core principles that constituted a large part of Donald Trump’s platform, and helped propel him to victory.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>We’ve also helped build and maintain a network of more than 750 local grassroots groups nationwide</b>, all dedicated to the values of personal freedom, economic freedom and a debt-free future centered on constitutionally limited government. To date, our organization has been deeply involved and has enjoyed numerous legislative, policy, and campaign<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> victories. Among those are the significant role we, as an organization, played in 2013 in defeating the Senate Gang of Eight (amnesty) bill, our work removing John Boehner from the Speakership, and our continued and ongoing effort to repeal Obamacare.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During this election season, our political arm, <b>Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, endorsed Ted Cruz </b>in the presidential primary after multiple rounds of voting by more than 100,000 activists. Then, after Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, TPPCF dedicated itself to defeating Hillary Clinton and mobilized again, knocking on more than 100,000 doors in battleground states, and making more than 2 million volunteer phone calls into Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://news.vice.com/story/the-tea-party-is-now-the-trump-party</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Goodbye, Tea </font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Party</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hello, Trump Party</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Tea Party is now the Trump Party</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Alex Thompson on Nov 1, 2016 </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the tea party movement came to prominence in the summer of 2009, adherents proclaimed they were guided by conservative principles forgotten in the big-spending years of George W. Bush. Republicans who didn’t adhere to their strict ideological interpretation of the Constitution were labeled RINOs (Republicans in name only). The tea partiers’ stubborn demands and obstructionism so exasperated President Obama in 2011 that he snapped, “Can they say yes to anything?”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In 2016 after a divisive GOP primary, the tea party vote has unified behind nominee Donald Trump, even though he in many ways defies the ideological purity that once defined the movement. But Trump and his big-government populism isn’t just winning their votes; he’s also winning their donations, a sign that the money behind the movement will remain a force in American politics long after Election Day.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new analysis provided exclusively to VICE News confirms that<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> since Trump began soliciting donations in May, tea party donors have been propelling his campaign. According to Crowdpac, a nonpartisan political crowdfunding startup, more than 6,400 of Trump’s financial backers previously gave to one of the six main tea party PACs since 2009, more than any other candidate in the race including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a favorite of the movement.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since Trump was initially self-funding his campaign, he did not start raising money until nearly a year after declaring his candidacy. Despite the late start, Trump has raised more money overall from more tea party donors than any other candidate. Over 20 percent of donors to the tea party PACs have given to Trump, pouring $8.3 million into his campaign through the end of September, besting his 2016 rivals.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Tea Party has now officially become the Trump Party</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s financial backers are also the most partisan major-party donors in recent history. Crowdpac quantifies where the candidate falls along the ideological spectrum by sorting through the donors’ past political-giving practices. If a candidate mostly receives donations from people who give money to both parties, the candidate’s score will reflect a moderate ideology (about a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Most presidential candidates expand their donor base after clinching the nomination, but Trump’s donor base has instead gone further to the right.</b> On a 1-10 scale with 1 being most liberal and 10 being most conservative, Trump currently is at 8.3. By contrast, Ronald Reagan measured 7.3.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Based on the flow of campaign dollars, what mattered to the conservative movement in 2009 may no longer apply. The Tea Party has now officially become the Trump Party.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s ability to galvanize these grassroots donors extends beyond his own candidacy. Surveying all of the country’s congressional races, the candidate with donors most like Trump’s was Paul Nehlen, last summer’s conservative challenger to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The money devoted to oust Ryan reflects how much Trump has changed the tea party. In 2010, Ryan was a rising star in the conservative movement, proposing an ambitious and controversial overhaul of the government program Medicare and repeatedly criticizing the Obama administration for the ballooning debt.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now the tea party is supporting a candidate who says Medicare and Social Security should not be reformed or overhauled. Trump doesn’t specify how he would pay for his expensive policy proposals. When Trump and Ryan clashed this election year over everything from policy proposals to a video featuring Trump bragging about groping women, the grassroots often sided with Trump. At an event in his home state of Wisconsin, Ryan was booed for disinviting Trump after the video leaked to the press. And a crowd at a recent Trump rally in Green Bay chanted “Paul Ryan sucks.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given Trump’s takeover of the tea party, how will the GOP move forward after Election Day if he loses? A much-buzzed-about article in the conservative magazine Commentary in October laid out one path. “Republicans of all stripes must be made to acknowledge and accept that Trumpism is an experiment that failed,” Noah Rothman argued, adding, “Trumpism exists at odds with conservatism.” It would seem that many conservatives disagree.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div class="teads-inread" style="box-sizing: content-box; overflow: hidden; height: 0px; transition: height 0.5s; font-family: proxima-nova, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px !important; position: relative;"><div class="teads-ui-components-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px !important; text-align: center !important; text-transform: uppercase !important; height: 21px !important; line-height: 21px !important; letter-spacing: 0.3px !important;"><div class="teads-player" id="teads0" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px !important;"><div class="teads-ui-components-credits" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px !important; text-align: right !important; padding: 1px 4px 1px 0px !important; height: 26px !important; line-height: 26px !important; letter-spacing: 0.3px !important;"><a href="http://inread-experience.teads.tv/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease; text-decoration: none !important; border: none !important; letter-spacing: 0.3px !important; background: none !important; padding: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="teads-ui-components-credits-colored" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important; box-shadow: none !important; letter-spacing: 0.3px !important;" /></font></a></div></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the polls said Trump couldn't win, our canvassers said otherwise. Pollsters were talking to 500 people in a sample, but TPPCF was talking to, and hearing from, hundreds of thousands of voters in person.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The point is this: the tea party movement is emblematic of the vast millions of Americans who believe our country is exceptional, truly the shining city on the hill. We believe that only by protecting our nation's borders can we ensure American sovereignty. Our movement was a spontaneous outpouring of support for the principles that built this country over more than two centuries, and Tea Party Patriots is proud to have played a small role in the 2016 election and a large role in holding together the tea party movement against all the odds stacked against us these past eight years.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our organizations, our local tea party groups and the entire movement stand ready to serve as the ground troops in support of the implementation of the pledges President Elect Trump made during his campaign. His platform largely mirrors our movement's founding principles and causes: repeal of Obamacare, protect our borders, stop illegal immigration, restore fiscal sanity and get the government off our backs and out of our lives.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 344.859px 1em 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" em="em" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Far from being dead, the tea party movement has much to celebrate and much to do. Our values prevailed in the 2016 general election. We have much to do to see those values become reality in America again. And we couldn't be happier.</font>
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