Biglie6 Bak

this is five bak 2 26 also capt

20 tags 1 24 note asym # pro vs anti getting revived in jan 6 rebrand?

8 22 post jan 6 hearings, many primaries

merri ok

SEE LIE GASLT // LOUDERMILK ~ JAN 6 COMM bENHAZI BS 9 25

see racism : big lie trump coup fake electors always POC cities/ ga election workers GRT replacement soros BS xeno border BS illegal voter

see violence 5 political

SEE HUGO CHAVEZ GHOST REBOOT 1 26 VENEZ FULTON CTY SIEZE BALLOTS TULSI GabbaRD

see true the vote rnc target poll workers = civil society

see voter fraud 2 ballot harvest

adding dems plots to cheAT 2024, demonization projection

see election official infiltration voter roll purge eagleAI ziklag xian natl

see poll watcher

see election integrity BS cleta CPI

see fox SMARTMATIC

see disbar defam losses

see voter suppress az

see defam dominion/smartmatic lady ruby rudy still deny after 148M$ judgment 12/23}:

:{see voting machines

see norms/ inst

bolsonaro brazil 1 23

see degrade attack faith trust /norm inst disinfo

bak 12 23

:{===

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AN PP 5 26

When President Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election, the institutional guardrails of American democracy held — but just barely.

If faced with the same tests today, those guardrails and the people who held the line would largely be missing, a ProPublica examination found.

At least 75 career officials who once held roles at federal agencies related to election integrity and safety are gone. Two dozen appointees — including many who either actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote or are associates of such people — have been hired to replace them. And once-fringe actors now have access to vast powers.

As the midterms approach, current and former government officials and election security experts expressed concerns that Trump appointees who’ve espoused debunked conspiracy theories about balloting are now in positions to control the narrative around the vote’s soundness.

It’s hard to debunk false claims “coming with the seal of the federal government,” said Derek Tisler, counsel and manager with the Brennan Center for Justice’s elections and government program. “I certainly worry what damage that could do to voters’ confidence.”

Here are some of the key things you should know about the Trump administration’s efforts to, as the president said, “take over” the midterms. Read the full investigation here.

1. In 2020, institutional guardrails helped to prevent Trump from overturning the election.

Following his defeat in the 2020 election, Trump pushed for federal officials to uncover proof that he had, in fact, beaten Joe Biden at the polls. Election cybersecurity experts with the Department of Homeland Security relayed to Attorney General William Barr that the election fraud claims that they looked into were false. Barr then told the president what he didn’t want to hear: The election had not been hacked.

Barr was one of many federal officials — most of them Trump appointees — who refused to bend to the president’s demands, which only intensified in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, 2021. Despite the violent uprising at the Capitol on that day, the election results held firm.

2. Less than 18 months into his second term, Trump has dismantled many of those same guardrails.

Since the start of his second term, Trump and his appointees have made significant changes at federal agencies tasked with helping to safeguard elections. In all, at least 75 career officials who’d played important roles in elections work at DHS, the Department of Justice and other agencies have left, been fired or been reassigned, ProPublica found.

In their place are roughly two dozen people Trump has installed in positions that could affect elections. Ten of them actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote, and the rest are associates of those people. In some cases, ProPublica found, officials have been hired from activist groups that are pillars of the election-denial movement.

3. Among the first agencies Trump gutted after returning to office was one that had repeatedly disproved his stolen-election claims.

Officials at DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency had provided research to the first Trump White House that disproved many theories claiming that the 2020 election had been hacked. CISA also played a crucial part in publicly countering these claims by producing a “Rumor Control” website to rebut them.

Then, only weeks into Trump’s second term, DHS leadership put employees focused on countering disinformation and helping safeguard elections on leave. They also froze CISA’s other election security work, which included assessing local election offices for physical and cybersecurity risks. Eventually, all CISA employees specializing in elections were fired or transferred.

A DHS spokesperson told ProPublica that the changes at CISA were in response to “a ballooning budget concealing a dangerous departure from its statutory mission,” which included “electioneering instead of defending America’s critical infrastructure.”

4. Trump and his appointees have gutted election-related teams at federal law enforcement agencies.

FBI Director Kash Patel dismantled the agency’s public corruption team, which had previously been deployed to help monitor possible criminal activity on Election Day. The Foreign Influence Task Force, which aimed to combat foreign influence in U.S. politics, was also disbanded.

(An FBI spokesperson said the bureau “remains committed to detecting and countering foreign influence efforts by adversarial nations.”)

The voting section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division had enforced federal laws that protect voting rights, particularly those that combat racial discrimination. But now, nearly all of the section’s roughly 30 career lawyers have resigned or been moved. Trump then filled the section with conservative lawyers, including at least four who participated in challenging the 2020 vote or have worked with people who helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump has replaced ousted career specialists with “Team America.”

In the summer of 2025, after the Trump administration had forced out most of the career specialists, a small group of political appointees — which once called itself “Team America,” according to sources familiar with the matter — began convening at DHS headquarters, looking for federal levers it could pull to realize a March 2025 executive order, in which Trump tried to exert greater federal control over aspects of voting.

Among the core members of the group was David Harvilicz, a DHS assistant secretary tasked with overseeing the security of election infrastructure, including voting machines, and three of his top staffers. As ProPublica has reported, Harvilicz co-founded an AI company with an architect of Trump’s claims about election hacking in Michigan.

Heather Honey, who serves under Harvilicz in a newly created position focused on elections, is a source of the false claim that more ballots were cast in Pennsylvania than there were voters in the 2020 presidential election — a claim Trump cited on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021.

At least 11 administration appointees, including Honey, have ties to the Election Integrity Network, a conservative grassroots organization led by Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. Since moving into government, Honey has maintained close ties to Mitchell’s organization, and she and at least two other federal officials have given its members private briefings.

6. Team America members are using a powerful Homeland Security Investigations tool to try to identify noncitizen voters.

The DOJ has been demanding that states turn over confidential voter roll information, and it has sued around 30 states for this data.

Meanwhile, DHS has urged states to upload their voter rolls to its tool, called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system.

The goal in both efforts has been to find noncitizens on the voter rolls. But the SAVE tool has come up short, often identifying citizens as noncitizens, as ProPublica has reported, and officials have faced other roadblocks with its use.

More recently, according to two people familiar with the matter, Team America has worked to harness a more powerful tool used by another branch of DHS, Homeland Security Investigations, to increase its ability to search for noncitizen voters and bring criminal charges against them.

In response to questions sent to DHS, Harvilicz and Honey, a DHS spokesperson disputed that they were seeking to use the department’s powers to advantage Trump. In response to questions about their ties to the election denial movement, the spokesperson wrote, “To meet the diverse and evolving challenges the Department faces, we hire experts with diverse backgrounds who go through a rigorous vetting process.”

7. Trump’s head of election security is behind the FBI’s seizure of 2020 election ballots in Georgia.

Attorney Kurt Olsen once worked to try to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in court and was later sanctioned by judges for making baseless allegations about Arizona elections. He is now Trump’s director of election security and integrity and is the driving force behind the January raid of the election center in Fulton County, Georgia.

Toward the end of 2025, Olsen flew to Georgia to meet with Paul Brown, the head of the FBI’s Atlanta field office, according to people familiar with the matter. Olsen wanted the FBI to seize ballots from the Democratic stronghold, and he gave Brown a report he claimed would justify the extraordinary action. Brown’s team submitted an affidavit to superiors at the DOJ that did not make a strong enough case to move forward with what Olsen wanted. Afterward, Brown was given a choice: retire or be moved to a new office. Brown retired. The raid went forward under his replacement, based on an affidavit that cited information from the report Olsen provided to Brown.

Olsen did not respond to requests for comment.

An FBI spokesperson said that Brown “elected to retire” and that its “work in the election security space is entirely consistent with the law.”

8. The DOJ’s Public Integrity Section could have tried to block the administration’s Georgia voting investigation.

In the months following Trump’s return to office, the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, which had been responsible for making sure the department’s inquiries weren’t improperly influenced by politics, was eviscerated. Resignations, firings and transfers reduced the 36-person section to two.

Multiple former lawyers for the section said they likely would have tried to block the Fulton County investigation because it lacked strong evidence, had a clear political slant and went against department directives that actions should not be taken “for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”

John Keller was principal deputy chief of the section from 2020 to 2025 and was acting chief when he resigned in early 2025. He worries that allegations of irregularities in the upcoming election will be handled on a partisan basis.

“Without that review and without apolitical, objective, honest brokers involved in the process, there is a much greater risk for intentional manipulation or inadvertent interference,” Keller said.

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an 2 26

President Trump and his Republican Party are in danger of losing one or both houses of Congress during the upcoming midterm elections, according to NPR — and there is more than one reason why this is the case.

NPR points to five specific variables that suggest Trump and the Republicans will suffer significant losses in November. Trump’s approval rating is currently at 39% and has remained below 40% since November, even though parties whose presidents have less than 50% approval ratings lose an average of 32 House seats during midterm elections. On average, the president’s party has lost 27 House seats and four Senate seats since World War II. Because of Trump’s unpopular economic, immigration and foreign policies, he is polling poorly among key groups that he won during the 2024 election, including independents, young voters and Latinos.

Honing in on the economy, NPR pointed out as its second observation that 54% of Americans feel Trump should prioritize lowering prices and only 36% approve of his handling of the economy. Almost three out of four voters (72%) say his economy has been either fair or poor, while roughly three out of eight (38%) say they believe conditions will worsen. More than half (52%) say Trump’s policies have made things worse.

NPR’s third point is that Democrats have recently overperformed in special elections, including a recent Texas State Senate race held in a district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024 but was won by the Democratic candidate by 14 points, indicating a 31-point swing. Overall Democrats have overperformed their 2024 margins by an average of nearly 16 points in the various congressional, gubernatorial and special elections that have occurred during Trump’s second term.

Making matters more ominous for Republicans, NPR’s observes as its fourth point that 30 Republican House members are retiring this cycle compared to only 21, both reflecting on Republicans’ feelings of vulnerability and because — with only a four-vote margin in the current House — the nine-vote deficit eliminates House Republicans’ potential incumbency advantage.

Finally, Democrats currently hold a roughly 5-point advantage over Republicans when voters are asked which party they want to control Congress, a significant shift from when Republicans led on this question last year.

Further fleshing out Republicans’ midterms dilemma, Press Pass author and Bulwark congressional correspondent Joe Perdicone explained that Trump’s dominance over the Republican-controlled Congress has actually hindered individual members’ ability to serve their constituents’ local needs.

“Mike Johnson does everything that Trump says and he doesn't allow anything that Trump won't allow. And, so, the House doesn't get to do anything,” Perticone said. “You don't get to prioritize your little pet projects. A lot of these members of Congress, they like to do things that are very specific to their interests. But when you have this paralyzed floor, you have a very thin majority. So they're not having fun right now and they know it's only going to get worse when they're in the minority. So, you know, go find a job elsewhere. Go get rich lobbying.”

Many of Trump’s critics worry that, in anticipation of losing the midterm elections and facing potential impeachment, he will try to rig them in his favor. Trump has lent credibility to these concerns by baselessly claiming the 2026 midterm elections will be rife with fraud and that he therefore may need to send ICE to monitor them. The White House even recently announced a position of FBI Election Executive, a seemingly-new position they claim is not an original creation.

To explain Trump’s actions, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that there is “horrible corruption on elections — and the federal government should not allow that. The federal government should get involved.”

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AN 2 26

One week after President Donald Trump sent FBI agents to seize Fulton County’s 2020 ballots as part of a criminal probe, a Georgia judge has apparently had it up to here with Trump-style election deniers.

“The 2020 election is over,” said Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, dismissing Trump-supporters’ lawsuit and effort to review ballots and materials they allege would prove Trump should have won Georgia.

On top of tossing the suit, the judge ordered the four plaintiffs — consisting of a treasure hunter and members of a Georgia affiliate of the Tea Party Patriots — to pay nearly $40,000 to Fulton County and the county Superior Court clerk’s office for filing the frivolous suit.

McBurney ruled the lawsuit “presented zero factual or legal questions” concerning the county’s liability for certain claims and gave the plaintiffs until Monday to pay the attorney fees.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) reports McBurney's ruling is the “latest twist” in a long-running legal battle that centers on allegations of voting fraud in the 2020 election. Lead plaintiff Garland Favorito has become an influential figure among a group of Georgians who are convinced that fraud cost Trump the election, despite countless state and federal investigations finding no evidence of significant fraud in 2020. Then-President Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed by two recounts, including a hand count of every ballot.

One of Favorito’s consultants reviewing ballot images was Jovan Pulitzer, an inventor and scavenger who the AJC reports as having once “searched for the Ark of the Covenant.” Another face behind the fight was Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who joined Pulitzer in spreading election fraud conspiracies during a state Senate hearing at the Georgia Capitol.

“An attorney for Favorito, Todd Harding, has been involved in at least three other lawsuits alleging fraud in Georgia’s November and January U.S. Senate elections,” AJC reported in 2021.

“This is nothing more than a circus that’s being put on by those who promote the ’big lie’ that Trump won the election,” Fulton Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said in 2021. “Where does it end? The votes have been counted. The elections have been certified. It’s over.”

But even today, it apparently is not over because Trump has sent his politicized FBI to investigate and count ballots on their own under the cover of a federal warehouse.

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AN 2 26

Tulsi Gabbard is said to be conducting her own "solo" investigation into the 2020 election, according to a new report from The Guardian, one of multiple investigations currently underway as Donald Trump's obsession with his reelection loss nearly six years ago ramps back up.

On Friday, FBI agents conducted a raid at an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing records and ballots related to the 2020 election. This came not long after comments from Trump indicating that he was ramping up his focus on the false claims that the election, which he lost to Joe Biden, was stolen from him due to widespread fraud.

Gabbard, meanwhile, generated headlines, confusion and controversy when she was spotted at the site of the raid, for reasons that were not clear. As the Director of National Intelligence, her focus would typically be far from issues pertaining to the FBI, especially since she otherwise lacks any sort of law enforcement experience.

According to a Wednesday report from The Guardian, three officials with knowledge of the matter said that Gabbard is conducting her own parallel investigation of Trump's accusations of voter fraud in 2020. One of the sources said simply, "She’s doing her own thing." This, the report argued, suggests the increased scope and focus that Trump's 2020 obsession is now taking up.

Gabbard has reportedly been briefing Trump and other "senior White House advisers" about her investigation on a weekly basis. The president was reported to have specifically requested that she be present for the raid to observe it. Administration officials had previously claimed that Gabbard had just so happened to be in Atlanta when the operation took place.

"The parallel investigations into the 2020 election underscore the extent to which it has returned as a priority for the president," the outlet explained. "And Gabbard being sent to the raid showed the interest on voting machine manipulation claims that Trump has cited as evidence the election was stolen. The review led by the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), authorized on the basis that it is assessing election integrity, has been focused for months on potential vulnerabilities in voting machines and the possibility of foreign interference."

Trump's renewed focus on his 2020 loss gained significant attention during his address to the World Economic Forumin Davos two weeks ago, where he falsely claimed that his accusations had been proven and threatened that prosecutions would begin shortly.

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February 3, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

STEVE BANNON (HOST): Democrats are saying this is the greatest voter suppression movement in history. Here's the reason, Minnesota shows you this, New York City shows you this, if they don't have illegal aliens voting, if they don't have these phony migrants that are here on these phony programs that are at the polls — and you're damn right we're gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.

We're not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen. And that's why I'm so proud of what President Trump is doing and people are doing. Caroline Wren, your thoughts on that before I go to Brad?

CAROLINE WREN (GUEST): I think what you said about ICE is very much related to this, because in fact, Senator Mark [Warner] said in an interview, he said, we don't want ICE agents showing up at the polling stations. That's what this is all about. That's why they're trying to defund ICE, that's why they're trying to, you know, go after and target ICE and shut it down.

Why would you care if ICE shows up to polling stations because illegal aliens are not allowed to vote in this country. Except for the problem is they do, and they do in these, they're not blue states, I was gonna say blue states. Minnesota is a deeply red state that is held hostage by illegals voting and it is — the minorities have taken over there, and by minorities I mean the minority party, the Democratic Party there, and that is due to allowing illegals to vote. And so that is what this outrage by the left is against ICE.

They're desperately trying to shut down the DHS funding bill. They don't want ICE funded because they don't want ICE at the polling stations to stop illegals from voting.

BANNON: The ask here on the Save Act, and Make Elections Great Again Act are pretty basic. A legitimate ID to show who you are to vote. It is to clean up the voter rolls. We've had Tom Fitton on here, there are millions, there are tens of millions, particularly in places like Georgia, but all over the nation there are tens of millions of people on voter rolls that should not be, they have to be cleaned up, and the blue states are the ones that are fighting the Justice Department.

And then the last is, you've got to go back to the basic law. If you're gonna have mail-in ballots, you have to have signature verification, you have to have the double envelopes, you have to have everything so we can't have a 2020 and the Democrats don't want to play with that because they know how to steal elections.

Let's just, let's put you on notice again. ICE is going to be around the polls in the 2026 midterm elections because we are never again going to allow your business model because — I think Jesse Kelly is right, 20% of the country probably votes for Democrats, you know, the credentialed class and of course the abject poor that they keep on these social welfare programs and never let them off it. That's the Democratic Party base with a handful of oligarchs, the super wealthy, that's who controls the Democratic Party.

The way that they continue to win elections is they cheat. If they don't cheat, they can't win. And now they're sitting there saying President Trump is a fascist. These are very basic things, and they're not — we're going to find out today, Chip Roy is going to come on. As hard as Anna Paulina Luna and people have been working I'm not so sure the Save Act even comes to a vote.

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rww

01/29/2026

Kyle Mantyla

Doug Bock Clark and Jen Fifield @ ProPublica: FBI’s Search of Georgia Election Center Is “Dangerous,” Experts Warn

The search warrant, which sought 2020 election ballots, tabulator tapes, digital data and voter rolls from Fulton County, marked what experts described as a significant escalation in President Donald Trump’s breaking of democratic norms.

Richard L. Hasen @ Slate: Trump’s Continued Obsession With 2020 Is a Joke. His Raid on a Georgia Election Site Is Not.

It’s about the raid being a test run for messing with election administrators and the counting of ballots in the midterm elections in 2026, when control of both houses of Congress could be at stake. Now is the time for state and local governments, the courts, and the people to work against such potential election subversion.

Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Why did Tulsi Gabbard join an FBI raid tied to Trump’s election conspiracy theory?

The director of national intelligence was looking for ways to return to the president’s good graces. She apparently found one in an unexpected place.

Kiera Butler @ Mother Jones: Right-Wing Influencers Want Women to Love ICE

“We need more stories and images showing the professionalism and compassion of ICE.”

Will Sommer @ The Bulwark: Did Ilhan Omar Stage Her Attack? Of Course Not. But Trump Thinks So.

A real false flag story for your favorite False Flag newsletter.

Ed Mazza @ HuffPost: Trump Makes Wild Accusation Against Obama In Unhinged Evening Posting Spree

The president pushed conspiracy theories in a series of Truth Social posts.

Noah Dowe, Isabella Sherk, and Alex Kaplan @ Media Matters: The right-wing media figures who have justified Alex Pretti's killing by Trump’s DHS

MAGA media and far-right figures smeared Pretti, calling him a “race traitor” who aimed to “commit a mass murder.”

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OMFG

AN 1 26

When Donald Trump won the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, two of the four criminal prosecutions he was facing at the time stemmed from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results: a federal indictment prosecuted by then-special counsel Jack Smith, and a Georgia indictment prosecuted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Both of those election interference cases were doomed when Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in 2024's general election, and the president continues to claim, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

One of Trump's most aggressive supporters after he lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 was attorney Sidney Powell, who promoted a range of conspiracy theories on the election results in Georgia. And now, Powell is resurfacing after an FBI search in that state.

On Wednesday, January 28, FBI agents searched a Georgia election center, looking for records on the 2020 election. And the following day on X, formerly Twitter, Ed Martin (a Trump appointee to the U.S. Department of Justice) posted a photo of him with Powell — writing, "Good morning, America. How are ya?"

The Bulwark's Will Sommer, in response to Martin's tweet, posted, "After FBI raid on GA election office for 2020 ballots, top DOJ official posts a picture with leading election conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell."

Attorney David Colapinto, responding to the Martin/Powell photo, tweeted, "Are these two in charge of recounting the ballots?"

Powell was among Trump's many co-defendants in Willis' election interference case. In October 2023, she pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor charges and avoided jail time but was sentenced to six months of probation.

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===

TRUMP SAYS TO GOP MOC ALL ELECTIONS ARE STOLEN?! NO PUSHBACK 1/11/16?

AN 1 26

President Donald Trump is rapidly losing faith in one of his most senior-level Cabinet members, and his complaints about her have lately become more frequent.

That's according to a Monday article in the *Wall Street Journal, which reported that Trump views Attorney General Pam Bondi as "weak and an ineffective enforcer of his agenda." The *Journal cited unnamed administration officials and others close to the president in reporting that Trump is angling for Bondi to be more aggressive in using the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue his political enemies.

The Journal further reported that Trump is now considering naming various special counsels to handle investigations into his opponents, as he is unhappy with the pace of Bondi's DOJ in filing criminal charges against his chief rivals. The president is reportedly upset with how the DOJ has handled the investigations of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The cases against Comey and James were ultimately dismissed after Lindsey Halligan — who Trump appointed to the replace U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert after he was pressured to resign for saying there was insufficient evidence to bring cases — was found to have been improperly appointed.

Trump is also reportedly upset with Bondi over her handling of documents pertaining to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. According to the Journal, the president publicly agreed with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles when she told Vanity Fair that Bondi "completely whiffed" on the Epstein files and caused months of political consternation for Trump. The president is also reportedly upset that Bondi hasn't done more to investigate the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The complaints with Bondi also reportedly run deep within Trump's MAGA base. Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon claimed that Bondi was "bleeding support" from Trump's "most loyal troops" due to a perceived lack of urgency.

"Folks are desperate for action and just haven’t seen it," Bannon said.

The Journal's report comes on the heels of a recently announced DOJ investigation into Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell renovation of its Washington D.C. offices. Powell has maintained that the investigation is due to him refusing to accede to Trump's demand that the Fed lower interest rates. Despite the report, the White House is praising Bondi on the record, with Trump telling the outlet: "Pam is doing an excellent job. She has been my friend for many years. Tremendous progress is being made against radical left lunatics who are good at only one thing, cheating in elections and the crimes they commit."

Click here to read the Journal's full report (subscription required).

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MAGA media link Trump's overthrow of Maduro to 2020 election conspiracy theories | Media Matters for America

MAGA influencers are suggesting that the United States overthrew Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in retaliation for Venezuela, via election technology companies, purportedly rigging the 2020 U.S. election against President Donald Trump — a false conspiracy theory that the president appeared to endorse following Saturday’s military strikes.

Benny Johnson, a MAGA slop artist with close ties to the Trump administration, claimed on Sunday that “Nicolás Maduro might be Trump's final revenge for the election theft of 2020.”

“Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems were the voting systems being used at this time [in 2020] and in these states and all around the world,” he said. “They are Venezuelan by design and by systems, storage facilities and through their actual technology. These systems, I have on extremely good authority, can and do rig elections around the world.”

Johnson claimed to have a source who says that Maduro “told him directly that he has direct hard evidence of the election of 2020 being rigged, that he knows exactly how it was done, that they had a hand in it, but it wasn't really Venezuela running the op. It was probably more likely China. And that he is in possession of all of that evidence.”

Smartmatic and Dominion have sued several right-wing outlets and activists that promoted conspiracy theories tying the companies to the purported 2020 election theft. Fox News, which currently faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic, ultimately settled a similar suit from Dominion for a record $787.5 million in 2023; filings in the case show that Fox executives and stars privately acknowledged that the election had not been tainted by large-scale fraud, even as the network broadcast false claims tying Dominion to Venezuela and suggesting it had rigged the 2020 vote.

But both companies may be less willing or able to defend themselves as these conspiracy theories reignite. Dominion settled several other suits against Trump allies during its October 2025 purchase by (and at the reported behest of) Liberty Vote, an election technology company helmed by a former Republican official with ties to Trump Justice Department official Ed Martin. The same month, the DOJ indicted Smartmatic for allegedly bribing a Philippines official.

Trump has repeatedly referenced the purported role Venezuela played in his yearslong derangement over the 2020 election he falsely claims was stolen from him — most recently in the early hours of Monday morning.

Amid a stream of posts and reposts on his Truth Social platform suggesting that the 2020 election had been rigged in Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, the president highlighted QAnon influencer Chad Vivas’ claim that “the CIA outsources election rigging technology like Smartmatic and Dominion from Venezuela.” Vivas, known online as “KagDrogo,” suggested it was not “coincidence” that Trump had been promoting claims “about Dominion voting machine fraud” right after Maduro’s capture.

Several right-wing accounts with large followings highlighted Trump’s posts as “confirming” a connection between the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the purportedly rigged 2020 U.S. election.

While Fox hosts largely stayed away from conspiracy theories about election technology companies following the lawsuits, hardcore election deniers like former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell remained fixated on Dominion. In the fall of 2025 — as the Trump administration escalated its pressure on Maduro, surged U.S. Navy ships into the Caribbean Sea, and destroyed boats it alleged were carrying drugs while murdering those onboard — the purported Venezuela connection took on new life.

“There’s never been as necessary a war since the Civil War, that we go down and take care of Venezuela,” Byrne told host Emerald Robinson in an October 7, 2025, appearance on her show on Lindell’s LindellTV network. “It’s more important than World War I or World War II to the viability of the United States. The U.S. was overthrown, and Venezuela’s technology was part of it.”

Allegations of a Venezuelan role in the purported theft of the 2020 U.S. election reportedly jumped from the fever swamp to the hyper-partisan Trump Justice Department. On November 21, 2025, The Guardian reported U.S. attorney for Puerto Rico Stephen Muldrow, “a staunch Republican and Trump supporter,” had been briefed on “the old voting conspiracy and the allegations that Venezuela helped rig elections worldwide” by former CIA officer Gary Berntsen (who claims to have first convinced Trumpist lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani that the 2020 election was stolen) and Venezuelan expatriate Martin Rodil.

Berntsen and author Ralph Pezzullo rehashed the allegations in an interview with far-right podcaster Lara Logan which that same day. And on November 23, 2025, Trump himself reposted Logan’s post about that interview, commenting, “We must focus all of our energy and might on ELECTION FRAUD!!”

With Trump himself apparently convinced by the conspiracy theory, it seems plausible that the federal government will start putting the screws to Maduro, who appeared in a New York courtroom on Monday alongside his wife to plead not guilty to charges of drug trafficking, to get him to confirm it.

Benny Johnson is already telling his viewers that Maduro will “sing like a canary” about his purported accomplices and “how they stole the election.”

“Who will he give up?” Johnson asked Sunday. “Soros? China? Left-wing NGOs? Left-wing billionaires?”

“He'll sing,” Johnson added ominously. “He'll tell them everything. They got his wife. This is why they took him alive. I learned all this from my conversation, and it really checks out, quite frankly. It really checks out.”

MMA

### MAGA influencer Benny Johnson’s job is to have no principles. Business is booming.

11/25/25 9:58 AM EST

### It wasn’t just Sidney Powell. Fox repeated the same Dominion lies.

01/21/21 1:40 PM EST

### FLASHBACK: When Pete Hegseth endorsed the military executing captured alleged combatants

12/01/25

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AN 11 25

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice has dispatched federal investigators to question "multiple people" who have been spreading conspiracy theories that Venezuela stole the 2020 election, the Guardian reports.

According to the report, the "discredited election-rigging conspiracy theory could strengthen Trump’s military action against [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro."

"Two promoters of the conspiracy theory have repeatedly briefed the U.S. attorney for the district of Puerto Rico, W. Stephen Muldrow, and have shared witnesses and documents with officials," the report said, citing four sources.

Muldrow refused to comment.

Other conspiracy theorists in Tampa, Florida, have also been interviewed, the report said.

The Guardian said, "an investigation of this sort underscores how Trump’s justice department is becoming a major weapon in the president’s efforts to rewrite the history of his 2020 loss – while potentially strengthening the administration’s case for military action against Venezuela."

Among the lies spread about the 2020 elections was that deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez somehow founded the electronic voting machine and software companies to change the election seven years after his death. Other conspiracy theories claimed that the impoverished regime of Venezuela was outright controlling electronic voting machines.

Read the full report here.

---

MMA

180?

Joe Rogan on Trump's 2020 election claims: “I feel like if you say that, you've got to have some, like, really good evidence”

11/12/25

---

MMA

Right-wing figures and Trump allies are calling for Trump to declare a “national emergency” to prevent supposed election fraud

Jerome Corsi has claimed he’s been involved in drafting an executive order “to be implemented for the 2026 elections”

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published 10/28/25

The New York Times recently reported that a Department of Homeland Security official focused on “election integrity,” appointed by President Donald Trump, has proposed that Trump declare a “national emergency” to “justify dictating new rules to state and local governments” related to voting and elections.

The call for a “national emergency” declaration, which Department of Homeland Security official Heather Honey made a few months ahead of her appointment, has also recently been reiterated by right-wing figures and Trump allies known for pushing false claims of widespread election fraud. In interviews and on social media, some of these figures have suggested that Trump use “plenary authority” or claimed to be “encouraging” Trump to declare a national emergency “to make sure that the elections in 2026 are secure.” One of those figures has even claimed to be involved in efforts to craft a related executive order that would affect voting processes.

## Trump has issued and threatened executive orders to enact national election policies

- In March, Trump issued an executive order of dubious legality to mandate prospective voters provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The executive order “calls for the Election Assistance Commission to require people to show government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, and directs state or local officials to record and verify the information,” along with “requir[ing] states to count ballots by Election Day.” Legal experts have cast doubt on the executive order’s legality, and a federal judge in June blocked most of the key provisions of the order, writing in a decision that “the Constitution does not grant the president any specific powers over elections.” In August, Trump called for voter ID for “every single vote,” claiming, “I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!” The New York Times, [3/25/25, 3/26/25, 6/13/25, 8/31/25]

## Trump official previously suggested Trump can declare a “national emergency” to implement the administration’s preferred election policies nationally

- In March, Heather Honey, now DHS’ deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, reportedly “suggested that the new administration could declare a ‘national emergency’ and justify dictating new rules to state and local governments” related to voting and elections. The New York Times reported that during a “call with right-wing activists in March,” Honey suggested a national emergency “could be based on an ‘actual investigation’ of the 2020 election if it showed there had been a ‘manipulation’ of the vote.” “Therefore,” she argued, “we have some additional powers that don’t exist right now” and “can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.” The New York Times, [10/22/25]

- Honey is one of “multiple proponents” of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims who The New York Times reports Trump elevated “into high-level administration jobs.” Prior to Honey's appointment to DHS in August, she was “a leader” in the “right-wing election activist movement that emerged” after Trump “falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud.” According to the Times, Honey “echo[ed] rhetoric that has infused” that movement during a call in September with state election officials. The New York Times, [10/22/25]

## Right-wing figures and Trump allies have called for Trump to issue a national emergency declaration to enforce his preferred election policies

- At an event for right-wing website The Gateway Pundit, former Trump attorney Peter Ticktin said he “wouldn’t be very surprised” if there’s “an emergency called” before the next election, claiming that “it's necessary.” Ticktin, an attorney with a history of spreading election fraud claims, said at a conference organized by The Gateway Pundit, “I wouldn’t be very surprised if we find out before the next election that there’s kind of, be an emergency called,” with which “we’re going to be able to turn the tide.” Ticktin also said, “I don’t have it on good authority that this is going to be done, but a number of people are urging it because it’s necessary.” Media Matters, [7/9/19, 6/16/22, 7/15/22; The Gateway Pundit’s Vindicated conference, 8/23/25]

- :{Podcaster Joe Oltmann, who refused to provide evidence in court of his claims that the 2020 election was rigged, said that Trump’s election-related executive orders “are permissible in states of national and foreign emergencies.” Responding to a social media post suggesting Trump’s proposed voter ID executive order violated the Constitution, Oltmann wrote, “Supremacy clause, and state of emergency. EO are permissible in states of national and foreign emergencies.” Colorado Public Radio, [7/31/25; USA Today, 9/5/24; Twitter/X, 8/31/25]

- Conrad Reynolds, who is part of an initiative to get rid of voting machines, said, “We are encouraging the president to declare a national emergency right now on this issue.” According to Little Rock Public Radio, Reynolds “thinks Arkansas voting machines could be flipping votes” and runs an organization focused on “getting rid of voting machines” in favor of paper ballots. He was charged with electioneering over the issue. While appearing on a podcast, Reynolds said: “We have a national emergency. That's what this is. And we are encouraging the president to declare a national emergency right now on this issue.” He added that “if we don’t get this right, I'm telling you the midterms are not going to be good, and we need to fix it right now.” Little Rock Public Radio, [11/4/24, 10/10/25; The State of Freedom, 9/16/25]

- During a call on “election integrity” on a Florida GOP official’s podcast, VoterGA’s Garland Favorito said that Trump “can execute his National Emergency Act powers” to supposedly protect elections. CNN reported that Favorito has “a long history of promoting debunked conspiracy theories” and a “penchant for pushing election misinformation.” During the podcast, Favorito said that Trump could “execute his National Emergency Act powers” in order to ensure that election systems “comply” with federal law, adding, “I believe that he’ll do that.” CNN, [10/9/24; ProPublica, 10/16/24; Stern American, 9/18/25]

- Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn during a podcast appearance: “The only way that we’re going to have a fair federal election is if” Trump “declares ... some sort of a national emergency.” Flynn, who urged Trump after the 2020 election to seize voter machines and who Trump has since appointed to the board of visitors for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, said on a podcast that “there’s all kinds of fraudulent activity and behavior” in elections, meaning that “the only way that we’re going to have a fair federal election is if the president of the United States declares ... some sort of a national emergency and says for federal elections,” there will be “picture ID”, “no mail-in ballots,” and “on election day, we do ... basically a paper count.” The New York Times, [1/31/22; Reuters, 3/17/25; Conversations in Energy with Stuart Turley, 10/14/25]

- David Clements, who has spread claims about election fraud, said that Trump should use “plenary authority” to stop “a digital invasion and a digital rebellion taking place.” Lawfare reported in 2024 that Clements had “criss-crossed the country to evangelize about purported election fraud,” and The Washington Post reported in 2022 that he was “traveling the country trying to persuade local leaders to withhold certification of election results.” During an interview on a right-wing YouTube channel, Clements and his wife Erin discussed supposed ways to fix “rigged elections,” with Clements arguing that it’s necessary to “start looking at Title 50, Article 2 power, a national security framework for Trump to really be in a position where he’s not asking. He’s ordering. He’s telling you,” and that “even people like Peter Ticktin … have come to the same conclusion.” Clements added that Trump has to “be able to declare things from a framework of plenary authority, meaning he’s not ... relying on the legislature that’s been captured to come in and codify what he’s saying,” and that he believed Trump was “prepared to do that.” Lawfare, [10/31/24; The Washington Post, 9/8/22; Media Matters, 6/14/23; YouTube, 10/20/25]

- Jerome Corsi, who previously worked for conspiracy theory network Infowars, said that a “national security emergency will allow Donald Trump to make sure that the elections in 2026 are secure even if we have to go to extreme measures and get the military involved.” Corsi also has a long history of producing false research, helped popularize the QAnon conspiracy theory, and was instrumental in pushing the lie that former President Barack Obama has a fake birth certificate. NPR, [3/2/23; Media Matters, 1/8/18, 11/13/18; Stern American, 9/18/25]

## Corsi has claimed to be working with Ticktin in the drafting of another Trump executive order based on a “national security emergency” ahead of 2026 elections

- Jerome Corsi has repeatedly claimed that he and Peter Ticktin have been involved in the drafting of a Trump executive order “to be implemented for the 2026 elections.” During appearances on the podcasts Stern American and Nino’s Corner, Corsi claimed that he and Ticktin had been involved with a “17-page draft of an executive order” that would “declare a national security emergency” and includes “steps the states will be required to take in order to make sure the elections are secure.” Corsi has also claimed that Trump “can use his Article 2 powers as commander in chief and have the military run the elections if he had to.” In October, Corsi claimed to have been “briefed” that the order was “expected to come down the next couple of months and to be implemented for the 2026 elections.” *Stern American*, [7/14/25, 9/18/25, 10/8/25; Rumble, 9/2/25, 10/22/25, 10/22/25]

- Corsi said the executive order would be “based on our research” and would target voter rolls, mandate voter ID, and require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Corsi said the order would “stop using all existing voter rolls, stop using all existing computers that handle those voting rolls, that we go to voter ID and proof of citizenship for new registrations, and that that proof of citizenship demand the ability to make sure someone is a citizen before they be allowed to vote.” *Stern American*, [7/14/25, 7/30/25]

- Ticktin has also acknowledged Corsi’s involvement in targeting voter rolls.Ticktin, in a call on “election integrity” on the Stern American podcast, said of proving that the “voter rolls have been corrupted”: “We’ve got certain people. There’s Jerome Corsi, who’s been very involved in this. We’ve got Andrew Paquette, who really was the one that was on the forefront of all of this.” *Stern American*, [9/18/25]

### Trump attorney asks viewers of QAnon-supporting show to send him “evidence in regard to January 6,” “the fake election,” and “the election fraud”

07/15/22 12:39 PM EDT

### At Gateway Pundit conference, former Trump attorney Peter Ticktin says that he “wouldn’t be very surprised” if there’s “an emergency called” before the next election

08/25/25 7:06 PM EDT

### On Rumble, a QAnon-affiliated show dedicated to election misinformation hosts election deniers from across the country

06/14/2

---}:

SEE LIE GASLT // LOUDERMILK ~ JAN 6 COMM bENHAZI BS 9 25

Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides. After returning to power, Trump issued more than 1,500 pardons or acts of clemency, affecting convictions for offenses as serious as seditious conspiracy.

*Nehls is one of five Republicans on the new J6 subcommittee. He’s already come to many conclusions, as laid out in his 2022 book, The Big Fraud: What Democrats Don’t Want You to Know about January 6, the 2020 Election, and a Whole Lot Else.

The Big Fraud: What Democrats Don’t Want You to Know about January 6, the 2020 Election, and a Whole Lot Else: Nehls, Troy E.: 9781637587218: Amazon.com: Books

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bombardier Books

Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 15, 2022

Best Sellers Rank: #935,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

#131 in Elections

#409 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism

January 6: How Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Launch a War on Terror Against the Political Right Paperback – December 28, 2021

by Julie Kelly (Author), Lee Smith (Foreword)

Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections Paperback – June 28, 2022

by Mollie Hemingway (Author)

---

MMA

Eight damning new revelations about Fox’s 2020 election lies from the Smartmatic filings

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 08/21/25

Newly available filings in the election technology company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News provide fresh insights into the network’s egregious and irresponsible promotion of President Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies — four and a half years after Fox’s propaganda helped trigger a violent insurrection in which enraged Trumpists sacked the U.S. Capitol.

The documents, which support Smartmatic’s motion for summary judgment and were originally filed in April, were first reported by The Washington Post after a judicial hearing officer removed many of the redactions.

The documents feature numerous previously unseen text messages and internal communications between Fox hosts, executives, producers, and other employees as Trump attempted to use false claims about the 2020 election to subvert the results of the election he lost and remain in power.

Fox’s internal machinations during this period were previously made public through the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, another election technology company which accused the network of defamation over its post-election coverage. Fox ultimately settled that suit as it went to trial in 2023 for a record $787.5 million.

The contours of Smartmatic’s story are broadly similar to — if no less damning than — the one Dominion told: Fox hosts and executives knew that Trump lost the 2020 election and that the claims of widespread election fraud he and his supporters pushed were false, but they nonetheless pivoted in the days following the election to promote such conspiracy theories -– including falsehoods about the company — because they were taking heat from viewers overcalling Arizona for Joe Biden and feared losing market share to more aggressive competitors like Newsmax

But the Smartmatic filings provide new evidence that helps flesh out the tale of Fox’s cowardice and corruption.

Maria Bartiromo leveraged her status at Fox to try to overturn the election: “I am news”

Maria Bartiromo was once a respected business reporter, but reinvented herself as a hardcore MAGA propagandist during the first Trump administration. But even as she went further and further down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, Bartiromo has retained her position on Fox’s “news” side, anchoring Fox Business’ three-hour weekday program Mornings with Maria as well as the weekend show Sunday Morning Futures,which is simulcast on Fox News.

Smartmatic’s filings show Bartiromo leveraged that position as she tried to get Sidney Powell, the MAGA attorney notorious for her far-fetched election claims, to come on her Fox Business show in mid-November 2020. (Bartiromo hosted Powell on her Fox News show earlier that month to push election lies after Powell sent her an email featuring fraud hypotheses from someone who also claimed that “the Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it.”)

“Sidney we must keep you out there,” Bartiromo wrote in a November 17, 2020, Signal message.

She contrasted her own role at the network with that of then-Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, another avid promoter of election fraud lies, and suggested she could provide more helpful treatment, saying, “Dobbs is considered very opinionated. I am news. How about Friday?”

Bartiromo later suggested to Powell that her own goal was to reverse the election results and keep Trump in power. “I am very worried,” she wrote. “Please please please overturn this. Bring the evidence. I know you can.”

Bartiromo still has both of her “news” shows.

### Jeanine Pirro explicitly declared her loyalty to Trump and the GOP

The filings show then-Fox host Jeanine Pirro texted Ronna McDaniel, then the chair of the Republican National Committee, the following on September 21, 2020: “I work so hard for the party across the country… I’m the # 1 watched show on all news cable all weekend. I work so hard for the President and the party.”

It’s not precisely news that Pirro viewed her work at the network as an extension of Trump’s campaign — it would in fact have been difficult to come away with a different conclusion after watching her commentary over the years.

Nonetheless, it’s helpful to have that confirmed explicitly in writing.

### CEO Suzanne Scott ordered promotion of Fox prime-timers in “news” hours

In mid-November 2020, I reported that Fox appeared to be trying to stave off its competitors by heavily promoting its prime-time “opinion” stars during its purported “news” hours. This campaign included the “news” programs running ads hyping the hosts casting doubt on the election results, airing on-screen bugs promoting their shows, and playing lengthy clips from the “opinion” shows.

The Smartmatic filings reveal that Fox CEO Suzanne Scott apparently ordered this breach of the purported wall the network maintained existed between its “news” and opinion divisions. She emailed top Fox executives on November 9, 2020, demanding that the “news” hours increase its promotion of “opinion” talent like Pirro and the prime-time hosts. She wrote (emphasis added):

On the website – its 345p and I still dont see our opinion folks being promoted on .com – I’m seeing a ton of FOX nation – need that changed asap for the next few weeks. Same for FOX News channel – not seeing nearly enough promotion of primetime talent other than the little bug. And we should get a Pirro promo in as well. This is something I called around about first thing this morning. I’m traveling next four days and expect this to be handled well.

### Sean Hannity hosted Rudy Giuliani despite complaining he was “insane”: “I’m not redpill78”

Sean Hannity went from considering Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani an “insane” person he could not conceive of hosting to welcoming him back onto his program in 10 days.

The Fox host functioned as an extension of Trump’s White House and regularly hosted Giuliani to spin Ukraine conspiracy theories that Fox’s research team said were not credible. But the former New York City mayor turned Trump lawyer was apparently going too far for even Hannity in the early days of Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the 2020 election results.

The filings show Hannity texted associates on November 10, 2020, to say of Giuliani: “He is going nuts. We canceled the guy. Read what’s wrong…. He’s insane.” He told producers the following day that Giuliani is “acting like an insane person. I’m not redpill78.” (According to the Smartmatic filing, “Hannity testified that his reference to ‘redpill78’” — a streaming program associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory — “indicated that he was skeptical” of Giuliani.)

On November 19, 2020, Hannity interviewed Giuliani about his election fraud claims.

Hannity subsequently testified that he had hosted Giuliani because he was a “top newsmaker.”

He retains his Fox prime-time show.

### Jeanine Pirro’s path back into the Murdoch network’s good graces

The Dominion filings show that a Fox executive took Pirro off the air the weekend after Election Day, preempting her November 7, 2020, broadcast because he did not “trust her to be responsible.” They also reveal that after Pirro’s show returned the following weekend, her executive producer struggled in vain to prevent her from promoting what he termed her election “conspiracy theories.”

Those filings, however, do not fully explain why Pirro returned to the air in the first place. Smartmatic’s filings fill in that gap: They show that Pirro’s removal sparked a backlash from the MAGA faithful that Fox’s CEO, at Fox prime-time star Sean Hannity’s urging, sought to quell by increasing Pirro’s profile and allowing her to comment without “being censored.”

According to the filings, Hannity told Pirro via text message on November 10, 2020, that he had already reached out to Scott to talk about issues including Pirro’s treatment by the network. When Pirro vented to her colleague, “I’M TIRED OF THE CENSORSHIP AND I’M EMBARRASSED BY HOW THEY CALLED THIS ELECTION,” he further explained that he was “looking for changes” including “to leave u alone.”

Hannity may have already been getting results: Scott’s email the previous day ordering more promotion of Fox’s opinion hosts included Pirro along with the prime-time hosts. A few days later, promos for Pirro’s upcoming show were running and being distributed through right-wing channels.

A flurry of communications about Pirro’s show followed between Scott and Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch and between Scott and Fox executive vice president of primetime programming Meade Cooper the day before Pirro’s next broadcast.

“Has anyone spoken to Judge Jeanine before her show this weekend?” Murdoch asked Scott. “It would be good if she corrects the record and clears up the schedule change last week.”

Scott passed the request on to Cooper, who replied that they weren’t planning to make a statement about that and added, “David Clark is reviewing all scripts and working with her on her open. She is very into not being censored but he is working with her closely on it.”

“We don’t want to censor her,” Scott replied.

According to the filing, Scott “had a conversation with Pirro related to coverage of election fraud claims before Pirro’s November 14 show.” The same day, when Hannity texted her to crow about all the promos she was getting, Pirro replied, “I gave 3 demands. New producer. No censorship. 9 pretapes. Suzanne [Scott] promised me NOT overruled by Meade cooper.”

The newly unleashed Pirro used the opportunity the cowed Fox executive team gave her to promote election conspiracy theories that ultimately proved very expensive for Fox.

But it’s hard to get disciplined at Fox for being too supportive of Trump — she was subsequently promoted to the weekday panel show The Five and recently left Fox to become U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

### Fox exec: “It’s not the talents call” to cut away from White House press conference pushing election lies

Scott’s handling of Pirro shows how willing Fox was to bend over backward to provide editorial independence to its conspiratorial opinion hosts. But “news-side” personalities at the network who tried to shut down such claims weren’t so lucky.

The Smartmatic filings show top Fox executives expressing dismay after anchor Neil Cavuto cut away from a November 9, 2020, White House press conference featuring press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and told viewers, “She’s charging the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can't in good countenance continue showing you this."

Tom Lowell, Fox’s vice president and managing editor of news, subsequently told other top Fox executives that anchors like Cavuto should not have the authority to cut away from live events, writing: “Needs to be a chain of command here considering the environment we are in. It’s not the talents call and [t]he EP [Executive Producer] needs approval from you [Mitchell] or Jay [Wallace] in the handling of pressers.”

### Fox’s CEO on airing election fraud “witnesses” live: “This is BUSINESS”

When GOP state legislators put on a series of sham election fraud “hearings” in late November and early December 2020, which featured Trump’s legal team and discredited “witnesses” with unverified or debunked claims, Trump praised Fox’s right-wing competitors for airing the hearings live — and criticized Fox for failing to do so.

Scott responded to the pressure by urging her network to start taking such hearings live in a December 2, 2020, email to Lowell. She suggested that the “witness testimony” at the events constituted the “evidence that the news division has been saying doesn’t exist,” and concluded, “This is BUSINESS. RIGHT NOW BAD BUSINESS.” From her email:

The entire impeachment was about one anonymous hearsay whistleblower. We ran the Schiff Nadler show wall to wall. If we wanted to send a strong message to the audience, run the witness testimony. That’s called evidence that the news division has been saying doesn’t exist. Now will the results ever change. Odds are next to zero. This is BUSINESS. RIGHT NOW BAD BUSINESS.

Lowell admitted that the network had featured witness testimony in stories about the hearings without fact-checking them but warned Scott that airing the events live was not a good news practice.

“It is one thing for us to give a platform to the Presidents Attorneys and surrogates, or people like this guy on with Sean [Hannity] right now who signed an affidavit, but we need to be skeptical of some of these supporters who just wander in to make statements about things they think they saw,” he wrote in an email to Scott.

### Jesse Watters was told not to push election fraud lies, did it anyway

The Smartmatic filings provide new details about what Fox’s Jesse Watters was told and what he did during this period, while he was the host of the weekend evening program Watters’ World.

Watters was explicitly warned not to promote election fraud claims immediately after the 2020 election, according to the filings.

“On November 6, Watters texted Fox host Pete Hegseth, ‘By the way, did you get the memo about not saying fraud?’” the filing states.

Watters testified that this was a reference to instructions relayed by his producer, Megan Albano. In a text message the same day, Albano told Watters, “If we call the race, you cannot, under any circumstances, cast doubt on” the election because “the powers that be are not having any of it.”

This message did not stick, the filing shows: “On November 21, 2020, an original television broadcast of Watters’ World aired at 8:00 p.m. on Fox News. Dobbs appeared as a guest, discussing a ‘cyber-attack’ using voting machines to steal the 2020 election, and Watters presented an ‘investigation’ into Dominion and Smartmatic.”

The filing further states that in a text to The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld, Watters wrote: “Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL.”

Fox has since given Watters two promotions — he gained his own weekday evening show in January 2022, and that program took over the network’s “pivotal” 8 p.m. timeslot in June 2023.

---

// BIG LIE, ALSO COVER TO TEXAS GERRY BS

NOTE PROJECTION RUBBER REVERSE 2x

an 8 25

Trump is reviving his years-old plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the U.S. census, which legal scholars say is in direct conflict with the Constitution’s requirement to count all persons.

“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump wrote Thursday morning. “People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The President’s remarks appear to align with his plan to redistrict red states to deliver more GOP-controlled seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority.

Absent court orders, it is extremely rare for a state, outside of the census window, to redistrict with the direct goal of providing more seats to a particular party, and the United States has never conducted a decennial census officially excluding undocumented immigrants.

IFrame Content

The Fourteenth Amendment states that “the whole number of persons in each State” is to be counted.

On Wednesday night, Trump White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller claimed that during the first Trump presidency, Democrats “rigged” the 2020 census by including undocumented immigrants, causing them to gain an extra 20 to 30 seats in the House.

“At every level this country—Illinois, Chicago, New York, Massachusetts—Democrats have gerrymandered the vote beyond recognition to try to maintain their advantage in the House elections,” Miller alleged.

“Democrats rigged the 2020 census by including illegal aliens,” he charged, despite every census in U.S. history, per the U.S. Constitution, having done so.

Independent analysis contradicts Miller’s claim.

“A Pew Research Center analysis found that if unauthorized immigrants were excluded from the 2020 apportionment count, three states could have each lost a congressional seat,” Axios reported.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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NOTE 7 25 TULSI GABBARD DEFLECTION EPSTEIN ACCUSE BO OF TREASON RUSSIA-GATE

SO DEM ELECTION INTERFERENCE?!

---

rww

07/24/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling @ The New Republic: Trump’s Relationship With Epstein Further Exposed in Bombshell Video

In resurfaced video testimony, Jeffrey Epstein was asked if he and Donald Trump ever spent time with young girls.

Will Sommer @ The Bulwark: MAGA Inches Closer to a Ghislaine Maxwell Alliance

Is perpetrating heinous crimes against children too big a hurdle for a political alliance of convenience? Maybe not.

Kathryn Wilkens @ Mediaite: Candace Owens Vows to Fight Macron Lawsuit Over Claim French First Lady Is a Man: ‘Obvious’ She ‘Has a Penis’

Candace Owens doubled down on her claim that French First Lady Brigitte Macron was born a man on Wednesday after French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife filed a defamation lawsuit against the right-wing commentator accusing her of spreading the conspiracy theory that Brigitte was born “Jean-Michel Trogneux.”

Amanda Moore @ The Intercept: Project 2025 Data Leak Shows a Paul Ingrassia Calling for Test for Voting and Halting Immigration

Trump appointed far-right loyalist Paul Ingrassia to head a Justice Department office responsible for keeping politics out of the civil service.

Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: So much for ‘looking forward’: Republicans launch yet another Jan. 6 probe

The GOP's Jan. 6 probe in the last Congress was an embarrassing dud. Rather than learn an obvious lesson, the party is going to give it a second try.

Jessica Mason Pieklo @ Rewire News Group: These Two ‘Culture Warriors’ Are Trump’s New Federal Judges

The conservative legal movement used Trump’s first term to seize control of the federal courts. Will it use his second term to rewrite the Constitution entirely?

---

RWW 7 25

07/25/2025

Peter Montgomery

Right-wing propagandist Dinesh D’Souza, recipient of a Trump pardon after his conviction for breaking campaign finance laws, is raising campaign cash for his son-in-law, first-term Rep. Brandon Gill.

Gill, a MAGA influencer who campaigned on a promise to be Trump’s biggest booster in Congress, won a crowded primary last year with help from Trump’s endorsement. It seems likely that Gill’s relationship with D’Souza, and his work on D’Souza’s discredited election-conspiracy movie “2000 Mules,” helped him get Trump’s blessing.

D’Souza’s email pitch for campaign contributions touts Gill’s role in promoting “2000 Mules,” even though the movie’s election-fraud claims have been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked—so thoroughly in fact that last year the right-wing Salem Media Group apologized for the movie’s promotion of false claims and announced it would stop distributing both the book and movie versions.

Last year, the right-wing group True the Vote, whose analysis was at the core of the movie’s claims, “told a Georgia judge that it doesn’t have evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing during the 2020 general election and a runoff two months later,” as AP reported.

In December, D’Souza himself “acknowledged that its findings were based on a faulty analysis,” the New York Times reported, even though D’Souza continued to claim without evidence that somehow “the underlying premise of the film holds true.”

“Brandon helped me EXPOSE the STOLEN 2020 election, working on my film ‘2000 Mules,’” D’Souza writes in his fundraising email. “While the fake news media refused to report the truth, we made sure millions of Americans knew what really happened.”

D’Souza refers to Gill as a “conservative warrior” who is waging “war” against “the forces that seek to reduce America to TYRANNY!” – by which he seems to mean the mainstream media and federal judges who rule against Trump’s lawbreaking.

Gill’s approach to political discourse is every bit as thoughtful and nuanced as one of D’Souza’s propaganda flicks. Earlier this year, he told supporters that “the entire staff” of National Public Radio “hate you,” adding, “They hate Christians. They hate conservatives. They hate this country.”

---}:

yikes an 7 25

critics of far-right Oklahoma Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters often attack him as a highly performative MAGA troll. Walters' antics include purchasing Donald Trump-themed Bibles for classrooms and promoting the false, repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.

But Slate's Molly Olmstead, in an article published on July 22, emphasizes that Walters' buffoonish qualities don't make him any less dangerous. And she emphasizes that his plan to screen education applicants for MAGA purity shouldn't be taken lightly.

"This month," Olmstead explains, "Oklahoma's education department announced an innovative new approach to screening aspiring teachers in the state: any applicants from 'woke' states would need to first pass an ideology test created by the right-wing group PragerU. It was an announcement that seemed engineered to draw national news coverage and inflame liberal audiences. Under this plan, teachers from states with 'progressive education policies' would be tested on the U.S. Constitution, American exceptionalism, and 'the fundamental biological differences between boys and girls.'"

Olmstead continues, "The screening is guaranteed to test teachers for a deeply MAGA-inflected understanding of U.S. history, government, and society: PragerU, a right-wing group with a stated mission of countering leftism in education, is already known for its white nationalist-adjacent content for schoolchildren."

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PragerU is the brainchild of Dennis Prager, a far-right talk radio host and Trump supporter.

"Walters' proposals for the school system have included a mandate that all public schools teach the Bible; a plan to collect children's immigration status when they register for public school; and new social studies standards proposals that would have high school students 'identify discrepancies in 2020 election results,'" Olmstead observes. "Each of these announcements solidified Walters' reputation as a relentless attention-seeker, calculating every action from his office to appeal to the power players of the MAGA movement…. These stunts have paid off. Walters has been profiled in outlets all over the country, and he has become the face of the Christian nationalist campaigns into public education."

The MAGA Republican's stunts, Olmstead argues, raise the question: "Is Walters all superficiality, a media-obsessive without the stamina or standing for real, transformative politics? Or is he actually capable of remaking Oklahoma's schools — and signaling what MAGA could bring to schools across the country?"

"In sign of just how bizarre American politics have become in this second Trump era," Olmstead warns, "Walters may be a bit of both. As traditional institutions and procedures buckle under MAGA politics, Walters has proven that with the right national climate, slapdash own-the-lib pronouncements can become serious policy. He's a performer, but he also happens to be a major change-maker…. It may be tempting not to take people like Walters seriously, but he has proven that with enough volume, some gimmicks stick."

*Molly Olmstead's full article for Slate is available at this link (subscription required).

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After Donald Trump lost the United States' 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, MAGA attorney and far-right conspiracy theorist John C. Eastman did everything he could to help Trump overturn the election results. Eastman, an aggressive promoter of the Stop the Steal movement, is a close ally of the Claremont Institute — often promoting fringe legal theories that are rejected by traditional conservatives.

Many MAGA Republicans consider Eastman one of the intellectual thinkers of their movement. But he is facing disbarment in California, and according to jurisprudence professor Austin Sarat (who teaches at Amherst College in Massachusetts) and attorney Neil Goteiner, his problems are going from bad to worse.

In an article published by Salon on June 18, Sarat and Goteiner explain, "Friday, June 13, was a truly unlucky day for John Eastman, a key architect of President Trump's plot to disrupt the results of the 2020 presidential election. A California appellate court, charged with reviewing recommendations to discipline lawyers in that state, affirmed the findings of a trial judge and recommended that Eastman 'be disbarred from the practice of law in California and that Eastman's name be stricken from the roll of attorneys.'"

Sarat and Goteiner continue, "The judges found that his work on the 2020 election case was shoddy and deceptive. 'Disbarment,' they said, 'is necessary to protect the public, the courts, and the legal profession.' For any lawyer, this is a professional death sentence. But the court's decision is not only a devastating blow to Eastman, but also, to the Trumpist myth that the 2020 presidential election was stolen…. The Eastman case demonstrates again that misinformation and lies collapse in a courtroom where facts and evidence rule "

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In 2025, Eastman, Sarat and Goteiner observe, continues to claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. And his problems, they point out, are bad news not only for Eastman, but also, for the MAGA legal movement in general.

"Eastman will likely appeal to the California Supreme Court and, if he loses there, eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds," Sarat and Goteiner argue. "It is also possible that when the next Supreme Court vacancy occurs, Trump may nominate Eastman. After all, if we can have a convicted felon in the White House, why not a disbarred, but loyal, lawyer on the nation’s highest court?"

The legal experts continue, "Whatever unfolds for Eastman, and despite the profound damage that Trump's election denialism has done to American democracy, the Eastman case compellingly illustrates Alexander Hamilton’s confidence that this nation is well served by an independent judiciary."

*Austin Sarat and attorney Neil Goteiner's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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MMA

On far-right US podcasts, South Koreans push baseless claims of election fraud

Claims of election fraud were a key reason for South Korea’s then-president to declare martial law in December

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published 06/02/25

Far-right podcasters and streamers in the United States have hosted right-wing South Korean figures to share baseless claims that the country’s recent elections were overwhelmed by fraud.

The appearances have come since South Korea’s then-president briefly declared martial law in December, citing supposed election fraud as one of the justifications for the move.

On December 3, 2024, then-South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced that he was imposing martial law, deploying troops to the country’s election commission and accusing his opposition of “trying to overthrow the free democracy.” South Korean officials have since rebutted claims of election fraud, and Yoon has been impeached and removed from office, but South Korean right-wing YouTubers are reportedly helping fuel the claims. Some South Korean supporters of Yoon have invoked phrases used in the United States in support of President Donald Trump, including “Stop the Steal,” the slogan used to push false claims of election fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Media Matters has found that far-right media figures in the United States, including some who pushed U.S. election misinformation, have hosted right-wing South Korean personalities to push false claims about the country’s elections and justifications for Yoon’s use of martial law.

## Catherine Engelbrecht and South Korean graduate student falsely claimed the US and South Korea elections were stolen

On December 9, 2024, days after the martial law declaration, Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of the right-wing organization True the Vote — known for pushing election denial — hosted a South Korean graduate student named Yechan Bae on her podcast.

During the appearance, Engelbrecht said Yechan had seen “many similarities in what was happening in South Korea and in the United States relative to the elections,” adding that “their elections run on the same cycle.”

Before introducing Yechan, Engelbrecht called South Korea’s elections “chapter and verse of what happened here in 2020,” and said that “people didn’t appreciate … that martial law was declared to sequester the corrupt congress and to seize property at their election commission.”

Yechan claimed that the “same enemy rigged our — stole our elections in South Korea and the United States too.”

He also said he thinks Yoon declared martial law because “the whole legal system in this country is totally corrupted” and it “denied the election was fraud,” adding, “He didn’t try to get rid of democracy in this country.”

In response, Engelbrecht suggested that Yoon’s declaration of martial law was part of his “efforts to establish the election integrity necessary” and “the goal was to try and see for themselves what had really transpired in previous elections.”

Video

Citation

From the December 9, 2024, edition of True the Vote's Onward, streamed on Locals

## On Headmaster’s Homeroom, South Korean Alfred Kim said his “election integrity” group is “similar to” the Proud Boys

In May, after Yoon was removed from office, Kim Jeong-hyun (who goes by Alfred Kim in his American appearances) appeared on the right-wing Rumble podcast Headmaster’s Homeroom. On-screen text identified him as the “founder of White Skull Squad,” which Agence France-Presse has described as a “far-right youth group” whose name is a reference to “a unit that cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in the 1980s and 1990s.”

During the appearance, Kim said his organization is “similar to” the violent American far-right extremist group the Proud Boys and “stood up for election integrity.”

“There has to be some case, right, that authorities … make it clear that there was a fraud election, right?” he said. “But that never happened in South Korea. So my question is, so what … do we do? Like, what do we do when the higher hierarchy, like, high-rank authority, becomes corrupted?”

He also compared the situation in South Korea to “the January 6 when, you know, the fraud election cartel still, you know, stole the election, and Trump just has to, you know, step down” because “RINOs … turned out to be a betrayer.”

Video

Citation

From the May 17, 2025, edition of Headmaster's Homeroom, streamed on Rumble

The host, who goes by “Lady Hamilton,” said Kim’s story of election fraud and “hacking” “sounds familiar” and that it’s “not the first time we've heard stories about election fraud and trying to be able to choose our president.”

“That just alarms me,” she said. “I mean, how did the people react? I mean, I guess you don’t have a choice, but that’s going to awaken a lot of people when you put down something like martial law.”

## On a Proud Boys-affiliated podcast, Kim urged Trump to investigate Korea’s election commission

Days later, Kim went on a Proud Boys-affiliated podcast and pushed the same claims. He told host Barry Ramey and network co-founder Enrique Tarrio, the group's former chairman, that “we have to forbid this election machine, electronic machine, worldwide. We have to stop it, and I believe Donald J. Trump can do it, right away,” urging the Trump administration to investigate Korea’s election commission.

He added that it “is so crucial that, you know, President Trump and MAGA patriots are on our side.” He also said that he is planning to “establish White Skull Squad in the states.”

Video

Citation

From the May 21, 2025, edition of The American Rising, streamed on Rumble

Ramey and Tarrio appeared to express sympathy for Kim. Ramey told him that he was “extremely brave and courageous” and noted that he “tried to spearhead the people understanding that there was some fraud in the election” in South Korea, and Tarrio said that “it is pretty insightful here talking to you that, you know, this … is a global problem.”

### How True the Vote cultivated relationships with QAnon influencers to target an election software company and serve as a pipeline to law enforcement

09/15/22 2:04 PM EDT

### As Proud Boys are convicted for seditious conspiracy, right-wing media rush to defend them and downplay January 6

05/09/23 11:44 AM EDT

### On Infowars, newly freed Enrique Tarrio calls for retribution: “The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars."

01/21/25

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05/05/2025 rww

Kyle Mantyla

Peter Wade @ Rolling Stone: Trump Says ‘I Don’t Know’ When Asked if He Has to ‘Uphold the Constitution’

The president complained that due process rights are interfering with his mass deportations.

Joe DePaolo @ Mediaite: Trump Tries to Have it Both Ways on Economy: The ‘Good Parts’ are Mine, The ‘Bad Parts’ are Biden’s

President Donald Trump attempted to take credit for parts of the economy which he considers “good,” while blaming former President Joe Biden for other parts he considers “bad.”

Travis Gettys @ Raw Story: 'I love you guys': Trump greets convicted Proud Boys militant at Mar-a-Lago

President Donald Trump offered a message of support to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists when he met with a former Proud Boys militant in Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.

Hemant Mehta @ Friendly Atheist: A curriculum coup: Oklahoma Republicans allow right-wing rewrite of history

State Superintendent Ryan Walters bypassed oversight to push Christian Nationalism and right-wing conspiracies into public classrooms.

The Throckmorton Initiative: Charlie Kirk's Christian America, Part Two

In this segment, I examine the notion that there was something exceptionally Christian about America's founding era. Last week, I fact-checked Charlie Kirk's viral video defense of the belief that America was founded as a Christian nation in the legal sense. Most of what Kirk had to say was irrelevant or incorrect.

Janna Brancolini @ The Daily Beast: Laura Loomer Sets to Work on New MAGA Civil War Over Trump Pick

The 9/11 truther denounced Trump’s nominee for U.S. surgeon general and claimed the COVID-19 vaccine is “killing millions of people.”

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Some Texas Republican lawmakers are reviving a previously stalled effort to expand the Texas attorney general’s power to prosecute election crimes.

*This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

The long-running push is a response to a 2022 ruling from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which found that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office does not have unilateral authority to independently prosecute criminal cases in trial courts without the request of a local prosecutor.

Senate Bill 1026, filed by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a powerful Republican from Central Texas, would amend the law to require the Texas attorney general’s office to prosecute election crimes if no local proceedings have begun after six months. The bill was approved by the GOP-led Senate Committee on State Affairs Thursday. Similar bills have also been filed in the House.

Some election and voting rights advocates said they’re concerned that the bill, as written, would require Paxton’s office to prosecute even if local district attorneys had chosen not to, or didn’t find enough evidence to do so.

The bill specifically changes the wording of a section of the law that now says the office “may” prosecute a criminal offense to “shall.” They warned that the bill seemed aimed at increasing election prosecutions, potentially intimidating voters and local election officials.

“On its own, that is a problem,” said Ashley Harris, staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas. “It’s all part of an attempt to control not only local prosecutors, but also election offices.”

Geoff Barr, chief of the election integrity division at the Texas Attorney General’s Office, said he interpreted the bill as giving his office discretion.

“If I don’t feel that I can prove the case, if the evidence is insufficient, I would argue that that ‘shall’ does not mandate me to prosecute against my ethical duties,” Barr said during a Senate Committee on State Affairs public hearing last week on the bill.

At the hearing, Hughes said lawmakers have been aware of instances where local district attorneys, who are elected, may have conflicts when asked to prosecute alleged election crimes.

“Who knows whether politics or other matters in any given county could affect prosecution?” Hughes said. “So election law is a matter of paramount statewide importance. This bill is intended to restore the authority the attorney general has had for decades to handle those matters.”

Paxton has actively pursued election-related crimes since he took office in 2015. After his office set up the election integrity unit, it has opened more than 300 investigations of suspected crimes by voters — in a state which has more than 18 million voters registered — but has successfully convicted only a handful.

Republican lawmakers filed similar bills in 2023, which failed to pass. Those bills came during a legislative session that ended with the House impeaching Paxton over other matters. The Senate later acquitted Paxton of several impeachment articles.

The debate over whether the attorney general’s office should have such authority was put to the test following the 2018 election of a local sheriff in Jefferson County, where the elected district attorney declined to prosecute alleged campaign-finance violations against Sheriff Zena Stephens.

Paxton then obtained an indictment from neighboring Chambers County. In 2021, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed the indictment. After Paxton asked the court to rehear the case, it upheld its previous ruling, saying the attorney general does not have the independent authority to pursue criminal cases in trial courts unless the local prosecutor asks the office to do so.

Paxton later targeted three of the judges who reached that decision when they were up for reelection, successfully leading a campaign to oust them during the 2024 Republican primary.

Hughes’ bill would explicitly give Paxton’s office the authority he sought from the appeals court.

*Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia atncontreras@votebeat.org

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.

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Key Texas lawmakers are reviving legislation that would require election officials to respond within set time frames to requests to explain “election irregularities” from certain party officials and election workers.

*This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

If the complainants aren’t satisfied, the bill would let them take their requests to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, which would have to decide whether to investigate further and conduct an audit.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who authored the bill, said it will help clear up “any misunderstanding” about elections.

But experts and local election officials said Texas already has policies in place that have increased election transparency and security.

The bill, they said, could instead undermine voters’ trust if election officials have to prioritize an influx of meritless complaints. The measure would also add to the burdens on election officials who are already contending with a flood of public records requests, questions from residents worried about election integrity, and voter challenges, while also trying to comply with strict election deadlines set by state and federal laws, experts said.

“It’s difficult to see how this is anything other than just a really cumbersome administrative process that’s just going to in a lot of ways throw sand in the gears of election administration,” said Daniel Griffith, senior director of policy at Secure Democracy, a nonprofit organization that produces research and analysis focused on voting and elections.

Bettencourt first filed a similar bill in 2021 and reintroduced it in 2023. Both times, it passed in the Senate but not the House. Senate Bill 505, which he filed last month, is identical to his 2023 legislation.

The bill would allow candidates, county party chairs, election or alternate judges — election judges are tasked with supervising polling locations — and leaders of political action committees to request that election officials “provide an explanation to election irregularities or violations of the law and to provide supporting documentation” of such.

Bettencourt said problems during Harris County’s November 2022 election prove such a measure is needed.

The county, home to Houston, is the state’s most populous. During that election, the county’s elections department failed to provide sufficient paper to two dozen of the county’s more than 700 polling locations. There were also reports of malfunctioning equipment at various locations, long lines and polling locations that had late openings.

Citing the problems, multiple losing Republican candidates challenged the results of that election. A judge ordered a redo of the election for one race. After that election, Bettencourt championed legislation that abolished the Harris elections administration department and returned election duties to the county clerk, an elected official.

Bettencourt said that for months after that election, county election officials “refused to answer questions.” The bill would help prevent that, he said. He also pointed to more recent incidents in Dallas County, another Democratic stronghold, involving false claims by Dallas County Republican leaders who said that the voting equipment had not been certified by state officials. Bettencourt said “miscommunication” between the party and the elections office fueled the problems, and he thinks his bill would help in situations like that.

“This sets up an organized structure for people to ask questions, get answers, and then if the answers aren’t suitable or not getting any answers they can go to the secretary of state,” Bettencourt said.

The latest bill is part of a legislative package — which includes other election measures, such as penalties for election officials who fail to comply with election laws and one that would prevent the distribution of unsolicited voter registration cards — supported and written by seven other Republican senators: Brandon Creighton, Joan Huffman, Lois Kolkhorst, Mayes Middleton, Tan Parker, Angela Paxton, and Charles Perry. Several have been members of the Senate State Affairs Committee.

The committee discusses and helps decide which election legislation moves forward in the Senate chamber.

Bill requires election audits, fines in certain cases

According to the legislation, once party officials or election workers submit a request, election officials would have 20 days to respond. If that person isn’t satisfied with the response, the bill states, they can ask for more information. The election official at that point would have 10 additional days to respond further.

Then, if a requester is still not satisfied, they “may issue a request to the secretary of state for an audit of the issue.” Such a request for an audit must include copies of communications and responses provided by the election official.

The secretary of state will then determine if the information provided “sufficiently explains the irregularity identified,” the bill says. If the secretary of state concludes it isn’t, that office must “immediately begin an audit of the identified irregularity at the expense of the county or other authority conducting the election.”

The secretary of state’s office is already required to audit the elections of four counties that are randomly selected every two years. Elections in Harris County have been audited twice recently by the agency.

The Secretary of State’s Office declined to comment on the legislation.

In a fiscal note about Bettencourt’s 2023 bill, the Secretary of State’s Office anticipated multiple audits would require “substantial document review and analysis, labor intensive work, and travel to the applicable locations.” In addition, according to the fiscal note, the office would need six additional full-time employees.

Bettencourt told Votebeat a new cost analysis would have to be done next year as the bill moves through the legislative process.

There would also be additional costs to county taxpayers if the secretary of state finds violations of election law. In such cases, the office would then be permitted to appoint a conservator to oversee elections in the county, at the county’s expense. And if county election officials do not remedy the violations, they could incur fines starting at $500 per violation, the bill states.

How Bettencourt’s bill would impact election officials

Election officials are already required to keep detailed documentation for nearly every step of the election process. Human error, technical problems, and minor irregularities occur during every election in some form, and officials are required to identify the issues and respond.

Election administrators answer to bipartisan election boards and commissions. They have to respond to questions from members of the counties’ commissioners court, who set the budgets for election departments. Election officials respond to public records requests submitted by members of the public, which also have to be fulfilled within a specific time frame by law.

And the law already allows the Texas secretary of state, who is the chief election officer, to report any legitimate evidence of illegality or malfeasance to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for investigation.

Nonetheless, in recent years, election officials across the state report contending with streams of requests from organized conservative activists who have claimed laws aren’t being followed, or the process is flawed. No matter what information they provide, they said they are sometimes unable to satisfy people.

That’s why some election officials said, as it stands now, the bill’s effort to increase transparency would instead create additional hardships.

During the March 5 primary election, Bruce Sherbet, the Collin County elections administrator, was also preparing for a city school district election happening in May and the primary runoff election that same month. The county had another election looming in June.

Sherbet said he can’t fathom how election officials could handle more requests for information in the midst of such election preparations.

He added that depending on the type and timing of requests, some documentation may not be available for public inspection, may need redactions, or simply may not exist.

“I can see it as an invitation for abuse and both parties could be a part of that abuse,” Sherbet said. “Where does it stop? And where do you have time to do the job that you have to do?”

For his part, Bettencourt said his intent is not to create more work for election officials. He said that’s why the bill limits who can submit the requests to individuals involved with the election, including election judges and alternate judges. Those are the individuals responsible for supervising polling locations.

Those categories, though, still include substantial numbers of people. During the Nov. 5 election 117 judges and 117 alternate judges worked in Collin County. The bill would allow all of them to submit requests at any point during the election, Sherbet said. “It’s going to cause bigger mistakes to happen, or noncompliance,” he said.

He’s also concerned that this could further undermine trust in the process. The complaints and requests made to election officials would also become public record. Voters would have access to all of them whether or not they have merit.

“It’s not building confidence at all. What it’s doing is further harming the confidence of the election that we’re trying to turn a corner and get back on track again from the 2020 election,” Sherbet said.

Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at[ncontreras@votebeat.or (mailto:ncontreras@votebeat.org)

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.

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President-elect Donald Trump may have quieted his lies about widespread voter fraud after his win last month, but the impact of his effort to cast doubt on the integrity of American elections lingers on.

Although this post-election period has been markedly calmer than the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, there were isolated flare-ups of Republican candidates borrowing a page from Trump’s playbook to claim that unsatisfactory election results were illegitimate.

In Wisconsin, Republican U.S. Senate challenger Eric Hovde spread unsubstantiated rumors about “last-minute” absentee ballots in Milwaukee that he said flipped the outcome of the race. Though he conceded to incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin nearly two weeks after the election, his rhetoric helped stoke a spike in online conspiracy theories. The Milwaukee Election Commission disputed his claims, saying they “lack any merit.”

In North Carolina, Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters last week he feared that the vote-counting process for a state Supreme Court seat was rigged for Democrats. Karen Brinson Bell, the head of the State Board of Elections, skewered Berger for his comments, saying they could inspire violence.

And in Arizona, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, who has spent two years disputing her defeat in the 2022 governor’s race, hasn’t acknowledged her Senate loss. While she thanked her supporters in a video posted to X, the platform formerly called Twitter, she stopped short of conceding to Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego.

After a bruising 4 years, a hope for normalcy in American elections

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Republicans’ disinformation campaigns have caused Americans’ confidence in elections to plummet and exposed local election officials to threats and harassment, and some observers worry about a return of the GOP’s destructive rhetoric the next time they lose.

“We have to turn this rhetoric down,” said Jay Young, senior director of voting and democracy for Common Cause, a voting rights group. “There cannot be this continued attack on this institution.”

Still, many politicians who either denied the 2020 election results or criticized their local voting processes won election. In Arizona, for example, voters chose state Rep. Justin Heap, a Republican, to lead the election office in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and the largest jurisdiction in the critical swing state. Heap ran on a “voter confidence” platform and suggested at a Trump rally that Maricopa’s election office is a “national laughingstock.”

Trump tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to oversee the U.S. Department of Justice. Bondi, a Republican, served as an attorney for Trump while he disputed the results in 2020. She could use her position as U.S. attorney general to prosecute election officials involved in that election, as Trump promised in an X post in September.

While the rhetoric around stolen elections has been somewhat muted among the GOP ranks since Trump’s victory, conservatives attempted to flip the “election denial” script on Democrats in at least one race.

We have to turn this rhetoric down.

– Jay Young, Common Cause’s senior director of voting and democracy

In Pennsylvania, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey refused to concede defeat until last Thursday, two weeks after The Associated Press called the race for Republican challenger David McCormick. Casey lost by fewer than 16,000 votes, less than half a percentage point.

Casey said he wanted to see the results of an automatic recount and various court cases filed on his behalf, but Republicans jumped on his refusal to bow out quickly.

Bob Casey concedes in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race

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Last week, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who resisted pressure from Trump in 2020 to “find” votes after he lost the state, lambasted Casey for not conceding the Senate race.

But Kathy Boockvar, president of Athena Strategies and former Pennsylvania secretary of the commonwealth told the Capital-Star that comparisons between what the Casey campaign was doing and Republicans’ efforts to overturn results in the 2020 election were not valid; under Pennsylvania law, a recount is automatically triggered when the margin of votes is under 0.5%, as it was in the Casey-McCormick race.

She added that the practice of “calling” elections has “done more damage to perceptions of elections than a lot of other things, because people think that when the Associated Press calls an election or Decision Desk calls an election, that that has any official relevance, and it has none,” she said. “The Associated Press and others ‘calling’ of elections exist solely for the purpose of feeding people’s need for quick answers to a process that is not designed to be quick for good reasons.”

Even as Republicans mostly toned down their rhetoric this year, some left-wing social media accounts repeated a debunked conspiracy theory that Starlink, the internet provider owned by billionaire and Trump supporter Elon Musk, changed vote counts.

Those posts, however, aren’t comparable to GOP election denialism, according to the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, which fights strategic misinformation.

“While the claims are similar, the rumoring dynamics on the left are markedly different due to the lack of endorsement or amplification by left-leaning influencers, candidates, or party elites,” the center posted last week.

Young, of Common Cause, said it’s clear that election disinformation of any kind has a devastating impact on the local officials tasked with administering the vote.

Threats to election workers continued even after Election Day. Bomb threats were called into election offices in California, Minnesota, Oregon and other states, forcing evacuations as workers were tallying ballots.

But this was just a slice of the onslaught many officials faced over the past four years. Local election officials need the resources to beef up the way they fight disinformation and physical attacks, Young said.

“We should be doing better by them,” he said.

*Kim Lyons of the Capital-Star staff contributed.

*Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.

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just never ends

mma

Benny Johnson: “Put Matt Gaetz in charge of rooting out election fraud as a special counsel all around the country”

11/25/24

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This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

In the early morning following Election Day in 2020, Claire Woodall, then Milwaukee’s elections chief, mistakenly left behind a USB stick carrying vote totals at the city’s central absentee ballot counting facility. Election conspiracy theorists quickly seized on the mistake, accusing Woodall of rigging the election.

Their claims were baseless, but the mistake increased scrutiny on the city’s election staff and led Woodall to create a checklist to make sure workers at central count didn’t overlook any critical steps in the future.

This year, despite the checklist, Milwaukee election staff at central count made another procedural mistake — and once again left the door open to conspiracy theorists.

Somebody — city officials haven’t said who — overlooked the second step outlined on the checklist and failed to lock and seal the hatch covers on the facility’s 13 tabulators before workers began tabulating ballots. For hours, while counting proceeded, the machines’ on-off switches and USB ports were left exposed.

After election officials discovered the lapse, city officials decided to count 31,000 absentee ballots all over again, a choice that led to delays in reporting results.

Results from the large and heavily Democratic city ultimately came in at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, only a few hours later than expected, but a time that conspiracy theorists implied was a suspicious hour for vote totals to change. Their posts echoed claims from 2020 that used sensationalized language like “late-night ballot dumps” to describe the reality that in big cities, absentee ballots take time — yes, sometimes late into the night — to collect, deliver, verify, and count accurately.

In fact, the results in Milwaukee couldn’t have arrived much sooner. Under state law, election officials can’t start processing the hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots until the morning of Election Day. This year, they got a late start, because of delays in getting workers settled, but were still expecting to be done around 2 or 3 a.m. Then it became clear the midday decision to redo the count would add more time to the process.

But those explanations have done little to curb the false conspiracy theories that have been proliferating on the right, including from losing U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde.

Election officials have for years known that the slightest mistakes, or even perceived errors, can trigger false claims. In this instance, the failure to follow a critical security step occurred in the state’s most scrutinized election facility, despite new procedures meant to reduce such errors.

For people with a conspiratorial mindset, such an oversight can’t be explained away as just a mistake, said Mert Bayar, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. The errors can provide conspiracy theorists a feeling of validation because those errors make a “conspiracy theory more realistic … more believable.”

For those people, he said, election errors are instead perceived as “part of a plot to steal an election.”

Instead of considering the 2024 Milwaukee mistake a simple oversight, Bayar said, conspiracy theorists may think that the tabulator doors “cannot be left unlocked unless they’re trying something tricky, something stealth.”

Genya Coulter, senior director of stakeholder relations at the Open Source Election Technology Institute, said Milwaukee can still fine-tune its processes and checklists.

“I don’t think anybody needs to be demonized,” she said, “but I do think that there needs to be some retraining. That would be helpful.”

Milwaukee error initially drew complaints, but not suspicion

It was an election observer who first noticed the open tabulator doors and alerted election officials. Around 2 p.m., Milwaukee’s current election chief, Paulina Gutiérrez, went from tabulator to tabulator, monitored by Democratic and Republican representatives, to lock all of the doors. Two hours later, she made the call to rerun all ballots through the tabulators.

The tabulators had been in full view of partisan observers and the media, but behind a barrier that only election officials and some designated observers, like representatives for both political parties who accompany election officials during some election processes, can enter. Any tampering would have been evident, Gutiérrez said, and there was no sign of that.

For that reason, some Republicans at central count opposed recounting all the ballots and risking a delay. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who went to central count on Election Day to learn more about the error, said he didn’t think anything nefarious happened, though he said the election operation there was “grossly incompetent.”

Coulter said the decision to start the counting over again was “the right call for transparency’s sake.”

Hovde, who lost his Senate race in a state that Donald Trump carried, invoked conspiratorial language to describe what happened.

“The results from election night were disappointing, particularly in light of the last minute absentee ballots that were dropped in Milwaukee at 4 a.m. flipping the outcome,” he said Monday in his concession speech. “There are many troubling issues around these absentee ballots.”

In an earlier video, Hovde criticized Milwaukee’s election operation and spread false claims about the proportion of votes that opponent, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, received from absentee ballots. That led to a skyrocketing number of posts baselessly alleging election fraud in Wisconsin.

One prominent conservative social media account questioned whether the tabulator doors being left open was a case of sabotage.

In a statement, the Milwaukee Election Commission said it “unequivocally refutes Eric Hovde’s baseless claims regarding the integrity of our election process.”

Why Milwaukee’s results were late

There’s no proof of fraud or malfeasance in Milwaukee or anywhere else in Wisconsin on Election Day. But a few key factors combined to delay Milwaukee’s results until 4 a.m.

First, Milwaukee central count workers started processing and tabulating ballots around 9 a.m., long after the 7 a.m. start time allowed under state law. The delay was a matter of getting dozens of central count workers organized and at the right station in the large facility.

The more high-profile one was the failure to close the tabulators, which prompted the decision to count 31,000 absentee ballots all over again.

But both of those slowdowns could have been less consequential had Wisconsin election officials been able to process absentee ballots on the Monday before Election Day, as some other states allow. Such a change could have allowed election officials to review absentee ballot envelopes, verify and check in absentee voters, but not count votes. An effort to allow election officials to do so stalled in the state Senate this year.

Checklist change could ‘improve transparency’

Milwaukee election officials may have avoided the situation entirely — and could avoid similar situations in the future — by modifying their central count checklist, said Coulter, from the Open Source Election Technology Institute.

Currently, the checklist states that at the start of Election Day, the tabulator doors should be locked and sealed. It’s not clear why that step was skipped. Gutiérrez didn’t respond to questions for comment about who was in charge of the process or whether that person faced disciplinary action.

But the step likely wouldn’t have been overlooked, Coulter said, if the checklist required the official in charge of locking the tabulators to be accompanied by a representative from each major political party.

“That’s a relatively painless change that … I think it would improve transparency,” Coulter said.

“There needs to be an emphasis on having two people from different political affiliations performing all duties that involve the tabulator,” she said.

Another pre-processing step on the checklist calls for people working at the tabulators to make sure the numbered seals pasted over the tabulator doors are intact. It doesn’t call for checking that the tabulator doors are locked.

To avoid a repeat situation, Coulter said, “They should also check to make sure that the door to the power button is properly locked, and what to do if it isn’t.”

Election officials recognize the scrutiny they face over errors, Coulter said, and they sometimes focus more on avoiding mistakes than running election operations.

“It’s like a racecar driver … If you focus on the wall, you’re going to wind up hitting that wall,” she said. “You have to train your mind to think about the curve and not the wall, but unfortunately, it’s really hard for election officials to do that, especially in high-pressure jurisdictions.”

*Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Alexander atashur@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.

===

ref x rassmussen reports?

ref 2

posts on X about Wisconsin election fraud have increased nearly tenfold since Election Day

Maia Pandey Alex Groth

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Social media posts about election fraud in Wisconsin have surged since Election Day, surpassing all other battleground states, according to data collected by PeakMetrics, a software analytics company.

Between Nov. 6 and Nov. 12, the number of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, mentioning election fraud in Wisconsin surged from 2,570 to 22,589 — an approximately 789% increase, according to the report. There has been no evidence to suggest voter fraud is a common issue in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Republican Eric Hovde has been among those sowing doubts about voting integrity on X following the election, which he lost to Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

“Since last Wednesday, numerous parties have reached out to me about voting inconsistencies,” Hovde said in a statement on X.

IFrame Content

The Milwaukee Election Commission in a statement said it “unequivocally refutes Eric Hovde’s baseless claims regarding the integrity of our election process.”

“The (Election Commision) celebrates the dedication of Milwaukee residents to participate in the democratic process and is fully confident that Mr. Hovde’s accusations lack any merit,” the commission said in a statement. “Milwaukee voters can rest assured: the (Election Commission) conducted a fair, accurate, and secure election that fully protects voters rights and preserves the democratic process.”

As of Nov. 15, Hovde has yet to concede the race to Baldwin. With 99% of the state’s votes counted, the Democratic senator led Hovde by 49.3% to 48.5%, a margin of 28,958 votes.

Other battleground states see a drop in election fraud social media posts

The surge in Wisconsin posts comes as other battleground states actually saw a downtick in posts claiming election fraud within the last week. On Nov. 11, Wisconsin overtook Arizona as the state most cited in X posts about voter fraud since the election.

By Tuesday, a week after the election, about 70% of all X posts about election fraud in battleground states mentioned Wisconsin, according to PeakMetrics.

The company found most recent posts included allegations that Democrats “stole the Wisconsin Senate seat” and that absentee ballots in Wisconsin are a sign of “criminal election fraud.” It is a well-documented part of Wisconsin’s election process that absentee ballots statewide are counted on Election Day, with results reported all at once, often late in the night.

hmmn on meld

alternet-no lnx

Conservatism is dead. Conspiracism is dancing on its grave

Lindsay Beyerstein October 31, 2024

Conspiracist ideology has consumed the Republican Party. At his rally at Madison Square Garden, Trump pledged to demolish the deep state, drive out the globalists, and rout the fake news media. Speaker after speaker referenced the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, a dogma that was once confined to the manifestos of mass shooters, but which is now the Trump campaign’s closing argument for the presidency.

Former Fox host Tucker Carlson, who promoted the Great Replacement over 400 times on his now-defunct show, told the crowd at Madison Square Garden that the political class “despises [the people] and their values and their history and their culture and their customs really hates them to the point that it’s trying to replace them.”

The former president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr, was even more explicit.

“The Democrat[sic] Party has forgotten about Americans. Rather than cater to Americans, they decided, “You know what? It would just be easier to replace them with people who will be reliable voters.”

"Our elections are bad, and a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they're trying to get them to vote," Trump Sr., said last month.

The Republican National Committee under Lara Trump is claiming that millions of undocumented migrants could vote next week. A vast body of research, including recent audits by Republican-controlled states like Georgia, has found that voting by non-citizens is essentially non-existent.

By hyping this fake threat, Republicans are creating a pretext to challenge the election if Trump loses, putting a racist spin on their perennial allegations of voter fraud, and creating excuses for Republican governors to purge their voter rolls.

However, this obsession with non-citizen voting goes deeper than that. The lie of mass voting by undocumented migrants is the conceptual glue that binds the three major components of their conspiracist ideology: The Deep State, the Big Lie, and the Great Replacement.

Let’s review their delusional belief system:

The Deep State is a shadowy network of elites inside and outside of government who supposedly direct the course of history. This cabal is responsible for everything from Trump’s impeachments and prosecutions to voting laws and immigration policy. Some say it controls the weather.

The Big Lie is the debunked claim that voter fraud cost Donald Trump the 2020 election. Trump kicked off his Madison Square Garden rally by vowing to “totally obliterate the Deep State.”

The Great Replacement is the charge that the Deep State is deliberately importing migrants in order to replace white Americans, a process sometimes known as “white genocide.” The lie of massive noncitizen voting explains why the Deep State is supposedly importing all these migrants to commit election fraud.

These beliefs meld seamlessly into a paranoid whole. Trump told rally-goers in Atlanta that the only reason Democratic immigration policy must be the result of evil or stupidity. “Well, they’re not stupid because anybody that can cheat on elections that good is not stupid,” Trump told rally-goers in Atlanta. “But I never really talked about the third reason because it’s so sinister, but they want to sign these people up to vote, and if they do that, this country is destroyed.”

Trump has been blaming migrants for his political failures for years. In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote and blamed it on millions of illegal voters. Incredibly, Trump claimed that he would have won deep blue California – a state he lost by 30 points and 4 million votes – if not for those improbably civic-minded migrants. Trump convened a special commission to investigate voter fraud, which fizzled without finding evidence of the conspiracy.

Conservative ideology as we knew it is dead.

Conspiracism is all.

===

junk rt polls

an 10 24

Countless national and battleground state polls are showing the United States' 2024 presidential race to be incredibly tight, and many pollsters consider the race a toss-up or a "coin flip."

Yet right-wing media outlets are painting Donald Trump as the presidential candidate with the momentum, and they typically point to GOP-associated pollsters to make their case. American Greatness, Quantus, Trafalgar and Rasmussen are among the right-wing pollsters who have been providing Trump-friendly polls.

In a New York Times article published on October 31, reporters Ken Bensinger and Kaleigh Rogers describe the way right-wing pollsters are helping create the impression of Republican nominee Trump as having stronger momentum than Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

"The torrent of polls began arriving just a few weeks ago, one after the other, most showing a victory for Donald J. Trump," Bensinger and Rogers explain. "They stood out amid the hundreds of others indicating a dead heat in the presidential election. But they had something in common: They were commissioned by right-leaning groups with a vested interest in promoting Republican strength. These surveys have had marginal, if any, impact on polling averages, which either do not include the partisan polls or give them little weight."

The reporters continued, "Yet some argue that the real purpose of partisan polls, along with other expectation-setting metrics such as political betting markets, is directed at a different goal entirely: building a narrative of unstoppable momentum for Mr. Trump."

These "partisan polls," according to Bensinger and Rogers, "appear focused on lifting Republican enthusiasm before the election and — perhaps more important — cementing the idea that the only way Mr. Trump can lose to Vice President Kamala Harris is if the election is rigged."

Joshua Dyck, director of the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, told the Times, "Republicans are clearly strategically putting polling into the information environment to try to create perceptions that Trump is stronger. Their incentive is not necessarily to get the answer right."

READ MORE:[Wall St. CEOs betting on Trump victory — but stock market may favor Harris

*Read the New York Times' full article at this link (subscription required).

===

CBS Evening News reports that Steve Bannon “began planting seeds to challenge the 2024 results” as soon as he was released from prison

10/29/24 MMA

===

RWW 10/28/2024

Kyle Mantyla

Molly Redden, Andy Kroll and Nick Surgey @ ProPublica: “Put Them in Trauma”: Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda

A key ally to former President Donald Trump detailed plans to deploy the military in response to domestic unrest, defund the Environmental Protection Agency and put career civil servants “in trauma” in a series of previously unreported speeches that provide a sweeping vision for a second Trump term.

Alexandra Berzon, Nick Corasaniti, Dylan Freedman and Duy Nguyen @ The New York Times: Inside the Movement Behind Trump’s Election Lies

For years, Republican activists have huddled in video meetings to talk about remaking democracy and plan for the election. The New York Times has obtained the recordings.

Aysha Bagchi @ USA Today: Trump-aligned group is already planning lawsuits over election results

A Trump-aligned group that has filed lawsuits in several swing states challenging voter registration lists is already planning to sue over this year's election results, one of the group's founders told USA TODAY. "We feel compelled to file in defense of this beautiful country," said Marly Hornik, who co-founded United Sovereign Americans in 2023. "We already have signs and numbers coming in of errors inside of the process."

Caleb Howe @ Mediaite: New Elon Musk PAC Ad Calls Kamala Harris ‘Big Ole C Word’: ‘The Worst Part? She’s Proud Of It’

The PAC founded by billionaire Elon Musk in support of Donald Trump dropped a new ad on Sunday labeling Vice President Kamala Harris “a C word” that America “can’t afford.”

Amethyst Martinez @ The Daily Beast: Cross-Waving Trump Rally Speaker Calls Harris the ‘Antichrist’

Donald Trump’s rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden Sunday began on a bizarre note. A man [David Rem] with a prop crucifix was one of the opening acts, calling Vice President Kamala Harris the “antichrist” and “the devil.”

Christopher Mathias @ HuffPost: Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe Performs Wildly Racist Set At Trump Rally In New York City

Two hours before Donald Trump was set to take the stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City, right-wing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe warmed up the crowd with a shockingly racist performance.

===

REF NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/28/us/politics/inside-the-movement-behind-trumps-election-lies.html

Inside the Movement Behind Trump’s Election Lies

IFrame Content

For years, Republican activists have huddled in video meetings to talk about remaking democracy and plan for the election. The New York Times has obtained the recordings.

By Alexandra Berzon, Nick Corasaniti, Dylan Freedman and Duy Nguyen

Oct. 28, 2024

In the aftermath of Donald J. Trump’s defeat in 2020, one of his election lawyers set out to keep the lies about his loss alive.

The lawyer, a well-connected conservative named Cleta Mitchell, knit together grass-roots activists, Republican lawyers, party officials and deep-pocketed advocacy groups into a vast national network. The aim was nothing less than remaking American elections.

Over the past four years, Ms. Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network has done more than any other group to take Mr. Trump’s falsehoods about corruption in the democratic system and turn them into action.

Muted

Justrememberthatwhatwearecollectivelytryingtodoissaveourcountryfromtheradicalleft.That’swhatwe’redoing.Andtheyarefixatedontheelectionprocessbecausetheyknowthatiftheycanmanipulatetheprocess,theycangeneratethepolicyoutcomesthattheywant.Andthat’swhattheydidin2020.That’swhytheydidit.

Cleta Mitchell, August 2022.

Its participants have propelled specious theories from corners of the internet into the halls of Congress. They successfully lobbied for new state election laws and procedures, diving deep into the intricacies of election regulations. They have fanned out in neighborhoods on the hunt for evidence of election fraud.

And they have huddled in private, weekly meetings, methodically laying the groundwork that could be used to contest a Trump defeat.

The New York Times has obtained recordings of more than 400 of those meetings, over 400 hours of conversations, along with additional documents and training materials. It is a trove that provides an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at how misinformation is used to manufacture a movement.

IFrame Content

The Election Integrity Network held more than 400 videoconference meetings.

Even as it claims to be nonpartisan and grass-roots, Ms. Mitchell’s network has closely coordinated with the Trump-controlled Republican National Committee. It found an audience with several election officials, including four Republican secretaries of state, as well as more than a dozen state legislators.

Pillars of the conservative movement — groups funded by the megadonors Rebecca Dunn, Richard Uihlein, as well as the Bradley Impact Foundation and others — provided organizational and financial backing. The network was initially a project of the Conservative Partnership Institute, a group associated with Mark Meadows, a chief of staff in the Trump White House. Citizens for Renewing America, a related group founded by Russell T. Vought, a close Trump ally, also contributed money early on, according to public records.

Ms. Mitchell and others who played pivotal roles in Mr. Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election, including the former law professor John Eastman, the architect of the fake electors scheme, advised the ranks of activists as they sought to remove thousands of voters from the rolls and pushed to reimagine how elections are certified.

Right-wing media outlets, including Gateway Pundit and the Federalist, joined the calls and later publicized the activists’ work to sympathetic readers across the internet.

All of this coordination allowed debunked theories to jump from state to state. The network was instrumental in prompting state officials, in rapid succession, to abandon a widely regarded election data system, for example.

Earlier this year, Ms. Mitchell said she was called by God to shift her attention to the possibility that noncitizens were voting. Now, in the final weeks of the campaign, Republicans across the country, chief among them Mr. Trump, are wholly convinced of the baseless claims that Democrats are registering undocumented immigrants in droves in a plot to steal the election.

Ms. Mitchell’s network nurtured a cast of amateur election sleuths and armchair experts who often see evidence of election fraud in processes that they misinterpret. In Nevada, they tried to have dozens of voters tossed off the rolls because they did not live in the state, only to learn some of the voters were members of the military posted overseas.

When a retired family doctor in Georgia claimed to have designed new software that could identify ineligible voters, the Texas attorney general called and asked how he could help, the records show. Experts said the methodology was fundamentally flawed.

These activists are now embedded in the nation’s election system. Some sit on election boards, where they will be tasked with certifying results. Thousands will serve as poll monitors and workers posted at precincts across swing states where they will document what they say are signs of malfeasance or fraud.

Asked for comment, Ms. Mitchell said the activists “are dedicated to reclaiming our election systems to help ensure that the elections are conducted in accordance with applicable law, that the process is fully transparent and that election officials count the votes accurately.”

While it’s impossible to know precisely what will happen after next week’s election, if Mr. Trump loses and contests the results, members of Ms. Mitchell’s network are standing at the ready.

‘God Put This On My Heart’

I’vebeeninvolvedinelectionintegrity, electionlawforalong time,butitwasonly reallyearlierthisyear,inJanuaryofthisyear,thatIbegantoreally thinkaboutit.Isaid,Ithink God put thisonmy heart.SoIreallyneededtopayattentiontothissituationandtolearnasmuchasIcouldaboutwhatactuallyishappeningwithregardtocitizenandnoncitizensgettingonthevoterrollsandvoting.

Cleta Mitchell, May 2024.

Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, and scores of subsequent recounts, audits and studies, some conducted by Republicans, turned up no evidence of widespread problems with the vote. Similarly, there is no research to support the claim that people who are not citizens vote in large numbers in the United States. Voter fraud is extremely rare.

Ms. Mitchell had been a prominent Republican election lawyer for decades, a veteran of the long-running debates over tightening voter ID requirements and cleaning up voter rolls.

But in 2020, working as a lawyer for Mr. Trump, she took her work in a different direction. She supported the plan to send Trump electors to Congress from states where he lost the vote. She was on the call with Mr. Trump as he badgered Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the votes he needed to win.

After these efforts failed, she mobilized in a new way. She brought together veterans of the Tea Party movement, G.O.P. stalwarts and some new faces. She helped create some 30 state chapters and set up the weekly phone calls. Ms. Mitchell embraced a list of far-fetched and unfounded theories about election corruption and sold her new network as the vehicle to “save the country.”

In one meeting in May, she told Michigan activists, “this hijacking of our elections by illegals” was one of the ways the “left is thinking they’re going to control the outcome of the 2024 election.”

“But we’re onto them,” Ms. Mitchell said.

“That’s right, your army’s onto them, Cleta,” Patrice Johnson, the leader of the Michigan offshoot group, responded.

One of her first moves after what she described as her revelation about noncitizens casting ballots was to start clamoring for a federal bill that would require all voters to submit proof of citizenship, Ms. Mitchell said. She worked on the legislation and personally urged the House speaker, Mike Johnson, to make it a priority, she told activists on a call.

The bill failed. But Representative Chip Roy of Texas noted that the theories about noncitizen voting still served a political purpose. They joined together two issues that energize Republicans — worry about election integrity and border policy.

“It smashes those into one that puts Democrats on the defensive,” he said at a meeting in September, adding: “It should stay front and center as long as we can make it front and center.”

Forging an Alliance

Iknowthattimeisshortto save our republic ,butatthesametime,Ibelievethatwearemakingbiggerstridesthantheleftiscertainlyacknowledging.Iknowwe’remakingmorestridesthanourownsideunderstands.

Ron Armstrong, Michigan activist, Sept. 2023.

From the beginning, they were strange bedfellows.

There were throngs of activists angry at party leaders for what they saw as insufficient support for Mr. Trump, people still holding on to wild, repeatedly debunked notions about hacked election machines.

And there was a Republican Party that had taken a cautious and pragmatic approach, still not entirely beholden to Mr. Trump but wanting to use the activists to win elections.

Joining them together wasn’t easy.

On one call last year, Richard Silvestri, an activist in Michigan, railed against the party as being “for the same old same old” before realizing a party official, Matthew Seifried, was on the call. Mr. Seifried then defended the R.N.C.’s efforts to protect elections.

“This has been an uneasy alliance for us all over the country between the grass roots and the Republican Party,” Ms. Mitchell said on a call right after the 2022 midterms.

A spokeswoman for the R.N.C., Claire Zunk, said in a statement that the party had assembled an “unprecedented election integrity operation,” but did not comment on the Election Integrity Network.

The R.N.C. had played a critical role from the start. Its staff members helped organize kickoff events. It recruited the activists to be poll workers and poll watchers, helping the party fulfill its ambitions to have eyes on precincts across the country.

To comply with the tax code, the network presented itself as a nonpartisan group focused only on “election integrity.”

Members who accidentally slipped into partisanship were occasionally chided. During a July meeting shortly after Mr. Trump was shot, Janine Iyer, a volunteer leader with Michigan Fair Elections, praised the former president for trying to “save our country” and displayed an image of him raising his fist.

Almost instantly, Elizabeth Ayoub, the communications director for Michigan Fair Elections, chimed in: “Janine! We need to get this off the screen, and we need to stop talking about one candidate.”

More recently, overtly Trump-aligned groups have joined on the calls. One, Turning Point Action, is running get-out-the-vote operations on behalf of the Trump campaign. When a representative from the group joined a call with Michigan activists in April, he urged them to help with Republican voter turnout.

Ms. Johnson, who leads the network’s Michigan affiliate and a related political nonprofit, said the groups were not affiliated with a party and did not help Republican candidates. “It is hardly a conspiracy theory to point out the vulnerabilities in our elections system and to ask penetrating questions,” Ms. Johnson said in a statement.

The activists’ political views were unmistakable. Ms. Mitchell and other leaders within the network discussed their belief that “the left” rigged elections — either through policies that make it easier to vote, such as mail ballots or early voting, or through outright fraud and cheating. The only way that Republicans can have a shot, the activists said, was to change the system.

Planning for November

Wearerecruitingmassivenumbersofelectionworkersandelectionobserversaroundthecountry.Andthat’swhatweneedpeopletogetinvolvedintheelection.Andthenbeyondthat,we need turnout that’s too big to rig.

Ned Jones, Election Integrity Network official, Aug. 2024.

Republican losses in the midterm elections left the network looking for a new, more aggressive strategy for 2024. It settled on a mass effort to rid the voter rolls of people believed to be ineligible.

John Richards Jr., the doctor from Georgia, developed a software system he said could be used to identify suspicious voter registrations. On conference calls, leaders instructed activists to pore over records and go searching for evidence that voters’ addresses were wrong.

They knocked on doors, drove by parking lots, looked up utility records and took photos. They discussed searching for voters with “ethnic names,” even as Ms. Mitchell cautioned against intimidating voters. Their material ended up in affidavits delivered to election offices as activists in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and other states petitioned officials to have tens of thousands of voters removed. Election officials rejected most of their challenges.

Still, network leaders have not given up. They plan to use this mass data collection to arm local activists with names of voters to challenge if they cast ballots.

The Republican National Committee and other conservative groups have piggybacked on this work, filing lawsuits that claimed the voter rolls were larded with illegal voters, including large numbers of noncitizens.

The network’s leaders don’t often discuss the endgame of this work. But some have suggested the data could be used to challenge the results.

Andtherearesomecaseswherewe’regoingtohavecloseelections.Andwhenallelsefails,ifanelection,ifyouknow,anofficialthatlostacloseelectionknowsthatthereweresomeillegitimatevotesthatwerecastorquestionablevotesthatwerecast.Theycouldusethisinformationthatwehavepotentiallytotochallengetheelection.

Jim Womack, leader of the network's North Carolina affiliate, August 2024.

On a call in September, an activist working with United Sovereign Americans, an election-denial organization, said the supposed errors in the voter rolls “are all reason to say that the election certification process is not valid.”

Until 2020, certification was largely viewed as the ceremonial process of recording the official election results. But Mr. Trump’s allies, many affiliated with the Election Integrity Network, have pushed to redefine the role.

Local election officials can and should refuse to certify if they believe there was something wrong with the election — or if they want more time to investigate, they have argued. In Michigan, the network’s affiliate wrote and distributed a guidebook for county canvass board members that suggests they can conduct investigations before voting to certify.

“There’s a real push to certify quickly, and I think this is, I hate conspiracies, but I think this is a strategy,” Mr. Jones said during a July meeting. “That’s why we need to get people on these electoral boards who resist the pressure, and do it right.”

The network has put activists in position to do just that, encouraging members to run for local posts or work their way into the system through county and state parties.

Now, three women associated with the network hold key positions in the state. They were involved in recent attempts to make it easier for State Election Board members to hold up certification while they conduct inquiries into the vote. The effort failed in court.

But the network is looking beyond this election — with broader ambitions.

Working with the American Legislative Exchange Council, the network has written model legislation about noncitizen voting for state legislatures. Ms. Mitchell has talked about a federal elections overhaul should Republicans win the White House and Congress.

For Ms. Mitchell, it was never just about one election. It was about starting a movement.

“And we just have to keep remembering, we’re about the business of saving our country. And this wasn’t necessarily a great outcome for a battle, but I’m not prepared to throw in the towel and say that we’ve lost the war to save the country,” she said on a call after Republicans lost key races in the 2022 midterms. “I don’t think that any of us can even think that. I can’t think that. I’ll do it as long as I have breath in me.”

===

note mult intertwined conspir eg deep state, media bias...

mma

Project 2025 partner blog: “If Kamala Harris does win, it will, as of today, be because of a stolen election”

The Claremont Institute's Brian Kennedy: “Americans can be a very rough lot of people when they want to be. You can rig one election before their eyes, but can you rig two?”

Written by Madeline Peltz

Published 10/28/24

A Project 2025 partner blog published an op-ed titled “What if Harris Gets Away with It?” claiming Vice President Kamala Harris could win the 2024 election only if it is “stolen,” which would turn the United States into “an ungovernable country” that might involve “political disintegration."

In The American Mind, published by Project 2025 partner the Claremont Institute, Claremont senior fellow and board member Brian Kennedy claimed, “Over the past two decades we have been living through a slow-motion Communist revolution,” and the “corruption of our election system” has been “the most devastating."

He continued:

So, if Kamala Harris does win, it will, as of today, be because of a stolen election. Under these circumstances, America will become an ungovernable country. Large groups of Americans will believe their vote no longer counts. We have the experience this summer of Venezuela, where it was clear the opposition party won—so said the Biden Administration—only to have the Maduro regime keep hold of power by affirming the fraudulent results and gutting it out publicly against domestic and world opinion. One imagines the Harris campaign learned a lesson from that.

Kennedy then imagined a violent civil war scenario that might follow:

Americans can be a very rough lot of people when they want to be. You can rig one election before their eyes, but can you rig two? And can you rig the second one so openly and brazenly, and expect that the American people will not push back? How they push back is another matter, but it would serve the interest of America’s enemies to face a nation even more deeply divided than ours already is. Violence is not an option. But a political disintegration of Red America from Blue America is not impossible.

He recommended potential preventative measures to guard against a Harris win, including a “whistleblower program that offers a multi-million dollar reward for real evidence of” election fraud, “either through counterfeit mail-in ballots, fraudulent election day ballots, overseas ballots, or cyberattacks against our electronic voting system.”

He also suggested:

A second tactic could be to create a “Decision Desk 2024” on X both in Spaces and on the “America” video platform. It cannot be left to the legacy broadcast media to announce the winner of the election as if they have some divine authority. The mainstream media, from Fox News to MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS, have devolved into pure propaganda arms of the American Deep State. As such, they have disqualified themselves.

> Elon Musk can build a team of respected journalists and analysts to perform their own calculations and judgments about who won the election. He and his platform have a greater reach both nationally and internationally than the “mainstream” media. Imagine Elon Musk with Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the like examining the results. Not only would they be better trusted, but the democratization of the results by all the users of X would serve the American people better as well.

“Finally,” he wrote, “Americans must prepare themselves and their families for what could be great societal dislocation,” without offering specific recommendations about what that might mean.

A recent Media Matters analysis found significant ties between authors, contributors, and partner organizations involved in Project 2025 and the ongoing right-wing efforts to disenfranchise voters and sow confusion about the 2024 election.

Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote about this strategy recently:

By way of preparing my own audience: It is possible none of this will ultimately matter. With numerous swing states polling within the margin of error, and the chance of a systemic poll error in play, Trump could very well win legitimately in November.

But if the election returns show that Harris has triumphed, Trump has a backup plan ready to go: He can attempt to subvert the election, as he did in 2020.

While elements of that plan could be different, the broad strokes of declaring victory, presenting himself as the victim of election fraud, filing pretextual lawsuits, and ultimately leaning on Republican officials at the local, state, and federal levels to hand him the presidency remain unchanged.

This strategy rests on Trump being able to convince the Republican base that he won the election. In 2020, he had the support of a vast right-wing media ecosystem that, with few exceptions, had already prepped its audience to disbelieve the results of the election if Trump won. The result was a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol that threatened American democracy.

Since then, the right has purged media figures and Republican politicians who had stood in the way of the plot. And now, in 2024, the same players are again laying the groundwork for a Trumpian subversion effort.

===

10 24 badash

A massive new study finds a large number of Republicans, Trump supporters, and conservatives support violence under the guise of saving the country or ensuring the “rightful” leader is put in the White House.

Three in ten Republicans (29%) believe “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” according to the nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization PPRI’s “2024 American Values Survey.”

Nearly one in four MAGA Republicans (23%) “say that if Trump loses the election, he should declare the results invalid and do whatever it takes to assume office.” That view is also held by nearly one on five (19%) Republicans overall, including those who do not support Trump.

MAGA Republicans, or “Republicans who view Trump favorably are three times as likely as those who hold unfavorable views [of Trump] to support political violence (32% vs. 11%).

More than one in five Republicans (22%) agree that “if the 2024 presidential election is compromised by voter fraud, everyday Americans will need to ensure the rightful leader takes office, even if it requires taking violent actions.”

The study also looked at the politico-religious component of support for political violence, and found one-third (33%) of “Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers” agree that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.”

Additionally, one-third of Latter-day Saints (33%) and nearly one in three white evangelical Protestants (28%) “agree that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.”

Where Americans get their news appears to be a factor in their views on issues including violence and immigration.

“Americans who trust conservative news outlets are the most likely to support political violence (41%), followed by 30% of those who most trust Fox News, 18% of those who do not watch any TV news, and 13% of those who most trust mainstream TV news.”

Six in ten Republicans (61%) agree that “immigrants entering the country illegally today are poisoning the blood of our country,” PRRI’s survey finds, along with a “majority of Americans who most trust far-right news (70%) or Fox News (65%).”

Similarly, nearly two-thirds of Republicans (65%) support the “Great Replacement Theory,” and agree that “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” PRRI also finds that the “vast majority of far-right news (83%) and Fox News viewers (66%) agree with this theory,” as do the majority of Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers (63%) and white evangelical Protestants (62%), as well as half (50%) of Latter-day Saints.

“Nearly eight in ten Republicans (79%) favor putting undocumented immigrants in encampments,” PRRI also found. “The vast majority of Americans who most trust far-right news (91%) or Fox News (82%) favor militarized encampments for undocumented immigrants.”

“White evangelical Protestants (75%) are most likely to favor militarized encampments for undocumented immigrants, followed by the majority of white Catholics (61%), white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants (58%), and Latter-day Saints (56%).”

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and these answers … are keeping me up at night,” PRRI president and founder Robert P. Jones told Axios. “It’s all pretty dark and worrisome.”

Axios had reported: “The growing number of Republicans willing to shun democratic norms — and possibly embrace violence — comes as Trump continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him and is saying the 2024 election is already rigged.”

“Jones said those supporting the loser of the election doing whatever it takes to assume office are essentially endorsing a coup against the United States.”

Last week, Jones told MSNBC’s Joy Reid (video below), “there are [survey] questions that we have had to write during the Trump era as social scientists that I never thought we would have to write.”

“So to write that question and put it on a public opinion survey and say, we actually need to know what the American people think about this statement, that whether immigrants are poisoning the blood of the country, right, is just, I think we just pause for a minute, to say how astonishing that is.”

He added, “we’re all taught to kind of not be knee-jerk and kind of use the Nazi analogy…but like, ‘poisoning the blood’ — Mein Kampf uses the word blood 150 times,” referring to Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto.

“That’s Hitler’s word, right? And it’s often, it’s almost always used in this way, this kind of idea of purity and defilement, contamination, and it’s a politics of disgust that we’re really seeing here.”

Watch Jones on MSNBC below or at this link.

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===

an 10 24

Vice presidential hopeful JD Vance recently took the stage at an event organized by the most influential far-right pastor you’ve never heard of. His name is Lance Wallnau and he popularized a doctrine that calls for Christians to conquer every sphere of society from the government to professional sports.

Wallnau is a self-proclaimed Christian Nationalist who preaches that leftists aren’t even people, just vessels for demons. He accused Vice President Kamala Harris of witchcraft. He prayed for God to kill Trump’s enemies. Wallnau’s message is a mishmash of Bible memes and conspiracy theories. He preaches the Big Lie as gospel truth, fusing Christian nationalism and election denialism.

In 2020, Wallnau gathered the faithful for the insurrection of January 6th. Today, he’s responsible for a good chunk of the Trump campaign’s Get Out the Vote effort. He rails against George Soros, the globalists, the World Economic Forum and vaccines. He hypes quack stem-cell therapies and Donald Trump figurines as fervently as he hypes Jesus.

Most importantly, Wallnau preaches that Donald Trump is a modern-day King Cyrus, a heathen anointed by God. The upshot is that no matter how immoral, blasphemous or criminal Trump is, it doesn’t matter because he’s God’s instrument to impose Christian dominion. If you’ve ever wondered why evangelicals don’t care that Trump is a philandering felon, Wallnau’s King Cyrus meme explains a lot.

JD Vance is not an evangelical, but he seemed at home at the Courage Campaign. At least, he seemed as comfortable as he gets in the presence of actual voters. And why not? Vance is the interface between the C-suites and the fever swamps of Magaland. It’s why he spends so much time on weird podcasts. As a Yale-educated US senator, he legitimates the fringe. As a rightwing podcast bro, he shores up the Trump ticket’s bona fides with the supplement-slurping conspiracist base.

One of Vance’s key functions is to validate all the factions of the maga conspiracist coalition.

Conspiracism is the overarching ideology of the maga movement. The three pillars of the maga platform are the Deep State, the Big Lie and the Great Replacement, and Vance eagerly expounds on all three.

Moreover, Vance moves effortlessly among integralist Catholics, protestant New Apostolic Reformation types, and the more secular Silicon Valley contingent exemplified by Elon Musk.

Vance’s other role is to reassure the more staid elements of the conservative coalition that unchecked conspiracism is politically useful. In 2021, Vance exhorted the future leaders of the conservative movement tomake common cause with Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other raving conspiracy theorists. According to Vance, the conservative movement is doomed unless it makes common cause with lunatics.

“Believing crazy things is not the mark of whether somebody should be rejected. Believing important truths should be the mark of whether we accept somebody, and if they believe some crazy things on the side, that's ﬁne," Vance said. "Doesn't mean you have to defend their craziest views. But by all means, if this movement is going to survive, we need to speak for truth.”

The truth, according to Vance, is that an international cabal of financier sex perverts is ruining our society. This is the closest thing Vance has to an ideology. Like Wallnau, Vance is willing to use flawed instruments. As long as someone’s willing to affirm the core conspiracy premise, Vance is flexible about whether it’s dressed up in religious lingo, or whether his brother- or sister-in-paranoia also believes in Jewish space lasers or a federal plot to turn the frogs gay.

===

sorta spin on illegal alien voter?

mma

A conspiracy theory about overseas voting spread from an election denial website to Trump — and now to the MAGA media infrastructure

Conservative pundits are mischaracterizing a longstanding law that allows US citizens abroad to vote

Written by John Knefel

Research contributions from Madeline Peltz

Published 10/10/24

Right-wing media figures have amplified a conspiracy theory that Democrats are attempting to steal the 2024 election by weaponizing a longstanding law that allows Americans overseas to vote.

As researchers at the University of Washington explained, right-wing junk site The Gateway Pundit appears to have originated the false claim in early September, and former President Donald Trump promoted it later that month.

The September 6 Gateway Pundit blog mischaracterized a Democratic Party press release announcing a plan to register Americans living overseas to vote through a 1986 law known as the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). The article’s headline falsely claimed that the get-out-the-vote effort — a first from the Democratic National Committee — was an “Undetectable Way to Steal the Election From Trump,” rather than a legal avenue to reach voters.

“The Democrats are talking about how they’re working so hard to get millions of votes from Americans living overseas,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on September 23. “Actually, they are getting ready to CHEAT!”

David Becker, the founder and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, told The Associated Press, “In over 25 years of working in elections, in both Republican and Democratic administrations, and with election officials of both parties, I don’t recall any of them, or any elected leader from either party, ever denigrating this important program, until Trump’s false claims this week.”

Shortly after Trump endorsed The Gateway Pundit’s misinformation, Republican officials in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Michigan filed lawsuits challenging aspects of UOCAVA and related laws designed to facilitate overseas voting. Cleta Mitchell, a prominent election denier and former Trump adviser who attempted to overturn the 2020 election, said on a right-wing radio show that she’d “helped to organize” the suits in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, adding that she hoped to file another, similar suit in Wisconsin.

Several right-wing media outlets and pundits further spread the conspiracy theory that Democrats will “exploit” UOCAVA to register “bad actors” ahead of the 2024 election.

The Gateway Pundit has published several additional articles mischaracterizing UOCAVA:

- One article claimed that UOCAVA “could very well be the key to how Democrats plan to steal our upcoming election from President Trump.”
- Another stated that “UOCAVA opens the door to unlimited foreign voter voting.”
- A third argued that Democrats were using UOCAVA to “exploit weaknesses in Federal law in order to use noncitizens as political pawns to achieve desired outcomes."

True the Vote founder and election denial activist Catherine Engelbrecht cast doubt on overseas voting, suggesting it would be used by noncitizens and adding, “Without the data for citizenship, you cannot tell. It's outrageous.” (As the University of Washington researchers pointed out, state laws vary but overseas voters need to validate their eligibility prior to casting a ballot.) Engelbrecht concluded that “the fraud’s been institutionalized.”

Claiming she “helped to organize” two lawsuits challenging overseas voting, Cleta Mitchell said without evidence that UOCAVA had been “exploited, and they’re literally getting people to lie and say that they’re overseas, or to say that they’re citizens, and the states are not checking at all.”

Former Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington celebrated the Pennsylvania lawsuit, writing: “5 Congressman just filed a lawsuit in PA over Democrats refusal to verify identity in the overseas ballot program. There are 25,000 UOCAVA ballots in PA already for 2024 and only 3,600 —14% — are to military members and their family."

- Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the founder of America First Legal, an anti-voting rights organization, also reposted Harrington’s thread.

Right-wing website The National Pulse praised the Pennsylvania lawsuit as well, claiming the overseas voting process “could be open to bad actors.”

Joel Barry, managing editor of right-wing satire site the Babylon Bee, wrote that UOCAVA is part of “the Democrat plan to steal elections using ‘overseas’ ballots.”

Right-wing blog The Federalist baselessly warned of the potential for fraud, writing that it is “hypothetically possible to sit in Anytown, U.S.A., and request that a UOCAVA ballot be emailed to you, while claiming you are in another country.”

Caroline Wren — an adviser to prominent election denier and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake — criticized the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign for failing to file a lawsuit in Arizona challenging “the UOCAVA overseas ‘voters.’”

Right-wing website Just the News wrote that “Republicans and election integrity advocates are sounding the alarm over possible fraud that could occur with absentee ballots sent from other countries.”

Conservative activist and election denier Heather Honey appeared on a Rumble stream to baselessly claim that “some of the provisions” of UOCAVA are a little bit loosey goosey” and that Democrats and associated nongovernmental organizations are “not telling people on social media that there are citizenship requirements.” (At least two of the examples she used in her presentation included the word “citizen” in the advertisement.)

The right-wing targeting of UOCAVA comes against the backdrop of a larger conservative campaign to spread fear that noncitizens will vote in large numbers in November (there is no evidence to support that allegation, but Fox News and other right-wing networks have saturated their airwaves with it).

The GOP has its own outreach program to Americans abroad called Republicans Overseas — one of more than 100 conservative organizations on the advisory board of Project 2025, a sprawling right-wing effort to provide policy and staffing to a second Trump administration.

In 2021, Republicans Overseas vice chairman and CEO Solomon Yue — who is also a Republican National Committee member — wrote a resolution for the Oregon Republican Party that falsely claimed there was “growing evidence” that the January 6 insurrection was a “false flag” intended to “to discredit President Trump, his supporters, and all conservative Republicans,” according to The New York Times.

===

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an 10 24

All across the country, Republican candidates who openly doubt the outcome of the 2020 election are running in statewide elections. This includes Republican nominees for both U.S. Senate races as well as gubernatorial elections, and even candidates seeking to oversee their respective state's elections.

CNN found that of the 51 Republican statewide hopefuls on the 2024 ballot, 23 of them — a full 45% of all Republican statewide candidates – are election deniers. And many election deniers are seeking office in some of the most hotly contested battleground states in presidential elections.

34 states are holding U.S. Senate elections in November. And 14 Republican Senate candidates have gone on the record supporting election-denying narratives. This includes incumbents like Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Rick Scott (R-Florida) as well as candidates seeking to oust Democrats like Sam Brown in Nevada, Kari Lake in Arizona, Bernie Moreno in Ohio and Royce White in Minnesota.

Governors also play an important role in safeguarding elections by signing Electoral College certificates after their respective states' electors meet following a presidential election. In the event a far-right election denier becomes governor, it's possible a legislature may have to intervene in order to make sure electoral college certificates get signed.

This possibility has become a concern for many former governors, who recently co-signed an open letter to current governors urging them to certify their states' Electoral College certificates following the November election. Co-signers include former Governors Jeb Bush (R-Florida), Tom Corbett (R-Pennsylvania), Gray Davis (D-California), Jim Hodges (D-South Carolina) and Mark Schweiker (R-Pennsylvania), among others.

"We write as bipartisan former Governors with an eye to December 11th. This is the deadline for issuing and sending Certificates of Ascertainment to the National Archives. This is six days before the Electoral College will meet in state capitals across our nation," the letter read. "While there is much to debate on the campaign trail, we expect all candidates and the American people will agree that this time-honored process during our post-election period is not open for debate. It is simply a ministerial and administrative duty."

Some of the more notable election deniers running for governor include Mike Braun in Indiana, Greg Gianforte in Montana, Mike Kehoe in Missouri, Patrick Morrisey in West Virginia and Mark Robinson in North Carolina. While four of those states are reliably red, North Carolina is regarded as a battleground state, with both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in a dead heat. Robinson is currently trailing Democrat Josh Stein – the current attorney general — in the gubernatorial race by double digits.

Perhaps the most dangerous office for an election denier to hold is secretary of state, which in most states is the official tasked with overseeing the conducting of all elections. Republican candidates who have gone on record casting doubt on the result of the 2020 election include Denny Hoskins in Missouri, Dennis Linthicum in Oregon, H. Brooke Paige in Vermont and Kris Warner in West Virginia.

Hoskins and Warner are heavily favored to win given their states' strong Republican leanings. After winning the Missouri Republican primary in August, Hoskins insinuated President Joe Biden was not the true winner of the 2020 election, saying: "[W]e have to ensure that none of the electoral fraud that took place in 2020 and stole the election from President Trump happens here."

According to CNN, Hoskins has also urged supporters to watch convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza's debunked film "2000 Mules," which baselessly suggests that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump via ballot drop boxes in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan. He is running against Democratic state representative Barbara Phifer in November.

Click here to read CNN's report in its entirety.

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SENT TO 9 YEARS, JUDGE SOUNDED LIKE HE WAS TALKING TO TRUMP

A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race.

District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — after earlier sparring with her for continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines — that she never took her job seriously.

“I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett told her in handing down the sentence. “You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan.”

Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person’s identity.

AP AUDIO: Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters sentenced to 9 years for voting data scheme

AP correspondent Norman Hall reports a former Colorado county clerk has been sentenced to 9 years in a voting data scheme.

The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from former President Donald Trump. The discredited claims trace back to Trump himself, whose supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol because of them and who still hints at them in his third run for president.

At trial, prosecutors said Peters, a Republican, was seeking fame and became “fixated” on voting problems after becoming involved with those who had questioned the accuracy of the presidential election results.

A one-time hero to election deniers, Peters has been unapologetic about what happened.

Before being sentenced, Peters insisted that everything she did to try to unroot what she believed was fraud was for the greater good.

“I’ve never done anything with malice to break the law. I’ve only wanted to serve the people of Mesa County,” she told the court.

When Peters pressed on with claims no legal authority has corroborated about “wireless devices” and fraud software in voting machines, however, she drew the judge’s exasperation. Ballot recounts showed no discrepancies, he pointed out.

“I’ve let you go on enough about this,” Judge Barrett said. “The votes are the votes.”

Later, the judge noted that Peters has kept up public appearances in broadcasts to sympathetic audiences for her own benefit.

“It’s just more lies. No objective person believes them. No, at the end of the day, you cared about the jets, the podcasts and people fawning over you,” Barrett said.

Peters had the right to be defiant, he noted, but it was “certainly not helpful for her lot today.”

The breach led by Peters heightened concerns that rogue election workers sympathetic to partisan lies could use their access and knowledge to attack voting processes from within.

It’s impossible to overestimate the damage Peters has done to other election workers in Colorado and elsewhere, Colorado County Clerks Association director Matt Crane told the court.

“In a real and specific way, her actions have led directly to death threats and general threats to the lives and the families of the people who work in our elections,” Crane said. “She has willingly aided individuals in our country who believe that violence is a way to make a point. She has knowingly fueled a fire within others who choose threats as a means to get their way.”

He, his wife and his children have been among those threatened, Crane said.

===

rww rolling stone big lie officials in many swing states 8 24

===

mma 9 10 24

October 1, 2024, edition of Resolute Protector Foundation's The Bill Walton Show

CLETA MITCHELL (GUEST): The pattern is that Democrats are basing their political future on noncitizens. That is part of their national global plan for their political power. And why? If you cannot sell your policies and your proposals for the country to turn America into a Marxist, one world country, destroy our sovereignty, well, what do you do if you can't persuade a majority of the electorate? You just change the electorate. That's what this is about. It is by design. It is not an accident.

BILL WALTON (HOST): Well, we've been shouted down when we say the great, we talk about the great replacement theory. But listening to this and everything else, it's a fact. I mean, this is the strategy. It's the great replacement scheme.

---

mma

October 1, 2024, edition of Resolute Protector Foundation's The Bill Walton Show

CLETA MITCHELL (GUEST): But one of the reasons it matters in Wisconsin is because we know Wisconsin is a very close state. We know that the presidential election was decided by approximately 20,000 votes in 2020. And we know that there are very active left-wing groups, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, who are responsible for many, many thousands of illegals that they are bringing all over the state of Wisconsin and the Department of Transportation has signs posted everywhere saying no birth certificate, no documents, no problem. They will give you an ID which looks exactly like it looks exactly like a driver's license. There's no distinguishing characteristic. And they have same day voter registration in Wisconsin. So all you have to do is show up with your ID that looks like a driver's license and you're given a ballot.

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mma 9 24

election denier group True the Vote is planning to monitor ballot drop boxes with “24/7 streaming video” that will be “available for anyone”

Founder Catherine Engelbrecht: “This cycle, we do intend to have eyes on those drop boxes with surveillance footage”

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published 09/05/24

On Steve Bannon’s War Room, Catherine Engelbrecht — founder of the election denial organization True the Vote — claimed that the organization “intend[s]” to have “surveillance footage” for monitoring ballot drop boxes in states like Michigan and Wisconsin, making it “available for anyone who wants to see it 24/7.”

Back in 2022, Engelbrecht and True the Vote claimed that drop boxes were used for fraud in the 2020 presidential election in their debunked film 2000 Mules, which was created with Dinesh D’Souza and distributed by Salem Media. Salem later apologized for and retracted the film after settling a lawsuit a Georgia voter filed against the company, True the Vote, and D’Souza.

True the Vote has pushed election conspiracy theories for years, even partnering with QAnon figures to target an election software company.

In July, Engelbrecht seemingly revealed that True the Vote is aiming to monitor drop boxes during the 2024 election, claiming during media appearances that the group was reaching out to sheriffs to do so, including giving them “camera equipment.”

Then, during the September 4 episode of War Room, Engelbrecht reiterated the apparent plans to monitor drop boxes this election cycle, while emphasizing that her organization is aiming to provide “24/7 streaming video … for anyone who wants to see it.”

She also credited the organization’s “work that ultimately led to 2000 Mules” for revealing that “drop boxes were not being monitored, even though states like Wisconsin, like Michigan assured their population that they were.”

Video file

Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

PETER NAVARRO (GUEST HOST): Drop boxes, let’s face it. They’re the Achilles' heel of the whole election system right now. And a lot of that — your 2000 Mules kind of, I think, proved that. What are you doing, as an organization, to police those drop boxes? How can the posse help?

CATHERINE ENGELBRECHT (TRUE THE VOTE FOUNDER): Well, what we learned out of all of our work that ultimately led to 2000 Mules was that those drop boxes were not being monitored, even though states like Wisconsin, like Michigan assured their population that they were absolutely being monitored with surveillance cameras. That was not true.

And so, this cycle, we do intend to have eyes on those drop boxes with surveillance footage. And if everything goes as we hope, what you can expect from us is to see 24/7 streaming video with the support of people and procedures that will give us eyes on those drop boxes. And I don’t wanna go too much further into it except to say that there is a plan, and the goal is to make that video available for anyone who wants to see it 24/7.

And we’re very, very encouraged about that. Not only because it's going to give people an opportunity to see for themselves, but it will also have a deterrent effect to the bad actors that intended to exploit drop boxes thinking that they weren’t going to be called out. They definitely will be.

Election denial organization True the Vote says it “is reaching out to sheriffs across the country” to monitor ballot drop boxes

08/06/24 2:02 PM EDT

### How True the Vote cultivated relationships with QAnon influencers to target an election software company and serve as a pipeline to law enforcement

09/15/22 2:04 PM EDT

### Salem Media retracts Dinesh D’Souza’s bogus voter fraud film 2000 Mules after two years of right-wing media circulation

06/05/24

===

Several of the speakers who endorsed presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago were conservative Republicans, including former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois), former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, ex-Mike Pence national security aide Olivia Troye, and Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles.

Like other pro-Harris Republicans, that former President Donald Trump is fundamentally anti-democracy. And the Mesa mayor is warning that Trump and his MAGA allies will fight the election results if Harris wins in November.

The Guardian's Peter Stone, in an article published on September 3, points to Giles as one of the people who is sounding the alarm about the extremes Trump is willing to go to.

If Trump loses, Giles predicts, MAGA Republicans "will throw everything at the wall and see what sticks."

The Mesa mayor warned, "They'll claim everything went wrong if they lose. I'd be surprised if Trump doesn't try to foment insurrection if he loses the election."

Stone cites Turning Point USA and True the Vote as some of the "MAGA stalwarts" who have been "spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud in order to lay the groundwork for charging the election was rigged if Trump loses."

Former Rep. Dave Trott (R-Michigan) told The Guardian, "Trump continues to encourage his supporters like Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA to question the integrity of our elections. He has no evidence or basis for claiming fraud and is only perpetuating these lies so he has a plan B to disrupt democracy in the event he loses."

David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research is worried as well, telling The Guardian, "A lot of false claims are masquerading as efforts to change policy to improve election integrity when in actuality, they're just designed to sow distrust in our system if Trump loses. This is all designed to manufacture claims that if Trump loses, the election was stolen and to sow discord, chaos and potential violence.”

*Read The Guardian's full article at this link.

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an 9 24

Former President Donald Trump has more than his share of outspoken critics within Christianity, from the Rev. Raphael Warnock (a Democratic U.S. senator via Georgia) to devout Catholics like President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California). His Democratic opponent in the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, is a Baptist with a fondness for Hinduism (her mother was from India).

Yet Trump continues to be extremely popular within a certain area of Christianity: far-right evangelical Christian nationalists, who see a second Trump term as God's will. One of them is Joshua Standifer, founder of the group Lion of Judah.

In an article published on September 4, The Guardian's Alice Herman details Standifer's efforts to recruit Christian nationalists as election workers.

READ MORE:['Droves of' childless Americans and adoptive parents are still raging at JD Vance

"A Christian political operative has teamed up with charismatic preachers to enroll election skeptics as poll workers across the country, using a Donald Trump-aligned swing state tour to enlist support in the effort," Herman explains. "Joshua Standifer... describes the effort as a 'Trojan horse' strategy to get Christians in 'key positions of influence in government like election workers,' which will help them identify alleged voter fraud and serve as 'the first step on the path to victory this fall,' according to his website."

Standifer, Herman adds, "has been on the road with a traveling pro-Trump tent revival featuring self-styled prophets and Christian nationalist preachers that has made stops in key swing states, including Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin."

"The Lion of Judah’s election worker training program, which The Guardian has reviewed, features a series of modules titled 'Fight The Fraud: How to Become an Election Worker in 4 Easy Steps,'" Herman reports. "Standifer's project has so far largely flown under the radar."

But Matthew D. Taylor of the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies has been sounding the alarm about Standifer's efforts.

In a thread posted on X, formerly Twitter, Taylor warned, "Standifer's organization Lion of Judah represents an urgent & unrecognized hazard to our democracy this fall. It's targeting election workers. I was at this event on Monday. I talked to Standifer himself…. Lion of Judah poses as a Christian ministry aimed at assisting Christians to register as election workers. That might sound mostly innocuous-albeit strange-but you have to look at the context in which they're doing it & how they go about it."

Taylor tweeted video of Standifer speaking in Wisconsin, where he said, "What if we had Christians across America, in swing states like Wisconsin, that were actually the ones counting the votes? ... They don't see it coming."

*Read The Guardian's full article at this link.

===

2x? april

United States Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), during a Friday night town hall in Iowa, rejected the claim that the 2020 election was rigged against former President Donald Trump, NBC reports.

Per NBC, the 2024 Republican hopeful "has previously cast doubt on Trump's claims but without going as far as he did Friday."

Earlier this year, according to The Hill, "When asked for his thoughts on Trump's behavior after the 2020 election that led to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Scott responded he wants to focus on his vision for the future instead of having a conversation about Trump, noting that he was at the Capitol during the riot."

However, during the recent Iowa event, Scott took his stance a step further, saying, "I do not believe the election was stolen. There was cheating, but was the election stolen? There's a difference. I think [in] every election there's cheating."

Nearly one year after the 2020 election, an Associated Press report found "fewer than 475 potential instances" of voter fraud "out of more than 25 million votes cast," according to PBS, which the report determined is "a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election."

Scott's comments come nearly two months after his GOP rival and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley condemned the Jan. 6 attack, saying, "I don't know enough about each individual [rioter] but that's my rule: If you break the law, you pay the price. And so I think that's the way we need to look at it."

*NBC's full report is available at this link. The Hill's report is here. PBS' report is here. Associated Press' report is here.

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charlie Kirk’s Turning Point connects far-right extremists with the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign

The Turning Point event this past weekend featured a number of extremists, with at least two speakers using the phrase “Christ is king” — an antisemitic dog whistle long favored by the white nationalist “groyper” movement

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MADELINE PELTZ, SOPHIE LAWTON & ALEX KAPLAN

PUBLISHED 06/18/24

Several right-wing extremist figures spoke at a weekend event organized by conservative radio host Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action, which is partnering with the Republican National Committee and former President Donald Trump's campaign. At least two speeches included the phrase “Christ is king,” an antisemitic dog whistle long favored by white nationalists.

Speakers at The People’s Convention included right-wing pundit Candace Owens, who has a history of making antisemitic remarks and appears to be associating herself with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes; neo-Nazi collaborator and Pizzagate conspiracy theory peddler Jack Posobiec; and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The presence of these figures is not surprising, given the significant ties Kirk and Turning Point have to right-wing extremists and white nationalists.

The three-day summit illustrated how Turning Point Action and its affiliate Turning Point USA have come to serve as a bridge between official Republican Party institutions and the more openly bigoted and extremist elements of Trump’s movement. Over the weekend, CNN reported that the Trump campaign is working with Turning Point Action. Politico wrote that Turning Point “has become a central player in the party apparatus,” as “part of recent collaborations between the [Trump] campaign, RNC and outside groups.” In May, The Washington Post reported that the RNC was adopting a “leaner” approach and was considering outsourcing much of its voter outreach to TPUSA and other right-wing organizations.

Speaking directly after Kirk on the event’s opening day, Owens opened and closed her speech with the phrase “Christ is king” — a slogan long used by Fuentes’ “groyper” movement that has gained antisemitic connotations through its use in far-right-wing contexts. Last November, Owens used the phrase to troll Ben Shapiro, her then-colleague at The Daily Wire — one flare-up in a monthslong feud between the two. The Daily Wire and Owens “ended their relationship” in March, according to CEO Jeremy Boreing.

“When you do come together and you do start a family, for the love of God, put Christ first,” Owens said, prompting an audience chant of: “Christ is king.”

“Correct, and we’re going to lead out on that chant,” Owens responded.

Owens then claimed that Democrats and liberals are bringing “the full weight of the government” against Trump, but that “Trump is just one step — they’ve always been after Jesus Christ.”

“Christ is king,” Owens said in closing.

Video

CitationFrom the June 14, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Convention

On the third day of the event, Posobiec echoed Owens.

“We understand this is a war against the demonic, this is a spiritual war!” Posobiec shouted, raising a rosary in his clenched fist. “We can only defeat a spiritual war with Christ as king because Christ is king.”

“Christ is king,” he repeated.

That phrase wasn’t the only example of the groypers’ influence on Turning Point. In 2021, Chet Hanks attempted to manufacture a viral moment for himself by calling for a “white boy summer,” but the phrase was quickly adopted by neo-Nazis and other extremists, including followers of Fuentes. On Sunday, Posobiec took the stage next to a banner reading “WHITE BOY SUMMER” and tossed hats branded with the slogan to the crowd.

Video

CitationFrom a June 16, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Conference

Posobiec then introduced Jones, appearing fresh off a court order to liquidate his assets in order to pay surviving members of the Sandy Hook massacre whom he’d repeatedly defamed by claiming the shooting was a false flag.

“The answer to 1984 is 1776,” Jones said before attempting to lead the crowd in a “1776” chant — a dog whistle that signifies opposition to the anti-racist 1619 Project.

“Just three or four days ago, the great folks at Turning Point Action invited me on here. I’m very blessed and honored to be here,” Jones said before pushing an election denialist conspiracy theory. “We are in the very center, the TCF Center, where almost four years ago, in the dead of night, they stole the election not just from our amazing president, but from us.”

Later in his speech, Jones repeated another conspiracy theory he’d helped spread in May when he falsely claimed President Joe Biden had hatched a scheme to kill Trump. “They are going to try to assassinate President Trump, make no mistake about that,” Jones said.

Video

CitationFrom a June 16, 2024, Rumble livestream of Turning Point USA's The People's Conference

Posobiec, standing next to Jones, praised his career. “Alex Jones has spent 30 years being the loudest voice for freedom, for liberty, and for anti-war that this world has seen,” Posobiec said.

Other notable speakers included anti-LGBTQ extremist James Lindsay and QAnon conspiracy theory peddler Scott Presler, who was present during the January 6 attempted insurrection and previously worked at anti-Muslim hate group Act for America. In March, RNC co-chair Lara Trump said she was interested in hiring Presler to be “part of the team” to help with “the largest legal ballot harvesting operation in the entire country,” which will be “started by the RNC.”

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so much for remorse

Jenna Ellis hosts election denier and fellow former Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell to spread election misinformation

06/14/24

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see big lie trump coup fake electors always POC cities/ ga election workers

AM PROSPECT

6 24

On Tuesday, Wisconsin became the fifth state to file criminal charges stemming from the plot by Republicans to overturn the 2020 election by submitting forged electoral certificates falsely claiming that Donald Trump had won the vote.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced a felony indictment on June 4 against two attorneys, Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis, and campaign aide Mike Roman, all of whom helped orchestrate the scheme to submit false paperwork claiming to represent that state’s electoral votes. The group was charged with conspiracy to commit forgery.

The indictments are another small step toward establishing the official record of the stunning and destabilizing events of the 2020 election, even in the face of a continuing barrage of disinformation from the Republican Party, and despite the plodding pace and laxity of law enforcement in one of the most important criminal cases in the country’s history.

A former adviser and assistant to then-President Trump, Peter Navarro, recently reported to prison to serve a sentence for contempt of Congress, after defying a subpoena to testify about the plot. Rudy Giuliani, another former adviser and Trump lawyer, was served with an indictment for his participation in the scheme in Arizona, after disclosing his location at a birthday party in a social media post that mocked law enforcement officials for being unable to locate him. And Trump himself was convicted last week for falsifying records in an effort to cheat in theprevious presidential election, in 2016. And that’s just since March.

*More from Hassan Ali Kanu

Meanwhile, Republicans remain uniformly unbothered by the unprecedented, multipronged assaults on our democracy, and by Trump’s personal role. And they’ve continued to push false narratives about the former president being politically targeted, along with a need to protect against allegedly widespread voter fraud.

Still, the verdicts thus far, the plea deals, pending prosecutions, and indictments, as well as the public evidence, tell a different story. Taken together, they make it clear that there was an illegal scheme, involving the core of the Republican leadership, to overturn a legitimate election by fraud and by force—and that those efforts to disenfranchise voters were targeted against Black and Latino people specifically.

The broader scheme that resulted in the recent charges in Wisconsin, for example, didn’t question ballots across the state. It sought to disqualify votes only in Milwaukee and Dane Counties, where a supermajority of nonwhite Wisconsinites live. (Milwaukee County includes the city of Milwaukee, and Dane includes college town and liberal bastion Madison.)

That observation wasn’t lost on a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, who told Troupis in 2020 that Trump’s lawsuit asking the courts to scrap hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots solely in those counties “smacks of racism.”

The same goes for just about every other county and city whose voters were portrayed by Trump and his allies as potential criminals and somehow “illegitimate,” like Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix; Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas; and Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit.

If you’ll recall, the dog whistles being used at that time were often pitched at the tone of an emergency siren; the underlying racism was fairly obvious to many other observers.

Bob Bauer, then a senior legal adviser to President Joe Biden’s campaign, told NPR in November 2020 that there was nothing subtle about Trump’s “targeting of the African American community.”

“It’s quite remarkable how brazen it is,” Bauer said. “This is straight out, discriminatory behavior.”

The illegal plot to overturn the election is overwhelmingly a racist plot to return Black voters and other voters of color to second-class citizenship, stripped of their voting rights.

And here’s how Nevada’s attorney general, Aaron Ford, put it when I interviewed him that same month: “I can say, as succinctly as possible: These are Jim Crow-era efforts to disenfranchise voters.”

The “fake elector” scheme was a central component of Trump and his allies’ scattershot strategy to subvert the election result, according to the separate indictments and ongoing prosecutions brought by the Justice Department against the many co-conspirators.

The latest indictments in Wisconsin are the first in the state, which was where the plot actually originated before being attempted elsewhere.

The charging documents lay out the three defendants’ role in promoting the theory behind the unlawful scheme, and how they coordinated to transmit forged electoral certificates to a as their bagman, ultimately delivering the fraudulent paperwork to Chesebro in Washington, D.C. The young woman received a selfie from Chesebro so that she could identify him, and later text-messaged the co-conspirators saying, “5 mins until I make the drop,” adding, “I feel like a drug dealer.”

The forged documents were delivered to a staffer for an unnamed Pennsylvania congressman; and the plan was supposed to culminate with then-Vice President Pence simply rejecting his legal duty to open the envelopes containing the electoral vote certificates, or reading out the results from the fake certificates instead, according to the indictments.

At this point, the Wisconsin case seems pretty airtight. Ten people who actually stood in as “alternate” (i.e., fake) electors have accepted a settlement in a different, civil lawsuit brought by two (real) Wisconsin electors and a voter. The Wisconsin fake electors even formally repudiated their false claims as part of the settlement, including admitting that they “were not the duly elected presidential electors,” and that their actions were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential elections.” One of the false electors, who is also a former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, has said they were “tricked by the Trump campaign” into signing a document claiming Trump won the state.

Chesebro and Roman have also been charged along with Trump in a racketeering indictment in Georgia; Chesebro has pleaded guilty in that case and agreed to provide evidence. (The case was temporarily put on hold Wednesday while the court reviews a conflict-of-interest allegation against the prosecutor, which likely pushes out that trial beyond the presidential election.)

The indictments in other states also shore up the allegations about the conspiracy, and they show the involvement of Republican Party leadership around the country.

State authorities in Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, and Arizona have also brought charges stemming from the plot. The former chairs of the Michigan Republican Party and the Georgia Republican Party have been charged for helping submit electoral certificates. And the indictments against Chesebro and others implicate the Republican National Committee as well.

The latest charging documents point out that “Trump, Michael Pence, and the Trump campaign filed lawsuits in Dane County Circuit Court and Milwaukee County Circuit Court, ‘seeking to invalidate a sufficient number of Wisconsin ballots to change Wisconsin’s certified election results.’”

The two cities are Wisconsin’s most diverse. The city of Milwaukee, for example, is majority-minority, with Black and Latino people accounting for about 59 percent of its population.

Those patterns hold in virtually all of the places targeted by the Trump campaign and Republican Party’s efforts. Both Maricopa County and Clark County, for example, are about 32 percent Latino, and Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit are all plurality- or majority-Black.

Of course, the specter of massive voter fraud in those counties and cities was and is a myth, based on nothing more than racist tropes, and barely hidden by racially coded language.

Trump and his allies routinely invoke race, almost always to marginalize and degrade nonwhite people, but often without actually using explicitly racist or racial language. The illegal plot to overturn the election, in other words, is overwhelmingly a racist plot to return Black voters and other voters of color to second-class citizenship, stripped of their voting rights.

As part of the scheme, Trump and other defendants spread knowingly false claims of election fraud, including lies about two specific, Black Atlanta election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss—facts that are a part of the federal and Georgia indictments.

Trump, for example, falsely claimed that Freeman, a temp worker in her sixties, was actually a “professional vote scammer” and “hustler.” He mentioned Freeman by name 18 different times in his now-infamous call in which he pressured and at times threatened Georgia officials to alter the election results.

While trying to overturn the election in 2020, Trump baldly asserted that Detroit and Philadelphia are “two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country, easily.” He has previously singled out Oakland and Baltimore, saying living in those cities is “like living in hell.” And the former president has also described Atlanta as “crime-infested” and a “Murder and Violent Crime War Zone.”

Trump’s lawyer, Giuliani, falsely claimed that there was video footage of Freeman and Moss acting suspiciously during the voting process, and compared them to drug dealers “passing out dope.”

Freeman and Moss have since faced horrific, racist death threats, as they explained during emotional congressional testimony in June 2022. Because of this, they sued Giuliani and were awarded $148 million in damages for defamation.

Giuliani also held a press conference in the midst of the unfolding scheme, where he claimed that people are still using the names of dead Black Philadelphians—mentioning Joe Frazier and Will Smith’s late father, specifically—to vote long after they are deceased.

Legal scholars Catherine Powell and Camille Gear Rich explained in a 2020 paper how Trump’s language in the Georgia phone call effectively remobilized the old racist trope of a political trickster known as the “welfare queen,” transforming her from a welfare-and-benefits fraudster into a voter fraudster, “still Brown, female, and poor, but now out to steal American democracy.”

Despite all the evidence—including public admissions of the conspiracy, if not all the details—we are still quite far from official legal accountability and consequences for what was a serious, internal attack on our democratic institutions. Still, the public record is clear enough, even today, as a matter of history, and the enforcement actions by officials in Wisconsin and elsewhere will continue to flesh out the details of the crimes.

POLITICS REPUBLICANS DONALD TRUMP ELECTION 2020 RACE & ETHNICITY ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTING RIGHTS DEMOCRACY WISCONSIN GEORGIA

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an 6 24

an appellate court yet again declared that Democrat Katie Hobbs is the rightful governor of Arizona as it rejected Republican Kari Lake’s latest challenge to her 2022 election loss, unanimously backing the lower court's decisions.

In Judge Sean Brearcliffe's 23-page opinion, he surgically explained the various reasons why Lake's appeal efforts came up short.

"The court did not ignore the evidence Lake offered; Lake’s expert’s methodology was contradicted at trial by election officials put forward by Hobbs," the papers say. "In the court’s ruling, it specifically weighed Lake’s evidence against testimony offered by election officials ,and found that the election officials’ testimony―that meaningful verification had occurred―was more credible."

He concluded that the "substantial evidence" secured the favorable result to Hobbs because "we cannot say the trial court’s determination was clearly erroneous."

One of the arguments that Lake and her supporters have tried to peddle is blaming Maricopa County Co-Elections Director Scott Jarrett for being untruthful about the printer issues that affected some of the 2022 Voting Centers on Election Day, according to AZ Law.

ALSO READ:'Most powerful thing': Witness details Trump's last moments before 'shocking' verdict

The Court of Appeals analyzed it and determined: "At best, this is a misunderstanding between an attorney and a witness that was ironed-out during a trial."

Lake, a MAGA loyal Republican who is campaigning to win a U.S. Senate seat, filed her initial election challenge in December 2022 after she was bested in the governor’s race by Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes.

The candidate never conceded to Hobbs and protested that the election was stolen, despite her claims failing to convince judges in December 2022 and May 2023 trials, as well as multiple appeals in between the two.

And yet whatever setback legally, Lake has stayed defiant, and continue to preach that the election was somehow compromised.

“Everything I’ve ever said about the elections is true and I stand by it,” Lake said in March.

Lake's critics on Twitter were quick to relish her latest defeat.

"Waste of tax payers money," writes @resist_xrp_user.

One created a composite of Lake up in age with grey hair, circa 2050 and still fighting to overturn the 2020 election. Another mockup of a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor called "Kari Lake Lost" featuring "salty MAGA tears" and "big chunks of election denial."

"When Kari Lake loses either in her primary or in the general will she pursue a claim to be the 'real' senator from Arizona," asks @marysjogren1.

Debby Williams appeared to indulge on the defeat in court for Lake. "Another loss for Kari Lake!"

"How many times has Hobbs won the election now," reads a post by @gatesisthedevil. "I’ve lost count."

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an 6 24

under renewed pressure from right-wing election deniers, the Louisiana Legislature abandoned its attempt to repeal a 2021 law that has made the task of buying voting machines overly burdensome.

House Bill 856, sponsored by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, died just one step shy of final passage during the closing days of the 2024 legislative session after Johnson ended conference committee negotiations.

The proposal would have repealed parts of a 2021 law that added multiple layers of bureaucracy to the Louisiana Department of State’s process to purchase new voting systems. The most significant parts of the bill were created through a late-stage amendment adopted on the Senate floor last week.

In an interview Sunday, Johnson said he decided to sideline the bill after some constituents and other lawmakers expressed concerns with the “process” used to amend the bill into its final version.

Typically, most scrutiny and vetting of legislation occurs during committee hearings before a bill reaches the floor of a chamber, so late-stage floor amendments that make big changes to a bill can sometimes generate pushback from other lawmakers or constituents.

Johnson’s legislation began as a simple one-page bill to add a short clause to an existing statute, making the secretary of state responsible for all “voting system maintenance and repair.” That version of the bill sailed through both chambers without opposition. It wasn’t until a May 8 Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing when lawmakers first hinted at the possibility of an amendment.

At the hearing, lawmakers asked Secretary of State Nancy Landry for an update on the purchase of new voting machines. Landry, a Republican, said it was her “number one priority” but that the 2021 law had turned the acquisition into a “long and drawn out process.”

In a later interview, Landry’s spokesperson, Joel Watson, said the process involves multiple layers of bureaucratic red tape that will delay the purchase of new voting machines an additional two years.

The 2021 law created the Voting System Commission within the Louisiana Department of State. Composed of government officials who serve without compensation, the commission is charged with analyzing any available voting systems and recommending a specific type to the secretary of state. It also created a separate Voting System Proposal Evaluation Committee to independently review vendors that submitted bids before making a final recommendation.

Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee members only briefly discussed the bureaucratic issues at the May 8 hearing and advanced the original version of Johnson’s bill without amendments. It wasn’t until May 29 when the bill came up for a Senate floor vote that the public and most lawmakers saw the extent of the changes Landry was requesting through an amendment from Sen. Mike Reese, R-Leesville. Still, the new amended version of the bill cleared the chamber with unanimous support.

The amended version proposed to keep both the Voting System Commission and the Voting System Proposal Evaluation Committee with some small changes. It would have repealed requirements that the secretary of state create rules for the purchase of voting machines and hire at least three independent experts to certify them.

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'Deeply alarming' report finds almost one-third of Congress are 'election deniers' - Alternet.org

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May 16, 2024 rww

Sean Feucht is outraged over a German church that held a Taylor Swift-themed service: “This is not a church. This is a shrine to the demon god of Molech.”

Self-proclaimed “prophet” Robin Bullock calls on God to “save people who know the election was stolen and bring them out to speak the truth.”
Jackson Lahmeyer voices his support for bringing back arranged marriages.
Tony Perkins and Bill Koenig assert that God has been punishing the U.S. with tornadoes and floods as punishment for pressuring Israel over the Gaza war: “There’s no other explanation.”
Ben Zeisloft proclaims that “every legislature, courtroom, and executive mansion in our land must be brought into submission to the risen and ascended Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Finally, since what Elijah Schaffer seemingly means to say is that “Adolf Hitler was right,” he should probably just come right out and say that.

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Greg Gutfeld claims Democrats are “cooking up” ways to illegally steal the presidential election

05/13/24

5 24

fox News and the MAGA media are lining up their shot at American democracy

The bullet is in the chamber

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ

PUBLISHED 05/14/24

With the presidential election less than half a year away, evidence is everywhere that the right is planning to end the American experiment in representative government if it fails to legitimately return Donald Trump to the White House.

It was clear just a few months after Trump’s seditious plot to subvert the 2020 presidential election concluded with a violent mob of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol that the right-wing propaganda apparatus was laying the groundwork to try again in 2024. Fox News and the rest of the MAGA media, which spent the weeks after the 2020 election fabricating and amplifying a host of election fraud lies and conspiracy theories to undermine the results, had begun working to institutionalize Trump’s lie that the 2020 election had been stolen from him and to construct an alternative path to the presidency in which compliant party officials would secure a Republican victory by any means necessary.

Fox had become a loaded gun aimed at American democracy. Three years later, the bullet is in the chamber.

The disinformation ecosystem which revolves around Fox is telegraphing a plan to reject the results of the 2024 election if Trump loses. The former president’s propagandists will once again use baseless allegations of widespread fraud as a pretext to seek to overturn the vote — and GOP leaders are publicly signaling their willingness to comply.

IFrame Content

Ultimately, this preordained coup scheme may not matter. As in 2020, Joe Biden might win by too large a margin in too many states for the plot to succeed. Or, as in 2016, Trump might win outright.

But in the event that Biden triumphs in a close election, the MAGA faithful have developed and road-tested a plan to steal it.

Fox stars aided Trump’s 2020 subversion plot. They were lying. And they’ll do it again.

It is sometimes unclear whether Fox’s falsehoods are deliberate lies. But filings in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit, which the network settled in April 2023 for $787.5 million, demonstrate beyond dispute that Fox’s coverage of the 2020 election results was rooted in malicious fabrication.

Fox’s top executives and biggest stars knew for a fact that Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, even as the network’s coverage sought to undermine the legitimacy of the vote. The network, filings show, was intentionally peddling conspiracy theories in support of Trump’s stolen-election deception in order to compete with its far-right rivals.

These lies mattered. Communications revealed by the suit show that top Fox executives were aware the network was “uniquely positioned to state the message that the election was not stolen” but did not out of fears of losing viewers. They further show that when then-Fox Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch asked his employees for evidence Fox had “fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6 [was] an important chance to have the results overturned,” he received a list of 50 examples in response.

But the only lesson Fox’s executives apparently learned from fueling an attempted coup is that they need better lawyering to keep their damning internal emails and text messages off the front pages and avoid paying a record settlement.

Fox retained and even promoted some of its most unhinged election deniers, while punishing or even firing employees who fought the false narratives. In the years that followed, the network restocked its prime-time lineup with Trump loyalists who parrot whatever the former president says, put Trump allies and even a family member on the payroll, and replaced “news side” veterans with GOP operatives.

It’s no wonder that former employees keep loudly warning that Fox is a dangerous cesspool that produces Trumpian propaganda. The cogs who remain on the job, meanwhile, know without a doubt that they are part of a machine that manufactures lies. The pressure the network faces to hold on to its audience — including by promoting voter fraud conspiracy theories and other right-wing extremism — is stronger than ever. And so if Trump demands that Fox’s propagandists again focus on building him a pretext to overturn an election, they will do it.

The emerging right-wing scheme to overturn the 2024 election

Trumpists in the media and elsewhere have spent the years since Trump’s defeat laying the groundwork to rerun his subversion plot, systematically removing the guardrails that helped stymie the scheme in 2020, and helping him back to the Republican nomination. The result is a turnkey operation prepared to generate false election fraud claims and convert them into a rationale for Republican political leaders to reverse the results of the election and reinstall Trump in the White House.

MAGA propagandists are priming their audiences to disbelieve the election results and take action in response. They keep viewers in a state of terror with incendiary warnings that Biden is a jack-booted dictator who is deliberately trying to endanger their families, ensuring that some fraction would seek his removal by any means necessary. They valorize the January 6 insurrectionists as honorable patriots who did what they thought was right and were smeared by the media and punished by “deep state” malefactors. They flood the right-wing information ecosystem with lies and conspiracy theories about Democrats tainting past election results.

And they have already begun warning that the 2024 election will be rife with election fraud — and that only such cheating could explain a Trump defeat.

Video

CitationFrom the March 25, 2024, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

STEVE BANNON (HOST): There are no “issues" with the 2020 election — they stole it. Let me repeat that. They stole it. And they hate when we say this. They stole it. And they're on notice. They're not going to be able to steal it again. People are doing a ton of work on this, and that's still not enough, but it's going to get better. The hairy eyeball is going to be on them.

The only way they defeat Trump is to steal it. The only way they defeat Trump is they steal it. The only way they defeat Trump is they steal it. He is unstoppable.

We saw how this played out in 2020: Trump’s coup plan relied on blanketing right-wing media with stolen-election lies in order to provide cover for GOP partisans to reverse the outcome in states Biden won. Under pressure from the Fox-addled rank and file, Republican election officials would refuse to certify results in key areas, GOP state legislators would overturn the results, and GOP members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence would hand Trump the election.

This scheme failed in part because too many Republican officials were unwilling to aid the effort. But since then, Trumpist propagandists like War Room host Steve Bannon and Fox’s lineup of right-wing stars have helped make election denial a core GOP value, and now, the guardrails are collapsing:

Republicans purged their ranks of the sorts of GOP officials who resisted Trump’s subversion effort at the local, state, and federal level.

Election lies seem to have become a benefit in GOP primaries and effectively a job requirement at the Republican National Committee, one enforced by the MAGA chorus.

Prominent election deniers are recruiting their followers to take positions within the election infrastructure.

In the House, Rep. Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) zealous efforts to overturn the election helped garner him the speakership, while in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is on his way out of the leadership after voting to certify the electoral votes and criticizing Trump’s role in the insurrection.

Pence is effectively a party outcast after rejecting Trump’s entreaties to overturn the 2020 election results, and the politicians seeking to replace him on the GOP ticket are pushing voter fraud lies and refusing to say they will accept the results of the 2024 election.

Donald Trump will once again stand as the Republican presidential nominee this fall, less than four years after he attempted a coup to remain in office. He still maintains, unbowed by time, notoriety, or criminal charges, that the 2020 election was stolen. At the same time, he has embraced the January 6 offenders, regularly describing them as “hostages,” promising to consider blanket pardons for their actions, and treating their attack on the Capitol as “not a moment of national shame but of celebration,” as NPR described it.

None of this seemed to give right-wing propagandists much pause as Trump romped to the nomination. The Murdochs may have begun the primary season with other plans, but Fox had spent years crafting a political environment in which any criticism of Trump was inherently illegitimate, and its stars ultimately rallied to his side.

As Trump’s victory became inevitable, his vanquished rivals were reduced to complaining — accurately — that Fox and its ilk had taken Trump’s side, while the few right-wing commentators who had criticized Trump and endorsed his primary opponents bent the knee.

If he loses in 2024, Trump will reject the results and seek to overturn them, as he has throughout his political career. Indeed, he began laying the groundwork for such a strategy during the GOP primaries, warning that only Democratic “cheating” could explain such an outcome. And he has no apparent qualms over whether his deliberate radicalization of his supporters leads to right-wing political violence. Indeed, he is signaling that is exactly what he wants.

No one can say they didn’t know what was coming

Here’s part of an interview with Trump that Time magazine published on April 30, six months before Election Day:

Mr. President, in our last conversation you said you weren't worried about political violence in connection with the November election. You said, “I think we're going to win and there won't be violence.” What if you don't win, sir?

Trump: Well, I do think we're gonna win. We're way ahead. I don't think they'll be able to do the things that they did the last time, which were horrible. Absolutely horrible. So many, so many different things they did, which were in total violation of what was supposed to be happening. And you know that and everybody knows that. We can recite them, go down a list that would be an arm’s long. But I don't think we're going to have that. I think we're going to win. And if we don't win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election. I don't believe they'll be able to do the things that they did the last time. I don't think they'll be able to get away with it. And if that's the case, we're gonna win in record-setting fashion.

Polls suggest that the 2024 presidential election will be close. But according to Trump, he’s “way ahead” and on track to win “in record-setting fashion.” The only thing that can prevent that outcome, Trump claims, is “the things that they did the last time,” i.e. the Democratic election fraud conspiracy theories he’s been hocking since before the 2020 vote. And if that happens, Trump says, his supporters might respond to such a result with violence.

None of this is even remotely subtle.

In the lead-up to the 2020 election, some political commentators expressed doubts over whether Trump would really respond to defeat by refusing to accept the election results and taking action to try to remain in office.

But that is precisely what Trump did. Now he is saying quite clearly that he will do it again if given the chance. And his propagandists in the right-wing media will have had four years to lay the groundwork to ensure his plot’s success.

Five days after the Time interview dropped, Semafor founder Ben Smith published a Q-and-A with Joe Kahn, the executive editor of The New York Times. The interview began like this:

Ben Smith: Dan Pfeiffer, who used to work for Barack Obama, recently wrote of the Times: “They do not see their job as saving democracy or stopping an authoritarian from taking power.” Why don’t you see your job as: “We’ve got to stop Trump?” What about your job doesn’t let you think that way?

Joe Kahn: Good media is the Fourth Estate, it’s another pillar of democracy. One of the absolute necessities of democracy is having a free and fair and open election where people can compete for votes, and the role of the news media in that environment is not to skew your coverage towards one candidate or the other, but just to provide very good, hard-hitting, well-rounded coverage of both candidates, and informing voters. If you believe in democracy, I don’t see how we get past the essential role of quality media in informing people about their choice in a presidential election.

To say that the threats of democracy are so great that the media is going to abandon its central role as a source of impartial information to help people vote — that’s essentially saying that the news media should become a propaganda arm for a single candidate, because we prefer that candidate’s agenda. It is true that Biden’s agenda is more in sync with traditional establishment parties and candidates. And we’re reporting on that and making it very clear.

It’s also true that Trump could win this election in a popular vote. Given that Trump’s not in office, it will probably be fair. And there’s a very good chance, based on our polling and other independent polling, that he will win that election in a popular vote. So there are people out there in the world who may decide, based on their democratic rights, to elect Donald Trump as president. It is not the job of the news media to prevent that from happening. It’s the job of Biden and the people around Biden to prevent that from happening.

> It’s our job to cover the full range of issues that people have. At the moment, democracy is one of them. But it’s not the top one — immigration happens to be the top [of polls], and the economy and inflation is the second. Should we stop covering those things because they’re favorable to Trump and minimize them? I don’t even know how it’s supposed to work in the view of Dan Pfeiffer or the White House. We become an instrument of the Biden campaign? We turn ourselves into Xinhua News Agency or Pravda and put out a stream of stuff that’s very, very favorable to them and only write negative stories about the other side? And that would accomplish — what?

That exchange generated a lot of smart responses. Critics pointed out that Smith’s question mischaracterized Pfeiffer’s critique; that Kahn’s response ignores the actual criticisms mounted by his paper’s critics, including Biden himself; that the Times’ business interests lead Kahn to endorse “a kind of performative neutrality in politics coverage”; and that, contra Kahn’s claims, the Times does not generally base its coverage decisions on polling and, if it did, the result should be a greater focus on the impact of Trump’s policy proposals on inflation and immigration than the paper actually provides.

What strikes me most about Kahn’s answer is his apparent lack of urgency. A former president left office after using the lie that the election he lost had been rigged to try to reverse the outcome, culminating in a violent assault by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol. He has all but promised to try again, and after transforming his party into a personality cult which treats the insurrectionists as heroes and his election lie as unvarnished truth, he very well could succeed.

That is the central reality of the 2024 presidential election, one that should be foregrounded to the readers and viewers on news outlets at every opportunity but often fades from the discourse. The former president’s media allies are foreshadowing their eagerness to take every possible opportunity to participate in his scheme. And the leader of the nation’s most powerful mainstream press organ gives no indication that he has considered those implications in any but the shallowest way. We are all in a lot of trouble.

Fox News propagandists and GOP leaders are pushing the country toward the abyss

11/06/20

Fox News is a loaded gun aimed at American democracy

05/14/21

They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them

Khaya Himmelman @ Talking Points Memo

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/far-right-group-recruits-followers-to-overwhelm-election-offices-with-voter-roll-challenges): Far-Right Group Recruits Followers To Overwhelm Election Offices With Voter Roll Challenges}:

True the Vote is enlisting private citizens to help it overwhelm under-staffed and under-resourced election offices with voter roll challenges ahead of election day.

===

mma 4 24

Fox News contributor compares policies to expand voter registration and access to 9/11

Fox's Liz Peek: “George [W.] Bush talked about a failure of imagination accounting for 9/11. This is Republicans’ failure of imagination.”

WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD

PUBLISHED 04/09/24

Fox News contributor Liz Peek wildly exaggerated the effects of a Biden administration executive order aimed at protecting voting rights and expanding voter registration and access — which, according to Peek’s telling, represents a looming political threat tantamount to the deadly terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

During a Fox Business appearance promoting her opinion piece on Fox Digital, Peek latched onto an executive order issued by President Joe Biden in March 2021 calling on federal agencies to “promote voter registration and voter participation” and to assist “in a manner consistent with all relevant State laws” with distributing and filling out voter registration and vote-by-mail application forms.

In Peek’s telling, this means federal employees would directly supervise people “filling out their early ballots,” seemingly in a nefarious plot to force them to vote for Biden. (In reality, the only references in the executive order to providing direct assistance to voters have to do with registration and application forms, not actual ballots.)

“And I think, again, you know, George [W.] Bush talked about a failure of imagination accounting for 9/11,” Peek said. “This is Republicans’ failure of imagination. Who could imagine that you’re going to have this number of people out there working on behalf of Joe Biden?”

In fact, Peek's misleading characterization of the Biden administration’s efforts to expand voter registration and access as threats to democracy inverts the reality in which presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s political allies, through an initiative called Project 2025, actually do intend to remodel the federal government into a right-wing political machine if he is elected again in November.

Video file

Video

CitationFrom the April 9, 2024, edition of Fox Business’ Varney & Co.

STUART VARNEY (HOST): Let’s get back to politics, and Liz Peek, still with us here in New York. The op-ed she just wrote, “Biden’s stealth but clever strategy to maintain control of the White House,” end quote. You say Biden’s going to do whatever it takes to win. Like what, Liz?

It’s a pretty — it’s actually an unbelievable thingLIZ PEEK (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Well, we’ve seen that he’s willing to throw his opponent in jail. But beyond that, he has, he issued early in his presidency, like in March of 2021, an executive order that commands — commands — every single federal agency basically to loose their federal employees to register voters, and to use their agencies to promote voter registration, including assisting people filling out their early ballots, filling out their applications for early ballots, etc..

It has been challenged by some Pennsylvania lawmakers. It probably will be heard by the Supreme Court. Whether it’ll get there in time to stop this, I don’t know.

But, Stuart, there are 3 million federal employees. A report by a group of 50 left-leaning organizations reported that if this was done right, they could register over 3 million new voters. I mean, I don’t think Republicans have any idea what they’re up against. And I got to tell you with the Hatch Act, remember that, that was supposed to make electioneering illegal by federal employees, apparently that’s only if you’re in uniform or on duty. So all of these people — I mean, this is an incredible thing.

And I think, again, you know, George [W.] Bush talked about a failure of imagination accounting for 9/11. This is Republicans’ failure of imagination. Who could imagine that you’re going to have this number of people out there working on behalf of Joe Biden?

VARNEY: And they’ll go that far to win.

PEEK: Yeah.

:{:{------}:

3 24 kari no contest thus admits she has no evidence defam ~ az gop richer

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John Eastman doubles down on his election denial while promising to appeal his disbarment case | Media Matters for America

3 minor haller disbar jeff clark

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an 3 24

even states, including Pennsylvania, that were the focal points of Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election have more than 200 legislators labeled in a new report as being “election deniers.”

States United Action, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with a mission to protect elections,issued the report Thursday using data collected with the assistance of Penn State University’sMcCourtney Institute for Democracy. It found 202 “election deniers” currently serving as state legislators in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Pennsylvania had more election deniers in its legislature than any other state it analyzed, the report’s authors wrote, making up more than 80% of the Senate Republican caucus and holding a majority of seats “on several of the most important committees that handle election matters, and hold leadership positions within those committees.”

The report identified 87 Pennsylvania state legislators, all Republicans, who fit within its description, noting that together they make up 34% of the 253-person body — nearly half of the state Senate (23) and almost a third of the state House of Representatives (64).

“In our decentralized election system, state legislators have immense power to shape voting procedures and election administration. Election Deniers can — and are trying to — leverage this power to erode our democracy. And they’re doing it outside the spotlight of national politics,” Joanna Lydgate, CEO of States United Action said.

In general terms, the group identified “election deniers” as those who have either introduced or cosponsored bills that would add barriers to voting, enabled investigations of voters, promoted election conspiracy theories, made it harder for nonpartisan election officials to do their jobs, or otherwise interfered with the routine functioning of elections.

While the phrase “election deniers” is one often used in the fallout from the 2020 election, States United Action says adding legislators to its list relied on research of their social media accounts as well as their websites and news media coverage to gather information on election-related statements and actions.

Sixty-four members of the General Assembly signed a letter urging members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation to object and vote to sustain the objection to Electoral College votes from Pennsylvania for Biden during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

In Pennsylvania, 20 people signed a certificate in December 2020 stating they had cast electoral college votes for then-President Donald Trump, when Joe Biden had been declared the winner of the popular vote. The group has emphasized that the certificate indicated the votes for Trump were intended to be used in the event the election results were overturned in court. Josh Shapiro, then attorney general of Pennsylvania, has said that caveat prevented the group from being prosecuted in court.

“We have to keep track of the Election Denier movement, especially those who are outside the spotlight of national politics. In an election year as critical as this one, every level of government matters,” said Lydgate. “What we found is clear: Election Deniers in state legislatures pose a real threat. Among other things, they’re introducing legislation that undermines our free and fair elections, and they’re eroding public trust by pushing conspiracy theories and lies.”

*Peter Hall of the Capital-Star staff contributed.

===

How Biden is neutralizing the Big Lie - Alternet.org

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NOTE BIDEN MAKES DEMOC KEY 2024 SO RT/FOX/TRUMP MUST REBRAND JAN 6

Fox host praises "passionate point of view" of guest who claimed Joe Biden did not win the election | Media Matters for America

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Fox’s 2024 election denial push is underway** | Media Matters for America

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1 24

Steve Bannon: Democrats need "phony fake voters" to win elections | Media Matters for America

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Laura Ingraham tells Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to "step aside and endorse Trump" | Media Matters for America

Fox News’ Laura Ingraham predicts Democrats will “game the system or yeah, maybe even cheat” in the 2024 election | Media Matters for America

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AN 1 24 CARL GIBSON?

A new report shows that former President Donald Trump is far from the only Republican decision-maker who could significantly harm democracy this year.

While the ex-president has openly suggested that he would terminate parts of the US Constitution, rule as a dictator "on day one" and staff government agencies with tens of thousands of political loyalists, he is still currently just a private citizen. Rather, a report from the nonpartisan organization States United suggests another major looming threat to democracy comes from current Republican members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.

"[T]he most misunderstood threat comes from Congress," wrote States United CEO Joanna Lydgate in an MSNBC op-ed with former House Judiciary Committee impeachment counsel Norman Eisen. "Inside the very building where our democracy came under attack three years ago, scores of election deniers still hold power."

According to States United, 171 current members of the House and Senate — approximately a full third of Congress — has trafficked in election denial conspiracy theories, with 152 election deniers in the House and 19 in the Senate. 128 sitting members of Congress voted to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021. These members represent 36 states, and more than 100 of them signed now-Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) amicus brief seeking to throw out election results in four swing states President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020.

Both Lydgate and Eisen noted that in the wake of the deadly January 6 insurrection, Congress passed a law raising the threshold to challenging a state's electoral votes to one-fifth of both the House and Senate. However, they noted that depending on how various Congressional elections turn out in November, that higher threshold may still be within reach. And they both warned that election deniers in Congress have plenty of other tools at their disposal to "cause trouble in many other ways."

"They could use budget powers to defund Jan. 6 prosecutions. Congress, which has a history of erratic election funding, could starve federal agencies that help protect elections. Election deniers could gin up baseless investigations and haul election administrators to Capitol Hill to berate them for doing their jobs in 2024," they wrote. "The Senate could refuse to confirm judges or executive branch officials who don’t give lip service to the 'big lie.' And election deniers with a congressional platform could further poison public trust in elections with more lies."

"Elections are administered by state and local officials, but Americans understand that Congress has substantial influence," they added. "In new polling from States United, 59% of people said Congress has a significant amount of power when it comes to elections. What they say — and do — about our elections really matters."

Click here to read Lydgate and Eisen's op-ed in full.

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an 1 24

after Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes, Trump's claim that the election was stolen from him was repeatedly debunked. And some of the debunking came software engineer/elections technology expert Ken Block.

Trump and his allies hired Block in the hope of convincing others that widespread voter fraud occurred, but Block found no such fraud. And Block's findings were used as evidence by the January 6 Select Committee in 2022.

Block, owner of Simpatico Voting Systems and author of the forthcoming book "Disproven: My Unbiased Search for Voter Fraud for the Trump Campaign, the Data That Shows Why He Lost, and How We Can Improve Our Elections," revisits Trump's "steady diet of lies and innuendo" in an op-ed published by USA Today on January 2.

"Our findings have also been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith's federal investigation and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation in Georgia," Block explains. "Those e-mails and documents show that the voter data available to the campaign contained no evidence of large-scale voter fraud based on data mining and fraud analytics. More important, claims of voter fraud made by others were verified as false, including proof of why those claims were disproven."'

The election technolgy expert continues, "And yet, the cries that the election was lost or stolen due to voter fraud continue with no sign of stopping. Whether a stump speech, outrageous lawsuits like the so-called Kraken cases filed by Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani’s lies or the ongoing misguided efforts of people determined to prove the election was stolen, the constant drumbeat hardens people's hearts and minds to the truth about the 2020 election."

Block argues that while the United States' voting system has some room for improvement, Trump and Giuliani's lies about the 2020 election continue to do the United States an incredible disservice.

"A better use of time, money and energy would be to address systemic weaknesses in our election systems — such as the distressing lack of national election infrastructure to enforce election integrity [eg crappy machine and ltd hours in poor hoods?], destructive practices to our elections such as gerrymandering, and leveling the playing field so that our elections become fairer and more competitive," Block writes. "If voter fraud had impacted the 2020 election, it would already have been proven. Maintaining the lies undermines faith in the foundation of our democracy."

*Ken Block's full USA Today op-ed is available at this link.

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AN 1 24

A decision by Donald Trump and some of his close aides to push an election fraud report larded with falsehoods, sketchy numbers and debunked claims has divided members of his inner circle with one aide furiously lamenting why they chose to release it

According to a report from the Washington Post, the much-derided report was put together by campaign staffer Liz Harrington who was described as a "polarizing figure in Trump’s orbit but is liked by Trump."

The disputed report was promoted by the former president on Tuesday which, in turn, led other members of his 2024 presidential campaign to "distance themselves" from it.

According to the Post, "A campaign spokesperson declined to comment and another campaign aide referred questions to the legal team," adding the aide, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed: "This was not posted to the campaign’s website and we’re not lawyers."

Calling the latest episode "another illustration of the unusual and at times strained dynamic between Trump’s legal entanglements and his campaign," the Post reports that, "Although Trump has benefited from a more disciplined political operation, he has at times strayed away from recommendations from legal and political advisers — and they have limited ability to control some of his impulses, such as continuing to push false claims of a stolen election. His decision to publicize the report, which he described as 'fully verified' and 'compiled by the most highly qualified Election Experts in the Country,' caught some of his own advisers off guard."

ALSO READ:Happy New Year 2040 from the land of morons

One of his advisers lashed out by complaining, "It’s a bunch of garbage. I don’t know why they thought now was the time to release it. It’s nonsense.”

Justin Grimmer, a public policy professor at Stanford University, agreed that the report contained "nonsense," by explaining, "When you look at these fraud claims, these sorts of bullet point claims … it’s unclear what evidence is being used, how terms are being defined, what files are they looking at,. And then inevitably you can go back through and you find what they did and they just screwed it up. They just have no idea what they’re doing.”

You can read more here.

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MMA 1 24 MG

Three years after the January 6 insurrection, the initial broad agreement about that day’s depravity lies in ruins. That consensus didn’t unravel on its own — right-wing commentators deliberately dismantled it for power and profit.

Republicans have made their peace with the violent mob of Donald Trump’s supporters that stormed the U.S. Capitol as the culmination of his plot to remain in office, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll the paper reported on Tuesday.

“Republicans are showing increased loyalty to the former president as he campaigns for reelection and fights criminal charges over his attempt to stay in power after losing in 2020,” the Post reported. “They are now less likely to believe that Jan. 6 participants were ‘mostly violent,’ less likely to believe Trump bears responsibility for the attack and are slightly less likely to view Joe Biden’s election as legitimate than they were in a December 2021 Post-UMD survey.”

Right-wing propagandists engineered that shift in GOP views of the January 6 insurrection by creating a revisionist counternarrative out of lies they repeated over and over again. Their work created a permission structure for Republicans to stop caring about the assault of hundreds of law enforcement officers amid an effort to overturn a presidential election by force. That helped ensure that the mob’s leader would remain the GOP’s presumptive nominee in 2024, positioned to carry out the party’s top priorities of cutting taxes for rich people, banning abortions, building huge migrant deportation camps to expel undocumented immigrants Trump claims are “poisoning the blood” of the country, and deploying state power against left-wing “vermin.”

Trump’s 2020 election subversion effort received strong support among his media allies, many of whom backed his claims of a stolen election even as they privately acknowledged those claims were false. When Trump urged the violent mob he had summoned to Washington, D.C., to “fight like hell” to stop the steal — and they responded by attempting to do just that and attacked the Capitol — the right’s propagandists could have washed their hands of the then-president and his violent supporters.

They made a different choice. As I detailed last month:

The right-wing effort to minimize January 6 and Trump’s role in fomenting it began that very day. Fox hosts who knew better told their viewers that Trump’s supporters had been responding to reasonable fears that the election had been stolen, while any violence may have been caused by antifa interlopers.

In the intervening years, Trumpist media stars — led by former Fox host Tucker Carlson — cosseted their viewers with a slew of lies about January 6. There was no “insurrection,” just a “political protest [that] got out of hand” in which “the overwhelming majority” of participants were “orderly and meek.” The rioter shot and killed by law enforcement while trying to breach the speaker’s gallery was a martyr, while the officers who were nearly beaten to death during the attack deserve mockery. The violence was orchestrated by undercover federal agents as part of a sinister plot to imprison patriotic Americans for their conservative views. The events were comparable to staffers for a late-night talk show shooting an unauthorized video in the Capitol complex, or a Democratic congressman foolishly pulling a fire alarm, or progressive protests at state capitols.

Trump’s 2020 subversion effort ultimately failed — but he still claims that he won the election, and gives every indication that he could try again should he lose in 2024. Voters expect as much: Roughly 7 in 10 respondents say Trump won’t accept the results of the election if he is defeated, according to the Post/UMD poll.

After a yearslong right-wing drumbeat of stolen-election lies and insurrection revisionism, and the corresponding purges of dissident Republican leaders and terror campaigns against election workers, the battleground is more favorable to a second attempt to overturn an election through lies and violence.

Colorado, the 14th Amendment, and the right’s January 6 revisionism}:

:{:{12/20/23}:

### Fox News is a loaded gun aimed at American democracy

:{:{05/14/21}:

### Tucker Carlson’s insurrection alternate reality

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Trump 'intelligence officials unanimously rejected' his voting machine claims — Jack Smith reveals: report - Alternet.org

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11 23 an guk

right-wing election deniers are seeing consequences of their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election by facing a slew of defamation lawsuits, The Guardian reports.}:

Per the report, "Defamation law has traditionally been sparingly used in the US, given the very high bar that plaintiffs have to meet. Under the 1964 supreme court ruling New York Times Co v Sullivan, they have to be able to show 'actual malice' on behalf of the accused.

Rachel Goodman, an attorney with non-partisan advocacy organization Protect Democracy, told The Guardian, said the group's legal action is about "accountability as a way of ensuring that our democracy can get back on track."

Currently, according to the report, Protect Democracy has five ongoing defamation suits "against individuals and outlets who propagated election denial, including ex-President Donald Trump lawyer and former New York mayor Giuliani, the Gateway Pundit and the beleaguered undercover video outfit Project Veritas," as well as conspiracy theorist Dinesh D'Souza, and failed Arizona GOP candidate Kari Lake.

The Guardian notes election denier and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell also faces defamation suits from voting machine technology firms Dominion and Smartmatic.

Per the report, "The lawsuits are designed in part as a strategy of deterrence," as "those pressing the libel suits hope that anyone contemplating a renewed assault on next year's presidential election, in which Trump is once again likely to be the Republican candidate, will look at the potentially devastating costs and think twice."

Giuliani's trial — Protect Democracy's first in its series of defamation suits — is set to take place in federal court in Washington, DC on December 11.

"This is lawfare," Lindell told the Guardian. "Lawfare hasn't been used in our country since the late 1700s, and that's what they are doing."

The right-wing conspiracy theorist argued, "I have a first amendment right. These defamation cases are damaging free speech – people are afraid to speak out, to come forward with anything."

Goodman emphasized in her interview that "the first amendment does not provide blanket protection for mendacity," saying, "It does not protect those who knowingly spread lies that destroy reputations and lives."

The lawyer added, "We aim to demonstrate that there is no immunity for spreading intentional and reckless lies. Ensuring accountability for intentional defamation is a crucial part of deterring election subversion from happening again in 2024."

:{*:{The Guardian's full report is here (subscription required).}:

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On Infowars, Arlington County Republican Committee Chairman discusses election fraud with 9/11 conspiracy theorist Alex Jones | Media Matters for America

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mma 11 23

After Northampton County, Pennsylvania, officials released a statement on November 7 saying that a voting machine company's clerical error caused votes on a ballot question to appear to be changed, right-wing figures and social media users immediately cited the error as evidence that Democrats were using voting machines to rig elections and claimed that paper ballots were the only way to ensure a secure election. In reality, though the votes appeared to be flipped due to a glitch, officials confirmed that they were tabulated correctly.

## Votes in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, were tallied accurately — despite claims from right-wing outlets
- Although votes appeared to be flipped due to a glitch on printed ballot summaries for one county in a state-wide ballot question, officials confirmed that votes were tabulated correctly. The AP reported that a voting machine company’s “clerical error” caused votes in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, to “appear to be flipped on a ballot question that asked whether a pair of incumbent state appeals judges should be retained.” The story added, “Despite the glitch on the printed summary, voters’ actual choices were properly recorded by the machines’ backend system, and their votes will be tabulated accurately.” The Associated Press, [11/7/23]
- Nevertheless, a number of right-wing outlets amplified claims that votes had been “flipped” in articles that spread widely on social media.The Gateway Pundit, an outlet known for using Facebook to spread and profit from election misinformation, published several articles that users shared in private right-wing Facebook groups. Another article about the error from American Military News, which claimed that “machines experienced programming errors that caused votes to flip,” also made its way around Facebook. Right-wing site The Western Journal shared an article about the “glitch” across its network of Facebook pages. Forbes, [7/29/21; The Gateway Pundit, accessed 11/9/23; Media Matters, 3/25/20; Facebook, accessed 11/9/23, 11/9/23]
- On November 8, Fox host Jesse Watters called this year’s election a “test run for election security” and suggested that voter fraud occurred, listing Pennsylvania as an example.Watters also claimed, “A little fraud goes a long way.” Fox News, [11/8/23]
## Right-wing figures claimed that the election was rigged, suggesting the clerical error was intentional and politically motivated
- Conservative commentator Rogan O'Handley, also known as DC Draino, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “Democrats run [Pennsylvania] and will cheat in *any* way possible.”Linking to a Gateway Pundit story about the glitch, O’Handley wrote: “BREAKING: Voting machines in Pennsylvania shut down after getting caught flipping votes. Democrats run that state and will cheat in *any* way possible. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH - Get rid of these damn rigged machines!” Twitter/X, [11/7/23]
- Far-right personality and self-described “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer claimed that the error was “proof” that voting machines “flip votes.” She posted, “BREAKING: Voting machines in Pennsylvania flipped votes for judges in a tabulation error! Proof the machines flip votes. Election machines cannot be trusted!” Twitter/X, [11/7/23]
- ”Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec cited the glitch as evidence that election denialist and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell had been “proven right” about voting machines. Lindell reportedly spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money to spread false election claims in his quest to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Twitter/X, [11/8/23; CNBC, 12/16/21]
- Conservative commentator Benny Johnson cited the voting machine error as an example in his “list” of supposed “election fraud cases we’ve recently learned about.” He posted, “Voting machines in Pennsylvania are now being shut down after reports of machines ‘flipping votes’. And this is why Americans have lost all faith in our electoral process. … When will America acknowledge that our election system has been compromised?” Twitter/X, [11/7/23]
- Right-wing internet personality Wall Street Apes claimed that “voting machines” had been “caught switching votes.” “America will NEVER have another fair election,” the post claimed. Truth Social, [11/7/23]
:{#:{# Users in right-wing Facebook groups also amplified false claims of voter fraud}:
}:
- Users in private right-wing Facebook groups amplified articles about the error and claimed that it was indicative of fraud.For instance, one user in a private pro-Trump group with nearly 7,000 members shared a Newsweek article headlined “Pennsylvania Voting Machines Changing Votes Sparks Outrage,” and said that they’d “be willing to bet that this is what happened in the 2020 election in many Democratic ran cities and states.” Another user in a private group amplified an ABC News article about the error, asking, “Remember when all the kooks said voter fraud was improbable and very rare?!” The user added, “Just wait til next year - you ain’t seen nothing yet … Disgusting that we keep allowing this shit to continue.” Facebook, [11/7/23, 11/8/23; Newsweek, 11/7/23; ABC News, 11/7/23]
- A user in a private pro-Trump Facebook group told nearly 9,000 members: “They want voters to trust the machines that are publishing the opposite results of the voters! There is no way of knowing which is actually accurate.”The user also falsely claimed, “The voting machines ONLY flipped votes in the race between Judge Jack Panella (Democrat) and Judge Victor Stabile (Republican) for the Pennsylvania Superior Court. The concerned voters said the machines were flipping votes FROM THE REPUBLICAN TO THE DEMOCRAT.” Election officials said the error showed voters the opposite of what they entered into the voting machine in a visual display. Facebook, [11/7/23; The Associated Press, 11/7/23]
## Far-right figures and users in right-wing Facebook groups falsely claimed that the only way for elections to be secure is through the use of paper ballots
- QAnon-connected election denial activist Seth Keshel wrote on Telegram, “Programming errors don’t happen on paper ballots.”Keshel shared an article from The Gateway Pundit claiming that the “VP of Customer Operations” of the voting machine company used in Pennsylvania said, “It was a human error, based on someone from our team that programmed the election.” Telegram, [11/8/23; The Gateway Pundit, 11/8/23]
- QAnon influencer ULTRA Pepe Lives Matter wrote, “Imagine if we just went to paper ballots and voter ID but apparently it's a conspiracy theory to think our elections are not riddled with fraud.” Telegram, [11/7/23]
- Users in private right-wing and pro-Trump Facebook groups expressed distrust in voting machines, falsely accused Democrats of cheating, claimed that “massive errors” didn’t happen before 2020, and called for the use of paper ballots.One user wrote, “Human error … You mean trying to cheat again! Until 2020 we didn't have all these massive errors and jaming up!” They added, “Go back to paper ballots and fair elections! Elections now days are compromised.” Another user shared an article from The Gateway Pundit and wrote that there is “no proof that touchscreen voting can be verified,” claiming that the votes “can still be flipped internally, by design.” They added, “WE MUST DEMAND HAND MARKED HAND COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS AT THE PRECINCTS!” Facebook, [11/8/23, 11/7/23, 11/7/23]
- One user in a private right-wing Facebook group with over 193,000 members wrote, “Voting machines will have to be outlawed before the Presidential Election.”They added, “Corruption is massive,” and shared a link to an article from The Gateway Pundit claiming that votes were “getting flipped” in Pennsylvania. Facebook, [11/9/23; The Gateway Pundit, 11/7/23]

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11 23 an

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) went from being the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee to being an outcast in much of his party. Romney's cardinal sin, as MAGA Republicans see it, was his willingness to vote "guilty" in Donald Trump's two impeachment trials and vehemently criticize the former president.

The Utah senator and former Massachusetts governor candidly discusses his relationship with the GOP in journalist McKay Coppins' new biography "Romney: A Reckoning." During an early November, Coppins cited Romney's loss to President Barack Obama in 2012 as an early example of Trump's election denialism.

Host Charlie Sykes, a Never Trump conservative,, "One of the interesting little tidbits in your book that I had completely forgotten about was Election Night 2012 after Romney lost — the role that Trump played. Trump started tweeting, foreshadowing about how the election was stolen. He tweeting things like, 'We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. We are not a democracy.' Now, that is years before January 6."

, "But isn't that so interesting? Because I had forgotten about that too; you had forgotten about it. I think that most readers, when they come to that portion of the story — this is the Election Night 2012 — they almost have to check back: Wait, what year is this, right? But it speaks to how unserious Donald Trump was at the time; it barely registered. It was: Oh, this loudmouth celebrity is saying stupid things on Twitter. But it speaks to how so much of the Republican Party and political establishment didn't take him seriously and didn't take what he represented seriously. And four years later, that element of their party, that ugliness took over."

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aha big lie, vaxx, agw denial are proof of bona fides, legit member of tribe

an 10 23

a British journalist and academic is warning that because the Republican Party and its members are cementing belief in Trump's big lie about the 2020 election in its national identity, democracy is at risk.

In an essay for the Guardian, Peter Pomerantsev — a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University — opined that the recent election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) as the next Speaker of the House is a sign that the GOP is embracing election denialism as part of its core identity. Pomerantsev added that adherence to lies is a typical tactic of some of the world's most authoritarian governments.

"Agreeing to Trump’s claims about the rigged election is the absurdity you have to pledge allegiance to in order to show you belong to the tribe. It ensures your fealty by making you complicit," Pomeratnsev wrote. "For anyone who has lived in authoritarian regimes, it’s a familiar sight."

To illustrate this point, Pomerantsev noted that even though Johnson had unanimous support from his caucus in the speaker's race, many Republicans "have admitted both publicly and privately that the elections were, in fact, not falsified."

"Yet when journalists faced a gaggle of Republican congressmen and questioned Johnson’s record on this blatant lie, his colleagues jeered and he mockingly said: “Next question” – as if the facts were irrelevant here," Pomerantsev wrote. "And in a sense, they are."

Pomerantsev's essay elaborated that because Republicans have to believe in a claim they privately know is false in order to maintain power, right-wing media must follow suit in order to sate the tribalist nature of their audience. Because of this, he argues, "it will be hard to fact check our way out of this situation."

"The issue can’t simply be resolved by “trusted” sources, even those on the far right, who can communicate the truth about the election to Trump supporters. Instead, sources only become trusted if they agree to the lie," he wrote. "Pledging loyalty to the 'big lie' is more about identity than knowledge – and to fight it entails understanding the need for belonging and meaning it fulfills."

"Authoritarian propaganda can give the illusion of status and at its extremes a sense of supremacy to compensate for the lack of real agency," he added.

Click here to read Pomerantsev's essay in full.

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Federal court hands major loss to Arizona Republican election deniers - Alternet.org

arizona Republicans Kari Lake and Mark Finchem — who both ran in 2022 for Governor and Secretary of State, respectively — just had their case challenging the use of vote tabulation machines dismissed by a federal appeals court.

The Arizona Daily Star reported that a three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the case brought by Lake and Finchem lacked any evidence to back up claims that their constitutional rights were violated. Notably, the panel stated in an 11-page opinion that both Lake and Finchem "conceded that their arguments were limited to potential future hacking, and not based on any past harm."

"[E]ven assuming Plaintiffs could continue to claim standing as prospective voters in future elections, they had not alleged a particularized injury and therefore failed to establish the kind of injury Article III requires," the ruling read. "None of Plaintiffs’ allegations supported a plausible inference that their individual votes in future elections will be adversely affected by the use of electronic tabulation, particularly given the robust safeguards in Arizona law, the use of paper ballots and the post-tabulation retention of those ballots."

This is not the first loss both Lake and Finchem have had in the courts. In March, Finchem, who lost the 2022 race for Secretary of State by more than 120,000 votes, was sanctioned by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian for bringing a "groundless" case before her court.

"None of Contestant Finchem’s allegations, even if true, would have changed the vote count enough to overcome the 120,000 votes he needed to affect the result of this election," Julian wrote. "The Court finds that this lawsuit was groundless and not brought in good faith."

Lake, for her part, was sanctioned in May for making "false factual statements" before the court regarding her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the gubernatorial race. Her legal team was ordered to pay $2,000 for falsely stating that 35,000 ballots in Maricopa County — which houses approximately 60% of Arizona's registered voters — were improperly added to the total count.

Both Lake and Finchem continue to stand by their false claims that former President Donald Trump was the winner of the 2020 presidential election. As a state lawmaker, Finchem sponsored several resolutions attempting to decertify Biden's electoral college victory in Arizona. Lake, who is currently running for the US Senate seat currently occupied by Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), still has yet to officially concede that she lost in 2022.

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an 10 23

legal and political experts are raising red flags about all nine Republican candidates now running for Speaker of the House, warning of their positions, histories, and voting records.

The nine are: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (MN), Republican Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson (LA), Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern (OK), Jack Bergman (MI), Byron Donalds (FL), Dan Meuser (PA), Gary Palmer (AL), Austin Scott (GA), and Pete Sessions (TX).

“All vote suppressors, most election deniers. MAGA, MAGA and more MAGA,” warns Democratic elections attorney Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket. Elias famously won over 60 cases that Trump and his allies filed in the 2020 election, losing just one.

“It’s probably an accurate reflection of today’s GOP that 6 of 9 candidates for speaker come from the South and 2 from the Midwest,” notes Michael Li, redistricting and voting counsel at the Brennan Center at NYU School of Law.

With the exception of one, the candidates are all white. And as former U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) observed, “9 men running for Speaker. Where are the women candidates?”

Noticeably absent from running: Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who serves as the Chair of the House Republican Conference.

The candidates are far older than the average American, who is just under 39 years old. Bergman is the oldest, at 76. Emmer is 62. Johnson is 51. Hern is 61. Meuser, 59. Palmer, 69. Scott, 53. Sessions, 68. Donalds is the youngest, at 44.

All come from strongly Republican-leaning districts, as University of South Carolina Professor and Political Science Department Vice Chair David Darmofal notes.

“It’s 2023 and only one of the 9 Republican candidates for Speaker of the House voted to federally codify same-sex & interracial marriages,” Darmofal adds, pointing to former pollster Adam Carlson’s spreadsheet which details just how far-right all nine candidates are.

According to Carlson’s chart and one for Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman (both below), just two voted to certify the 2020 presidential election on January 6 after the insurrection, which The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent calls “Another mark of the GOP’s descent.”

“Don’t be fooled,” warns activist and political commentator Victor Chi. “While 2 of the 9 Republicans didn’t decertify the election results on January 6, BOTH of them signed an amicus brief demanding SCOTUS overturn the 2020 election. That means ALL 9 Speaker candidates are election deniers. This is not normal. But it’s who they are.”

None voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection. None voted to establish the January 6 Commission.

Just five of the nine voted to avert a government default related to the debt ceiling, and five voted to avert a government shutdown by supporting the current 45-day continuing resolution. That’s an ominous possible predictor of what could happen in less than four weeks, when the federal government will shut down if the House (and Senate) do not pass legislation to fund the government.

Only four voted to support additional aid to Ukraine.

None voted for bipartisan gun control. None voted for the bipartisan Infrastructure Act. Just one voted for reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.

None voted for ensuring the right to contraception, which some warn is a battle Republicans are gearing up to wage.

What are some other experts saying overall?

“The worst is Donalds. The best of the lot is Emmer,” writes political scientist Norman Ornstein of The Atlantic. Reflecting on the bigger picture of why Speaker Nancy Pelosi was successful while Speaker Kevin McCarthy was not, Ornstein writes:

“Blowing up government is the larger goal. Purity is a virtue. So is disruption. So it is not a great surprise that McCarthy, who spent much of his career, encouraging disruption, and who has no core values, failed. Nor is it a great surprise that they cannot find a replacement.”

House Republicans will meet behind closed doors for a “candidate forum,” Monday starting at 6:30 PM. They hope to elect one nominee who must get a majority of their fellow Republicans’ votes. Tuesday morning, exactly three weeks after Kevin McCarthy was ousted, the House is expected to convene to attempt, for the fourth time this year, to elect a Speaker.

Look at the charts below or at this link. nice

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15m$ big lie

https://www.alternet.org/maricopa-county-gop-wants-to-force-cash-strapped-azgop-to-fund-a-costly-presidential-primary/

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rww 8 23

stew Peters is a far-right virulently anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his nightly “The Stew Peters Show” program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalists and antisemites and to spread wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and calls for violence.Nevertheless, Peters regularly manages to get Republican leaders, elected officials, and candidates for office to appear on his program.

On Wednesday, far-right Arizona stateSen. Wendy Rogers appeared on Peters’ program, where she discussed her good friend Kari Lake’s never-ending effort to overturn her loss in the 2022 gubernatorial election to current Gov. Katie Hobbs.

When Peters declared that he hopes that Lake will prevail and then have Hobbs arrested, Rogers eagerly agreed.

“If she is installed as the legitimate governor, what about Hobbs?” Peters wondered. “Will she be arrested? Will all of the people who committed these crimes actually be held criminally accountable? This is what we need.”

“I want to see that,” Rogers replied. “I want to see that.”

Peters, though, does not have much faith in our political and judicial system, prompting him to declare that Americans should now be exploring “extra-legal options.”

“Speaking of enemy combatants, that’s what these people are,” Peters said. “They have taken over a country. They have affected a Marxist coup d’état.These are the real insurrectionists who have committed sedition.”

“The judiciary has failed us. The legal process has failed us. The voting process has failed us,” Peters continued. “So, I think that right now what Americans need to be exploring is our extra-legal options.”

The term “extra-legal” as Peters used it means “illegal,” of course, and potentially violently so.

“God bless America,” Rogers then responded as Peters ended the segment by expressing his love and appreciation for her.

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https://www.alternet.org/trump-jack-smith-indictment/

"Baseless conspiracy theories': NY Times fact-check tears apart Trump’s 2020 election lies

Alex Henderson

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https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/trump-and-his-allies-used-social-media-spread-election-lies-detailed-latest-federal

2nd try no lnx twt

facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms allowed Trump and his allies to amplify the election lies cited in the latest federal indictment against him

On social media, Trump and his campaign repeatedly alleged that dead people had voted in Georgia, including posting obituaries of supposed dead voters on Facebook.

According to the indictment, immediately before the January 6 attack, “The Defendant insinuated that more than ten thousand dead voters had voted in Georgia” even though Georgia’s Secretary of State had “explained to the Defendant that this was false” just four days earlier.

Trump’s January 6 claim of dead voters came after he posted on Twitter on January 3, 2021, that Georgia officials would not answer his questions about dead voters and after his campaign posted multiple obituaries of deceased Georgians on November 11, 2020, alleging that they had voted in the 2020 election. The claims reportedly earned hundreds of thousands of interactions on Facebook.

image of facebook posts and tweets

On Facebook and Twitter, Trump and ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)amplified the false claim that there were over 200,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania.

The indictment alleges, “The Defendant asserted that there had been 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania” even though state officials “had explained to him that this was false.”

This false claim from Trump followed multiple December 2020 posts on Facebook and Twitter in which he pushed the claim, calling it “Breaking News” and claiming “we WIN Pennsylvania.”

On December 29, 2020, Greene similarly posted that “202,377 more votes cast than voters voting in Pennsylvania,” claiming that “by Jan 6th, not one single member of Congress will be able to vote to certify a #StolenElection.”

image of facebook posts and tweets

image of tweet

Trump repeatedly posted on Facebook and Twitter that noncitizens voted in the election and alleged that there were tens of thousands of double votes in Nevada.

The indictment specifically alleges that “the Defendant said that more than 30,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona” and “claimed that there had been tens of thousands of double votes and other fraud in Nevada,” even though the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives and Nevada secretary of state had publicly debunked these claims.

These false claims from Trump came after he repeatedly posted on Facebook and Twitter in December 2020 and January 2021 that there were “illegals who voted” in states such as Georgia and Nevada, and he amplified an article from right-wing outlet the Washington Examiner and alleged that “42,248 voted ‘multiple times’” in Nevada.

image of facebook posts and tweets

Trump and his right-wing allies falsely alleged that there were suspicious vote dumps in various locations, including Detroit, Michigan, after he was leading in key states on election night.

The indictment also alleges that immediately before the January 6 attack “the Defendant said that there had been a suspicious vote dump in Detroit, Michigan,” even though then-Attorney General Bill Barr “explained to the Defendant that this was false.”

These false claims from Trump followed multiple Facebook and Twitter posts after the 2020 election in which he alleged that there were “late night” and “surprise ballot dumps” that “magically” took away his lead in key states. In one post on November 4, 2020, Trump responded to a tweet from right-wing media personality Matt Walsh about a vote update in Michigan and asked, “WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?”

On November 29, 2020, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) similarly claimed that the “Trump margin of ‘defeat’ in 4 states occurred in 4 data dumps between 1:34-6:31 AM.”

This election lie spread across social media, including TikTok.

image of facebook posts and tweetsRand Paul_tweet_20201129

On Facebook and Twitter, Trump repeatedly amplified his right-wing media allies that pushed claims that voting machines had switched votes from him to Biden.

According to the indictment, “The Defendant asserted that voting machines in various contested states had switched votes from the Defendant to Biden,” even though Barr and another Department of Justice official “explained to him that this was false” and “numerous recounts and audits had confirmed the accuracy of voting machines.”

Trump’s January 6 claim about voting machines switching votes came after Trump had repeatedly posted on Facebook and Twitter in the months after the election that Dominion voting machines swayed the election by changing the votes in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and other states. This election lie also reportedly spread across YouTube in the week after the 2020 election.

image of facebook posts and tweets

Social media platforms have reinstated Trump and rolled back election policies ahead of the 2024 presidential election

Twitter owner Elon Musk announced he would reinstate Trump’s accountafter launching a poll on Twitter in November 2022 — less than a month after taking over the platform — asking users whether he should do so. Trump has not yet posted on Twitter since being reinstated, and Musk has continued to reinstate previously suspended accounts while also reversing content moderation policies and gutting content moderation teams.

On February 9, Meta reinstated Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. The company has also vowed not to fact-check the former president given his status as a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. On March 17, Trump posted on Facebook again for the first time since his account was reinstated, and after news broke on March 30 that a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict him for paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, he posted a full copy of his misinformation-filled statement to the newly reinstated Facebook page.

image of facebook post

Meta reportedly made cuts to its election teams that address disinformation and coordinated harassment campaigns in the last year. According to CNN, “several members of the team that countered mis- and disinformation in the 2022 US midterms were laid off last fall and this spring.”

On March 17, YouTube announced that it was immediately lifting Trump’s suspension on the platform and would allow him to upload new content. Though YouTube claimed that it “carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence,” the decision failed to account for Trump’s propensity to push extreme rhetoric and the platform’s weak misinformation policies and haphazard enforcement.

On June 2, YouTube reversed its misinformation policy to allow 2020 election lies. In its announcement, YouTube claimed, “Two years, tens of thousands of video removals, and one election cycle later, we recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today's changed landscape. … With that in mind, and with 2024 campaigns well underway, we will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections.”

THE LATEST

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08/04/23 11:22 AM EDT

Pagination

Current page1

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Right-wing media continue to provide cover for Trump amid new charges

07/28/23

Roughly a quarter of Trump’s posts on Facebook in 2020 contained COVID-19 misinformation, election lies, or extreme rhetoric about his critics

02/18/21

Social media platforms are backsliding, paving the way for chaos in 2024

06/22/23

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on an lately for ?

an 7 23

republican strategist Frank Luntz disagreed with a GOP voter who believed the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump.

During theSunday edition of C-SPAN's Washington Journal program, Luntz changed roles and began asking questions of a Republican caller.

"Why do you think Donald Trump won?" Luntz wondered.

The caller urgedLuntzto acknowledge "the interference by Facebook in the election with [the] Hunter Biden laptop."

"You have a point of view. And that's the problem," Luntz shot back, "is that you're unwilling to see the evidence. You're unwilling to examine the facts. I've looked at this. I've gone and studied this."

Luntz pointed to professional websites spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

"Their stuff looks great," he lamented. "It looks professional. It looks like it's factual. It isn't."

Watch the video below from C-SPAN.

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CORROLLARY: NO INSURRECTION

no lnx twt vid

https://www.alternet.org/gop-to-tucker-carlson/

Brett Wilkins and Common Dreams March 08, 2023

After Fox News' Tucker Carlson falsely dismissed the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump as mostly nonviolent, numerous Republican senators including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blasted the right-wing opinion host's "whitewashing" of the deadly insurrection.

Carlson—who publicly promoted former President Donald Trump's 2020 election lies while privately calling the GOP loser's claims "absurd"—said Monday on his program that "very little about January 6 was organized or violent" and that "surveillance video from inside the Capitol shows mostly peaceful chaos."

Recently deposed as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Carlson echoed colleagues who said under oath that they didn't actually believe Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 presidential contest was stolen by Democrats.

While some of the eight Republican senators (and 135 House members) who voted against certifying President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory have stuck by the Big Lie, numerous others pushed back hard against Carlson's reimagination of the worst attack on the Capitol since Puerto Rican nationalists launched an armed assault on the building in 1954.

"I think it's bullshit," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters Tuesday when asked what he thought of Carlson's narrative. "When you see police officers assaulted, all of that... if you were just a tourist, you should've probably lined up at the visitors' center and came in on an orderly basis."

Also speaking Tuesday, McConnell (R-Ky.) said that Fox News "made a mistake" by airing Carlson's spurious revision of the deadly insurrection.

"With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on January 6," McConnell declared.

As he spoke, McConnell held up a printout of remarks from U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who called Carlson's account "filled with offensive and misleading conclusions" and "conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video."

\u201cSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Tucker Carlson's whitewashing of the Capitol insurrection was a \u201cmistake.\u201d\n\n"My concern is how it was a depicted ... Clearly, the chief of the Capitol Police ... correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on January 6th."\u201d

— The Recount (@The Recount) 1678218192]

Asked whether he thought U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) erred in giving Carlson exclusive access to the footage—a move that prompted watchdogs on Tuesday to call for an Office of Congressional Ethics probe—McConnell said that "my concern is how it was depicted."

:{:{}:

"Clearly," he added, "the chief of the Capitol Police correctly described what most of us witnessed on January 6."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined in the criticism of Carlson, saying, "We don't want to whitewash January the 6th."

:{:{}:

"I think the January 6 committee had a partisan view of things, and I'd like to know more about what happened that day and the day before," Graham added. "But I'm not interested in whitewashing the Covid lab theory, and I'm not interested in whitewashing January 6."

:{:{}:

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) accused Carlson of "feeding falsehoods" to his viewers.

"It's really sad to see Tucker Carlson go off the rails like that," the 2012 Republican presidential nominee told reporters. "The American people saw what happened on January 6. They've seen the people that got injured, they saw the damage to the building."

"You can't hide the truth by selectively picking a few minutes out of tapes and saying this is what went on," he added. "It's so absurd. It's nonsense. And people saw that it was violent and destructive and should never happen again. But trying to normalize that behavior is dangerous and disgusting."

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) condemned Carlson's framing of the attack as "some rowdy peaceful protest of Boy Scouts."

"I think that breaking through glass windows and doors to get into the United States Capitol... is a crime," Cramer argued. "I think... when you start opening the members' desks, when you stand up in their balcony—to somehow put that in the same category as, you know, permitted peaceful protest is just a lie."

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) got straight to his point: "I thought it was an insurrection at that time. I still think it was an insurrection today."

:{:{}:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, called on Fox to keep Carlson off the air this evening.

"To say January 6 was not violent is a lie. A lie, pure and simple," Schumer said on the Senate floor.

:{:{}:

"I don't think I have ever seen a prime-time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night," he added. "I don't think I've ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain. And he is going to come back tonight with another segment. Fox News should tell him not to."

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/another-far-right-group-was-posting-conspiracy-theories-about-voter-roll-program-as-red-states-cut-ties

tpm 4 23

as Republican-led states pull out of a multistate voter roll program in response to Gateway Pundit-pushed conspiracy theories about the organization, a conservative nonprofit was apparently also part of fanning the flames.

Judicial Watch, a far-right legal advocacy group, published a white paper in early March boosting erroneous claims about the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a bipartisan program designed to maintain voter rolls across state lines.

The paper, which the non-profit reupped on their website Friday, sought to legitimize debunked claims made by the far-right website Gateway Pundit last year, which falsely argued that ERIC was founded by “left-leaning attorney David Becker” and funded by GeorgeSoros.

Judicial Watch claims that Becker had a “history of left-wing activism and unethical conduct,” and that ERIC “shares the vast amount of sensitive personal data it receives from member states with another liberal non-profit, the Center for Election Innovation and Research,” which they linked to the “Zuckerbucks” controversy, another election-related conspiracy theory.

Becker did help a handful of states launch the non-partisan program with a group called the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2012, but Soros never directly contributed to ERIC.Becker has sat on ERIC’s board as a non-voting ex-officio member since its founding, but on March 14 he announced that he would be vacating the position due to the conspiracy theories about his role that were being pushed by the right-wing media.

The Judicial Watch report was originally published on March 9, three days after Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd (R) announced that his state would be withdrawing from the program alongside Missouri and West Virginia. That afternoon, former president Donald Trump attacked ERIC on Truth Social as well:

“All Republican Governors should immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that ‘pumps the rolls’ for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up,” he wrote. “It’s a fools game for Republicans…”

On March 10, Texas officials also signaled their interest in leaving the program, and they’ve since drawn up legislation to do so. Ohio and Iowa announced their departures on March 17.

ERIC executive director Shane Hamlin posted an open letter on March 2 trying to bat down misinformation about the program, but it didn’t stop what would become a wave of red state officials cutting ties with the program.

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an ah 3 23

the latest developments in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News unfolded in a New York City courtroom on Wednesday. Media Matters for America senior fellow Matthew Gertz obtained copies of slides containing previously unseen conversations between Fox employees about the network's hosts, who despite management's misgivings were permitted to peddle former President Donald Trump's bogus allegations about the 2020 election.

Gertz live-tweeted the drama.

For example, Fox Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Scott reportedly wrote in an email to anchor Eric Shawn in December 2020 that "this has to stop now... this is bad business... the audience is furious and we are just feeding them material." Scott also stated that November that "I can't keep defending these reporters who don't understand our viewers and how to handle stories... We lost 25k subs from FOX NATION."

One personality, "Judge" Jeanine Pirro, was railed against by production staff in November 2020 over her militant defense of Trump's baseless claims that the contest was "rigged and stolen" by President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Pirro's scheduled monologue was "rife w conspiracy theories and bs and is yet another example why this woman should never be on live television," her executive producer complained to Fox's top brass.

Gertz noted that "Fox subsequently promoted Pirro, making her a co-host of the LIVE panel show The Five."

He added that according to Dominion's legal filings, David Clark, Fox's senior vice president of Weekend News, "did not believe Jeanine Pirro was actually a 'credible source of news,' even as he understood that 'viewers rely on' Pirro 'to be a credible source.'"

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an raw 3 23

before Donald Trump made his infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger imploring him to find votes that would help him secure the state's electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election, the now-former president's own campaign staff had created a report that showed there was little to no evidence of voter fraud in the state.

Worse for Trump, according to the Washington Post, the Department of Justice obtained a copy of the internal document a month ago as part of it's Jan. 6 insurrection investigation

While the president was complaining there was widespread election tampering in Georgia, the report commissioned by his own campaign painted an entirely different story.

According to the Washington Post's Josh Dawsey, the Post obtained the secret report which shows that, "Researchers paid by Trump’s team had 'high confidence' of only nine dead voters in Fulton County, defined as ballots that may have been cast by someone else in the name of a deceased person. They believed there was a 'potential statewide exposure' of 23 such votes across the Peach State — or 4,977 less than the 'minimum' Trump claimed."

The Trump report also noted that they also found little evidence of voter fraud in Nevada, another state where the former president also contested the results after losing to President Joe Biden.

The Post is reporting the internal report is in the hands of the Department of Justice as part of the investigation into the Jan. 6 investigation.

According to Dawsey, "The 'Project 2020' report conducted by the Berkeley Research Group and a team of scientists has now been obtained by prosecutors investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. A copy was reviewed by The Washington Post, and it shows that Trump’s own campaign paid more than $600,000 for research that undercut many of his most explosive claims. The research was never made public."

The report added that "the Justice Department has sought and obtained multiple reports, emails and interviews from witnesses that show campaign officials analyzing, and often discrediting, claims that Trump was making publicly, according to several people involved in the investigation, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal details. The Berkeley report was provided to the Justice Department earlier this month, one of the people said, after some people involved in its crafting received a subpoena."

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https://www.alternet.org/send/trump-election-fraud/

600k$ study found zip

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3 23 AFTER DOMIN DISCLOSURES AND CELL SEIZED?!

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-it-clear-2020-election-was-grave-betrayal-american-democracy

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rww 2 23

schedule and speakers list for this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference make it clear that the gathering will be dominated by the undemocratic and unprincipled power-seeking strategies for which former President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are known.

Lying About Elections, Undermining Democracy

The choice of Kari Lake to keynote the event’s gala, the “Ronald Reagan Dinner,” makes it clear that CPAC will continue to promote damaging false claims about voter fraud. Trump’s refusal to admit that voters rejected him in 2020 fueled the violent attempt to stop Congress from affirming President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

Following in Trump’s footsteps, Lake has refused to accept her defeat by Arizona voters in last year’s governor’s race. Instead, she inflames supporters with bogus claims of election fraud, filing lawsuit after rejected lawsuit seeking to overturn her loss. Right Wing Watch reported that this month Lake took her complaints to two programs hosted by far-right broadcasters who have called for violence against political opponents. On one, when the host claimed that conservative Christians are being provoked to unleash “violence or bloodshed,” Lake responded, “I don’t know how much longer the people can take it.” As we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, this strategy is dangerous for democracy.

In addition to Trump himself, other speakers include Trump family members, right-wing funder and promoter of debunked election conspiracies Mike Lindell, MAGA strategist Steve Bannon, and far-right “Pizzagate” promoter Jack Posobiec.

Previous CPAC gatherings have celebrated authoritarian strongmen leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Brazil’s former president, Jair Balsonaro, whose supporters attacked government buildings after his defeat. Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a right-wing legislator, will speak at CPAC this year.

‘Parents with Pitchforks’: Limiting the Freedom to Learn

Right-wing political leaders are aggressively restricting freedom in the name of attacking “wokeness,” which they have invoked to restrict honest teaching about racism, purge library books that feature Black and LGBTQ characters, and deny access to essential health care for transgender people. This is an expansion of the cynical right-wing strategy launched during the Trump administration to vilify “critical race theory” and then slap the label on anything right-wing activists didn’t like.

One strategy in the war on “wokeness” is stoking racial resentment and grievance among conservative white voters. Before last year’s election, a group run by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller ran digital ads denouncing “anti-white bigotry” and falsely claiming that the Biden administration “put white people last in line for COVID relief funds.” Miller, an architect of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies with a documented affinity for white nationalism, is listed as a CPAC speaker.

One Thursday CPAC segment dubbed “Parents with Pitchforks” includes Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, whose boss Gov. Glenn Youngkin has just launched an investigation of the AP African American Studies class attacked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Another segment on “Sacking the Woke Playbook” features Sen. Tommy Tuberville and former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker, who once insisted that all judicial nominees should share his “biblical view of justice.”

Christian Nationalism

Also likely to be promoted at CPAC is the increasingly aggressive Christian nationalism espoused by religious-right activists and promoted by far-right politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and North Carolina’s vehemently anti-LGBTQ Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who exclaimed in 2021, “As for this not being a Christian nation, yes, it is! If you don’t like it, I’ll buy your plane, train, or automobile ticket right up out of here.”Both Greene and Robinson are listed as speakers at this year’s gathering. Scholars have documented that white evangelicals are the group most likely to strongly embrace Christian nationalism, and those who do are more likely to support authoritarianism and political violence.

A ‘Principled’ Alternative?

A group of non-Trumpist conservatives has organized an alternative to CPAC, which they call the Principles First Summit. In a Substack column promoting the summit, organizer Heath Mayo denounced the evolution of CPAC in the Trump era, saying “What once set a budding movement’s standards for principles and character is now a showcase of its worst ills.” CPAC, Mayo wrote, “actively applauds a conspiratorial fringe of our politics completely unmoored from ethical constraints and moral commitments.”

Tags: Donald Trump Eduardo Bolsonaro Jack Posobiec Kari Lake Marjorie Taylor Greene Mark Robinson Mike Lindell Stephen Miller Steve Bannon Winsome Sears Censorship Christian Nationalism CPAC CPAC 2023 Critical Race Theory Stop the Steal CPAC

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an 2 23 maya

Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, left office earlier this year without sharing findings from an investigation into Maricopa County's 2020 election seeking evidence of fraud, which he spearheaded, The Washington Post reports.

Now, per Arizona's KPNX News, the state's newly-elected Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has released the findings from last year Brnovich failed to provide, provinghis allegations of fraud to be untrue.

A memo from September 2022 states, "These allegations were not supported by any factual evidence when researched by our office. Some of the information was mischaracterized... while some were wholly false."

According to The Post, the former attorney general refused to "respond to questions about his conduct of the probe, his decision not to release additional documents or differences between his public statements and his office's private findings."

"The people of Arizona had a right to know this information before the 2022 election," said Mayes. “Maricopa County election officials had a right to know that they were cleared of wrongdoing. And every American had a right to know that the 2020 election in Arizona, which in part decided the presidency, was conducted accurately and fairly."

Two years prior, The Post reports:

Brnovich quickly affirmed then-President Trump’s loss in Arizona in November 2020, angering fellow Republicans. And he went on to resist Trump’s efforts to overturn the vote. Yet he flirted with claims of fraud as he courted GOP support over the subsequent two years, trumpeting his interim report on a far-right radio show and saying, 'It’s frustrating for all of us, because I think we all know what happened in 2020.'

Days leading up to the 2022 midterm election, according to The Post, Brnovich suffered defeat in the Senate primary a few months before, and suddenly started to criticize officials "who denied Trump's defeat, calling them 'clowns' engaged in a 'giant grift.'"

Mayes said her predecessor's investigation was carried out by nearly 60 investigators, who "spent more than 10,000 hours examining claims of irregularities, malfeasance and fraud," according to the findings.

Although the staff members received criticism regarding their "handling and verification of ballots," they collectively sent a letter to the former president of the**Senate Karen Finn,** writing "We can report that there are problematic systemwide issues that relate to early ballot handling and verification." However, they also noted, "we did not uncover any criminality or fraud having been committed in this area during the 2020 general election."

According to The Post, Brnovich never disclosed the full findings, leaving those suspicious of his accusations with questions and concerns.

A spokesperson for the attorney's general office, Richie Taylor, told The Post "records released this week represent a fraction of the thousands of pages produced by investigators and attorneys during the investigation, including additional material from drafts of reports and interviews and correspondence with witnesses and election officials."

Taylor says "Mayes's staff is reviewing those documents and is redacting sensitive information before making them public in the coming months."

The Washington Post's full report is available at this link (subscription required). KPNX News' report is here.

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aha these are norms now backed by law

an 2 23 maya

Election officials, legislators and advocates across the country, who are mostly Democrats, are fighting "the wave of misinformation and mistrust of elections" fueled by election deniers in preparation for the 2024 presidential election, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Inspired by former President Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud during the 2020 election, election deniers have forced election officials and administrators to adhere to "demands that go beyond their official powers — to stop using electronic voting equipment, to hand-count all ballots, to end mail voting or to refuse to certify results."

Per The Post, this "pressure and abuse" has caused "hundreds" of officials to step down from their roles.

Now, many Democratic officials are implementing practices to fight against the "election denialism" plaguing many GOP supporters and officials, which will likely persist in the coming year.

The Post reported:

When the new Arizona attorney general took office last month, she repurposed a unit once exclusively devoted to rooting out election fraud to focus on voting rights and ballot access.

In North Carolinaon Tuesday, the State Board of Elections began proceedings that could end with the removal of a county election officer who had refused to certify the 2022 results even as he acknowledged the lack of evidence of irregularities.

And later this week, a group of secretaries of state will showcase a 'Democracy Playbook' that includes stronger protections for election workers and penalties for those who spread misinformation.

"We want to protect the people who protect democracy," said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D). "Individuals who intentionally spread misinformation that then leads to threats or worse targeting election officials are just as culpable and should be held culpable just as those who are actually exercising the threats themselves."

Regarding heightened violence from election deniers, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) said, "We're facing a new world in which elections officials are experiencing death threats, in which voters are being intimidated by people showing up at the ballot box, at voting centers, wearing body armor and carrying guns, and in which the Republican Party is trying to undermine vote-by-mail. Those are all things that I think this unit can and should now be focused on."

AlterNet previously reported Solomon Peña, an ex-GOP candidate was arrested after he conspired a series of drive-by shootings targeting Democratic lawmakers, claiming his election was "rigged."

Benson is collaborating with Lansing, Michigan legislators to hike up punishments for those who "threaten election officials or releasing private information about them," and taking steps to propose a law that would legislation that would make spreading election misinformation illegal, according to The Post.

NPR reports Pennsylvania is "still grappling with the aftermath of the 2020 election," as the state continues to be "a hotbed for election deniers and misinformation."

William Martin, an election official in suburban Philadelphia said, "I am profoundly offended to listen to baseless allegations of fraud against me and against other county workers. It's time to put up or shut up. If you think there is fraud, sue me. Sue me! Sue me personally. Because then when it gets thrown out, I'll sue you for abuse of process. Sue me!"

Executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, Lisa Schaefer, contends "Those counties are dealing with people who, over and over, no matter how many times they've seen the evidence of the integrity of the election, continue to come and yell and be insulting."

Canton, Michigan Township Clerk Michael Siegrist reiterated the need to enforce penalties for all forms of election denialism.

"Someone’s going to have to bring some charges against some folks," Siegrist told The Post. "This notion of, 'I'm going to come in and try to re-litigate an election afterwards in the court of public opinion,' especially if it relates to a scheme to overturn the validity of an election — that stuff just needs to have consequences."

The Washington Post's full report is available at this link. NPR's can be viewed here.

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February 14, 2023 rww

Josh Dawsey @ The Washington Post: Trump campaign paid researchers to prove 2020 fraud but kept findings secret.
Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: The problem with the GOP’s new Covid committee is its members.
Anya Zoledziowski @ Vice News: South Dakota Is Going to Force Trans Kids to Detransition.
James Barragán @ The Texas Tribune: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority bills signal another swing at pushing Texas to the right.
Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis @ Rolling Stone: Trump Plans to Bring Back Firing Squads, Group Executions if He Retakes White House.
Media Matters: Charlie Kirk says the Ohio train derailment is part of a “war on white people.”

Tags: Charlie Kirk Dan Patrick Donald Trump Round-Up

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poster girl

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/kari-lake-makes-the-round-of-radical-right-wing-programs/

Update 2/9/23: A day after publishing this story, the Conservative Political Action Conference named Kari Lake its flagship speaker for its upcoming March conference.

It has been three months since broadcaster-turned-MAGA-cultist Kari Lake lost her bid for governor of Arizona, but Lake steadfastly refuses to accept the results of the election. Rather, Lake has endlessly insisted to anyone who will listen that she is the “duly elected governor,” despite the fact that the actual duly elected governor Katie Hobbs was sworn-in over a month ago.

On Tuesday, Lake took her complaints to two programs hosted by extreme right-wing broadcasters who have openly called for violence against their perceived political opponents in the past.

Earlier in the day, Lake appeared on “The Pete Santilli Show,” a program hosted by radical Ohio-based broadcaster Pete Santilli who was deeply involved in the 2014 Bundy standoff and who once declared that he wanted to shoot Hillary Clinton “right in the vagina.”

The day before her appearance on his show, Santilli raged against Pfizer’s sponsorship of Sunday night’s Grammy Awards and openly urged his listeners to literally attack Pfizer’s production facilities.

“Destroy Pfizer now!” Santilli bellowed. “Do it now. Go over the wall. Get into their frickin’ buildings. Unplug all their frickin’ equipment. Let’s go. It’s time to storm the Bastille.”

During her appearance on his show, Lake praised Santilli and declared that “our government is corrupt as Hell” while Santilli spent most of the interview fuming that the nation has been overthrown by “a CIA coup.”

Lake, for her part, was inclined to agree.

“What you’re saying, I’m sure is absolutely true,” Lake said. “I haven’t looked at all that evidence, but nothing would shock me anymore.”kari agree santilli... On zzz Tuesday evening, **Lake [made an appearance on “The Stew Peters Show,”hosted by white nationalist Stew Peters, who has used his nightly program, speeches, and social media accounts to spread<...After zzz heaping praise on Peters, Lake railed against the “bastards” who supposedly stole her election, before agreeing with Peters’ assertion that “conservative Christians” are being relentlessly oppressed and provoked into unleashing “violence or bloodshed.”

“I don’t know zzz how much longer the people can take it,” Lake warned.

Kari Lake zzz appeared on radical right-wing conspiracy theorist Stew Peters’ program last night, where she agreed that “conservative Christians” are being provoked into unleashing “violence or bloodshed”: “I don’t know how much longer the people can take it.” making a run for the U.S. Senate in 2024, her willingness to associate with radical right-wing figures like Santilli and Peters should be cause for alarm.

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an 2 23 salon

Arizona's Republican-controlled state legislature advanced bills last month that they claim will improve election transparency — but voting rights advocates worry will actually have the opposite effect.

The state House elections committee last week voted to pass House Bill 2308 – a bill that would bar any future secretary of state from overseeing and confirming the results of an election if they are a candidate. The bill comes after then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs won the gubernatorial election in November.

"There's a lack of confidence from some of my constituents in the election itself," Republican state Rep. Rachel Jones of Tucson, who presented the bill, said during the committee meeting. "I think the optics of that – of a secretary of state running their own election for governor and then certifying that election was a major concern."

State Rep. Melody Hernandez, a Tempe Democrat, questioned why the bill was being presented now but wasn't a concern when GOP Secretaries of State Ken Bennett and Michele Reagan were on the ballot in 2014 and 2018.

Jones countered that the environment changed after the 2020 election and claimed that "there's a lack of confidence in our election process" now, which brought the issue to the forefront.

When state Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, a Democrat from Laveen, asked her if she had "any concrete evidence that there were any misdeeds from the secretary of state in the 2022 election," Jones responded saying "It was more just the optics."

"It was instilling a lack of confidence in the results of the election," she added.

While there has been no evidence of corruption in the election process, Arizona Republicans have continued to sponsor bills they claim will instill faith in the election system for voters. Citing a survey from Rasmussen Reports, which has a history of Republican-leaning polling, Jones shared that 71% of U.S. voters stated they believed the midterms were "botched" during the committee meeting.

But voting rights organizations raised concerns that advancing such bills can create more uncertainty around the election system and even increase threats against election administrators.

"These are the same people who brought you the 'fraudit' following the 2020 election," a Democratic source who asked to remain anonymous told Salon. "So, it just continues to be more bad-faith conspiracy theories and, frankly, I think voters are tired of it. This has been going on now for two years. And because of it, we've seen so much of violent rhetoric, resulting in threats to the safety of secretaries of state and election administrators up and down the ballot."

The Maricopa County elections office recorded nearly 140 threatening and hostile communications against election workers between July and August of last year, according to Reuters.

Many of these threats stemmed from conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election that were promoted by former President Donald Trump and his allies.

The threats asserted false claims of fake ballots, fixed voting machines and corruption among election officials in the county during the 2020 election.

The same efforts that were used to sow doubt about the election system after the 2020 election are being repeated now, said Hannah Fried, executive director of All Voting is Local and All Voting is Local Action.

"Despite the fact that our elections were overwhelmingly proven to be secure, reliable, trustworthy, there are still going to be efforts to drive mis- [and] disinformation from 2022, and use that as a pretextual basis for passing new laws, and that is exactly what we are seeing in Arizona," Fried added.

The Arizona legislature also passed three other bills, two of which the committee split along party lines.

House Bill 2319 would tell judges to "aggressively" favor an election-law interpretation that provides greater transparency and HB 2322 would put observers appointed by each party in charge of voter signature verification.

Observers would have the ability to challenge the decisions of election workers at polling places, voting centers and other counting facilities.

"Signature verification processes, often, the way they're carried out can be to the detriment of older voters," Fried said. "For example, people whose signatures have changed, you really want to be mindful of any kind of change because it can have a really direct impact on people's right to vote."

Beyond Arizona, other states are also enacting similar efforts to "chip away" at the opportunities that have helped more people access voting, she added.

If these efforts continue to advance in other states, it will allow legislators to strip power from people they didn't agree with, which defeats the purpose of having separate branches of government, a Democratic source told Salon.

"This is a hyper-partisan attack based on the fact that they don't like election results," said Kim Rogers, the executive director of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State. "And I think that Arizona, frankly, has one of the strictest voter fraud guidelines already in the country."

Republicans have pushed out unproven claims of voter fraud when it comes to in-person early voting and voting by mail. Many candidates even made the centerpiece of their campaigns promising to ban some of these efforts.

Republican Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake said she would support slashing early and mail-in voting citing unsubstantiated or disproven claims of widespread voter fraud. When she lost to her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes in the midterm election, Lake refused to concede and instead filed a lawsuit against Hobbs and Maricopa County election officials claiming election fraud.

While her suit was dismissed in court last month, her efforts to sow doubt in the integrity of the election system have continued.

Lake came under fire recently for posting photos of voters' signatures on Twitter. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes asked Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate her for potentially violating a state law that prohibits "records containing a voter's signature" from being used by another person who isn't the voter.

Even after election workers in Maricopa County were forced into hiding after receiving threats related to the 2022 midterms, Lake has continued to peddle conspiracy theories.

Now, the Republican-controlled Arizona legislature is passing bills fueled by such election conspiracy theories, which Fried pointed out has been a concerted effort to undermine election integrity for the last couple of years.

"There are points of connectivity between all of this," she added. "It's not happening by accident… people who are trying to break our systems are getting smarter about it, and the really kind of over-the-top stuff that we sometimes see getting replaced with things that look reasonable on the surface are not reasonable."

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an 2 23 raw?

Republicans in Arizona suffered a string of brutal defeats this past fall after a string of hardline Trump-backed MAGA candidates flamed out against Democratic opponents.

However, Politico reports that the Arizona GOP isn't responding to this by trying to rehabilitate its image and is instead getting even angrier and doubling down on the election denialism that cost the party winnable races in 2022.

To illustrate this, the report notes that the party recently considered resolutions to censure Republicans who were involved in past elections on the grounds that those Republicans were part of a conspiracy to help Democrats win.

One particularly angry attendee stood up at the meeting and said traditional censures did not go far enough.

"We should duct tape people to a tree in a dog park, so the dogs can pee on them," the man declared. "And then, when they’re there for a few hours and they have to crap in their pants, they can wallow in their own sh*t.”

Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelly Ward, who herself has dabbled in conspiracy theories about chemtrails, similarly saw no need for reflection and insisted that "things are going great" with a party that lost a governorship, a Senate race, and a secretary of state race in the same election cycle despite having a favorable political environment.

Barrett Marson, an Arizona GOP strategist, told Politico that he wasn't sure how many more losses his party would have to take before they reckoned with the fact that running on election denialism is a loser strategy.

"The party may have to die to be reborn," he said.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/election-denial-movement-and-trump-have-become-increasingly-intertwined

no lnx many vids

Media Matters for America

Research/Study

The election denial movement — and Trump — have become increasingly intertwined with QAnon

QAnon now offers a broad extremist network for election denialists to promote themselves and spread conspiracy theories to receptive listeners

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published 01/26/23

Last December, while discussing supposed “election integrity” efforts, Gregg Phillips, a leader of the election denial organization True the Vote, told an attorney for former President Donald Trump that “people want to come in and help,” and “that’s what this Anon movement is about.”

And “help” it has. Five years after “Q” began a movement based on a conspiracy theory that Trump would crush his supposed enemies and a cabal of pedophiles with mass arrests, QAnon had evolved into an online anti-reality network that has shifted much of its focus to boosting other conspiracy theories, including anti-vaccine misinformation and, increasingly, election denial. It is now an online distribution system that the election denial movement and other conspiracy theorists can exploit to spread their false claims and gain attention for their organizations.

QAnon was born out of far-right message boards and grew as supporters repeatedly helped spread misinformation online during years of inaction from social media platforms. The movement became so much of a threat that multiple government agencies issued internal warnings on its supporters, who have committed multiple acts of violence, including the January 6 insurrection.

During the 2022 election cycle, the QAnon community saw a closer level of association with the election denial movement — including Trump and his associates — providing a broad extremist network for denialists to easily promote themselves and spread their conspiracy theories to people primed to support them.

QAnon influencer Juan O. Savin’s election-denial candidates coalition

Leading up to the midterm elections, QAnon influencer Juan O. Savin (whose real name is Wayne Willott) and Nevada secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant recruited election denial candidates for positions where they would be in charge of election administration. Savin boasted of his involvement, claiming that every week he would “have a call to all my candidates from around the country,” including discussing fundraising.

Savin also said he had created the “largest election integrity presentation groups in the country" -- events where denialists, sometimes including coalition members, discussed supposed evidence of voter fraud -- and that he was working “behind the scenes” and hiring QAnon sympathizer Lara Logan to “host” them.

Following the midterm elections, Savin moved to another election denial effort, teaming up with a pair of brothers to promote a long-shot challenge to the 2020 election, which the Supreme Court declined to hear.

Tina Peters

Savin detailed some of his efforts with his coalition during interviews, on QAnon-supporting shows, suggesting, for instance, that he helped convince Tina Peters — the Mesa County, Colorado, clerk who was criminally charged for a security breach of election equipment — to run for Colorado secretary of state. One of Peters’ primary opponents also revealed that Savin encouraged him to drop out of the race and endorse her.

After losing the Republican primary, Peters refused to concede, eventually becoming part of another Savin-linked coalition of Republican candidates in Colorado claiming that they lost their primaries due to voter fraud. Over the following months, these failed candidates went on QAnon shows to promote and fundraise for the coalition and amplify false claims of fraud in their primaries. A member of Peters’ coalition even invoked the QAnon slogan in a July interview on election denier Joe Oltmann’s podcast: “Where we find fraud in El Paso, we find fraud in Colorado, we find fraud nationwide. This is all national security.” “Where we go one,” she said, pausing; the other coalition members joined her in finishing it. “We go all.”

Kari Lake and Mark Finchem

Other candidates in Savin’s coalition also appeared on QAnon-promoting shows during the 2022 election cycle. Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake fundraised and promoted her campaign on a QAnon-supporting show right before the Republican primary, and Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem also appeared on that same QAnon show during his campaign. Finchem also had a QAnon influencer at one of his fundraisers, which featured a performance of a QAnon song. Both Finchem and Lake also appeared with other QAnon figures during their campaigns.

Election denial groups teamed up with the QAnon community

True the Vote

The long-standing organization True the Vote — whose founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, has been called “the godmother of the election integrity movement” — grew particularly close with the QAnon community in 2022, using its members and infrastructure to spread nefarious allegations about election software company Konnech.

Following the release of its debunked election denial movie 2000 Mules, True the Vote’s Engelbrecht and co-founder Gregg Phillips both began to cultivate relationships with QAnon figures, repeatedly appearing on QAnon shows. They praised the QAnon community’s “spectacularly good” “open source intelligence,” while also recruiting multiple QAnon figures to help with their efforts, such as Phillips’ podcast and “research team.” They also promised to hand off supposed information from the “Anons” to law enforcement that they had partnered with.

We The Media TTV research team chat log

Citation (Left): QAnon figure Chad Vivas (known online as "KagDrogo") alongside True the Vote's Gregg Phillips (Right): Message from Vivas from leaked internal chat logs of members of QAnon influencer collective We The Media

At a True the Vote event in August called “The Pit” — which featured QAnon attendees — the group presented allegations that the Chinese Communist Party rigged elections through Konnech. Attendees were encouraged to further research and spread the claims, which they did, earning praise from True the Vote for their “brilliant” and “great work.” According to The New York Times, Konnech’s CEO and his family were subsequently forced to go into hiding, and other Konech employees “feared for their safety and started working remotely.”

In October — less than two months after an investigator in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office attended “The Pit,” according to Phillips — the district attorney arrested Konnech’s CEO over allegations similar to True the Vote’s claims. (Charges were dropped in November.) The arrest was fodder for right-wing media to widely spread True the Vote and QAnon supporters’ claims about Konnech, calling it evidence of election fraud, and the story led to local governments announcing they would cancel contracts with the company. A Virginia county “election integrity” task force even gave some of those QAnon influencers’ materials about Konnech to its county election board. Phillips would go on to credit “the Anon community” for having “dug in” on Konnech and creating “focal points … of interest that [Konnech’s CEO is] ultimately going to have to answer to.”

Clean Elections USA

Another figure who attended The Pit was Melody Jennings, a QAnon supporter who had created a group inspired by 2000 Mules called Clean Elections USA, which focused on having people “monitor” ballot drop boxes for supposed fraud. She connected with several QAnon influencers at the event, later appearing multiple times on a show hosted by conspiracy theorists she met there. She credited those QAnon figures with helping her group and connecting her with others. Jennings regularly asked her “team” of QAnon influencers to promote her efforts, which led to complaints of voter intimidation in Arizona and landed Clean Elections USA in court there.

New York Citizens Audit

Another person who networked with QAnon figures at The Pit was Marly Hornik, who founded the election denial organization New York Citizens Audit. Hornik met the hosts of a QAnon show at the event and then repeatedly appeared on their program. There, Hornik promoted her organization and lauded what “the Anons are doing with Konnech,” calling them the “citizen intelligence army.”

Video

Citation From the October 27, 2022, edition of MatrixxxGrooove Show

Other election denial groups and activists

Election denial organizations also associated themselves with the QAnon community outside of The Pit:

Members of a Florida-based “election integrity” group called Defend Florida connected with QAnon-supporting show host Zak Paine at an event hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. The members later went on Paine’s show to promote the group and say they asked Paine if they could “come on your show” rather than appearing in mainstream outlets because of “the great work that you’ve been doing for years.”

A Florida “election integrity” activist told a QAnon influencer that he was a “big fan” of his and of Savin.

Paine also connected with a Nebraska election denial group founder at Lindell’s event.

A duo who had filed a class action lawsuit against election software company Dominion, which was a target of election denialists after the 2020 election, told Paine that “everybody loves you” and that their lawsuit would be more popular if Paine was on Twitter.

Well-known election deniers Patrick Byrne and Michael Flynn grew closer to the QAnon community

Patrick Byrne and The America Project

Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who is a co-founder of election denial organization The America Project, is one of the country’s central election denial funders. Prior to the January 6 insurrection, Byrne met with Trump and fueled his voter fraud grievances. Since then, he has continued election denial activities and cultivated ties to the QAnon community. During the midterm election season, Byrne’s The America Project even funded an effort to recruit veterans to monitor polling sites for supposed fraud.

Byrne has previously suggested that he relied on the “digital soldiers” in the QAnon community and that they were his allies. He went further in 2022:

He directly invoked Q’s call in 2020 for supporters to deny that QAnon exists.

He pushed an effort to harass schools popularized by a QAnon-supporting group.

He furthered his very close relationship with Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman, a QAnon influencer known online as “Tore” who ran for Ohio secretary of state. He offered to aid her activities, including monetarily, and announced that he was working with her on “election integrity” efforts and lawsuits.

Byrne and Savin — both of whom have previously mentioned being connected — disclosed their further ties over the course of the year:

Savin said they worked together in 2020, said they talked “very frequently” with each other, and suggested that Byrne had “helped us out tremendously in the election integrity stuff.”

Byrne lauded Savin as “sophisticated,” “very helpful,” and said they had spent “some good times” together. He also invoked Savin by name to promote a legal case to overturn the 2020 election.

Former Overstock CEO suggests he collaborated with QAnon influencer known for trying to elect Big Lie election administration candidates

July 24, 2022

Former Overstock CEO suggests he collaborated with QAnon influencer known for trying to elect Big Lie election administration candidates

Audio

Citation From a July 24, 2022, online stream

Additionally, some of The America Project’s work and activities during the year were explicitly tied to QAnon supporters. Byrne used multiple QAnon shows to recruit people for the organization’s plan to monitor polling sites. The America Project also brought on QAnon sympathizer Lara Logan, as well as an attorney who has represented Tore, who became The America Projects’s “chief legal strategist.”

Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn, The America Project’s other co-founder and fellow Trump voter fraud adviser, also continued to develop ties with the QAnon community:

He hung out with members of a QAnon influencer collective known as We The Media, including on a Zoom call, according to one of We The Media’s members.

Flynn’s other organization, America’s Future, recruited Liz Crokin, a fellow QAnon conspiracy theorist.

Flynn, along with Lindell of MyPillow, attorney Sidney Powell, and some members of Savin’s coalition, also appeared on a relatively new QAnon channel on Election Day 2022 to push fraud claims.

Trump and his orbit grew closer to the QAnon community, explicitly embracing and lauding the movement

Donald Trump

Trump, the leader of the election denial movement, also embraced QAnon more closely during the past year, as did some of those in his orbit — including associates of his social media company Truth Social, one of his attorneys, and his son.

Trump’s associates claimed in 2021 that they were trying “to weed out any QAnon influences — both adherents and postings — getting close to him,” but the former president and now-2024 presidential candidate only stepped up his association with the QAnon community. (He had also publicly and privately praised QAnon supporters multiple times during his presidency.)

According to a Media Matters count, Trump amplified QAnon-promoting accounts nearly 400 times on Truth Social in 2022 — far outpacing the pace of his QAnon account amplifications when he used Twitter. That Truth Social activity included repeatedly amplifying explicit QAnon content.

Trump Truth Social QAnon content amplifications

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Citation Explicit QAnon content amplified by Donald Trump on Truth Social in 2022

Trump met withCrokin, the QAnon influencer, at Mar-a-Lago, and another QAnon influencer claimed to have met with Trump while visiting Mar-a-Lago.}:

Trump used a song associated with QAnon on his social media and at multiple rallies. During some of the rallies, people would hold up one finger in the air in response, possibly referring to the “one” in “Where we go one, we go all.” Trump would continue to use the song at rallies even after media and others flagged its background.

Truth Social and its leadership

Truth Social also came to embrace QAnon as part of its business model. One of the first accounts to reportedly sign up on the platform, which launched in February, was an account called “@Q” that tied itself to the conspiracy theory. Kash Patel,a former Trump administration official and member of the platform’s board of directors, and Devin Nunes, the platform’s CEO, repeatedly amplified the “@Q” account. The platform also featured QAnon ads and verified QAnon influencers. And the CEO of a shell corporation formed to merge with the company running the platform even went on a QAnon show to advocate for his own shareholders to delay the merger. The platform also helped QAnon figures and election denial activists network.

Patel also went on numerous QAnon shows on behalf of Truth Social, telling the community that “we try to incorporate” QAnon “into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences” and praised the “good” coming from it. He also signed copies of his book with the QAnon slogan, asking, “What's wrong with it?” and he said he and Trump were “blown away” by the “acumen” of some QAnon supporters.

Video

Citation From the June 16, 2022, edition of The Patriot Party News

A Trump attorney and Eric Trump

One of Trump’s attorneys, Peter Ticktin, repeatedly went on QAnon shows to push election fraud claims. On one of those shows Ticktin even asked the audience to send him “evidence in regard to January 6,” the “fake election,” and “the election fraud.” He also seemingly invoked Q’s 2020 call for supporters to deny that QAnon exists.

Trump’s son Eric Trump, who had posted a QAnon image on social media in 2020 — also went on multiple QAnon shows, and a QAnon show host Eric Trump met with claimed that Trump told him that “his Dad loves what we’re doing.”

Increasingly, where election denial goes one, QAnon goes all

Savin’s swing state coalition members failed to win election and the GOP had disappointing midterm results, but that did not deter the growing bond between the QAnon community and election denial movements. The connections reached a new level this past year, even after the midterms.

The movement continues to grow and metastasize beyond the original Q and its focus, even when Q resumed posting during the year after an 18-month absence. And with the rise of platforms like Truth Social, and Twitter increasingly reversing its QAnon crackdown under Elon Musk, the QAnon community could become even more interconnected with election denialists and other conspiracy theories. That could help grow the dangerous and antidemocratic denialist movement, making it easier to spread its misinformation faster and more broadly.

In This Article

QAnon Conspiracy Theory Voter Fraud and Suppression

Voter Suppression

In 2021, people thought QAnon would go away -- instead, it continued to fuel attacks on democracy

12/31/21

In 2020, QAnon became all of our problem

12/31/20

How True the Vote cultivated relationships with QAnon influencers to target an election software company and serve as a pipeline to law enforcement

09/15/

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mma 1 23 no vid

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/meta-fox-news-and-collapse-anti-january-6-consensus

Meta’s Wednesday announcement that it plans to let former President Donald Trump back on the Facebook account he used to encourage the January 6 insurrection is perhaps the final sign that the right’s propagandists have demolished the consensus that the Trumpist riot at the U.S. Capitol was a horrific event and that there should be accountability to prevent it from happening again.

It seemed for a brief period after the smoke cleared from the Capitol on January 6, 2021, that America’s sclerotic and oft-maligned institutions might bestir themselves to rise to the defense of the nation’s democratic principles.

In government, Republican leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — even Trumpist lickspittles like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — vocally denounced the former president’s actions, with some of the party’s governors going so far as to call for him to leave office.

In corporate America, a flood of blue-chip companies announced that they would terminate or suspend donations to the Republican members of Congress who voted against certifying the electoral votes of one or more states. Even staid trade groups like theNational Manufacturers Association condemned the mob and Trump’s role in fomenting it.

In the press, journalists contemplated whether it might be appropriate to refuse TV airtime to Republican members of Congress who had encouraged the insurrectionists by denying the election results.

And in social media, platforms like Facebook and Twitter recognized the role they had played in helping Trump stoke his supporters’ ire and the devastating consequences thereof, and cut the former president and some of his most incendiary allies off from their accounts.

But Fox News and its allies on the right quickly went to work unraveling that fragile consensus. They successfully convinced the GOP to adopt the narrative that criticisms of Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election through lies, subversion, and finally mob violence had been overblown, and in fact that Republicans had been the real victims of Democratic overreach.

The very night of the mob attack, Fox’s stars began validating the actions of the Trumpist mob, minimizing the violence and suggesting that leftist infiltrators might have been to blame. In the weeks that followed, they downplayed the former president’s responsibility for the mob’s actions; concocted an alternate reality in which the actions of a relatively sedate crowd were being used by sinister Democrats as a pretext to punish average Republicans; and mocked the law enforcement officials who were assaulted during the attack and denounced the Democrats and Republicans who took their reports seriously.

In service of their duplicitous narrative, they lifted up from kooks and internet fever swamps false-flag conspiracy theories that the federal government was behind the attack; valorized the “patriots” jailed for their alleged participation; and shielded their viewers from contrary evidence.

This treatment of the attack by Fox and other right-wing media outlets helped create a sea change within the Republican Party. As the GOP’s volatile commentators whipped up its base, party leaders swiftly determined that there was no political future in standing firmly against Trump and the mob he had encouraged. Some backed off their prior condemnations while others who remained vocally against Trump’s attempt to unlawfully retain power were purged. The House GOP swelled its ranks in the 2022 midterms with even more election deniers; they are a power center that its leadership courts and rewards with slots on key committees.

With only one of the nation’s two major political parties willing to forthrightly oppose the attempted coup, insurrection became a partisan issue and the national consensus collapsed. Major companies abandoned their promises not to fund the campaigns of election deniers, who also found themselves invited back to major national TV news programs. And after right-wing billionaire Elon Musk took control of Twitter, he lifted Trump’s ban.

And now Trump will be back on Facebook, too. This is a manifestly terrible idea with dire potential consequences – Trump used Facebook to fuel the bigotry and violence of his hardcore supporters and channel support for the insurrection; he has shown no remorse whatsoever for his actions and in fact still claims the election was rigged against him; and he has spent his suspension from mainstream platforms using his own Truth Social to push virulent election denial and violent QAnon conspiracy theories. In allowing him back on their platform, Meta executives are making themselves responsible for any effort Trump makes to generate another January 6.

But without a national consensus that there is a public interest in preventing a recurrence of Trumpist violence, Meta’s pecuniary and political interests returned to the fore. Facebook’s user growth has stalled out, helping to send its parent company into a spiral. Trump’s return to the platform might give it a boost; so might the return of his campaign’s massive ad spending as the 2024 presidential election heats up (Trump’s personal page is the largest buyer of Facebook political ads since 2018, spending more than $113 million). And Meta’s leadership likely hoped to avoid a contentious public hearing about why the former president was not welcome on Facebook, since “we don’t want him to use it to promote a coup” was apparently no longer an effective response with insurrectionist Republicans running the House.

Fox and the broader right-wing information ecosystem manufactured dissent, helping to keep the GOP on the side of Trump and his insurrectionists and grinding away at the political consensus against the storming of the Capitol. As long as the Republican Party remains trapped within its bubble, the American public will have to reckon with the influence of these bomb-throwing propagandists.

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treason trials 2020

https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/trump-lawyer-christina-bobb-tells-nick-fuentes-ally-stew-peters-shed

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mma 1 23

Far-right media coverage of Brazil’s January 8 riots — in which supporters of Brazil’s far-right ex-President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s federal buildings over baseless voter fraud allegations — closely mirrors the rhetoric of the media’s pre- and post-January 6 insurrection coverage.

In both instances, American right-wing media pushed outlandish conspiracy theories and defended the seditious rioters while casting doubt on presidential election results. Right-wing figures, including coup plotter Steve Bannon, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, all recycled talking points from 2020 and 2021 to defend the Brazilian attackersand find a way to blame outside — and sometimes imaginary — forces rather than the extremists actually at fault.

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https://www.alternet.org/big-lie-is-not-done/

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https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/almost-two-years-after-january-6-capitol-attack-fox-news-continues

in the two years since the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Fox News has persisted in pushing conspiracy theories about both the 2020 and 2022 midterm elections and downplaying, excusing, and outright justifying the actions of former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

After the 2020 election cycle, right-wing figures frequently targeted Dominion Voting Systems -- which supplied voting equipment to 28 states -- with conspiracy theories, claiming that the company’s machines had switched or otherwise tampered with votes to sway the election. Many of those theories were central to Fox’s post-election commentary, which amplified the narrative that the election was stolen from Trump, even though reporting suggests that the network’s prominent figures knew that was not true. Dominion filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News in March 2021.

Recent reporting on the lawsuit shows that testimony obtained from Sean Hannity last month contains the Fox host’s admission that he “did not believe it for one second” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by Dominion. However, as Media Matters’ Matt Gertz has detailed, “Hannity discussed Dominion in eight Fox broadcasts between Election Day 2020 and the end of that year. Each time, he tried to inculcate doubt in his audience regarding the credibility of the company’s voting machines.”

Additionally, evidence and testimony received by the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack have undermined several of Fox’s on-air falsehoods. A series of text messages released by the committee between Fox News’ Ingraham Angle host Laura Ingraham and former chief of staff Mark Meadows showed that Ingraham pleaded with Meadows to get Trump to tell the crowd to disperse. On her show, however, Ingraham consistently claimed that Trump and his supporters did no wrong. Hannity also exchanged similar texts with Meadows. Even Hannity’s oft-repeated lie that Trump had ordered thousands of National Guard troops to the Capitol was dispelled by testimony given by then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

As official inquiries into the attack made headway, many Fox figures bent over backward to malign the House select committee, often relying on the same dismissive and whitewashed approach to the violence and hatred displayed on January 6. Here are some of the major lies and distortions that Fox pushed during the committee hearings:

Tucker Carlson released a multipart propaganda reel painting the attack as a false flag operation to purge patriots.
Ingraham Angle host Laura Ingraham maligned the House select committee as “bad programming.”
Mark Levin, speaking on his radio show, threatenedstaffers for the House select committee after claiming that Trump’s potential witness tampering could not be a crime.
Network hosts downplayed testimony from key witnesses and those close to Trump and his inner circle.
Major Fox figures repeatedly validated the rioters as patriotic and nonviolent protestors comparable to those from the civil rights movement.

Fox News has also continued to peddle election conspiracy theories -- this time around the November midterms -- and attacks on Dominion during the last year:

In November 2022, Carlson implied that the use of electronic voting machines is a “threat to democracy” as the machines “didn’t allow people to vote apparently” and shook their “faith in the system.”
As early voting began in Georgia’s midterm elections, Fox hosts repeatedly claimed that there was no voter suppression did not exist, while simultaneously ignoring armed voter intimidation in Arizona.
Carlson, along with Mark Levin, primed their Fox viewers in October to doubt the validity of the following month's Pennsylvania Senate election over debunked claims of voter fraud.
Fox News also jumped on the bandwagon of spreading suspicion about the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election results:
- Fox host Pete Hegseth cast doubt on why ballots were still being counted, mentioned that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs “is in charge of the elections there,” and said, “We don’t know whether people are cheating or not.” Hegseth lamented the rate of ballot counting in Arizona, stating, “You want to see a threat to democracy? It’s what we’re watching in Arizona right now.”
- Carlson hosted Republican candidate Kari Lake to sow doubt about why the race had not been called yet, and set her up to join him in validating online insinuations that Hobbs “knew she could sit back, hide in the basement, do nothing and win due to cheating.”
- Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo hosted Lake to discuss election machine tabulation issues and repeatedly asked Lake why Hobbs had not recused herself, suggesting it was inappropriate for her to oversee an election she was running in.
- Carlson insinuated nefarious motives behind the machine issues and suggested Democrats could be intentionally cheating, asking, “Is this fraud? We're not sure. And on some level it doesn't matter what it is. What we know is that the mechanics of our elections are not working, almost exclusively in states and cities run by Democrats. Are they cheating?”
- Hannity claimed that votes “magically appeared” while ballots were being counted in Arizona, saying, “What, they just magically appeared? How do we keep adding hundreds of thousands of votes to the vote count that were not counted?”

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an 1 23

wow did he not see hearing?

Former President Donald Trump late Monday night took to his fake Twitter app Truth Social to rekindle conspiracy theories about two Georgia elections workers whom he and his allies baselessly believe prevented ballots that were supposedly cast for Trump from being properly tabulated, thus costing him Georgia's sixteen Electoral College votes in the 2020 election.

During a House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol hearing in June, Wandrea Shaye Moss and her mother Lady Ruby Freemantestified under oath that Trump's then-attorney Rudy Giuliani alleged that they helped steal the presidency away from Trump.

Moss emotionally recounted how erstwhile New York City Mayor Giuliani's false accusations destroyed her life:

It's turned my life upside down. I no longer give out my business card. I don't transfer calls. I don't want anyone knowing my name. I don't want to go anywhere with my mom because she might yell my name out over the grocery aisle or something. I don't go to the grocery store at all. I haven't been anywhere at all.

I've gained about 60 pounds. I just don't do nothing anymore. I don't want to go anywhere. I second guess everything that I do. This affected my life in a major way. In every way. All because of lies, for me doing my job, the same thing I've been doing forever.

Moss and Freeman sued Giuliani in December 2021. He attempted and failed to have the defamation proceeding dismissed this past November.

The case stated that "on multiple occasions, strangers camped out at Ms. Freeman's home and/or knocked on her door. When Ms. Freeman was not home or would not answer the door, these strangers would sometimes also harass her neighbors. Strangers were coming to her home so frequently that the local police agreed to add her address to their patrols in the area."

The mother-daughter duo also filed a lawsuit against the right-wing news website The Gateway Pundit for promoting Giuliani's "campaign of lies."

That complaint, which was ultimately settled by the parties, contained additional details of the petitioners' plight:

Freeman made a series of 911 emergency calls in the days after she was publicly identified in early December by the president's camp. In a Dec. 4 call, she told the dispatcher she'd gotten a flood of 'threats and phone calls and racial slurs,' adding: 'It's scary because they're saying stuff like, 'We're coming to get you. We are coming to get you.'

Two days later, a panicked Freeman called 911 again, after hearing loud banging on her door just before 10 p.m. Strangers had come the night before, too. She begged the dispatcher for assistance. 'Lord Jesus, where's the police?' she asked, according to the recording, obtained by Reuters in a records request. 'I don't know who keeps coming to my door. Please help me.'

All of that prolonged trauma was forced back into the fray by Trump's trio of so-called "Truths," which were posted roughly twenty minutes apart.

11:47 p.m.:

Wow! Has anyone seen the Ruby Freeman 'contradictions' of her sworn testimony? Now this is 'BIG STUFF.' Look what was captured by Cobb County police body cameras on January 4, 2021. 'And everything they are saying is false. Everything from the quote unquote SUITCASES OF THE BALLOT BOXES, TO THE WHY WE OPENED THEM BACK UP. EVERYTHING THEY SAID WAS FALSE.THE FBI…REACHED OUT TO ME ONLY TO CLEAR MY SOCIAL MEDIA (evidence tampering?)…COUNT WAS LOW, IT WAS REALLY LOW.' Now it gets really bad, TRUTH 2

12:07 a.m.:

Ruby Freeman, page 2: 'BOOM under the table. Cut the zip ties to scan them so the number would go up…so that’s how the number was CREATED, by the ballots going through the scanner…I do want an attorney. IT’S ALL A FRAUD. EVERYTHING THEY ARE SAYING IS FALSE. FROM THE SUITCASES OF THE BALLOT BOXES, TO WHY WE OPENED THEM BACK UP. EVERYTHING THEY SAID WAS FALSE.' They got Ruby 7 top D.C. lawyers andprotection from the FBI(Again?). WHY? She then 'changed' her statements - LIED? TROUBLE FOR RUBY!!!

12:29 a.m.:

What will the Great State of Georgia do with the Ruby Freeman MESS? Why not just tell the TRUTH, get rid of the turmoil and guilt, and take our Country back from the evils and treachery of the Radical Left monsters who want to see America die? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

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an 12 22

The final report released by the Jan. 6 committee this week says that Donald Trump – who has spewed election fraud claims for two years now – was even stunned by an election fraud claim from one of his former allies, Sidney Powell, the New York Times reports.

Just weeks after the 2020 election, Powell, who's also a former Trump lawyer, said on a conference call that “communist money had flowed through countries like Venezuela, Cuba and perhaps China to interfere with the election.” According to Insider, Powell also believed technology company Dominion Voting Systems was in conspiracy with Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013.

Former Trump aide Hope Hicks said in response to Powell, the former president “muted his speakerphone and laughed at Powell, telling the others in the room, ‘This does sound crazy, doesn’t it?’”

NYT noted that, however, Trump proceeded to instigate the rioters by saying he “likes the crazies.”

Last month, Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said, "Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”

And the Daily Beast reports that Powell finds herself now on Trump’s “no-go list” and he no longer takes calls from the lawyer.

Dominion Voting Systems has since sued Powell and Giuliani for spouting “baseless voter fraud claims that hurt its business.”

The Jan. 6 committee wrote in its final report that, “Donald Trump was no passive consumer of these lies. He actively propagated them. Time and again President Trump was informed that his election fraud claims were not true. He chose to spread them anyway. He did so even after they were legally tested and rejected in dozens of lawsuits.”

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big lie

https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-we-need-new-election-arizona

12 22

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an 12/05/22

Former Arizona candidate for governor Kari Lake (R) on Monday blasted what she called the "sham certification" of her election loss.

During an interview with conservative podcast host Steve Bannon, Lake noted that the certification of her election loss was just an hour away.

"The optics of them sitting there and signing their signature — can you imagine — to this sham election," she opined. "We've got more issues than we saw in 2020, in that sham election. We have just blatant sabotaging of election day."

"And if they sit there and sign their names to this sham certification, history will never forgive them," the former candidate added. "They will go down as three of the very worst in history."

Lake tied her election loss to information about the 2020 election that Twitter's Elon Musk shared recently.

"I don't even know how to describe it other than a festering cabal that's in charge of our government right now," Lake remarked. "And this is our moment to stand up and fight back."

Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.

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boing 12 22

Conservative officials in Cochise County, Arizona, didn't like how locals voted in last month's midterm elections. This plan met a problem in the form of Judge Casey McGinley, who ordered them to complete the official canvass within 90 minutes.

The Republicans made clear they have no compunction at all over trying to flip the election and that the only reason they were backing down is the immediate prospect of legal sanction.

Two Republicans on Cochise County's three-member board of supervisors balked for weeks about certifying the election, even as the deadline passed on Monday. They did not cite any problems with the election results.

…

"I am not ashamed of anything I did," said Supervisor Peggy Judd, one of the two Republicans who twice blocked certification.

The board members had to represent themselves in court because no lawyer could be found willing to take the case, reports the AP. Here's more fromThe Atlantic.

Correction: the canvass in Cochise County could not have changed the statewide results in favor of the Republican Party.

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an 12 22

It took a few weeks, but One America News Network is finally settled into a predictable reaction to the 2022 midterms: claiming more Democratic fraud. In OAN’s view, no state had it worse than Arizona, a state the network relentlessly targeted with election misinformation, and where voters rejected numerous Republican nominees favored by OAN.

In the immediate wake of the election, OAN figures appeared to urge caution despite voters reporting numerous difficulties on election day; continuing to support GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake but stopping short of declaring fraud. But after the race was called, the floodgates opened for OAN to once again wail about “the biggest experiment in election fraud ever perpetrated on the American public.”

Unlike the 2020 election, some OAN figures are exploring novel solutions to losing elections this time around, like mail-in voting and ballot collecting (also known as “harvesting,”) two concepts that expand voting access, but which OAN alleges allow Democrats to steal elections. The inherent incongruity suggests that OAN is not serious about growing democracy, but only in sniveling resentfully, still captured by a lie partly of its own making.

At first, OAN exercised some caution in its coverage of Arizona’s gubernatorial race, possibly not wanting to sow too much doubt in case the results led to Lake’s projected victory. The day after the election, In Focus host Addison Smith acknowledged Arizona voters’ complaints of long lines and bureaucratic confusion, but said that he’s “not blaming losses from Republicans on a lack of election integrity this time around. You know, all things considered -- we’ll see what happens in Arizona -- but all things considered, I think the races the Democrats won were won pretty fair and square, according to the evidence in front of us.”[vid]

as results began to suggest that Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs might win, hints of fraud crept into OAN’s coverage. Within a week of Smith’s apparent expression of trust in elections, In Focus hosted right-wing YouTuber Drew Berquist, who complained that “whether it’s cameras going down, or a pipe leak, or a this, or the machines, whatever the case might be,” there is always a problem on election day that “gives them ample time to do stuff, and then voila -- the lights come on, the cameras come back on, and we’ve lost the race.”

On November 14, major news networks projected Hobbs’ victory, the dam broke, and OAN began declaring fraud. Real America host Dan Ball said that he’s not calling the race (OAN doesn’t have a decision desk) until “we can confirm every single vote was a legitimate vote and not harvested from, oh I don’t know, people that aren’t registered in Arizona? Dead people? You know, the stuff that always happens in every election, but shhh, we don't talk about it.”

Lake “has not conceded” to “supposed Governor-elect'' Hobbs, Ball later said, “and I don’t think she should,” citing voters’ election day complaints as well as the razor-thin margin. “But that doesn’t matter” to the media, Ball lamented while discussing another close race, “because they’ve got to call [the election for] the Democrat. That’s what they do. That’s just how it goes.”

On November 17, OAN correspondent Pearson Sharp made the calls explicit; in his style reminiscent of a man in a truck, Sharp unequivocally declared that “the Democrats once again stole another election,” and Democratic victors like Arizona Governor-elect Hobbs “just carried out the biggest experiment in voter fraud ever perpetrated on the American public.” Sharp’s segment included video of random Arizonans using ballot drop boxes as he warned of “clearly illegal voting fraud.” (2000 Mules director Dinesh D’Souza is currently being sued for defamation over similar conduct.)

Echoing familiar themes to a far-right audience, Sharp pontificated that “the commiecrats used the pandemic as a backdoor to legalize all kinds of illegal voting practices, and now they can drag out an election for weeks, while they quietly fill in the votes wherever they need them.”[vid]

on November 19, soon after Sharp’s broadside, Attorney General Mark Brnovich -- a 2020 election denier and frequent OAN guest -- issued a letter demanding answers on reported voting issues from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. According to The Washington Post, the letter contains “no findings that would call the outcome into question,” but it did further fuel OAN’s newly revived desire to cry fraud.

OAN reporter Daniel Baldwin aired a segment featuring interview footage with Christina Bobb, the Trumpworld attorney who previously led OAN’s “election integrity” coverage, while also helping the Trump campaign’s fake elector scheme. On OAN, Bobb played up Brnovich’s letter as proof that Brnovich saw a “potential crime there, whether it was intentional conduct or criminal negligence, whatever it is … it was enough to actually publish the letter.”

In a different Baldwin interview, Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers called for a “new election for 2022 for Maricopa County, there are no two ways about it.” Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward told Baldwin that “once again” Maricopa County “will be certifying an uncertifiable election. They did it in 2020, I think they plan to do it in 2022.” Ward also promised that “we are going through every single legal channel that is available and we are pushing forward to represent we, the people.”

Fittingly, Real America’s Ball injected a touch of inappropriate self-victimization to the frenzy. Ball compared election day issues in Arizona to anti-Black segregation using a clip from Free State of Jones, a 2016 movie starring Matthew McConaughey as a Confederate deserter who leads a rebellion against Confederate Mississippi -- in other words, fighting Democrats who would not allow Republicans to vote.

“Now this all happened hundreds of years ago, right?” Ball cheekily asked, “There’s no way that something like that could still happen today,” as though an unprecedented flood of election-day voting shares any similarities to Jim Crow.

[vid]

Interestingly, some OAN figures -- not all -- have mentioned a degree of openness to mail-in voting, thinking that Republicans could close future vote gaps. However, even this comes not from a place of humility or learning, but vengeance and paranoia. As Smith put it on November 30, either “we make ballot harvesting and mass mail-in voting illegal across-the-board … or we get so good at it ourselves that Democrats want to make it illegal.”

It was only a matter of time before OAN again reacted to a Republican defeat with allegations of election fraud: the network built its present identity out of such claims. OAN would have viewers believe that, in the same election where Democrats mastered the art of election theft, they also lost control of the House of Representatives, and therefore President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda. But perhaps allowing Republicans to block Democratic power for two years is also part of the Democrats’ plan to seize power.

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/donald-trump-kari-lake-installed/

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an 11 22

In Arizona’s 2022 midterms, statewide races did not go well for far-right MAGA election denialists, Donald Trump loyalists and promoters of the Big Lie. GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake lost to her Democratic rival Katie Hobbs; Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was reelected, defeating Republican challenger Blake Masters. Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem, an ally of QAnon and the Oath Keepers, lost to Democrat Adrian Fontes in a race for Arizona secretary of state. Lake, Masters and Finchem were all endorsed by Trump.

Critics of Lake and other election denialists warned that if she lost the election, she would be a sore loser and refuse to admit that she lost. And sure enough, Lake has — just as her critics predicted — refused to concede to Hobbs, making baseless election fraud claims and vowing to fight the election results in court. Meanwhile, fellow MAGA conspiracy theorist Liz Harris, who was elected to a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives on November 8, has vowed that she won’t vote on any bills unless officials agree to “hold a new election immediately.”

This Friday, November 25, a group of far-right MAGA election denialists and conspiracy theorists, including Harris, are expected to hold a demonstration at the Arizona Capitol Building in Phoenix to demand a revote for all of the midterm elections held in Arizona on November 8, according to Newsweek.

Newsweek’s Zoe Strozewski reports, “An announcement was posted on AZRevote.com calling on attendees to meet at the Arizona Capitol on Friday morning so they can let their voices ‘be heard peacefully, prayerfully.’ The announcement also instructs Arizonians to bring signs and banners for an adjacent #AZRevote Overpass Campaign on Friday and Saturday, and provided overpass location suggestions in Maricopa County and the Tucson area.

In a video posted on Twitter on Monday, November 21, Lake claimed that Arizona residents who voted for her were “disenfranchised” and claimed, with no evidence, that the "2022 general election in Arizona was botched and broken beyond repair.”

But not all conservatives are joining Lake and Harris in their bogus election fraud claims. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and GOP activist Meghan McCain (the daughter of the late Republican Sen. John McCain and his widow Cindy McCain) are among Lake’s most scathing critics on the right and have been celebrating her defeat.

Outgoing Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a conservative Republican, is making it abundantly clear that he believes Hobbs defeated Lake fair and square. In an official statement released on November 23, Ducey said, “Today, I congratulated Governor-elect Katie Hobbs on her victory in a hard-fought race and offered my full cooperation as she prepares to assume the leadership of the State of Arizona. My administration will work to make this transition as smooth and seamless as possible. Our duty is to ensure that Arizona’s 24th Governor and her team can hit the ground running and continue our state’s incredible momentum…. The people of Arizona have spoken, their votes have been counted, and we respect their decision.”

Conservative Washington Post opinion columnist Henry Olsen, in a November 22 column, slammed the false claims of Lake, Harris and other election denialists as ludicrous and stressed that they are hurting the Republican Party and the conservative cause in their state. Olsen has been highly critical of the Biden Administration at times, but he has also been quick to call out the Big Lie as “fiction” and stress that Biden legitimately won the United States’ 2020 presidential election.

Arizona is a swing state that has seen its political landscape change considerably in recent years. Once a deep red state, Arizona was closely identified with the conservative politics of Sen. Barry Goldwater and his successor, John McCain, who had no problem being called a “Goldwater conservative” or “Goldwater Republican.”

But in 2023, Arizona will have a Democratic governor (Hobbs), a Democratic secretary of state (Fontes) and two centrist Democratic U.S. senators: Kelly and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Kelly will remain in the Senate seat once occupied by Goldwater and later, John McCain. Arizona, in the past, went Republican in one presidential race after another; in 2020, President Joe Biden legitimately defeated Donald Trump in Arizona.

===

aN 11 22

Conspiracy theories and misinformation did not greatly impact the 2022 midterm elections, a new analysis has determined.

According to Axios, many of the far-right election deniers that participated in critical races also lost elections, which signals that the influence of misinformation is not as detrimental as experts feared.

Speaking to the news outlet, Jared Holt, a senior research manager for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, weighed in with his perspective of misinformation. Although there is still a mass circulation of misinformation, Holt has emphasized that the impact of it is not as apparent.

"Denialism narratives are still out there circulating," Holt said. "The difference here is that they just don't seem to be exciting people like they did in 2020."

"It's hard to say how much of that is attributable to [actions from] tech platforms, and how much is just general public sentiment," Holt said.

Experts also noted that misinformation was more of a driving force in 2020 as opposed to now. The news outlet noted, "Though misinformation remains present in large quantities, this time it had less reach, was more spread out, and was harder to find."

During the Stanford Law School's "Moderated Content" podcast last week, Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory who also oversees the non-partisan coalition Election Integrity Partnership, also weighed in with similar sentiments.

:{:{"The amount of content we saw that you could call kind of election disinformation was actually larger than what we saw in 2020 — but overall, the effects were much more muted," Stamos said.}:

The news outlet also noted that five factors have also helped to diminish the impact of misinformation: De-platforming, too many new apps, an overall rejection of election deniers, defamation fears, more education.

===

watkins

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/oath-keeper/ct outburst

===

11 22 rww

on Election Day, Democrats braced for a red wave that could put the GOP’s most extreme candidates into office. But nearly a week later, that wave looks more like a trickle. Americans generally rejected the party’s far-right candidates, though many of these far-right candidates have yet to accept the will of the people.

In Michigan, Republican nominee for secretary of state Kristina Karamo soundly lostto current Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Just days before the election, Karamo launched a lawsuit to try to throw out tens of thousands of votes from Detroit voters who voted by mail-in ballots, claiming that they were fraudulent. When that lawsuit to disenfranchise voters in the majority-Black, majority-Democratic city failed ahead of the election, Karamo turned her attention to Ann Arbor, where the student-heavy population waited hours in line to vote.

In a press release in the wee hours last Wednesday, Karamo accused the Ann Arbor City Clerk of breaking several election laws, claiming that the clerk allowed voters to enter the line after 8 p.m. deadline, and criticized the Ann Arbor police for failing to “investigate election crimes.” In a tweet, she took those accusations a step further, accusing the clerk of “engaging in mass election Crimes. Illegally registering people after 8pm. Registering non-Michigan citizens to vote.”

“We are not election deniers or threats to democracy,” Karamo claimed in her press release. “This is a real threat to our society as it demoralizes citizens to believe that voting is pointless as their legal ballot will be nullified by fraud.”

Karamo issued another press release Thursday in which she doubled down on her accusations of fraud and called for her supporters to “Standby,” promising, “there’s much more to come.”

As we reported ahead of Election Day, Karamo made election denialism a key component of her campaign and was expected to allege fraud should she lose. The Wayne County judge who dismissed her lawsuit targeting Detroit voters said Karamo provided “no evidence” of her allegations.

Other clear losses for the GOP’s extreme candidates were seen in Maryland, where Michael Peroutka, the Confederacy-supporting, Dixie-singing Christian nationalist, soundly lost his bid for attorney general to Democrat Anthony G. Brown. Ahead of Election Day, a top aide to Peroutka had encouraged voters to get in line to vote late in the day—a move denounced by the Maryland Democratic Party as “plotting to create chaos and laying the groundwork to challenge the upcoming election.” It didn’t matter, as Peroutka’s loss was called by the Associated Press as early as 11 p.m. on Election Day.

Peroutka didn’t concede.In a press release, Peroutka claimed that “many odd and suspicious incidents were reported by poll watchers.” He concluded with this: “I plan to investigate these strange occurrences and I do not plan to concede the race.”

Doug Mastriano, the election-denying, Christian nationalism-promoting Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, lost by more than 14 percentage points to Democrat Josh Shapiro. He, too, refused to concede after the Associated Press called the race in favor of Shapiro, saying that he still “had faith.” But by Sunday, that faith was gone, and he finally acknowledged, “there is no right course but to concede,” all while still calling for “election reform.”

Next door, in Ohio, a Trump-endorsed candidate had a win. Trump sycophant J.D. Vance beat out Democrat Tim Ryan for that state’s Senate seat. Vance has spread the racist great replacement theory and urged Trump to rule with an iron fist should he return to the presidency.

Speaking to supporters in Youngstown, Ryan conceded the race, calling it a “privilege … because the way this country operates is that when you lose an election, you concede.” That appeared to be a jab at those Republican candidates who have signaled their refusal to concede and instead baselessly suggested electoral fraud was afoot.

Nowhere was that signal clearer than in Arizona, where GOP nominees alleged that a printer error in Maricopa County was part of Democrats’ efforts to delay GOP wins or even take them away.

On election night, GOP nominee for governor Kari Lake lashed out at “incompetent” election workers, attacked the “fake media,” and asked her supporters to not let “cheaters and crooks” sow doubt about her supposedly forthcoming win. Throughout the week, Lake continued attacking the media and election officials, with pundits and activists like Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk echoing her claims.

As of Monday afternoon, Lake continues to trail Democrat Katie Hobbs by 1 percentage point, with 93 percent of the vote counted. Ahead of the election, Lake had suggested the only way Hobbs could win would be by stealing the election.

Other election-denying Republican candidates trailing their Democratic opponents joined in alleging fraud. Blake Masters, who has perpetuated a version of the racist replacement theory, found himself behind Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly by nearly 6 percentage points when the AP called the race in favor of Kelly Saturday night.

Masters had spent Election Day suggesting that the printer error in Maricopa County could’ve been malicious. He tweeted on Election Day, “Hard to know if we’re seeing incompetence or something worse. All we know right now is that the Democrats are hoping you will get discouraged and go home.”

Masters declined to concede on Saturday, saying that he wanted “every legal vote” to be counted first.

Abe Hamadeh, an Arizona Republican running for attorney general who has denied the 2020 election results, trails Democrat Kris Mayes by less than a percentage point with 93 percent of the vote counted as of Monday afternoon.

Speaking to supporters on election night, he said that “incompetent” election officials threatened American democracy. He took that message further over the weekend.

“REMEMBER: 72%+ of the votes on Election Day in person were Republican. When you have 30% of the tabulating machines failing, causing people to leave the lines and give up. This is voter suppression targeting a political party,” Hamadeh said in a post on Twitter Saturday.

Hamadeh also shared an Uncover DC story authored by Tracy Beanz, a QAnon conspiracy theorist influencer and self-declared investigative journalist, to try to bolster his allegations. Beanz claimed that an election judge said that the printer error in Maricopa County was no error. “In my opinion, the machines were programmed to do this, and it was all planned,” Beanz quoted the election judge as saying. This story is gaining steam on far-right platforms and outlets, including The Gateway Pundit.

Mark Finchem, the self-declared member of the far-right extremist Oath Keepers, also fell short of expectations in his bid to become secretary of state in Arizona. Finchem was deeply involved in the so-called “Stop the Steal” campaign, a disinformation campaign aimed at overturning the 2020 presidential election and was credited with bringing the campaign to Arizona. He lost to Democrat Adrian Fontes, a former Maricopa County election official, by more than 5 percentage points. Finchem refused to concede.

“It is completely ridiculous that the #FakeNews is calling the elections in Arizona when there are 390k (many election day) ballots outstanding. RIDICULOUS!” Finchem tweeted after the AP called the race Saturday.

On Twitter, Finchem predictably alleged fraud. He shared stories from the Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft that claimed it was impossible for Maricopa County to vote Democrat; he accused Democrats of “ballot harvesting” and Fontes of “laundering money” from billionaire philanthropist George Soros; and he peddled a money laundering conspiracy theory that implicated Ukraine.

In Nevada, Jim Marchant, the QAnon-adhering election-denying secretary of state candidate, lost to Democrat Francisco Aguilarin the race to become in charge of that state’s elections by about 3 percentage points. When Marchant, who put together a coalition of likeminded “America First” secretary of state candidates, lost Saturday, it marked a string of losses for his coalition. Only one survived in Indiana. Marchant, who claimed his failed 2020 congressional bid was stymied by fraud, has yet to concede.

Among the upsets for far-right candidates is Joe Kent, who received support from white nationalists and has blamed the attack on the U.S. Capitol on “deep state provocateurs.” Kent lost to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in Washington state in a close race called by the AP Saturday.

In the primaries, Kent had beat out incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republicans who had voted for Trump’s second impeachment. But moderate Republicans who were alarmed by Kent’s extremism threw their support behind Gluesenkamp Perez ahead of Election Day. On Saturday, Kent refused to concede and told his supporters to correct their mail-in ballots.

“What the media says is irrelevant, its another narrative designed to stop voters from ballot curing & to force me to concede – not gonna happen,” Kent wrote on Twitter Saturday. “We’re on the streets ballot curing. The fight goes on while the talking heads talk.”

In response to Kent’s loss, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, tweeted, “White supremacy just doesnt win races like it did in 1921.”

Another shock occurred in Colorado’s 3rd District. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the gun-toting, QAnon-believing Christian nationalist of Colorado, appeared to be a shoo-in. But by Wednesday morning, she was trailing her Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch. On Monday, with 99 percent of the vote counted, Boebert gained the lead but by less than 1,000 votes. The race has yet to be decided and could well head to a recount should either candidate win by less than 0.5 percent.

Election deniers did get a win in Wisconsin. Ron Johnson narrowly retained his Senate seat after a group of right-wing billionaires funded a series of racially charged ads attacking Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. Johnson had supported Trump’s efforts to remain in power after the former president lost the 2020 election.

In other notable news, throughout the country, voters voted to enshrine abortion rights into their state constitutions, and in Kentucky, voters rejected a measure that would have prevented that right from being enshrined in that state’s constitution.

As of Monday, Democrats retain control of the Senate. The House still remains undecided, with 17 races to be called. And though it appears likely Republicans will gain control of the House, it will be a smaller majority than Minority Speaker Kevin McCarthy wanted.

Trump’s candidates fared poorly at the polls; it turns out the biggest Trump sycophants made for candidates of questionable quality, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested in August. Notably, Trump-endorsed candidates in Arizona—where the so-called Stop the Steal campaign of 2020 found solid footing and where right-wing organizations like Turning Point USA poured their resources—underperformed. If Trump Republicans can’t claim that state, what does that say about Americans’ appetite for Trumpian politics?

Of course, far-right candidates are suggesting that fraud has played a part in their poor performance at the polls and are refusing to concede. Such claims of fraud were expected, but unlike 2020, these baseless allegations don’t appear to be catching steam nationwide.

===

an 11 22

Chief Judge Timothy M. Kenny of the Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed in October by Kristina Karamo, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, that sought to disqualify more than 60,000 mail-in ballots in the Democratic stronghold of Detroit ahead of Tuesday's midterms.

Karamo – a proponent of former President Donald Trump's baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen – and her co-complainants argued that mail-in voting was a hotbed for voter fraud. But they never submitted any evidence of that, nor did they explain what harm was caused by allowing people to vote by mail.

"During the November 3, 2022 evidentiary hearing, Plaintiffs did not testify nor introduce any substantive exhibits into evidence. In this case, Plaintiffs' hearing witnesses consisted solely of Christopher Thomas, former Michigan State Elections Director for over 30 years and Daniel Baxter, Director of Absentee Voting Operations for the Detroit City Clerk," Kenny wrote in a 24-page order.

Kenny's opinion reflected his remarks during last week's hearing, when he expressed bewilderment over Karamo's failure to provide any proof of voter fraud through absentee ballots or that drop boxes were not secure.

“As a judge for 26 years,” Kenny said, “this is the first time I have ever had a circumstance where the party instigating a lawsuit, when asked by the judge what’s the relief you’re asking for, I don’t get an answer.”

Kenny also blasted the petitioners for waiting until the last minute to attempt to disenfranchise Michigan residents without just cause.

"Plaintiffs sat on their hands for months before bringing a complaint claiming violations of Michigan statutory election law in the August, 2022 primary and the relief sought would create the potential harm of disenfranchising tens of thousands of Detroiters in the November 8, 2022 general election. This is unacceptable and cannot be permitted," he said.

Kenny's closing statements were no less brutal.

"While it is easy to hurl accusations of violations of law and corruption, it is another matter to come forward and produce the evidence our Constitution and laws require. Plaintiffs failed, in a full day evidentiary hearing, to produce any shred of evidence. No exhibits, no testimony from any of the Plaintiffs, no evidence from Mr. Thomas or Mr. Baxter indicate the procedures for the November 8, 2022 election violate Michigan election laws. Plaintiffs have raised a false flag of election law violations and corruption concerning Detroit's procedures for the November 8th election. This Court's ruling takes down that flag," Kenny declared.

"Plaintiffs' failure to produce any evidence that the procedures for this November 8th election violate state or federal election lawdemonizes the Detroit City Clerk, her office staff, and the 1,200 volunteers working this election. These claims are unjustified, devoid of any evidentiary basis and cannot be allowed to stand. Plaintiffs' motions for mandamus, preliminary injunction, and declaratory judgment are DENIED. For the reasons stated in this Court's opinion, Plaintiffs' complaint is DISMISSED," he concluded. "This is a final order and closes the case."

===

mma 11 22

Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo will provide live commentary during Fox News’ election night coverage, giving one of the network’s biggest conspiracy theorists an opportunity to once again spread misinformation about voter fraud and other debunked ideas.

In the 2020 election cycle and its aftermath, Bartiromo repeatedly and baselessly questioned the reliability of Dominion voting machines and software, part of a pattern of coverage at Fox that led to the company bringing a defamation lawsuit against the network. . That litigation is ongoing, and Bartiromo has reportedly been called to be deposed in the case.

As Media Matters previously documented, Bartiromo amplified numerous conspiracy theories following the 2020 election, including providing a platform for Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Syndey Powell to spread bad information about Dominion Voting Systems. On November 8, 2020, Powell told Bartiromo that “there had been a massive and coordinated effort to steal this election from we the people of the United States of America,” including “an algorithm to calculate the votes they would need to flip, and they used the computers to flip those votes.” Bartiromo didn’t challenge the assertion. “If this is true, this appears systemic,” she responded.

Dominion’s lawyers noted in their lawsuit that Bartiromo knew Powell’s comments were “false, or recklessly disregarded the truth,” as she had previously discussed with former President Donald Trump that any perceived lead he had in voting could lessen as mail-in and absentee ballots were cast.

On November 12, 2020, Bartiromo interviewed Giuliani about Dominion, suggesting that the company had financial ties to foreign countries perceived to be hostile to the United States. “Are you seeing money coming from places like Venezuela and Cuba?” Bartiromo asked. In his halting, rambling response, Giuliani claimed Dominion is “a foreign company — that raises questions immediately, why are we having a foreign company do our elections? It is Canada — maybe.” He later characterized it as “a Venezuelan company that has Chinese parts in it.”

Three days later, on November 15, 2020, Bartiromo interviewed Powell again. During that interview, Powell claimed that there had been massive voter fraud, and that public officials in states that used Dominion systems were getting “kickbacks” for stealing the election for Biden. “President Trump won by not just hundreds of thousands of votes, but by millions of votes, that were shifted by this software that was designed expressly for that purpose,” Powell said. The officials who supposedly stole the election got “substantial sums of money” laundered to them through family members, she said. Bartiromo didn’t challenge these preposterous allegations either.

In addition to amplifying Trump’s lawyers’ claims, Bartiromo also gave oxygen to a host of additional absurd conspiracy theories. On November 4, 2020, she claimed that “there were tons of ballots found under a rock in Arizona.” In fact, there were 18. On November 6, 2020, she promoted the so-called Sharpiegate conspiracy theory, which had already been repeatedly debunked by fact-checkers. On November 9, 2020, Bartiromo’s guests suggested that dead people were voting in large numbers. They were not. Later that month, Bartiromo allowed Trump to push his election denialist claims on her show, a programming decision Trump referred to as “brave.”

This pattern continued into December, when former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appeared on her show to lay out a number of already discredited conspiracy theories, including false claims of a trucker delivering ballots from New York to Pennsylvania and a rehash of the claim that voting machines were somehow controlled by foreign governments. The same month, she and Herschel Walker, now a Senate candidate in Georgia, spread lies about the 2020 election.

Bartiromo also played a direct role in questioning the results of the election. On November 9, 2020, she appeared as a guest on fellow Fox star Sean Hannity’s radio show. “I have not given up on [Attorney General] Bill Barr,” she said. “I am expecting a full-on investigation of these irregularities that we're seeing in terms of voting and the ballots.” On November 30, 2020, she said that Trump’s lawyers “say they have a stack of affidavits of people, sworn testimony that say that they saw the Dominion machines change votes."

On the day the Electoral College was scheduled to vote to confirm Joe Biden as the next president, Bartiromo claimed to have spoken “with one source high up in the intel community."

“He said, ‘Trump did win,” Bartiromo continued. “‘There was election fraud, but to prove it requires the FBI and the DOJ to drill down on all of the election fraud issues related to voter and ballot issues. They're not doing it because the wrong people run the place, and they didn't want Trump to win. Now they've run out the clock with the Electoral College here.’”

Bartiromo’s false claims continued after the fascist insurrection on January 6, 2021. She alleged, without evidence, that “Democrats” in “MAGA clothing” were partiallybehind the attack. In interviews with Republican lawmakers after the attempted coup, she repeatedly claimed that “70% of Trump voters” believed the election was stolen, thereby offering a circular self-justification for continuing to push that incorrect information and excuse the riot. On Biden’s Inauguration Day, she failed to push back on numerous false claims put forward by Goya CEO Bob Unanue, including inflating the number of people who voted for Trump.

She continued pushing election denialist conspiracy theories throughout 2021. On March 16, 2021, she gave Trump another friendly interview filled with falsehoods about the election and Trump’s attempts to overturn it, including his pressure campaign against election officials in Georgia. Trump was back on her show in April of that year, repeating the lie that he won the election. In May 2021, she implied that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was wrong to keep “talking and pushing back on President Trump, who says the election was stolen” and that she “has not acknowledged the issue around mail-in ballots.” In July 2021, she encouraged Trump to lie about the number of votes he’d received and the states he claimed to have won.

Bartiromo's recent coverage of the midterms has been no different. In October, she pushed a conspiracy theory that Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman, who is recovering from a stroke and requires auditory assistance, was being fed answers through a closed caption system he used during an NBC interview. Fox viewers can likely expect more of the same this election night.

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/tiktok/misinformation-about-midterm-elections-already-flourishing-tiktok

===

note origin as denier

not new but notable persist?

an 11 22

a Michigan Republican spoke to a QAnon podcast just after the 2020 election where she made some bizarre comments about Democrats, Vice News found.

Kristina Karamo, who is seen as an extremist in the race to control elections as the Michigan Secretary of State, talked about "child sacrifice" by the Democratic Party.

“If you go to the Satanic temple website, they have an entire five-minute video explaining why abortion is a religious ritual,” she said interview. “They literally say that it is a sacrifice, it is a religious ritual for them to have an abortion, it is sick. And as you mentioned, the baby body parts… they sell the organs. There’s a ton of money involved in freshly harvested organs. There’s so much evidence out there.”

Organs aren't fully formed during an abortion and wouldn't help anyone, but that logic escaped Karamo, who described it as a kind of church service happening on Satanic altars instead of in medical clinics. The belief is consistent with one of the main QAnon conspiracies and the concept of drinking the blood of the young was a key piece of the PizzaGate conspiracy theory, in which the right claims Democrats are keeping children in basements to drink their blood. A gunman showed up at the local neighborhood pizza parlor known for being a fun place for families as a result of the lies.

In another appearance with the podcast, Karamo claimed that the Jan. 6 attack on Congress in 2021 was "Antifa posing as Trump supporters." It was a conspiracy theory that Republicans tried to spin during the attack, but there was too much evidence to the contrary.

Karamo became known when she claimed she saw election fraud in 2020 while acting as a poll challenger in Detroit. Her statement was part of a challenge to the 2020 election that was thrown out by the Supreme Court. It wasn't long after she became a leading GOP candidate for the Michigan race.

She faces off against Democratic incumbent Jocelyn Benson.

Read the full report at Vice News.

===

cnn

https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/rick-scott-repeatedly-fact-checked/

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/coming-right-wing-attack-pennsylvania-vote

mma no twt

Republicans and their right-wing media surrogates are telegraphing an attack on the legitimacy of the vote in Pennsylvania during next month’s midterm elections. Their deceptive strategy mimics the approach former President Donald Trump and his allies took in the lead-up to and following the 2020 elections.

Leigh Chapman, Pennsylvania’s top election official explained during a Wednesday interview that because of a state law that does not allow officials to begin counting mail-in ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day, results for Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections might not be available for “days” afterwards. Since Democrats are more likely to trust and participate in mail-in voting while Republicans are more likely to vote in-person, early tabulations could show Republican candidates with a lead that is then whittled down as mail-in ballots are tabulated over time.

This is a known issue that was in effect during the last election cycle – and its continued existence is entirely the fault of Pennsylvania Republicans. Chapman, Pennsylvania’s bipartisan Election Law Advisory Board, Democratic state legislators, and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf have all called for the Republican-led state legislature to pass legislation allowing those ballots to be “pre-canvassed” before Election Day, as occurs in other states. But the General Assembly adjourned its legislative session this week without taking action.

Nonetheless, after the New York Post wrote up Chapman’s interview using the headline, “Pennsylvania election results could take 'days,' secretary of the commonwealth says,” right-wing politicians and media figures began using her comments to baselessly cast doubt on the integrity of the counting process.

[twt]

gOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano chimed in on Thursday morning. He described Chapman’s comments as “an attempt to have the fix in” during an interview on the Trumpist Real America’s Voice network.

This wave of false suggestions that the lengthy counting process — which has been enshrined by Republican legislators — is actually evidence of Democratic malfeasance is the latest sign that the GOP and right-wing media are planning to contest the Pennsylvania results if their candidates lose:

Trump intends to “aggressively challenge elections, particularly ones in which a winner is not declared on Election Night,” and is particularly fixated on the Pennsylvania Senate race, Rolling Stone reported Sunday.
Tucker Carlson, the Fox star and GOP kingmaker, suggested on Wednesday that his viewers should treat a victory by Democrat John Fetterman in the Senate race as illegitimate.
Local election denialist groups and national conservative media figures are driving conspiracy theories about voter fraud related to ballot drop boxes and voting machines in the state.
Fox host Mark Levin, a key player in Trump’s 2020 coup attempt, alleged last week that Chapman’s guidance directing counties to continue to count undated mail-in ballots amid a legal battle shows that Democrats are “trying to steal the election for” Fetterman.

It’s also a rerun of the attack Trump, Carlson, Levin, and their allies made on the integrity of the 2020 presidential race. Election experts had long predicted that Election Day 2020 would end with a “red mirage” showing Trump in the lead, only for there to be a “blue shift” afterward as key states counted mail-in ballots that heavily favored Democratic nominee Joe Biden. But Trump carried out his planned strategy to declare victory on election night, baselessly cited his declining margins and reversals as evidence of widespread election fraud, and spent weeks trying to subvert the result. And right-wing allies like Carlson and his colleagues helped him work their viewers into a frenzy over the fantasy that the election had been rigged.

[twt]

the same strategy could play out in Pennsylvania this cycle, with Mastriano and Senate nominee Mehmet Oz holding early leads on election night, declaring victory, and, with the support of the right-wing press, alleging that mail-in ballots that subsequently reduce or eliminate their leads are fraudulent. Mastriano is a committed election denier who supported Trump’s 2020 election subversion and would have no qualms about following his subversion plan. And Oz actually road-tested a plan like that after the primary election – holding a narrow lead but with observers declaring the race too close to call, he took Trump’s advice, went on Fox, and said, “This election is ours,” while his ally Sean Hannity baselessly raised the prospect of election fraud changing the result.

Trump’s 2020 statements were obvious nonsense, and everyone at Fox knew it. Chris Stirewalt, the network’s politics editor during the election, explained during a June hearing of the January 6 committee that the “red mirage” phenomenon was well known. He even testified that he and some of his colleagues had “gone to pains” before the election to stress to Fox viewers that this would happen “because the Trump campaign and the president had made it clear that they were going to try to exploit this anomaly.”

Don’t expect to see much of that effort at Fox if the situation repeats this cycle – Stirewalt’s former colleagues have seen what happened to employees too eager to tell the truth about elections. The network purged Stirewalt shortly after the election as executives rallied around Trump to preserve flagging ratings.

Perhaps this time will be different – plan A for everyone involved is to use demagoguery, smears about the Democrats, and misrepresentations of the Republicans’ extreme positions to win the elections for Mastriano and Oz outright. But Fox and the right-wing media are putting the country back on the edge of the abyss. The last time they did that, the result was a bloody insurrection at the U.S. Capital and the near-toppling of American democracy. And two years later, Trump’s election lie has been institutionalized within the GOP, and the meager guardrails in place on the party’s extremism have been leveled.

===

igor salon

https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/dress-rehearsal-for-2024-senate/

Former President Donald Trump is already laying the groundwork to challenge the results of the Pennsylvania Senate race, viewing the election as a "dress rehearsal for Trump 2024," according to Rolling Stone.

Trump last month met with Republican allies at Trump Tower to demand they "do something" about the Senate race between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Republican challenger Mehmet Oz, claiming that there was a "scam" happening in Philadelphia and elsewhere around the state.

"During our briefing, he was concerned that 2020 is going to happen again in 2022," Michael Caputo, a former Trump administration official who attended the meeting along with Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko and retired CIA officer Sam Faddis, told Rolling Stone. "Our team encouraged him to be concerned … [Furthermore], I'm advising Republicans to recruit and train election observers and a team of attorneys to oversee historically problematic precincts," Caputo said.

The meeting was one of several in which Trump has discussed plans to challenge the 2022 midterm results, and not just in Pennsylvania, four sources told the outlet, discussing "scorched-earth legal tactics they could deploy."

TrumpWorld is planning "aggressive court campaigns" if there is any hint of doubt about the results, according to the report. Trump himself has been briefed on plans in multiple states, including in Georgia, but he has been particularly fixated on the Pennsylvania race. If Oz does not win or the results are close, sources told Rolling Stone, Trump and other Republicans are already planning to "wage a legal and activist crusade against the 'election integrity' of Democratic strongholds such as Philly," according to the report.

One source told the outlet that Trump is particularly focused on Pennsylvania because he sees the Senate race as a "dress rehearsal for Trump 2024."

Trump during the September meeting urged GOP allies to work to limit mail-in voting in the state, pushing debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen in Philadelphia and demanding officials focus on the heavily Democratic and diverse area, according to the report. Trump has asked several advisers what Republicans are doing to prevent Democrats from "steal[ing] it in Philadelphia [like] they did last time," sources told the outlet.

Numerous Trump allies are ready to help wage another campaign to stoke doubt in election results before any votes are even cast.

"It's important to prepare for legal fights that will inevitably arise," Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House spokesman who now works at the America First Policy Institute,told Rolling Stone. "The effort that the Center for Election Integrity is focused on started at the beginning of this year…We've been seeding efforts across the country in important states…[because] having people on the ground locally is key to these efforts — because if you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who has spent millions pushing lies that voting machines flipped votes from Trump to President Joe Biden, also vowed to fight over the 2022 results.

"No matter what happens, I'm not giving up on getting rid of those voting machines … I will not stop until the machines are gone," Lindell, who is facing a $1 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, told Rolling Stone.

Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock CEO who has likewise poured his own money into the "Big Lie" crusade, has teamed with former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn to form the so-called America Project.

"We have made proper preparations for post-election challenges if necessary, but our overwhelming focus is on having a clean, transparent election, which obviates the need for post-election legal scuffles," Byrne told the outlet.

The Republican National Committee is already involved in the race, pushing the state to stop counting mail-in ballots that are missing handwritten dates.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year ruled that tossing such ballots would result in "disenfranchising otherwise qualified voters" over a "meaningless requirement" that does not affect the voters' eligibility. The Supreme Court last week tossed the court's decision but did not rule on whether the ballots are required to be counted. A state court previously ruled that undated ballots can be counted and the state's Supreme Court in 2020 ruled that such ballots should be counted that year but not in future elections.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman issued guidance urging counties to count the undated ballots but the RNC and a group of Pennsylvania Republicans sued last week, asking the state Supreme Court to rule that the undated ballots should not be counted. The lawsuit is led by attorneys Kathleen Gallagher and john Gore, who previously represented Pennsylvania Republicans in their attempt to overturn the 2020 results over late-arriving mail-in ballots.

It's a trend that could play out across the country as numerous election deniers seek midterm wins, including Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolduc. And pro-Trump media has boosted the message.

"If it is fair, Kari Lake's going to win," Fox News host Tucker Carlson said recently.

Pro-Trump radio host Mark Levin accused Democrats of "trying to steal the election for Fetterman," citing the dispute over the undated ballots.

The Rolling Stone report noted that Trump's obsession with bolstering the Republican legal infrastructure to challenge the election stands in stark contrast with the "relatively small sums" he has poured into the campaign to boost Oz's chances. His super PAC has spent just $770,000 on TV ads for [OZ?] Trump, compared to $34 million from the Senate Leadership Fund, which is allied with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Some Republicans have taken notice.

"There's a lot of people that were Trump supporters, who backed him through thick and thin," a Pennsylvania Republican attorney told Rolling Stone. "That's not lost on them."

===

rww 10 22

Josh Kovensky @ Talking Points Memo: Bannon Sentenced To Four Months In Prison For Contempt Of Congress.
Luke Broadwater and Michael S. Schmidt @ The New York Times: Jan. 6 Panel Issues Subpoena to Trump, Setting Up Legal Battle Over Testimony.
Media Matters: Tucker Carlson says the only proof there isn’t election fraud in Arizona is if the Republican wins.
Emily Hofstaedter @ Mother Jones: Christian Nationalists Are Closer Than You Think to Running America.
Sky Palma @ Raw Story: Speaker at rally featuring Eric Trump delivers wild rant about ‘angel of death’ killing Democrats and Supreme Court’s chief justice
Alex Griffing @ Mediaite: Lauren Boebert Tells GOP Tennessee Event ‘We Are In The Last of The Last Days’ Before the ‘Second Coming of Jesus.’
Matthew Kassel @ Jewish Insider: Blake Masters’ campaign has had a far-right Christian nationalist on its payroll for months.
Oliver Darcy @ CNN: Newsmax bans Lara Logan after QAnon-style rant, condemns her words in ‘the strongest terms’.
Philip Bump @ The Washington Post: Florida’s surgeon general makes the conspiracy-theory podcast rounds.

Tags: Blake Masters Donald Trump Joseph Ladapo Lara Logan Lauren Boebert Steve Bannon Tucker Carlson Round-Up Newsmax

===

an 10 22 me

a new analysis is highlighting the possibility of a disturbing outcome for the upcoming midterm elections. According to Newsweek, it is projected that election deniers could win approximately 189 races across the country.

"A previous investigation by The Washington Post found there are 291 Republicans 'election deniers' who have 'denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election' standing across the United States," the news outlet reported. "This constitutes more than half the total number of GOP candidates who are running for office."

"Out of the 291 Republican 'election deniers,' counting both Congressional and state races, it concluded that 171 are 'favored' to win, with another 48 running in 'close races.'"

The news outlet's analysis goes on to project that "of the 48 in tight contests, 18 are more likely than not to win." The latest findings have led to heightened concerns about the possible door midterm elections could reopen for former President Donald Trump.

Reed Galen, the co-founder of The Lincoln Project, offered his opinion of what election-denier victories could mean for the former president.

Galen said, "Election deniers will destroy confidence in our democratic institutions because they don't care about the truth and are uninterested in governing."

"Their only purpose is to obtain power so they can reinstate Donald Trump as President in 2024 regardless of the outcome of the vote. If they take office, they will throw the idea of free and fair elections out the window to get the results they want."

Gummer Ramer, who is affiliated with the Defend Democracy Together campaign, echoed similar sentiments. "Across the country, at all levels of government, election-denying candidates easily made their way through the primary," he said. "This is an indictment of the modern-day GOP."

"To win a Republican primary, you have to lie and promote conspiracy theories about the 2020 election," Ramer continued. "This constant sowing of distrust in election results is absolutely terrible for our democracy."

===

mma

no lnx twt

Right-wing media push false narrative about noncitizens registering to vote in Colorado

A simple computer error sent promotional material about voter registration to people who weren’t eligible and wouldn’t be allowed to register. The right is treating it as a scandal.

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

PUBLISHED 10/11/22

The Colorado secretary of state’s office mistakenly sent 30,000 postcards containing voter registration information to noncitizens, an accident that right-wing media outlets are treating as evidence of election fraud. The promotional material was not a registration form, and the ineligible recipients would still have been prohibited from actually registering to vote if any of them had tried to do so.

The news was initially reported by Colorado Public Radio, and spread quickly across right-wing media outlets after it was picked up by The Associated Press and Fox News’ website. The postcards were sent to eligible but unregistered voters as part of Colorado’s partnership with the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring voting rolls are accurate. But the mailing list drawn from the Colorado Department of Revenue driver’s license database did not include formatting to exclude ineligible noncitizens, according to the secretary of state’s office. (In reality, it is very rare for noncitizens to attempt to register to vote due to harsh penalties that can include deportation.)

Conservatives have repeatedly targeted ERIC with baseless conspiracy theories, and although this episode showed that there are checks in place to protect voter rolls, that hasn’t stopped right-wing media from attempting to weaponize this story in their long-running fight against voting rights.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon covered the issue on his podcast while interviewing Colorado election official Tina Peters, who is facing 10 felony and misdemeanor charges for allegedly helping breach security and make copies of Colorado voting records. (She has pleaded not guilty and a trial is set for next year.)

“They can game the system anytime,” Bannon said. “Just thank God they got caught this time or you would’ve had 30,000 noncitizens registered to vote, tipping the scales in Colorado.”

“And we may still have,” Peters responded. “There’s no guarantee that we won’t.”

Video

CitationFrom the October 11, 2022 edition of War Room: Pandemic, streamed on Real America's Voice

Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative propagandist whose election denial film 2,000 Mules has been widely debunked, shared an article on the Colorado story from right-wing blog RedState. The outlet claimed that “blue state election systems remain dysfunctional” and suggested Colorado’s election system “is run by partisans looking to juice turnout for their own benefit.”

The Federalist’swrite-up of the story used scare quotes around the words “mistake” and “error,” implying that the act was deliberate. Breitbart did the same in its tweet promoting the story.

Misinformation peddler John Solomon shared his website’s piece on the story, and the Daily Caller tweeted out its own version with the quote, “Safe and secure, remember?” Glenn Beck’s The Blaze also covered it, as did conservative blog Townhall.

A communication official for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) shared Fox News’ tweet, and commented, “Give me a break.”

Actor and conservative pundit James Woods weighed in as well.

The Colorado secretary of state’s office made a mistake, caught it, and owned up to it. Rather than reporting that process as evidence of reliable guardrails functioning to protect the voting system, conservative media is trying to manufacture this episode into a scandal.

===

facebook: youtube

https://www.mediamatters.org/spanish-language-media/dozens-spanish-language-election-fraud-youtube-videos-demonstrate-platforms

https://www.mediamatters.org/spanish-language-media/despite-policies-election-misinformation-persists-spanish-youtube

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10 22

https://www.mediamatters.org/one-america-news-network/one-america-news-supported-trump-insurrection-filling-airwaves-election

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10 22 48 43% --> runoff threat coup if lose

https://www.mediamatters.org/infowars/alex-jones-claims-massive-election-fraud-brazilian-presidential-election

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an raw 10 22

A new survey shows Republicans are more likely than any other political group to reject the results of a losing election, and a veteran pollster expressed alarm at those findings.

The new poll conducted by Yahoo News and YouGov found just 43 percent of Republicans say political candidates who got fewer votes should concede their loss, compared to 74 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents, and Republican pollster Frank Luntz told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" those results were chilling.

"Scary as hell," Luntz said. "I'm here at the Conservative Party Conference [in the United Kingdom], trying to say to them, be very careful what you wish for, be very careful of what kind of campaign you hold because you could end up like the U.S."

"When you lose faith and trust in elections itself, you've lost your democracy," he added, "and we are so close to the edge. I'm sitting in a room with students from Radley College and have to teach them, I have to explain to them this isn't the way democracy is supposed to work, that you have winners and losers, you accept the loss and then you move on. We are so poisoned, we are so toxic, and I don't want what's going on in the U.S. to happen here in the U.K. That would be a real tragedy."

Watch video below or at this link.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/mike-lindell/ algorithms

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no lnx

https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/oans-summer-election-conspiracy-theories 9 22

the 2020 presidential election was 693 days ago, and One America News Network is still a major hub for both denying the reality of 2020 and projecting conspiracy theories onto future elections.

Since June, OAN’s election fraud coverage has continued to hinge on hosts’ and guests’ repeated denials of the fairness of the 2020 election. It has included everything from claims that the ballot counts were tampered with to continued promotion of Dinesh D'Souza's ridiculous 2000 Mules documentary. And despite an ongoing $1.6 billion defamation suit, OAN has even proclaimed that “we were right” about Dominion Voting Systems.

With the stolen election as bedrock, OAN is looking grimly toward the future, with paranoid warnings that the Democrats will now use TikTok, postal unions, and their October surprise — “the next COVID election variant” — to cheat in the midterms and beyond. All this as the supposedly “Stalinesque” FBI runs interference for President Joe Biden’s political goals with actions like seizing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s cell phone.

OAN’s stolen election cinematic universe remains as rich with misinformation as ever, and they're hoping their viewers get involved. As Steve Bannon put it during an appearance on the network, “It’s all about … whether this audience, whether this audience turns out and brings people with it, and becomes poll workers, election judges, election officials, and also force multipliers to get everybody to the polls."

oAN is still denying the 2020 election

The late astronomer Carl Sagan said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Similarly, OAN’s entire library of election fraud-related content cannot exist without the invention of the stolen 2020 election. Although it occurred nearly two years ago, the network maintains a steady churn of weak theories and paranoid concerns about the 2020 election.

OAN correspondent Pearson Sharp reported that “there’s been no end to evidence pointing to massive and widespread voting fraud” won the 2020 election for Biden. Upon rediscovering old evidence of concerns about voting machine security, Sharp declared that “we were right” about Dominion Voting Systems. [OAN, 9/21/22]

In an OAN interview, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) praised Dinesh D’Souza’s 2000 Mules and said the discredited movie’s findings merit investigation: “It sure seemed suspicious to me. And I think it’s important for election integrity, so we know if there are any loopholes, gaps in our election integrity system so we can fix them.” [OAN, 9/13/22; The Washington Post, 5/17/22]

Tipping Point hosted discredited gun researcher John Lott to suggest that sloppy record-keeping by populous counties was covering up 2020 election fraud. Lott claimed that, in Cobb County, GA, “there was a difference of about 34,000 votes between the number of ballots cast and number of voters who voted. That's bigger -- that’s three times, more than three times Biden's winning margin in the state just from that one county.” [OAN, Tipping Point, 9/8/22; MMFA, 9/18/19]

OAN covered alleged new “voter irregularities” in the 2020 election in New Jersey -- a state Biden won by over 15 points -- including claims of people born between 1800 and 1899 voting, as well as people under 18 voting, and tens of thousands of people voting more than once. There was no actual proof that these illegal votes happened, and no acknowledgement of other potential explanations. [OAN, 7/28/22; 270toWin, 12/13/20]

With The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland, Tipping Point host Kara McKinney whined about the January 6 committee ignoring “verified evidence” of broken election laws that, McKinney and Cleveland suggested, could support Trump’s election fraud lies and inspire sympathy for January 6 insurrectionists. Cleveland added that “systematic” and “widespread” 2020 problems like these, and that few of them were resolved, “are the reasons that people do not have faith in the outcome of the elections.” [OAN, Tipping Point, 6/22/22]

Tipping Point guest and radio host Andrea Kaye, on a former Democratic congressman who pled guilty to election fraud charges: “That seems so detailed, it’s kind of far-fetched for me to think that it’s just this one dude and this one or two judges. I mean, where did they cook up this scheme? I mean, do they not have, like, this kind of fraud-rigging classes going on across the country?” [Tipping Point, 6/13/22]

The Thomas More Society’s Thor Hearne misleadingly told McKinney that Zuckerberg spent millions on funding election processes, and “he’s not a stupid person. He expects a return for his money. He wanted to get a particular outcome in this election, and that’s the way he spent the money,” insinuating that Zuckerberg bought the presidency for Biden. [Tipping Point, 6/9/22; NBC News, 9/8/22]

After a report on software vulnerabilities in voting machines, Ball incredulously commented that a cybersecurity company said, “The software can be hacked … however, they don’t believe any of that happened in 2020.” Ball asked viewers to note the manufacturer of the machines in question: “Dominion Voting Systems.” [OAN, Real America, 6/6/22; Associated Press, 6/1/22]

OAN pushed to make a former San Luis, Arizona, mayor’s guilty plea for ballot fraud into a smoking gun for widespread election fraud as alleged in 2000 Mules, with White House correspondent Chanel Rion derisively noting that the “so-called fact checkers” ascribe her plea and the movie’s release to “mere coincidences.” According to The Washington Post however, it is “not evidence of any massive ballot-harvesting effort.” [OAN, 6/6/22, 6/6/22; OAN, Real America, 6/6/22; The Washington Post, 6/3/22]

OAN is spreading conspiracy theories about future elections

Not just focused on relitigating the past, OAN has also applied a similar conspiracy theory mindset to the upcoming 2022 midterm and 2024 presidential elections, already warning about a wide variety of ways the Democrats will allegedly cheat.

In Focus asked right-wing activist J. Christian Adams about Democrats allegedly trying to keep “26,000 dead people on the Michigan voter rolls,” among other “verified nefarious activity and fraudulent voting.” Adams replied that “if you have dead voters on the voter rolls, and you’re mailing ballots, it’s a prescription for disaster.” [OAN, In Focus, 9/7/22]

Ball spun TikTok’s participation in the Federal Voting Assistance Program as a proxy for the Chinese government to access Americans’ data and steal the 2022 midterms for Democrats. His guest, Ken Cuccinelli, replied that “we did whittle down our problems in elections to American problems by keeping these foreign entities out, and here they are inviting them in for misinformation and influence.” Ball then suggested that Biden, whose ties to China are allegedly proven by his son Hunter Biden’s laptop, is using “the CCP’s TikTok” to steal the midterms. [OAN, Real America, 8/22/22; TikTok, 8/17/22]

Citing a Federalist article, Tipping Point suggested that a U.S. postal service workers’ union could conspire to aid Biden in the 2022 and 2024 elections “by either delaying ballots to Republican-heavy areas or by interfering with mailed campaign material,” while also noting that USPS has a new division specifically dedicated to election mail. [OAN, Tipping Point, 8/16/22]

Tipping Point suggested that former attorney general Eric Holder was recruiting Democrats to fix future elections under the guise of being poll workers. Said McKinney, “I thought election monitors were supposed to be neutral, unbiased, or is this the new normal for Democrat-controlled elections after they used COVID to get their way and to really cement that way?” Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington replied that “they don’t want to muck up the process that they have right now, which is systemic widespread fraud.” [OAN, Tipping Point, 8/11/22]

Sharp warned that “the Democrats are planning on stealing the midterms” and they will do so by using “the next COVID election variant” to encourage mail-in voting: “It’s a tried and true formula, and they got away with it last time. Why not do it again? Who’s going to stop them? The Republicans? … Bring back the COVID hysteria, but for all the crises -- China virus, Ukraine, monkeypox and who knows what else – before November.” [OAN, 8/4/22]

On In Focus, Harrington claimed that “the midterms are coming, so they need to roll out the next new variant. … They need a new variant for the new mail-ins.” Harrington continued, “This is the only thing they can do. In 2020 they used COVID to cheat on a massive scale. … This is political, this is trying to manipulate the process once again, and lay down the groundwork to cheat, and have a fallback plan when the elections don’t go their way.” [OAN, In Focus, 7/14/22]

OAN is pushing for action on these conspiracy theories

With such fervent belief in these conspiracy theories, OAN has also called for something to be done about them. Additionally, the network has celebrated candidates and officeholders who purportedly combat voter or election fraud, hoped for advantageous outcomes, and defended Lindell from “Biden’s Stasi” over his prominent 2020 conspiracy theories.

Sharp complained that the FBI “gestapo agents” had found Lindell, “tracked him, hunted him down, and surrounded him while he was having breakfast. … This is the Stalinesque disease that has infected America.” Sharp further warned that the U.S. is “slipping into fascism” and, “If the cowardly Republicans in Washington don't take a stand against this now and put an end to it, there won't be anyone left to save them when Biden’s Stasi agents come knocking on their doors.” [OAN, 9/16/22]

Lindell went on Real America to say that the phone seizure was about his 2020 election conspiracy theories -- specifically, it was in relation to an alleged breach of Colorado voting machines -- and he said he told the FBI it had been “weaponize[d] … against one of your citizens.” Lindell continued, “I believe they did this so because we were getting cast vote records and everything, and they wanted to put fear into people not to talk to Mike Lindell again. Don't talk to Mike Lindell or you too could have -- you could be arrested or, or taken -- your phone taken in a drive-thru restaurant.” “This is gestapo-style stuff,” Ball added. [OAN, Real America, 9/15/22; The Washington Post, 9/14/22]

On OAN, Steve Bannon called for viewers to become poll workers to protect the 2022 red wave: “It’s all about … whether this audience, whether this audience turns out and brings people with it, and becomes poll workers, election judges, election officials, and also force multipliers to get everybody to the polls.” [OAN, 9/9/22]

OAN breathlessly covered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announcing 20 arrests for voter fraud, claiming, “These people broke the law, voted illegally, and he’s holding them accountable for it. It’s quite literally all there is to it; this is fraudulent voting by definition. It’s not alleged or conspiratorial. It’s actual, illegal voting.” It was later reported that “several people who were arrested last week as part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ voter fraud crackdown were notified by official government entities they were eligible to vote.” [OAN, In Focus, 8/19/22; Politico, 8/26/22]

“Election adviser” Harry Haury told OAN viewers to visit True The Vote’s website, a nonprofit that helped D’Souza gather data for 2000 Mules, “as a resource to anybody that’s interested,” as well as calling their election fraud hotline and donating money. [OAN, 8/15/22]

OAN promoted a pro-Trump social media site that lets users directly report supposed election fraud. CloutHub CEO Jeff Brain told OAN anchor Natasha Sweatte that reports and photos of alleged fraud are sent through the app to attorneys who can get the complaint “filed in court within minutes.” The attorneys in question appear to be related to The America Project, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit co-founded in part by former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, both extreme election conspiracy theorists. [MMFA, 8/8/22]

Real America hosted Michigan GOP secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo because, Ball said, she was “fighting for election integrity.” Denouncing an effort to expand voting rights as corrupt, Karamo said that “these people are claiming to want to expand elections. No, they want to expand fraud in our elections.” [OAN, Real America, 7/24/22]

---

===

9 22 an

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former Vice President Mike Pence are among the Republicans who former President Donald Trump has been lambasting for refusing to join him in promoting the Big Lie and claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. But unlike Kemp and Pence, Burt Jones — the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor in Georgia — has been a vocal Big Lie promoter. And Pence is campaigning for him in Georgia.

In a tweet posted on September 26, Never Trump conservative Amanda Carpenter points out that Jones was “a January 6 fraudulent elector.”

After the 2020 election, MAGA Republicans in various swing states that now-President Joe Biden won pretended to represent the Electoral College and even presented fake election documents to election officials. In Georgia, Carpenter notes, Trump loyalist Jones was an example of a fake elector.

According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein, Pence “will return to Georgia next month for a pair of fundraisers to boost GOP candidates, marking his first return to the state since a May rally with Gov. Brian Kemp that punctuated a deepening divide with Donald Trump. Pence will hold an October 13 fundraiser in Atlanta with State Sen. Burt Jones, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, and State Sen. Tyler Harper, the Republican contender for agriculture commissioner. He’ll head to Thomasville later the same day to raise cash for U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson of West Point and Chris West, the GOP nominee running against veteran Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop.”

Carpenter cited Pence’s support of Jones as an example of the fact that even some “normal” Republicans are supporting Big Lie promoters.

Carpenter posted, “What’s interesting is that MAGA folks are excited about GOP ‘unity’ events…. because the so-called Team Normal folks are coming around election-denialism and other nutty ideas. Not the other way around.”

Twitter user Janet Byrd, @gajbyrd, commented, “So Pence is raising cash for Burt Jones who is a fake elector? Guess Pence forgot the fake elector scheme almost got him killed on Jan 6!”

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/geraldo-rivera-slams-ted-cruz/ also hawley big lie

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https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/jr-majewski-january-6-insurrectionist-group-youll-have-ready-access-me-all

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/he-could-have-done-it/ VP

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https://www.mediamatters.org/mike-lindell/mike-lindell-thanks-fox-news-and-tucker-carlson-talking-more-about-election

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an 9 22 colo

...Tina Peters, Mesa County’s Clerk, was not a cultish election denier immediately before or after 2020’s presidential election. She did not make any accusations that her voting system’s computers had been secretly sabotaged when Sandra Brown, Mesa County’s back-office election manager, mistakenly double-counted 20,000 ballots in late October 2020—a procedural error during preprocessing ballots that Brown repeated in Mesa County’s municipal elections in April 2021.

But soon after April 2021’s elections, where a slate of conservatives who skipped a candidate forum all lost, the first of what became a parade of pro-Donald Trump, self-proclaimed election IT experts began telling Peters about anomalies with her county’s voting system computers. The anomalies were the same clichés about illegal voters and forged totals that had been put forth by Trump diehards in other states. Except the allegations were dressed up as statistics and technicalities. Peters, a businesswoman turned public official, was more than impressed.

As March 2022 indictments by Mesa County District Attorney Daniel Rubenstein, a Republican, and a recent New Yorker profile recount, Peters used a standard update of election software in late April 2021 to make unauthorized copies of her election system’s hard drives, software, and data. The apparent goal was gathering intelligence to show that the technology—made by Dominion Voting Systems—could not be trusted to produce accurate vote counts.

Trump’s lawyers and partisan IT specialists had made copies of computer drives, software and data in December 2020 in Antrim County, Michigan, after a former state GOP leader turned state judge allowed it. The copies, of another Dominion system, were not to be shared. But they were soon leaked in Trump circles.

That effort, nonetheless, produced no evidence for any of Trump’s failed post-election lawsuits. Still, one day after January 6, 2021’s pro-Trump insurrection, some of the same data miners went to Coffee County, Georgia. There, an election official let them copy their Dominion system’s drives, software and 2020 data. Members of this loose cadre of IT experts showed up in Mesa County in late April—several weeks after back-office manager Brown again erred in using a computer as it was compiling vote subtotals in its municipal elections.

What happened next in Mesa County gets complex. It also reveals how a rare but recurring trend among a handful of local election officials—mistakes with setting up or using their system’s computers—can be exploited by partisans who claim that invisible forces are secretly stealing votes if their candidates lose.

In every cycle, there are some election officials who do not properly set up or use these computers—errors that usually are caught and corrected, but initially produce incorrect election results. This trend has been overlooked in the press coverage of the interstate plot by Trump’s IT gurus to steal election software and 2020 data.

The operational problems, however, are among the findings by the Independent Media Institute’s Voting Booth project, which has co-written a forthcoming guide about how election systems work. The co-author is Duncan Buell, a computer scientist who has studied voting systems, software, and data for more than a decade, and was an election official in Richland County, South Carolina, home to the state’s capital, Columbia. These errors recurred in each cycle that he studied.

In 2020’s general election, the programming, and operational mistakes were few and far between. Nonetheless, the errors that Trump’s IT squads seized upon—errors that were corroborated by post-election inquiries by other government bodies—helped fuel the lie that the presidential election was stolen.

Moreover, some of the election workers who made these mistakes—such as Mesa County’s Brown—and their elected superior—such as Peters—then fell under the spell of Trump’s conspiratorial IT squad—producing fodder for more false claims.

These trends—mistakes with programming or using election computers and rogue officials who abuse the public trust by making unfounded claims—offer warnings before 2022’s general election. Many 2020 election-deniers are candidates seeking state and federal office this fall. A few already have shown in their primaries that they will attack the process and technology if they fear they may lose.

Before 2020’s election, virtually all of the members of Trump’s IT squads did not know much about voting system computers or election administration safeguards. But they eagerly presented their credentials and claimed, that election computers had been hijacked, and, moreover, that no Dominion system should be trusted. Their unproven accusations became, and remain, fixtures in Trump circles.

“It wasn’t just Colorado,” said Walter Daugherity, a recently retired University of Texas lecturer in computer science and engineering, on an August 22 televised panel sponsored and hosted by Mike Lindell, a Trump ally who has spent millions to promote the stolen election fiction and whose actions are under investigation by federal authorities. “Everywhere across the country that had a Dominion trusted build [software] upgrade had the same thing happen.”

Daugherity was one analyst who received Mesa County’s pilfered data. He and Jeff O’Donnell, an IT analyst whose moniker in Trump circles is “the Lone Raccoon,” co-wrote a series of reports concluding that Mesa County’s computers mysteriously allowed 20,346 presidential ballots to be counted twice. The double counting was not the fault of election officials, specifically back-office election manager Brown, they wrote, positing that an “external trigger,” “signal,” “software algorithm” or “pre-programming” had caused “unexpected voting patterns.”

Their speculation was one of many similar pronouncements in Trump circles. They accused Dominion of complicity in a scheme that would be illegal, if it were true.

“The report made claims which, if true, would indicate a crime was committed related to election fraud,” Mesa County District Attorney Rubenstein said via email on August 25. “I stand by the investigation that we conducted and am confident that there is no evidence of a crime being committed.”

Inside One Disinformation Bubble

Mesa County was among a handful of counties across America’s 8,000-plus election jurisdictions where Trump allies discovered glitches in administering the 2020 election. The glitches, which produced incorrect initial vote counts, were signs that Trump lost due to a vast conspiracy, they asserted.

That narrative, which continues today, ignores the banalest explanation of what happened in Mesa County and in jurisdictions such as Antrim County, Michigan. In both locales, county election officials erred with setting up or using their voting system’s computers, mistakes that initially were not noticed but were later caught and corrected.

The operational errors were recorded by the system’s computers, which keeps logs of every action—from ballot paper jams to vote counts. The errors were confirmed by other evidence, such as, in Mesa County, police investigators reconstructing the mistakes on the same equipment, parsing video footage from security cameras in the room where they occurred and interviewing witnesses. But conspiracy-minded Trumpers, including O’Donnell and Daugherity, went looking for incongruities in computer logs and vote count databases, which, they said, masked programming that reassigned votes from Trump to other presidential candidates.

“The findings in this report were prepared by the authors as consultants to the legal team representing Tina Peters, the Mesa County Clerk,” the executive summary of their March 19, 2022 report said. “The findings provide evidence of unauthorized and illegal manipulation of tabulated vote data during the 2020 General Election and 2021 Grand Junction Municipal Election. Because of this evidence, which led to the vote totals for those elections being impossible to verify, the results and integrity of Mesa County’s 2020 General Election and the 2021 Grand Junction Municipal Election are in question.”

Among the incongruities they cited are batches of ballots that were not sequentially numbered in a results database. That can occur, several election experts explained, when batches of ballots with sloppy ink marks (made by voters) are detected by the software and set aside until the voter’s intent is determined. That process, called adjudication, is done in Colorado in the presence of political party observers. The batches are added to the database after the voter intent issues are resolved. (It was at this step where Brown failed to correctly use the system’s computers).

The Mesa County prosecutor took the duo’s report seriously and investigated. On May 19, 2022, Rubenstein sent a 24-page letter to Mesa County Commissioners and the Grand Junction City Council summarizing the investigation and debunking the vote-padding claims in the most pedestrian way. Two initial miscounts had occurred. The first was in 2020’s general election. The second was in municipal elections in April 2021. Both were “caused by direct action of the former Back Office Election Manager Sandra Brown.”

Investigators found that Brown had stopped and then restarted the computer during the adjudication process, including replacing one computer—without resetting the system. Brown did not call the vendor for assistance, the county prosecutor’s letter said. She was confused, tried to fix things, and erred—essentially double-counting votes at this stage in the process. Election judges from political parties witnessed this, as did an overhead video camera.

“No evidence exists that would indicate that Ms. Brown had any nefarious or criminal motive in those actions, but rather appears to have been trouble-shooting problems in the flow of the adjudication process,” Rubenstein wrote.

Human error in configuring and running election computers also sparked stolen election allegations in Antrim County, Michigan. There, the initial results in the conservative northern Michigan county were incorrect because one contest had been omitted on the ballots when configuring the system’s computers. Nobody caught the error until suspicious vote totals surfaced on Election Night. (Because one race was left out, votes were assigned to the wrong candidate in a tabulation spreadsheet, essentially bumping Trump votes down one line, where they were assigned to Joe Biden.)

In both counties, Trump supporters said that the entire state’s election apparatus was corrupt and demanded that the state’s certified results be thrown out. Beyond such hyperbole, a key observation emerges. Trump’s self-declared election experts were not looking at, nor may not even be aware of, the array of data sets, election records and administrative protocols that catch and correct the errors that occur. In Mesa County, for example, the district attorney’s report made this point.

“These actions were verified to have been done by her [Brown] through video evidence, corroboration of records, audit of randomly selected ballot images [created by ballot scanners], interviews with witnesses and experts, and recreation of certain scenarios using a test environment and prove that the conclusions of Report 3 [O’Donnell’s and Daugherity’s report] are incorrect claims of what may have occurred,” Rubenstein said. “At this time, no evidence suggests that these actions negatively impacted the election.”

In contrast, what the pro-Trump duo used as the basis for their inquiry—analyses built on Peters’ pilfered computer drives—is a thinner evidence base.

The pair, who were reached by email after their August 22 presentation at Mike Lindell’s “Moment of Truth Summit,” sent a rebuttal to Rubenstein’s summary where they rejected numerous assertions and questioned the district attorney’s expertise, evidence, and methods. (Rubenstein also noted they had lied about interviewing 11 people who had been in the room when Brown messed up.)

When asked by this reporter why they did not mention the DA’s review in their presentation at Lindell’s August 2022 forum—where O’Donnell said, “There is still no evidence that this was ever or even could have been something that was done by the clerk at the time”—O’Donnell replied that the DA’s investigation was a sham and said that my questions were “insulting.”

“We did not mention the DA’s report because it is such a sloppy ‘investigation’ that it deserves no recognition other than derision,” the “Lone Raccoon” said. “It is sad to me that somebody who is a ‘national political reporter’ would blindly fall fort the propaganda put by a small-time DA instead of actually doing their own research. However, that seems to be the rule these days.”

“Doing Their Own Research”

Perhaps my e-mail was too blunt when asking the pair if they were aware of other evidence that explained Brown’s incompetence (she was fired and faces charges related to the data breach); and what was their response to the D.A. saying they lied when they said they had talked to the party observers present (who spoke to police investigators) when Brown erred?

But I had done my “own research.” When reporting on the Cyber Ninjas’ review in Arizona in 2021, I had repeatedly seen the disinformation dynamic that I saw here. Partisans with forgone conclusions started to parse election records. Lacking prior experience in studying election systems, they did not understand where what they were seeing in the electronic records related to wider contexts and protocols. That didn’t stop them from putting forth doubts about the results. And I’d also heard about the duo’s missteps from a lifelong Republican and credible election data analyst.

Benny White, a former fighter pilot and lawyer who lives in Tucson, Arizona, has been an election observer and data analyst for the Arizona Republican party for years. He became a persona non-grata in Trump circles for analyses in early 2021 that found tens of thousands of ballots cast by otherwise loyal Republicans in the greater Phoenix area had not voted to re-elect Trump. (The voting patterns were found in the final spreadsheet of every vote cast in every race.)

Reached by phone, White said that the duo called him as they were parsing Mesa County’s tabulation-related databases. White recalled that he told them where their assumptions were mistaken, and what they were not considering because they were not familiar with election administration and safeguards that find and fix errors.

“These folks have no understanding or appreciation of election administration,” he said. “They’re looking at everything from a sterile, mechanistic perspective. There are problems that can be caused because of human interface in the system design where operators can make mistakes. And for that reason, I am always an advocate of having an independent body, whether it’s a knowledgeable person or a bipartisan group of overseers, that is present at all times to watch what’s going on and ask, ‘Why are you doing that?’”

For example, White recalled that the duo claimed that the county’s voting system “had done something nefarious because these ballots [during adjudication] weren’t all tabulated in sequence.” But that circumstance occurs if the voter’s intent on a ballot is in question, White said, in which case Dominion’s software “will hold that batch [of 1,000 ballots from] being included in the aggregate results… That was another thing that it seemed to me that Daugherity failed to understand.”

“He bases a lot of his conclusions on statistics, statistical analysis,” White said of Daugherity. “There have been single instances where he would tell me something, and I would say, ‘Walter, you’re not considering this other facet of what was going on in that particular election… You have to know more before you reach these conclusions.’”

Election administration is not simple. It takes years to understand election law, varieties in state rules and procedures, the voting system technology and all of the subsets of data created and compiled that add up to winners and losers. Trump’s IT squad might be forgiven for misunderstanding and misinterpreting what they saw, if they had been more humble and fair-minded. But they weren’t.

Their mindset is to create chaos and doubt, while claiming they are seeking the truth. The clearest evidence of that mindset is how they exploited human errors by election officials by not accurately contextualizing those mistakes, but repeatedly overclaiming that an entire jurisdiction’s votes were suspect, and that the same election technology deployed nationwide must be rejected.

With scores of 2020 election-denying candidates running for state and federal office in 2022’s general election, this deceitful pattern is likely to recur.

Author Bio: Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace, and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of progressive publications including Salon, AlterNet, the American Prospect, and many others.

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538 9 22

Republican nominees for the U.S. House and Senate as well as governor, secretary of state, and attorney general on the ballot in November, 195 are 2020 election deniers, 61 are "doubters," and 115 did not have a discernible position and declined to clarify.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/right-wing-media-continues-defend-january-6-insurrectionist-couy-griffin

After New Mexico county commissioner and January 6 insurrectionist Couy Griffin was officially barred for life from holding public office, right-wing media responded by defending the Cowboys for Trump founder – downplaying his actions at the Capitol riot, claiming that it was not really an insurrection, and suggesting that his removal violates the will of the people who elected him.

On September 6, a New Mexico district court judge ruled that Griffin’s participation in the January 6 insurrection disqualifies him from holding public office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause. This marks the first case where the provision has been used since 1869, as it was enacted as a measure against former Confederates in Congress after the Civil War.

The case was brought by New Mexico citizens represented by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an anti-corruption legal group, which notedthat “an eyewitness to Griffin’s behavior testified that Griffin also took on a leadership position within the mob at the Capitol on January 6th. For his involvement in the Capitol riot, Griffin was ultimately convicted of misdemeanor trespassing, for which he spent 14 days in jail. Griffin also withstood a recall effort in 2021 over his participation in the riot, and he recently refused to certify Otero County’s 2022 primary election results based on debunked conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines.

In a statement to Vice News following the ruling disqualifying him from holding public office, Griffin defended himself and his election denial: “For them to say that I was there on that day to stop the transition of power, it’s all slanderous. It’s all built on lies. I was concerned election laws had been broken.” Griffin said that “I’m disappointed in the tyranny of one judge can remove the will of the people,” which “makes [me] mistrust the government even more.”

Right-wing writers alleged that the ruling puts democracy in danger and defended January 6 overall

On September 7, Griffin appeared on Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Reports to discuss his removal, which he argued spells the end of democracy: “That will mean that the radical progressive Democrat that is governor of New Mexico will now hand-select who to replace me and who to represent the people. So we always hear all this [about] our democracy is under attack? Absolutely. The case in point, right here today.”

Host Greg Kelly told Griffin, “You are not an insurrectionist. Going there exercising your First Amendment right and you didn’t break anything, you didn’t hurt anybody, you didn’t threaten anybody. That’s not an insurrection."

September 7, 2022, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports

Griffin defended himself to Fox News Digital as well, claiming that he had “‘no intention’ of ‘insurrection nor rebellion’ when he went to the Capitol.” He called his removal a “disgrace,” as he claims the judge “fails to have jurisdiction to do so but also because there was a recall waged against me after Jan 6 that failed miserably.”

Conservative outlets lit up with similar editorializing.

Conservative news site RedState called CREW “leftwing nutters” and argued, “A state judge can’t declare a national insurrection existed nearly two years ago when the federal government itself never made such a declaration.”
The Gateway Pundit wrote that “Griffin did not commit any violent acts on January 6, however the judge ruled that the January 6 Capitol protest was an insurrection.”
Breitbart called CREW a “Soros-backed group” in their coverage of the story, and made sure to include that “Griffin, like many participants in the Capitol riot, apparently believed he was defending the Constitution, not rebelling against it.”
The Wall Street Journal questioned the ruling for treating January 6 insurrectionists like “Confederates after the Civil War,” and said, “The breadth of this precedent is troubling.”
The Daily Caller defended Griffin with the headline “Walking Around Outside The Capitol Is Now Officially ‘Insurrection,’ Says Judge.”
Right-wing YouTuber Tim Pool hosted Florida Republican congressional nominee Cory Mills, who denied that January 6 was an insurrection and claimed that Griffin’s removal proves “what President Trump told us a long time ago, which is that they're not after me. They're after you. I'm just in the way.”
On Twitter, American Greatness writer and January 6 conspiracy theorist Julie Kelly claimed that the judge “lied throughout his 49-page (!) ruling” and that she hopes Griffin “defies the order” to leave office.
Right-wing radio host and Daily Caller editor Vince Coglianese criticized the ruling, saying, “Walking around outside the Capitol building with a bullhorn or unilaterally overturning the will of the voters — which one is more insurrectiony?”

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an 9 22

Longtime Republican disruptor Newt Gingrich, Senior Advisor to then-President Donald Trump Jared Kushner, and longtime campaign advisor Jason Miller conducted an email discussion about posting ads falsely disputing the results of the 2020 election, according to a letter sent to Gingrich by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

“The goal is to arouse the country’s anger,” Gingrich said in one email, the Committee states in its letter which asks him to testify voluntarily and preserve all related documents.

The Committee says it also has evidence Gingrich was “involved in the fake elector scheme.”

Even in the hours after the violent but failed January 6 coup, the Committee says Gingrich “continued to push efforts to overturn te election results,” and emailed Mark Meadows at 10:42 PM.

Attorney and Professor of Law Anthony Michael Kreis says it “sounds like the January 6th Committee may have the goods on Newt Gingrich orchestrating part of a broader conspiring to solicit election fraud and/or commit unlawful interference with election administration under Georgia law.”

In its letter the Committee writes it “has obtained information indicating that you have knowledge about former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and we write to seek your voluntary cooperation. Some of the information that we have obtained includes email messages that you exchanged with senior advisors to President Trump and others, including Jared Kushner and Jason Miller, in which you provided detailed input into television advertisements that repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election.”

“These advertising efforts were not designed to encourage voting for a particular candidate. Instead, these efforts attempted to cast doubt on the outcome of the election after voting had already taken place.,” the Committee’s letter to Gingrich reads. “They encouraged members of the public to contact their state officials and pressure them to challenge and overturn the results of the election. To that end, these advertisements were intentionally aired in the days leading up to December 14, 2020, the day electors from each state met to cast their votes for president and vice president,” the Committee adds.

“Among the numerous emails you exchanged regarding purported election fraud, you wrote on December 8, 2020, urging Donald Trump’s campaign to air advertisements promoting the false narrative that election workers had smuggled suitcases containing fake ballots at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. This email shows that you provided line edits to the scripts used to produce television advertisements and suggested that the advertisements include a ‘call-to-action’ of pressuring state officials. You specifically pushed for national advertisements to include false allegations about what you called the ‘suitcase scandal.'”

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mma 9 22

The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection sent a letter on Thursday to Fox contributor and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich seeking his testimony. The committee says he advised former President Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election. Gingrich also frequently pushed conspiracy theories about what he described as a “stolen election” during his media appearances, according to a Media Matters review.

Gingrich’s role, the committee wrote, included providing Trump’s senior advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Miller with “detailed input into television advertisements that repeated and relied upon false claims of fraud.” Those ads ran in the days leading up to December 14, 2020, the day the Electoral College convened. In a December 8, 2020, email obtained by the committee, Gingrich wrote:

The goal is to arouse the country’s anger through new verifiable information the American people have never seen before[.] . . . If we inform the American people in a way they find convincing and it arouses their anger[,] they will then bring pressure on legislators and governors.

The letter further stated: “Information we have obtained also suggests you were involved in the fake elector scheme,” a Trumpist plot to create a dueling slate of electors pledged to the defeated president in states won by Joe Biden.

Gingrich similarly used his media appearances to “arouse the country’s anger” with false claims of voter fraud and to try to encourage Trump supporters to “bring pressure on legislators and governors.”

“I would say to every person in Georgia who favors Donald J. Trump: Go to the governor's mansion, physically. Go to the Capitol, physically,” Gingrich said during a November 18, 2020, interview on Fox host Sean Hannity’s nationally syndicated radio show. “Communicate that you're prepared to stand up for America and you're prepared to stand up for an honest election and that you are sick of politicians selling you out.”

On January 5, 2021 — less than 24 hours before a violent mob breached the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election — Gingrich told Hannity’s radio audience that “Biden may at some place get sworn in. But I think for 40 or 45% of the American people, he will never be seen as a legitimate president, because the very process that put him there is so totally corrupted.”

He added, “I think this is the most dangerous assault on the very nature of America, certainly in our lifetime, and maybe since the previous Civil War.”

Gingrich joined Fox as a contributor in 1999 and is known for his demagogic commentary. In recent weeks, he has warned that “a cult of anti-white racism” is attempting to “impose itself on the country” and alleged that the FBI, which “could actually be called the American Stasi,” had “declared war on the American people” by executing a judge-approved search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. A close Trump ally, he was considered for the vice president slot in 2016, and the pair were reportedly working together to craft a GOP platform for the 2022 midterm elections.

Gingrich made at least 24 appearances on Fox weekday programming between Election Day 2020 and January 6, 2021, according to Media Matters' internal database. Fox personalities constantly alleged during that period that the election had been rigged, often promoting conspiracy theories that have led to multiple lawsuits against the network.

The former speaker repeatedly argued that Democrats had used systemic voter fraud to steal several states from Trump.

On November 4, 2020, the day after Election Day, Gingrich suggested that Democrats had “a setup to steal the presidency by the Democrats” and specifically may have stolen votes in Pennsylvania and Nevada, which Biden won. He urged Trump to get Senate Republicans to “open up investigations on all these different states” and to “be prepared to file suit in every single state.”
That night, he claimed that Democrats “are breaking the law in every possible way. And the correct answer is fine, none of those votes count. If you are going to be corrupt and illegal, we don’t have to count your votes. That means automatically in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, in Wisconsin, in Georgia, that Trump will carry every single state by a surprising margin.” He added that Trump “either has to fight and protect America, or he has to surrender to corrupt forces.”
The next night, Gingrich claimed that Democrats are “trying to steal the presidency, and we should not allow them to do that.” He described the situation as a “crisis” comparable to “Washington on Christmas Eve” and “Lincoln at Gettysburg,” and urged then-Attorney General Bill Barr to arrest election workers who he baselessly claimed “are breaking the law.”
On November 8, 2020, the day after Fox and other news outlets called the election for Biden, Gingrich claimed Democrats stole “five or six states” in a “corrupt, stolen election.” He added that “these people are thieves” and cited a pollster to claim that “this clearly was a stolen election,” a remark Trump live-tweeted.
On December 7, 2020, Gingrich said, “The objective fact is I believe Trump probably did actually carry Georgia,” adding that in Georgia’s Senate runoff elections, “Republicans simply have to turn out more votes than Stacey Abrams can steal.”
He pushed several conspiracy theories in a second interview the same day, including one in which he suggested voting machines may have been “rigged” because results supposedly “went through Barcelona, Spain, to Frankfurt, Germany to be counted.”

Since the January 6 insurrection, Gingrich has continued to use his Fox platform to allege that elections Republicans lose are implicitly the result of fraud; that the 2020 election in particular was stolen; and that the goal of Democratic voting reform measures is to “steal elections on a grand scale.”

===

az primary sweep by deniers

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https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/11/politics/fact-check-republican-secretary-of-state-nominees-2020-election

many lnx

At least 11 Republican nominees for state elections chief have disputed the legitimacy of the 2020 election

By Daniel Dale, CNN

Updated , Fri August 19, 2022

Washington (CNN)In at least 11 states, the Republican nominee for the job of overseeing future elections is someone who has questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Secretaries of state will play a critical role in managing and certifying the presidential election in 2024. The distinct possibility that some of these secretaries will be people with a history of election denial is a major challenge for American democracy -- especially because former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to run again in 2024, continues to pressure state officials to discard the will of voters.

More than half of GOP governor nominees have questioned or denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election

More than half of GOP governor nominees have questioned or denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election

The Republican nominees for secretary of state in the November 2022 midterm elections include three swing-state candidates who have made efforts to overturn 2020 results in their states: Mark Finchem o

Arizona, Kristina Karamo of Michigan and Jim Marchant of Nevada.

The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Alabama, Wes Allen, expressed support for a 2020 lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court to toss out Joe Biden's victory. The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Indiana, Diego Morales, has called the 2020 election a "scam," the vote "tainted" and the outcome "questionable." The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Wyoming, Chuck Gray, has said that Biden's victory was "illegitimate" and that he "absolutely" thinks Trump was the real winner.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but regularly competitive Minnesota, Kim Crockett, has described the 2020 election in her state as "lawless." The Republican nominee in the Democratic-dominated Connecticut, Dominic Rapini, is the former chair of a group that has made baseless complaints of 2020 fraud.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but sometimes competitive New Mexico, Audrey Trujillo, has called the 2020 election stolen. So have the Republican candidates in Massachusetts and Vermont, both obscure figures who face long odds of winning their liberal states in November.

There are some significant differences in the intensity with which these 11 nominees have committed to election rejection. For example, Morales acknowledged in June that Biden "legitimately occupies" the presidency, while Finchem, a serial promoter of wild conspiracy theories about the election, has persisted this year in his impossible quest to reverse Biden's victory in Arizona.

Twenty-seven states are holding secretary of state elections in 2022. CNN will update this list if we find information showing that the 2020 results have been disputed by additional Republican nominees. (The little-known South Dakota candidate who won the Republican nomination at a June convention, Monae Johnson, has broadly questioned the validity of US election results but we could not immediately find public comments she has made about the validity of the 2020 results in particular.

Alabama: Wes Allen

Rep. Wes Allen speaks during debate on transgender bills during the legislative session in the house chamber at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday April 7, 2022.

State representative Wes Allen, who won Alabama's Republican nomination in a June runoff election, endorsed the Texas-led legal effort to get the Supreme Court to overturn Biden's victories in four states -- tweeting in December 2020 that Alabama's attorney general should "stand firm" in support.

Allen has vowed to withdraw Alabama from a 31-state consortium that helps member states keep their voter rolls up to date, baselessly alleging that the consortium, which is funded and run by member states, is a "leftist" entity. Alabama's departing Republican incumbent secretary of state, John Merrill, has called Allen's claims "patently false" and defended the consortium as an important election security tool.

The Democratic nominee is Pamela Laffitte, a corrections sergeant for a county sheriff's office.

Allen's campaign did not respond to a request for comment

Arizona: Mark Finchem

Arizona state representative Mark Finchem (R-AZ) speaks at a rally in Iowa State Fairgrounds, in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., October 9, 2021.

Mark Finchem is a far-right Arizona state representative who has for years promoted absurd conspiracy theories and other misinformation. Finchem has been aggressively dishonest about the 2020 election -- and he continues to push to "decertify" Biden's 2020 win in Arizona, though this cannot be done.

Finchem has repeatedly and falsely claimed that "Trump won" the election. He has falsely proclaimed that "the election was a fraud" and that it was "rigged." He demanded in mid-2021 that liberal officials and the media prove the falsity of election conspiracy theories that had already been proven false, even selling shirts reading "#ProveIt."

Finchem, who was endorsed by Trump last year and won the Republican primary earlier this month, played a key early role in the election-denying "Stop the Steal" movement in Arizona. After he attended the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington on January 6, 2021, he was photographed outside the US Capitol during the insurrection that day. He also tweeted a sympathetic message about the rioters, blaming Congress for refusing to acknowledge the "rampant fraud" that, again, didn't exist. (Finchem denies any involvement in the riot and has not been charged with anything.)

On the first anniversary of the insurrection, Finchem tweeted a false claim that "the real insurrection" was how Democratic officials in Arizona had rigged the election with "tens of thousands of fraudulent votes" in two big counties won by Biden. This is just fiction.

In July, Finchem baselessly called for the arrest of incumbent Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is now the Democratic nominee for governor, and Adrian Fontes, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state who oversaw the 2020 election in Maricopa County, where many Republicans have baselessly alleged mass fraud.

Finchem's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Connecticut: Dominic Rapini

Dominic Rapini is a candidate for secretary of state for Connecticut.

Dominic Rapini, who won Connecticut's Republican primary on Tuesday, formerly served as board chair for a group called Fight Voter Fraud, Inc., which has had its baseless allegations about the 2020 election proven inaccurate by Connecticut's elections enforcement commission. The Connecticut Post reported that the commission admonished Fight Voter Fraud in 2021; the commission said the group had wasted the commission's limited resources and should "educate themselves" on the facts and the law before filing complaints.

While chairing Fight Voter Fraud, Rapini at least indirectly promoted false claims that there was massive fraud in the 2020 election. He was listed as the author of a web post linking to a document that recommended various reports that falsely alleged the election had been stolen, falsely claimed that statistics cast doubt on Biden's win, or falsely suggested something was amiss in 2020 with voting machines. (Rapini has said he left his role at Fight Voter Fraud, Inc. in August 2021.)

Rapini, who says he has spent more than two decades in sales at Apple, said in an appearance on Hartford station FOX61 in July that "Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States." But in various other interviews over the past year, he refused to offer a direct answer when asked if he believed Biden's victory was legitimate or whether Trump was the real winner. Dodging the question, he told The Connecticut Examiner in 2021: "I haven't been researching what's happened in Arizona and Wisconsin, I haven't studied it. I will say that Joe Biden was certified in January and we have to move on."

He told CT Insider this May: "Listen, Joe Biden, God bless him, was the duly elected president of the United States and beyond that, there's so many details there I can't really dive into them, I don't know the particulars ... I think there was definitely anomalies, and there's things we need to understand, but I have no reason to believe there was widescale fraud in Connecticut, there's nothing there that I can prove."

Asked for comment, Rapini said in an email: "I have stated on many occasions during my campaign that Joe Biden is the duly elected President of the United States." CNN then sent him three examples of how he had sometimes avoided questions about the legitimacy of Biden's victory and asked him to directly answer that question; we explained we were unclear if he was making some distinction between "duly" and "legitimately" elected. Rapini responded indirectly once more -- saying he has been "very clear" in TV interviews that "Joe Biden is the duly elected president" and that reporters with "predisposed assumptions" sometimes leave out parts of his comments.

The Democratic nominee is state Rep. Stephanie Thomas.

Indiana: Diego Morales

Diego Morales, the GOP pick for Indiana's Secretary of State, does a press conference at the state GOP Convention, Indiana Farmer's Coliseum, Indianapolis, Saturday, June 18, 2022.

In March, when Diego Morales was running for the Republican nomination in Indiana, he published an article on the website Hoosier State Today in which he sharply disputed the legitimacy of the 2020 election -- proclaiming that "we have valid reasons to doubt the official vote tallies in key states," that the vote was "tainted," that "the outcome is questionable," and that the election was a "scam."

Morales, who served as an aide to Mike Pence when Pence was governor of Indiana, went on to argue that late changes to states' election policies were illegitimate and -- vaguely -- that it was unconstitutional to subject mail-in voters and the Election Day voters to different levels of "scrutiny."

Some of Morales' specific claims are subjective. Nonetheless, his broad initial claim that there are valid reasons to doubt key states' vote totals is plain false.

Morales has sometimes taken a softer line. After beating Republican incumbent Secretary of State Holli Sullivan for the party nomination at a party convention in June, he told Fox59 of Indianapolis that he had "already moved on" from 2020 to focus on future elections. Morales told journalist Brian Howey in June that Biden was elected in 2020 and "legitimately occupies that office today," though he also maintained that "there were a number of irregularities in that election."

Morales campaign manager Kegan Prentice touted Morales' biography in a statement to CNN and said, "His sole focus now is on visiting all 92 counties in Indiana to listen to and learn from voters so he can best serve them."

Morales was terminated from a job in the Indiana secretary of state's office in 2009 for allegedly poor work performance, the Indianapolis Star reported in June. Morales faced more criticism of his work performance after returning to the office under a different secretary of state, the Star reported, and resigned in 2011 after refusing to sign on to an improvement plan.

The Star reported that Morales said: "Anybody can you write you up at any time, because their envy, selfish office rivalry, whatever you may want to call it. That's exactly what happened." Morales' campaign manager also provided CNN with positive comments about him from Republican Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who was secretary of state in 2009. Rokita wrote, "As far as I'm concerned, Diego left my office on good terms, and I consider him a long time friend."

The Democratic nominee is Destiny Wells, an officer in the Army Reserve and a lawyer who was formerly a deputy state attorney general.

Massachusetts: Rayla Campbell

Rayla Campbell, a radio host who is running unopposed in the Republican primary in Massachusetts, falsely declared in November 2020 -- after media outlets had called the election for Biden -- that Trump was the actual winner.

"Our great president is the President elected for the next four years. We know it. They're trying to steal an election because they can't win or do anything right," Campbell said on a November 2020 radio show during which she also promoted so-called "stop the steal" events.

On another November 2020 radio show, Campbell endorsed false conspiracy theories about election software and wrongly declared that "there's no way, with all of the Trump rallies and the support that we had out there, that our candidates didn't get more votes." She also called for Republicans to adopt "dirty" tactics to combat the cheating she inaccurately claimed Democrats had done.

"They did it again with the cheating of the counting of the ballots," she said. "And they will always do stuff like that because they can't win legally, and that's why we've got to fight a lot harder. A lot harder, and a little dirty. Because they fight extremely dirty. It's time to beat 'em at their own game, and we can do that."

In December 2020, after the Electoral College affirmed Biden's victory, Campbell continued to support Trump's efforts to overturn the outcome. And she repeated her false claim about a "stolen" election in a combative speech at the state Republican convention in May 2022.

In an interview with CNN in late July, Campbell did not back down from any of her previous claims. She called for audits of the 2020 election in all 50 states, and she repeatedly criticized the news media for supposed bias. She added, though, that she has "moved on from 2020 elections because we're going into 2022."

Democratic incumbent William Galvin and Democrat Tanisha Sullivan, a lawyer who is president of the Boston branch of the NAACP, are also running.

Michigan: Kristina Karamo

Kristina Karamo, who is running for the Michigan Republican party's nomination for secretary of state, speaks at a rally hosted by former President Donald Trump on April 02, 2022 near Washington, Michigan.

Kristina Karamo, who was endorsed by Trump last year and Michigan's Republican Party at its convention this year, falsely claimed in a social media video in December 2020 "Donald Trump won Michigan" -- where Joe Biden actually beat Trump by more than 154,000 votes.

Karamo, who has taught orientation and public speaking courses at a community college, rose to prominence in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when she claimed to have witnessed fraud while working as a Republican poll challenger monitoring the processing of absentee ballots in Detroit. (The Detroit Free Press found that her claims were based on misinterpretations of standard election processes; a Republican-led state Senate investigation into Michigan's election found "no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud.") She subsequently filed an affidavit as part of a lawsuit that attempted to get the Supreme Court to discard Biden's victories in Michigan and three other states.

Karamo also promoted false claims about Dominion elections technology even after these claims had been thoroughly debunked, baselessly declaring in December 2020 that there were "over 200,000 votes" in Michigan that were "potentially compromised" by Dominion software. After winning the backing of the state party this April, Karamo said she was not going to say "whether or not I think the election was stolen," Sinclair Broadcast Group reported, but she went on to complain of "so many illegal things that occurred."

Karamo has to be chosen once more at a Republican convention later in August to become the official party nominee, but that is widely expected to happen after her dominant performance at the April endorsement convention. The Democratic candidate is incumbent Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Karamo's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Minnesota: Kim Crockett

Kim Crockett speaks during the first day of the Minnesota State Republican Convention, May 13, 2022, at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minn.

Kim Crockett has said of the 2020 election in Minnesota: "I don't think the word 'lawless' is too strong." When an interviewer told her that he believes Minnesota's election was "illegitimate," she said she agreed.

Crockett, a lawyer who won Minnesota's Republican primary on Tuesday, has been particularly focused on state Democrats' changes to election rules amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. But she has also promoted a right-wing film that makes dubious claims about supposed 2020 cheating. She baselessly called absentee voting "frankly insecure." And she questioned whether mail workers -- who carry millions of ballots every federal election with very few problems -- can be trusted to carry ballots given that "the postal union is a partisan player" in politics.

"Makes you kind of go: 'Huh.' After 2020, you start looking at everything," Crockett said in a June interview.

At a state Republican convention in May, Crockett's campaign played a video that depicted liberal billionaire George Soros, who is Jewish, as a puppetmaster pulling the strings of incumbent Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and prominent Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias, who are also Jewish. The chairman of the state party issued an apology -- but also claimed Crockett had been unaware the video included antisemitic tropes.

Crockett has previously worked or volunteered for conservative organizations, including a voter organization that has described the 2020 election as "rigged" and a think tank that suspended her in 2019 for comments about Somali immigrants for which she soon apologized. (However, she said this year that she was "taken out of context" by The New York Times and "would say everything today that I said in 2019.")

In late July, CNN sent the Crockett campaign an email offering a chance to comment for this article. The email outlined many of the facts the article planned to mention and explained that Crockett would be included on a list of nominees who had denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

In response, Crockett called and left a message saying she found the request "less than open to actually finding out more about me or my campaign" and that we should look into "who I really am as opposed to who other people have said I am." She also said, however, that she only had time to send along written comments she had previously provided to another journalist.

In those previous comments, Crockett outlined her criticism of Simon's policy decisions, recommended a right-wing commentator's book about how the 2020 election was "rigged" and wrote: "The corporate media narrative is that 2020 was the most secure election in the history of voting. This is propaganda designed to stop the conversation. And they viciously attack anyone who dares to question that conclusion, calling us names like 'election deniers' instead of engaging us on election policy."

Nevada: Jim Marchant

Jim Marchant, center, the GOP nominee for secretary of state in Nevada, speaks with people at a political event July 16, 2022, in Pahrump, Nev.

Jim Marchant, a businessman and former Nevada state assemblyman, has promoted baseless conspiracy theories about not only the 2020 election but numerous past elections. Marchant has repeatedly and falsely claimed that Nevadans haven't actually elected "anybody" for years -- either "for decades" or particularly since 2006, when Republican future senator Dean Heller was serving as secretary of state.

"And in Nevada and maybe other places all over the country -- we haven't in Nevada elected anybody since 2006. They have been installed by the deep state cabal," Marchant falsely said in podcast comments that were reported in January by liberal organization Media Matters for America.

Marchant has said he would not have certified Biden's 33,596-vote victory in Nevada if he had been secretary of state in 2020, falsely claiming to NBC News that it is "almost statistically impossible that Joe Biden won." Marchant attended the December 2020 event where other Nevada Republicans signed on to be phony Trump electors. And Marchant told The Guardian early this year that it was "very possible" he would be prepared to submit alternate electors in 2024.

Marchant unsuccessfully tried to get a court to order a re-vote of his unsuccessful 2020 congressional race, which he lost by more than 16,000 votes. He has been so consistent in questioning Nevada's elections system, which his campaign has wrongly described as "fraudulent," that he even raised doubts about his own victory in the Republican secretary of state primary this June -- telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was "not really confident in the result" and that there "could have been anomalies."

Marchant's Democratic opponent is Cisco Aguilar, a lawyer who was formerly a staffer for late US Senator Harry Reid. They are vying to replace term-limited Republican incumbent Barbara Cegavske.

Marchant's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

New Mexico: Audrey Trujillo

Audrey Trujillo, candidate for secretary of state in New Mexico.

Audrey Trujillo, a conservative activist whose campaign biography says she has operated a daycare, falsely claimed in a Facebook interview in March that the 2020 election was "a huge, huge, I would say coup, to really unseat a president." On her own Facebook page, she falsely wrote in June that "Trump's election was stolen."

Trujillo, who ran unopposed in New Mexico's Republican primary, falsely claimed in the March interview that votes were fraudulently switched from Republicans to Democrats in 2020 races at "all levels," including a New Mexico US Senate race that was, in reality, won handily and fairly by a Democrat. She also falsely claimed in the interview that the US is "no better than any other communist country like Venezuela or any of these other states where our elections are being manipulated."

When CNN asked Trujillo's campaign in late July for comment on these claims, it responded by asking where we had gotten them from. When we provided links to the claims, the campaign did not respond again.

Trujillo's Democratic opponent is incumbent Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver.

Vermont: H. Brooke Paige

H. Brooke Paige stands in front of the Vermont Statehouse on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018, in Montpelier, Vt.

H. Brooke Paige, a conservative activist in Vermont, ran unopposed for the Republican nomination for secretary of state while also running unopposed for the party nominations for state attorney general, auditor and treasurer. He plans to turn down the latter three nominations and focus on his secretary of state campaign, the Vermont website VTDigger reported.

The day after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in 2021, Paige falsely claimed on his Facebook page that the left "stole" the election through a "subversive plan" involving "stuffing the ballot box and corrupting the tabulation of the election results." He made other false election claims in subsequent posts.

In an interview with CNN in August, Paige acknowledged that Biden was the real winner in Vermont in 2020, but said the question of whether Biden legitimately won the presidency is "such a complex question," hinging on how someone defines "legitimately," that he could not offer a direct answer.

Paige criticized state-level changes to voting rules in 2020, said he was disheartened by "anecdotal evidence" of suspicious behavior during the vote count -- there is no indication of wrongdoing by any state's vote-counters -- and said his "biggest concern" was pro-Democratic media bias, which he argued had been a major contributor to Biden's victory.

Democratic incumbent Jim Condos is retiring. The Democratic nominee is state Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas.

Wyoming: Chuck Gray

In 2021, Wyoming state Rep. Chuck Gray falsely called Biden's election "illegitimate," falsely described the 2020 election as "the fraudulent election," and told CNN that he "absolutely" believed that Trump won.

In December 2020, Gray urged Wyoming leaders to join the Texas-led lawsuit seeking to overturn Biden's victories in four states. When Republican Gov. Mark Gordon decided against doing so, Gray wrote on Facebook that Gordon was "totally wrong."

Gray won the Republican nomination for secretary of state in August 2022. In June and July, he wrote on Facebook that he had sponsored screenings of the right-wing film, also promoted by Crockett, that makes dubious claims about cheating in the 2020 election; Gray told Wyoming website Cowboy State Daily in June, baselessly, that the film demonstrates how the left "has stolen elections with ballot drop boxes."

Gray did not respond to a request for comment in August.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-and-jim-hoft-claim-democrats-are-planning-steal-midterm-elections

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9 22

https://www.mediamatters.org/one-america-news-network/oan-has-been-promoting-trumps-unhinged-call-new-election

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trump other gop calling for mass execution of hillary dem staffers?! 2 22

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aha traitor = tyrant requires execution = violence

an 9 22

MAGA Republicans have been attacking Robert Reich as a “coastal elitist” in response to an August 23 tweet in which the liberal economist, UC Berkeley professor and former secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration described far-right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a “fascist.” Reich’s MAGA critics have been arguing that his condemnation of DeSantis, former President Donald Trump and other MAGA Republicans is painfully out of touch with Main Street America — and that Reich and other liberals and progressives simply don’t understand conservative values.

But Reich’s MAGA critics are ignoring or overlooking the fact that anti-MAGA arguments are hardly confined to the left. A long list of right-wing Never Trump conservatives, from attorney George Conway to The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes to Washington Post columnist Max Boot to former Nancy Reagan speechwriter Mona Charen to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough (a former GOP congressman), have been attacking MAGA as a movement that favors far-right authoritarianism rather than traditional Reagan/Goldwater/McCain conservatism. And William Saletan, a writer for the conservative website The Bulwark, defends President Joe Biden’s anti-MAGA use of the term “semi-fascism” in an article published on September 1.

“Republicans are furious over President Biden’s recent remarks linking Donald Trump and his supporters to ‘semi-fascism,’” Saletan writes. “For days, they’ve been all over TV and social media, denouncing Biden’s use of the F-word. But Biden was right. Many of the ideas and tactics deployed by Trump and his apologists, including those who decry Biden’s comparison, fit the dictionary definition of fascism.”

Saletan stresses that refusing to accept democratic election results, which is what Trump and his followers did after the 2020 election, is an “authoritarian” act.

“A stickler might say that an attempt to overturn an election isn’t really fascist unless it involves the use of state power or mob violence, but Trump and his allies tried to use both,” Saletan explains. “Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s right-hand man in several abuses of power, says it’s Biden, not Trump, who runs America like ‘a damned dictatorship.’ But in December 2020, after the Electoral College had certified Biden’s election, Giuliani — at Trump’s direction — phoned the acting deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security to ask whether DHS could seize voting machines from states. Then, at Trump’s January 6th rally on the Ellipse, Giuliani exhorted the crowd: ‘Let’s have trial by combat!’”

Saletan adds, “Giuliani didn’t just help to incite the attack on the Capitol. To this day, he continues to whitewash it and excuse the perpetrators.”

The Bulwark writer cites other examples of “authoritarian” behavior from MAGA Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wondering how long it would be before “we get to hang” former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and calling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be executed for treason.

“The dictionary definition of fascism doesn’t just talk about autocracy,” Saletan notes. “It also includes ethnic nationalism. But by this standard, too, Trump and many of his propagandists are semi-fascist. Kayleigh McEnany, who served as Trump’s White House press secretary, calls Biden’s reference to fascism a baseless ‘message of hatred.’ But in the summer of 2016, Trump, the de facto Republican presidential nominee, declared a federal judge unfit to preside over a fraud case against Trump University because ‘he’s a Mexican.’ And McEnany defended this attack…. You could argue that an out-and-out fascist would use nationalist bigotry to persecute a whole minority group, not just a single judge. That’s what Trump did in 2015, when he called for a ‘complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.’”

According to Saletan, “Trump’s cult” contains many “components” of fascism, including “paranoia, fantastic lies, anti-intellectualism, a mythologized national past, selective appeals to law and order, and propaganda about enemies of the state.” Another is “invocation of mob violence to protect the movement’s leader.”

“But the clearest illustration of the MAGA elite’s descent into fascism might be its embrace of a like-minded leader from another country: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán,” Saletan writes. “As Cathy Young, Charles Sykes, David Baer, and other writers have explained in The Bulwark, Orbán is an increasingly authoritarian ethnonationalist. In a speech on July 23, he warned, ‘There is a world in which European peoples are mixed together with those arriving from outside Europe.’ Orbán called this a ‘mixed-race world’ and concluded, ‘We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed-race.’”

Saletan continues, “Orbán’s speech was so grotesque that one of his own advisers resigned, [briefly?] calling the speech ‘a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels.’ But a week later, Orbán was welcomed as the keynote speaker at a Dallas meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, which reveres Trump and is one of his favorite venues. Two days after that, Trump spoke to the same gathering. The two aspiring autocrats were warmly applauded. This past Monday, CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp stoutly defended Orbán.”

READ MORE: The Republican Party belongs to Viktor Orbán: conservative columnist

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8 22 an raw

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) suggested over the weekend that Democrats are engaging in voter suppression because many people in Wisconsin believe he is a "tool" of Russia.

During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo argued that there was reason to "distrust and question" the honesty of elections.

"That was part of what went on in 2020," she told Johnson. "People were questioning. Well, can we trust them? We know what they just did in the Russia collusion hoax."

"You say they are interfering with your election!" the host exclaimed, "because of these smears on you."

Bartiromo added: "Tell me about your opponent and why you believe you are being smeared and this is the result: 50% for [Mandela] Barnes, 46% for Johnson in the Wisconsin senate race [polls]."

Johnson claimed Democrats "interfered in the 2020 election far greater than anything Russia or China could ever do."

The senator said that Democrats leaked a briefing about his connections to Russia.

"Basically saying that I'm a tool of Russia, which I am not," Johnson remarked. "It's a completely false accusation. The Wisconsin press picks that up and [some] people in Wisconsin think I'm a tool of Vladimir Putin."

"Nothing could be further from the truth," he insisted. "But they have smeared me publicly and they just might impact the 2022 election here in Wisconsin as well. Because, let's face it, Maria, they do not want me reelected because I would be chairman on the permanent subcommittee on investigations. They know I will investigate their corruption."

Watch the video clip below from Fox News.

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mma 8 22 no vid

two additional right-wing activists who have been implicated in a wide-ranging scheme to breach election data appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast from late 2020 to mid-2021 to discuss their efforts to overturn the results of the election. The resurfaced video provides a contemporary account of what the two men were saying in their own words during the period now under scrutiny.

The two right-wing figures are former Michigan state senator and election fraud conspiracy theorist Patrick Colbeck and Matthew DePerno, a conservative Michigan lawyer and Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for state attorney general. Both have been active in efforts in Michigan to overturn the results of the election, often describing their work in real time on Bannon’s podcast. A new investigation from The Washington Post partially reveals each of their roles in accessing sensitive electoral data.

DePerno is a frequent guest on War Room – a supposed authority on purported security flaws in Dominion voting systems and other discredited election denialism. Following former President Donald Trump’s loss, DePerno hired a forensics firm called SullivanStrickler to obtain election data from Dominion Voting Systems as part of a lawsuit he had brought seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to the Post. After a judge granted DePerno limited access to the machines in December 2020, he and Trump lawyer Sidney Powell instructed SullivanStrickler to carry out a forensic examination of Dominion’s voting systems, which was successful in gaining access to the data.

Colbeck appears to have downloaded some of data that SullivanStrickler collected as part of the DePerno investigation. An account tied to Colbeck “downloaded six files from the same folder on Jan. 5, 2021, according to the records, including files labeled ‘election management server’ and ‘ThumbDrives,’” according to the Post. The Post also reported that DePerno couldn’t remember if he’d given access to the files to Colbeck and the other election denialists who accessed the data.

Colbeck and DePerno – who is now facing criminal investigation for conspiracy to tamper with voting machines across three counties in Michigan – are two of several election denial activists who have appeared on War Room and subsequently been implicated in the data breach scheme. Brian Kennedy, a senior fellow at a Trump-aligned think tank, also appeared on War Room in late 2020 to discuss his involvement in the failed recount campaign following Trump’s loss, as previously reported by Media Matters. Kennedy was named in an earlier Post investigation as having been in communication with the forensics firm that obtained the data for DePerno. The latest Post story says former War Room guest and right-wing commentator Joe Oltmann also accessed the data.

Matthew DePerno on War Room

On May 5, 2021, DePerno appeared on Bannon’s show to talk about his ongoing lawsuit in Antrim County and what he claimed were Dominion security flaws. (The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.) In that interview, he referenced Dominion’s “election management system,” a phrase very similar to the name of one of the files Colbeck allegedly downloaded.

[vid]

We’re the only case in the country that’s been able to look at actual forensic images,” DePerno said. “December 6, 2020, we went into Antrim County and actually collected forensic images of their election management system.” DePerno then claimed that through this work, his team had been able to “just manipulate any database we want.”

Earlier in the interview, he’d claimed that his access to Dominion systems had given his team the capacity, in general, to change the outcome of any election on a hypothetical ballot.

“Looking at this data, looking at the forensic images and conducting our own tests with ballots and the Dominion system, we put out a video this week that shows that we can flip votes in any race, in any election, up ballot, down ballot, from the president's race, all the way down to any school board race,” DePerno said. “We can select certain races to keep clean. We can select certain races to flip votes in from one candidate to another.”

In June, DePerno again referenced Dominion’s election management system on War Room.

“We’ve proved now that there was direct access to the Antrim County election management system,” DePerno said. “We show that on November 5, we can see it in the forensic images, that an anonymous user logged onto the EMS remotely with escalated privileges and made changes to the database when they were trying to retabulate the election.”

Colbeck’s interest in the “election management server” file may have been tied to DePerno’s repeated claims about what access to that system allowed a user to do.

There is no evidence that any votes tabulated by Dominion were changed in the 2020 election. Still, cybersecurity researchers have warned that distributing the kind of data that DePerno and Colbeck had access to could potentially be used in the future to exploit security flaws and engage in precisely the type of activities that Trump supporters are falsely alleging happened in 2020.

Patrick Colbeck on War Room

Colbeck made several appearances on Bannon’s show immediately after Trump’s loss to discuss his efforts to challenge the Michigan election results.

On November 19, 2020, Colbeck described himself as a “bit of a tech geek,” and explained that he wanted to get involved in the recount effort so he could investigate the system’s software.

“I went in there wanting to understand the stuff that people weren't physically seeing or on the ballot,” Colbeck said. “So I wanted to understand the electronic chain of command between vote tallies and and the communications of vote tallies.”

Later the same day, Colbeck again appeared on War Room and falsely claimed that vote counts were not reliable because tabulators had been connected to the internet.

“Then you get to the basics of a vote tally, which is not – there's no chain of custody around that, particularly around paper chain of custody and electronic chain of custody,” Colbeck said. “When you've got the tabulator, it's connected to the internet, there is zero chain of custody around the vote tally.”

“So is it any wonder why we had strange vote flipping happening in the middle of the night?” he added.

[vid]

the following week, Colbeck returned to War Room to again claim, incorrectly, that “the tabulator computers and the adjudicator computers and the local data center … were all networked to each other” and connected to “a cable that connected to the internet.”

“And you could see the proof that they were all connected to the internet,” Colbeck continued. “If you go look in the bottom right hand corner of all your Windows 10-based PCs and you see the little window on the bottom, there is a little icon that if you roll the mouse over there, it says, connected to the internet. But all the Detroit elected officials that I contacted that night refused – they said specifically that it was not connected to the internet. And from my background, I know differently.”

In fact, an audit and report from Michigan Republicans in 2021 found that although some of the machines had been connected to a local area network (LAN), there is no evidence that the tabulators were connected to any outside networks or that any purported internet connection had been exploited to alter any votes. The LAN connection, “which would create the same icon on a computer screen indicating a network connection as is shown by an internet accessible network,” may have accounted for Colbeck’s confusion.

Tracy Wimmer of the Michigan Department of State had previously debunked Colbeck’s false claims as well.

“No ballot tabulation machines were connected to the internet at Detroit’s counting board,” Wimmer told The Associated Press in December 2020. “The machines were networked locally to each other and the adjudication machines by ethernet cable, and so some people suggested they were online. They were not.”

Although it’s not publicly known precisely what information the account linked to Colbeck downloaded, the name of one of the other files he allegedly accessed – “ThumbDrives” – offers a possible clue. In Michigan, when voting is over, officials transfer the final tally generated by the tabulators, which Colbeck incorrectly said were connected to the internet, to the clerk’s office via flash drives. The data Colbeck received could be related to those final vote tallies or other information related to transferring the vote totals.

It’s not clear from the Post’s reporting whether Colbeck or any of the other election deniers who downloaded the Michigan data could face legal exposure. In general, breaching an election system and distributing the data is a serious crime. Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, a hero and repeat guest on War Room: Pandemic, is facing felony charges for allegedly tampering with election equipment and for obstruction following Trump’s loss.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/spanish-language-media/despite-policies-election-misinformation-persists-spanish-youtube

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an 8 22

In 2022, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been conducting her first political campaign since 2008, when she was GOP presidential nominee John McCain’s running mate. Palin, endorsed by former President Donald Trump — someone McCain expressed vehement contempt for — is running for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in Alaska. And like other Republican candidates of 2022, she is, according to Mother Jones, resorting to Trump’s Big Lie playbook.

Trump continues to falsely claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked. Palin, Mother Jones’ Emily Hofstaedter reports in an article published on August 9, borrowed from Trump’s Big Lie narrative when she appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s CPAC Texas gathering in Dallas on Thursday, August 4. The event featuring Palin was billed as “She’s Back! An Interview With Sarah Palin.”

Hofstaedter explains, “Interview host and CPAC Vice-Chair Charlie Gerow introduced her as ‘one of the leaders in the conservative movement’ before they embarked on a 20-minute conversation that included plenty of misinformation about the integrity of American elections. Palin and Gerow hit many of the cherished Republican talking points that attempt to undermine faith in the electoral process, including Dominion voting machines, mail-in ballots, and ranked-choice voting.”

Palin was highly critical of ranked-choice voting at CPAC Texas, telling the crowd, “It’s bizarre, it’s convoluted, it’s confusing, and it results in voter suppression. It results in a lack of voter enthusiasm because it’s so weird…. It doesn’t matter if you win by getting the most votes. It matters if you have more second or third place votes depending on how the voters are ranking you.”

But Hofstaedter stresses that Palin’s claims about ranked-choice voting are untrue, pointing out that Maine has been using it since 2016 without any problem.

Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine, told Mother Jones, “There isn’t a higher rate of incomplete or spoiled ballots in ranked-choice races compared to ballots in elections using plurality voting. Nor is turnout lower.”

Similarly, New York University law professor Rick Pildes told Mother Jones, “There’s no evidence voters have been confused or don’t understand how to rank candidates one, two, three.”

Hofstaedter points out that Palin also criticized Domination Voting Systems’ equipment at CPAC Texas.

“After the 2020 elections, Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani claimed, without any evidence, that Dominion voting software was switching votes for Trump to (Joe) Biden,” Hofstaedter notes. “Repeatedly, this assertion has been proven false.”

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an 8 22

For more than a year, a coordinated group of Texas activists have mounted a statewide effort to further former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election: They’ve sent voters hundreds of postcards requesting personal information, questioned residents at addresses pulled from voter rolls, and examined thousands of ballots for unspecified irregularities.

So far, despite the work of what they say are dozens of steadfast volunteers across the state, they’ve offered no compelling evidence of mass fraud.

That isn’t slowing them down.

“We are a grass-roots organization in Ft. Worth/Tarrant County that has been praying and seeking God’s guidance regarding suspicious election statistics following the Nov 2020 elections,” members of the Tarrant County-based group wrote to the secretary of state in an email late last year. He met with them a month later, but said nothing came of it.

Similar efforts by affiliated groups are taking place in Harris, Hays, Travis, Williamson, Bexar, Bell, Collin, and Dallas counties. But the work appears to be rooted in Tarrant County, home of Fort Worth — Texas’s reddest major city whose future as such remains unclear.

This work echoes efforts nationwide by allies of former President Trump who have been sowing doubts about the integrity of the vote, advocating for the creation of groups such as this one to investigate and monitor the administration of elections at a local level.

Interviews with more than half a dozen local and state officials, as well as emails obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with Votebeat, paint a vivid picture of a coordinated network of activists eager to find an audience for its claims. Officials say the group has offered no valid evidence of fraud despite a relentless and wandering investigation.

“Texas voting processes are not okay,” the network’s leaders wrote on aninformational flier earlier this year. The conspiracy-laced screed featured a QR code linked to a 13-minute video by embattled Colorado clerk Tina Peters, who by that point had been charged with a list of federal and state crimes for tampering with election equipment and was running for the Republican nomination for Colorado Secretary of State. She would later lose handily, blaming fraud.

In early 2021, the network of activist groups began filing public records requests seeking voter rolls and the ability to inspect physical ballots in counties across the state. Once they got access to the voter roll — a public document — their on-the-ground activity began in earnest. In June of last year theysent canvassing postcards to Fort Worth voters asking them to enter their personal information into a website, to ensure “no irregular votes were added and that people’s votes counted” in the 2020 election. Voters, alarmed, contacted state and local elections officials to ask if the inquiries had come from them. They had not, and voters were told to give the group no information.

By July 2021, volunteers were knocking on doors in Tarrant County attempting to verify voters’ addresses and ask whether they had voted. Since then, affiliated groups have done the same in Collin, Hays, Harris, Travis, and Williamson Counties.They claim they’ve knocked on more than 10,000 doors.

The emails provided by American Oversight show the level of coordination between the Tarrant County group, called Tarrant County Citizens for Election Integrity, and like-minded organizations across the state. Most notably with Alan Vera, the chair of the Harris County Republican Party’s ballot security committee, who has been baselessly sounding the alarm on voter fraud in Texas for the better part oftwo decades. The Harris County Attorney’s Office announced in July it wasinvestigating allegations of Vera’s group — the Texas Election Network — knocking on doors, verifying voters’ addresses and asking them to sign affidavits.

Vera did not respond to a request for comment, and no one could tell Votebeat what, if anything, had been learned from knocking on so many doors. Dan Bates, a Fort Worth attorney who is the Tarrant County group’s head counsel, presented no evidence that could be successfully used to prove fraudulent activity.

His group also came bearing little in the way of proof in December 2021, when he and eight others successfully invitednewly appointed Secretary of State John Scott for breakfast at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth — a swanky, members-only golf club with a reported $80,000 initiation fee.

Scott, who briefly represented the Trump campaign in a challenge to election results in Pennsylvania before backing out due to an absence of evidence, began receiving emails from the group shortly after Gov. Greg Abbott tapped him for the position less than two months before.

Buff Kizer, a Fort Worth resident and self-identified part-time chaplain, wrote to Scott in November 2021 offering to show Scott “findings of voter rolls and voting issues” in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, including vacant lots, fictitious addresses, and “excessive number of votes from a single address.”

“They did provide a packet of information, I flipped through it,” Scott told Votebeat. Although he turned the packet over to his office’s audit division, nothing came of the complaints. Scott wouldn’t say whether he shared the group’s concerns of voter fraud, only that he acknowledged they have a right to raise them and show their evidence.

“We want the information. And to the extent the information turns out to be relevant, great. To the extent it proves to be irrelevant, then we’ll make sure they understand and we can document why we believe it is irrelevant,” Scott said.

There are legitimate reasons why a voter might list a vacant lot or a P.O. Box on their voter registration forms, Sam Taylor, assistant secretary of state for communications said. Laws protecting the personal information of domestic violence victims, peace officers, and certain public officials allow them to keep their address of residence withheld from public release or anonymized, and voters without a permanent or stable address can register using alternative addresses.

“For example, if a homeless person wants to register to vote, they can say, ‘My residence is at the corner of I-35 and Cesar Chavez.’ And they can put a PO Box as their mailing address,” Taylor said.

Additionally, multiple voters registered at one address could mean that a family of four adults at one location are all registered to vote.

Bates said he and the group are unsatisfied with Scott’s lack of action, and the lack of action of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court.

“If our elected officials are not going to make an inspection [of the machines] we will do it and we will pay for it,” he said, expressing frustration that their requests to do such inspections have been rebuffed.

Scott said his office is already doing its due diligence. The secretary of state’s office is finalizing its own audit of the 2020 election on Tarrant, Collin, Dallas, and Harris Counties — the two largest Republican and two largest Democratic counties in the state, respectively. The first phase was released in December, shortly after Scott met with the group, andrevealed no major issues. The full audit should be completed by September.

Scott was far from the only person the Tarrant County group attempted to convince to spare some time. Emails to Scott from the group state that in Collin County they have “cooperative officials at all levels.” Collin County election administration officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Emails show Citizens for Election Integrity also contacted Tarrant County Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn. A sheriff’s office spokesperson would not say whether Waybourn met or communicated with people involved with the group, noting only that “election discussions between the Sheriff and citizens have not revealed evidence of a criminal nature to date.”

Kizer told Scott by email the group also briefed Rep. Steve Toth, a Republican representing part of Montgomery County just north of Houston. Toth, Kizer wrote, “shares our concerns” and was copied on the email.

Toth’s legislative background suggests his sympathies: In 2021, Toth sponsored a bill that would have required a forensic audit of the 2020 results in counties with populations over 415,000 (there currently a dozen such counties). The bill failed.

More alarming has been the spotlight the group has cast on local election administrators. In Tarrant County, an outsized share of Citizens for Election Integrity’s ire has been directed at Heider Garcia, the election administrator.

In the fall of 2020, a ham-fisted and sloppily produced video called “Who is Heider Garcia?” began making the rounds on rightwing social media. Toth, the sympathetic state representative, shared the video on his own Facebook page. “Heider Garcia of SmartMatic is grilled in the Philippines over voter fraud. He now runs election (sic) in Tarrant County, Texas. What could possibly go wrong?” he wrote in late November 2020. “Democrats play to win while Republicans play for a participation trophy.”

The video made its way onto sites like 4Chan and 8Chan, known for hate-filled content posted by conspiracy theorists, resulting in near constant harassment for Garcia. Tarrant County Citizens for Election Integrity shared the video repeatedly on its own channels.

It alleges Garcia — who worked for election technology company Smartmatic before taking jobs in election administration in California and then Texas — was involved in voter fraud in the Philippines. Garcia can be seen in the video being grilled by a Filipino lawmaker, a remnant of his work implementing Smartmatic voting machines in the country more than a decade ago.

Bates told Votebeat he is familiar with the video but does not know who created it or why, and defended it as “informational.”

Garcia said the allegations in the video are false. Notably, the Philippines never rejected voting systems by Smartmatic and continues to use them.

But Garcia worries about the safety of his family given how personal the attacks have become, he said.

“They will say these things, but then they’ll come in and they’ll be very polite and respectful. You know, like, ‘Oh, no, we know you’re a really good guy. This is nothing personal.’ I’m like, It ispersonal,” said Garcia. “I’m fed up with it.”

The videos and the social media posts have led to threats, Garcia said. In testimony submitted to a U.S. Senate committee this week, he included pages of screenshots of hostile social media posts and recounted a night in November 2020, after the election, when he and his wife realized their address had been posted online.

“To this day, not a single person or entity has been held accountable for the impact this whole situation had on my family and myself,” Garcia said in his testimony.

The Tarrant County group’s intimidation efforts aren’t stopping Garcia or other election workers from fulfilling their duties.

When Citizens for Election Integrity requested to inspect the paper ballots from the March 2020 GOP primary, Garcia and his staff provided the more than 300,000 ballots and space in the county office to review them. While Garcia would have been within the law to charge the group a fee for the request, he chose not to. The tallying of the ballots by the group was completed last week, though it’s unclear what, if anything, the group found. Election administrators in other counties have received similar requests to inspect ballots and have heard of door-knocking concerns.

A review of Tarrant County Commissioners Court meetings shows that volunteers have shown up at almost every single meeting since the beginning of the year, lodging repetitive complaints with hazy origins. Meetings in other counties, including Collin County and Harris County, have been similarly bogged down with these grievances.

The comments are almost identical: Speakers say there’s a need for more and independently done audits of elections in Texas. They ask to eliminate electronic voting systems and use only paper, and demand precinct-based polling places rather than countywide vote centers.

Tarrant County Judge B. Glen Whitley said he has been on the commissioners court since 1997 and has been a county judge since 2007, and has never seen the public question the integrity of elections in this way. The ongoing stream of speakers in Tarrant County prompted the court to ask Garcia for a presentation to explain elections to the public. “There were so many misstatements occurring in those public comments,” said Whitley. “So we felt like it was important to bring folks together to be able to describe [the election process] step by step.”

In April, Garcia did so. The County Commissioners Courtroom was filled to the brim, with members of the public spilling into the hallway. More than 30 people signed up to speak, many unmoved by Garcia’s explanations. “Stealing elections is stealing our country,” said one speaker, her voice shaking. “We may like big everything, but I don’t think big voting is good any longer.”

Buff Kizer — the part-time chaplain from Fort Worth who’d sent emails to Scott — spoke as well. “The manufacture of even one vote in Tarrant County is not okay,” Kizer said. “This is breaking God’s commandments and it’s something that none of us want to see.”

But that day, there were also many speakers, including election clerks, judges, ballot board members, and poll workers who expressed confidence in the system. The attacks and false claims are wearing on election workers in the county, and some said the continued onslaught is beginning to feel more and more like a personal affront.

“There are thousands and thousands of people, not the election clerks, not even candidates who work elections in our county,” Kate Duffy, a Tarrant County election judge, said to those gathered.

“There’s the pastors who make coffee really early in the morning. There’s the janitors who clean up the schools afterwards. There’s the librarians who set aside their space. And I think it’s a slap in all of our faces to say our elections are not run with good intent.”

Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

===

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/fallout-how-trumps-big-lie-is-threatening-the-future-of-elections/

no twt

analysis

The Jan. 6 hearings closed for the summer last Thursday night with a plea from Republican House Vice Chair Liz Cheney. Citing the conservative heroine British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Cheney called on the public: “Let it never be said that the dedication of those who love freedom is less than the determination of those who would destroy it.”

Cheney may be willing to pursue former President Donald Trump to the gates of Hell in her determination to expose his threat to democracy; her party, on the other hand, appears willing to join him there.

As the House select committee presented damning evidence of Trump’s months-long campaign to overturn the election, crescendoing in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol that left7 dead and about 150 police officers injured, right-wing groups are trying to make sure that next time, Trump, or any other wannabe dictator, will be successful.

Around the country, right-wing forces are seeking to control state elections by pursuing secretary of state offices and taking over roles typically held by nonpartisan election workers. They’re spreading voter fraud conspiracy theories, casting doubt on the integrity of the elections. They’re no longer flirting with violent rhetoric but embracing it.

On Thursday night, the committee played tape of former White House strategist Steve Bannon—who was recently convicted of contempt of Congress for failing to comply with the committee’s subpoena—in which he revealed to a room of supporters Trump’s plan and strategy ahead of Election Day.

“What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory, right?” Bannon told associates on Oct. 31, 2020. “He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”

“More of our people vote early, that count; theirs vote in mail,” Bannon said. “And so they’re going to have a natural disadvantage. And Trump’s going to take advantage of that. That’s our strategy. He’s going to declare himself a winner.”

Trump knew he lost when he spread baseless claims about a stolen election. Countless aides testified to the select committee that they repeatedly told the former president that his conspiracy theories about the election were just that—conspiracy theories—or,in the words of his attorney general Bill Barr, “complete bullshit.” Trump lost by 7 million votes, lost key battleground states, and lost dozens of lawsuits in which he or his supporters claimed voter fraud.

And yet, Trump persisted. Bannon reveled in the chaos. And the chaos opened the door for others. Last fall, California Republican Larry Eldersuggested voter fraud would steal the election from him until the results of the gubernatorial race came in and showed how soundly his bid was crushed. Radical America First candidate Shekinah Hollingsworth received afew hundred votes in her bid to become a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, but that didn’t stop heralleging election fraud. In Georgia, the conspiracy theory-minded, gun-toting Christian nationalist Kandiss Taylor received 3.4 percent of the vote in that state’s GOP gubernatorial primary; she predictably claimed the election was stolen and refused to concede. Rachel Hamm in Californiaplayed this same game, as didBianca Garcia in Texas. We could go on.

:{:{}:

[twt] with such false claims of fraud, far-right forces and right-wing media have been able to convince a broad swath of the American public that our elections are not safe. They have convinced Trump supporters that poll workers—public servants likeWandrea “Shaye” Moss, who became the focus of Trump’s ire when he baselessly accused her of processing fake ballots—are to blame.

And so they harass them and threaten them—and when they have driven good people away from those posts, they try to take their places.

A month after the failed insurrection,Bannon called for followers to “take this back village by village … precinct by precinct.”According to ProPublica, GOP leaders in 41 of 65 key counties reported an unusual increase in signups since his call to action.

This strategy to attack and replace local election officials with Trump loyalists is one we’re seeing play out from Fulton County, Georgia, toYavapai County, Arizona, with the full weight of the Republican Party behind it.

The Republican National Committee—which aided Trump in his plot to stay in power—has spent millions on17 states to recruit more than 14,000 poll workers and 10,000 poll watchers already, according to theWashington Post.

Working with the RNC is Cleta Mitchell, a Trump lawyer who was on the infamous call on which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 more votes. Mitchell is leading the so-called “election integrity” effort by the Conservative Partnership Institute,which seeks to bring together local right-wing groups with established conservative behemoths like the Heritage Foundation. The Brennan Centerdescribes CPI as such: “The network has published materials and hosted summits across the country with the aim of coordinating a nationwide effort to staff election offices, recruit poll watchers and poll workers, and build teams of local citizens to challengevoter rolls, question postal workers, be ‘ever-present’ in local election offices, andinundate election officials with document requests.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, CPI became home to other Trump allies who had a role in the months-long effort to overturn the election, including Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows (who sat scrolling through his phone when he heard about threats of violence on Jan. 6), Trump’s former social media director Dan Scavino (whospread voter fraud conspiracies on behalf of the tweet-happy president), and Ed Corrigan (whoappeared to be busy behind the scenes encouraging Vice President Mike Pence to buck his constitutional duty and overturn the election). CPI enjoyed a$1 million boost from Trump’s Save America PAC.

CPI and organizations like it are finding success. One in 5 local election administrators say they are likely to leave their jobs before the 2024 presidential election, according to asurvey by the Brennan Center for Justice. These public servants cite politicians attacking “a system that they know is fair and honest” and the stress of the job as the top two reasons for their planned departures.

Meanwhile, other politicians are running for secretary of state to gain control of their states’ elections. Arizona’s Mark Finchemstood outside the U.S. Capitol’s east steps as the anti-government extremist Oath Keepers—of which Finchem claims to be a member—stormed the building. Three months later, he announcedhis bid for Arizona’s secretary of state and earned Trump’s endorsement. In Michigan, Kristina Karamano, also blessed with a Trump endorsement for her voter-fraud conspiracy theories, became the Republican nominee in the race for secretary of state. And in Georgia, Rep. Jody Hice tried to best Trump nemesis Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger out of the Republican nomination to no avail.

Added to this stew: a large dose of violent rhetoric. Ahead of Jan. 6,violent rhetoric waswidespread on pro-Trump social media and among far-right groups. Today, it no longer remains on the fringes but has been embraced by right-wing politicians.

In Missouri, former governor Eric Greitens—whose ex-wife has accused him ofdomestic violence:{—released a }:{ for his U.S. Senate bid. “Today, we’re going RINO hunting,” Greitens says in the ad, before bursting through a door with a SWAT team, guns raised. “Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country,” he says. }:

He’s not the only one seeing red. In Oklahoma, state Senate candidate Jarrin Jacksonwants to shoot “godless commies.”In February, Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogersvoiced her desire “to build more gallows” in a video address to white nationalists.

[twt] when asked by Cheney whether he believed in the peaceful transfer of power, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded the Fifth Amendment, every American’s right against forced self-incrimination. The recorded testimony, which was shown during thesixth hearing, was shocking, and yet, Flynn is not alone. Republicans are more likely than other Americans to say political violence might be necessary, with four in 10 subscribing to that belief, according to a survey conducted by the conservative American Enterprise Institute shortly after the Jan. 6 attack. Perhaps that’s why, after hearing Trump’s suggestion that Mike Pence was a traitor to the country, so many of the Trump supporters storming the Capitol were keen on.

Trump, as the hearing Thursday revealed, did nothing for 187 minutes while his supporters rampaged through the Capitol, beat police officers, and hunted for Pence, Pelosi, and other members of Congress, all with the goal of preventing the peaceful transfer of power. As we move into the 2022 elections, Americans have a choice about the future of democracy in our country and whether the coup next time will succeed.

Tags: Bianca Garcia Donald J. Trump Eric Greitens Jarrin Jackson Jody Hice Kandiss Taylor Kristina Karamano Larry Elder Liz Cheney Mark Finchem Rachel Hamm Shekinah Hollingsworth Stephen K. Bannon Wendy Rogers Capitol Insurrection House select committee on Jan. 6 Jan. 6 Conservative Partnership Institute republican national committee

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection

p1 of many no lnx

Sean Hannity’s main lie against the January 6 committee shatters amid new testimony

07/27/22 10:06 AM EDT

Watch the January 6 committee read as evidence the hypocritical and revealing texts from Fox News hosts to Trump officials

07/21/22 9:55 PM EDT

They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them

07/22/22 11:12 AM EDT

The Latest

On YouTube, Trump coup memo author John Eastman and Dinesh D'Souza spread lies about the 2020 election

08/03/22 5:15 PM EDT

black and white image of Sean Hannity; clip art microphone; audio wave graphic

Sean Hannity: “It looks like last night's Arizona primary delivered a little poetic justice to the January 6 committee witness”

08/03/22 4:35 PM EDT

Steve Bannon touts efforts of election denier Cleta Mitchell to train poll workers: “We need the army of the awakened to get this information”

08/02/22 1:07 PM EDT

screen grab

Steve Bannon promotes Republican Big Lie candidates ahead of contested Arizona primaries

08/01/22 4:54 PM EDT

Trump covered in newspaper text

Top national newspapers quickly drop front-page story of DOJ probe into Trump's January 6 role

08/01/22 4:32 PM EDT

Mark Levin 7/31/22

Mark Levin passionately defends Trump's fake electors scheme: “You might think it's weird, you might think it's unethical, but it's not a crime”

08/01/22 1:33 PM EDT

screen grab

Fox News legal analyst shows complete double standard on Trump and political violence

07/28/22 5:07 PM EDT

Chris Hayes documents Sean Hannity and Fox News repeatedly pushing lie about Trump and January 6

07/28/22 1:04 PM EDT

Laura Ingraham Merrick Garland July 2022

Fox News runs defense for Trump following revelation of Justice Department investigation

07/28/22 9:17 AM EDT

still of Carlson; chyron: WAPO: DOJ is investigating Trump over Jan 6

Tucker Carlson claims Justice Department investigation of Trump for January 6 is a violation of the First Amendment

07/27/22 8:28 PM EDT

A mix of right-wing messaging about the January 6 committee, calling it a "sham committee," a "theatrically produced sham hearing," and "boring remarks" with a sketch of the Capitol building in the blue-green background

Right-wing media have been dismissing, downplaying, and attacking the January 6 hearings

07/27/22

p2 no lnx

Sean Hannity’s main lie against the January 6 committee shatters amid new testimony

07/27/22 10:06 AM EDT

Watch the January 6 committee read as evidence the hypocritical and revealing texts from Fox News hosts to Trump officials

07/21/22 9:55 PM EDT

U.S. Capitol building with Fox logo

They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them

07/22/22 11:12 AM EDT

The Latest

chyron reads, "WASH POST: DOJ FORMALLY INVESTIGATING TRUMP"

Laura Ingraham calls Justice Department investigation of Trump’s role on January 6 a “political vendetta”

07/26/22 10:55 PM EDT

still of Katie Pavlich; chyron: Rpt: DOJ investigating Trump

Fox’s Katie Pavlich says an indictment of Trump for January 6 riot “would look corrupt”

07/26/22 8:23 PM EDT

Alyssa Farah The View

The View's hiring of serial liar and Trump propagandist Alyssa Farah Griffin is a huge mistake

07/26/22 5:48 PM EDT

still of Gutfeld; chyron: "Quit, Joe, quit!" Liberal media ramps up calls for Biden to bow out

Fox's Greg Gutfeld makes ridiculous claim that the January 6 hearings are “exonerating Trump”

07/25/22 5:37 PM EDT

Tucker Carlson with Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch

No, the Murdochs haven’t turned on Trump

07/25/22 11:26 AM EDT

OAN defends January 6 insurrectionist who entered Nancy Peloosi's office

As January 6 hearing kicked off, OAN counterprogrammed with a fawning interview of insurrectionist who posed at Speaker Pelosi's desk

07/22/22 1:17 PM EDT

GOP nominee for governor Dan Cox

The Maryland GOP is fielding a QAnon gubernatorial ticket

07/22/22 12:08 PM EDT

TV with Fox logo

Here's who advertised on Fox last night while the network ignored and mocked the bombshell January 6 hearing

07/22/22 11:54 AM EDT

Covering Jan. 6 hearing, Fox News covers up Trump's remark that he didn't want to say the election was over

07/22/22 11:19 AM EDT

U.S. Capitol building with Fox logo

They did it and will do it again – if no one stops them

07/22/22 11:12 AM EDT

Watch the January 6 committee read as evidence the hypocritical and revealing texts from Fox News hosts to Trump officials

07/21/22 9:55 PM EDT

black and white image of Mark Levin; clip art microphone; audio wave graphic

Fox News host Mark Levin says Andrew Weissmann “would have been on the wrong side of the Nuremberg trials”

===

MMA 8 22 tag jan 6:

https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection

BANNON (HOST): [Steve] Cortes, and he and I didn’t talk, we talked about his segments and how we’re going to go through the economic data. We always talk beforehand about what's the best way to lay that out. But we didn’t talk about what he brought up, which was the Politico piece. I saw it I think at zero six hundred or seven, whenever it popped, and it was their lead story and they meant it as a hit piece. And I’m reading this thing, the RNC is working with these new groups, and it’s Cleta Mitchell, she’s been on the show many times talking about it, but the RNC, and they meant it as a hit piece and Cortes said, hey this thing was like a paid advertisement cause it shows you the quality of training they’re getting and now the RNC is getting involved. I said hey, I think they’re sending it out to the - to make sure the RNC donors see it, that they’re now working with the crazies.

Cleta Mitchell, tell us about the piece and particularly what you guys are doing now in conjunction with the RNC cause every time you have these summits, we send people, I get tremendous feedback of people that now are going to get engaged now and be part of it, it’s changed their lives. The comradery. But most importantly is the technical details, not war stories, you teach them technical details about how to be election officials, how to be poll workers, right? Not just poll watchers. So walk us through why did Politico try to take you out this morning ma’am?

CLETA MITCHELL (GUEST): Well, thank you for having me Steve, you’re always so great to help us tell our story. Politico got a tape, an audio tape, from our Arizona summit in which I was presenting to the group there about how the Biden administration is using our tax dollars to turn every federal agency into a Democratic political operation. And I used the language that they use, which is their new Democratic majority, that this is language of the left and I just traced their language showing that that’s what they're doing with our tax dollars.

Biden issued an executive order based on a plan that was put to him by a left-wing organization, Demos, if you want to find out about it just go to Demos dot org and you can look it up. They’re the ones who sold this to him. They’ve got Susan Rice in the White House running the program. And it’s an executive order that orders every federal agency to develop a voter registration and turnout program and then they’re going to give grants to approved groups. Guess who’s going to approve those groups? Susan Rice. Excuse me. And so I talked about this at the Arizona summit, I went through the language and so we’ve decided to put that out there. We’re putting it on our website today, the entire audio.[tucker perm dem maj?]

…

MITCHELL: So, they're going to do with our tax dollars what they did with Zuckerbucks in 2020. And that's what I was teaching. I was giving the presentation in Arizona –[how to gerry?]

BANNON: Yes.

MITCHELL: – showing what they were doing. And they are saying, the Politico article says that I was complaining and I was engaged in voter suppression because I didn’t want these groups to be registered and mobilized. No! If those people are going to be registered and mobilized, let the Democratic Party pay for it. Let the candidates pay for it.Don’t use my tax money to register and turn out people to vote because they’re the most vulnerable in our society.[acorn-y?]

BANNON: K. We're going to have you on to go through actually the presentation.

...

We need the army of the awakened to get this information that Cleta and her team puts out all over the country.

...

BANNON: Democrats, if they can't steal, they can't win. Let me just be blunt.

MITCHELL: That's right.

BANNON: They can't steal, they can't win. They know it. That's why they're so upset aboutMAGA getting to the bottom of this.

...

MITCHELL: Let me tell you what, Steve. It is a real serious problem what's going on with this vote by mail. This avalanche of mail voting. I call it unsupervised voting.

It's happening in Florida, where in Florida they have sent the wrong ballots, they sent out tens of thousands of ballots that have been voted and come back into Broward county, Palm Beach county, Orange county – which is Orlando. And they have the wrong races or they don't have the school board races. And it's happening right now and it's all because of this bad voting.

---

Biglie6 Bak

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Project 2025 partner blog: “If Kamala Harris does win, it will, as of today, be because of a stolen election”

A conspiracy theory about overseas voting spread from an election denial website to Trump — and now to the MAGA media infrastructure

Related

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No one can say they didn’t know what was coming

Fox News contributor compares policies to expand voter registration and access to 9/11

Right-wing writers alleged that the ruling puts democracy in danger and defended January 6 overall

Matthew DePerno on War Room

Patrick Colbeck on War Room

===