'Big lie' theories rife at RNC despite efforts to keep them off main stage: report
The Republican National Convention may have worked to limit far-right conspiracy theories from appearing in its televised speeches, but in the hallways and side events at the RNC they were rife.
The "big lie" about the 2020 election being stolen was a hot topic among delegates, with attendees speculating another "stolen" election was on its way.
“We’re going to have to make sure we have people watching [the election] very closely,” Donald Trump Jr. said at an event hosted by the news website Axios. “I don’t think that Joe Biden over-performed only in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee – I just don’t believe that’s real."
The Guardian found an event hosted by far-right website Gateway Pundit, which filed for bankruptcy as a preemptive strike against litigation from Dominion Voting Systems and two election workers in Georgia over false claims about election fraud.
Dominion has sued several outlets after the so-called "big lie" led to false comments attacking the company.
Pundit founder Jim Hoft was set to give a presentation described as a "blockbuster interview" on "legal challenges and new beginnings" about the site.
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The presentation, which had about 20 attendees and was streamed on X, continued to promote the 2020 election conspiracy in Georgia. They said that the election workers ran ballots through tabulators several times.
“We think this is important because, in my world anyway, where I grew up, you kind of count ballots two or three times,” Hoft said, claiming no one has proven him wrong.
In fact, The Guardian reported that the "claim that ballots were scanned multiple times in Georgia has been debunked repeatedly.
Failed gubernatorial candidate and current hopeful for an Arizona Senate seat, Kari Lake, promoted the conspiracy that immigrants being let into the U.S. are being signed up as voters to help Democrats win in 2024.
And, though he avoided the topic in his speech Thursday night, a video that accompanied it had him saying, “The most important thing we have to do is protect the vote. You have to keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat and they do cheat, and, frankly, it’s the only thing they do well."
Sen. Rick Scott was also promoting election fraud claims.
“It was easy for Democrats to rig the elections — they simply allowed all the non-citizens to vote," he said in his speech.
Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced, “[Democrats] want illegals to vote now that they opened the border."
“Don’t f--k us,” ex-CBS anchor Lara Logan-turned-conspiracist told the Guardian reporter as he attended the Gateway Pundit event. “If you use the word conspiracy theorist in your story, I’m going to haunt you when I die.”
The Guardian documented many more of those still obsessed with Trump's 2020 election loss.