Why Fox News is crucial to Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ 2.0

The election denial movement has come a long way since Donald Trump’s first “Stop the Steal” attempt. Ahead of Election Day, MAGA media personalities and a newly institutionalized network far-right advocacy organizations like that better prepared It will undermine confidence in American elections more than ever before.

Rudy Giuliani’s days are over hair dye dripping and hearings in the Michigan State Senate, “Saturday Night Live” post. Today, election conspirators are at the forefront and have a powerful microphone. Groups like Election Integrity Network, Heritage Foundation And Turning Point USA We have invested heavily in various election denial initiatives. Together, a powerful network of professional right-wing election deniers developed a three-pronged strategy to persuade the public. Trump can’t lose and create a basis to steal the election.

These groups and their leaders regularly to be clear along MAGA media and run them to have media platformsBring unique resources to the expanding cause. Former Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network is the tip of the spear. Mitchell used his reputation and influence on him decades As a lawyer for a conservative movement, he made millions”persistent election integrity infrastructure.”

Mitchell claims he supervised a “volunteer” citizens army” as a poll worker and was involved in the Republican Party. The Election Integrity Network (EIN) has chapters across the country, including swing states. Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina And Georgiawhere they are already worked for undermine democratic process.

“We have a presence and we have eyes on the process, which we didn’t really have in 2020,” Mitchell said. recently boasted. “We now have a lot of trained volunteers who know election law better than most lawyers.”

The conservative think tank behind it is the Heritage Foundation Project 2025also a central center The Right-wing powerhouse of the voter rejection movement is behind voter suppression policies implemented by voter suppression groups at the state level and Hans von Spakovskyanother long-running “voter fraud” alarmist WHO often visible inside rightist media.

These groups and their MAGA media allies are collaborating to bring together three complementary tactics into a comprehensive anti-democracy strategy.

The first extreme is a messaging war. Powerful right-wing media create a cocoon of voter fraud conspiracy theories, enveloping their audiences and fueling a constant sense of grievance and anger.

In 2024 “non-citizen voting” became most common form of fear mongering. Fox News and other like-minded publications have embraced the idea that non-citizens would swing the election away from Trump. Of course this idea totally unfounded: It is extremely rare for non-citizens to vote. But despite these conspiracy theories There are serious consequences, the right is fueling distrust by combining increasingly bloodthirsty xenophobia with Trump’s election denial, perpetuating racial profiling and we will sow chaos ahead of this election.

Right-wing media messages also focused on the disenfranchisement of overseas voters. Conspiracy theory site Gateway Expert to have radiate The false idea that Democrats are weaponizing a law that allows military personnel and other American citizens living abroad to vote.

Some of these bad actors have faced consequences for spreading election misinformation, but they remain undeterred. Although Fox News had to make a payment Historic agreement worth $787 million In the defamation case he filed with Dominion Voting Systems, continued To spread election lies. And The Gateway Pundit was not punished either, despite recent settlement The lawsuit filed against two election workers in Georgia whom he targeted with conspiracy theories after the 2020 elections. The site is now publishing the same kind of election-related misinformation to sow doubt in 2024.

Election deniers then turn this media conspiracy into grassroots activism, the second prong of their strategy. A particularly worrying example Julie AdamsA member of the Fulton County Board of Elections and an EIN activist. As ProPublica reported, Adams is “working to change the rules for certifying elections in Georgia.”

Former Trump campaign official Steve Bannon just released from prisonhe was also at the forefront of using his popular podcast to spread election lies and then organize His followers need to take action through a “regional strategy”. Bannon urged his audience to get involved and fill precinct committee roles with local Republican Parties. “In some states, they have a say in choosing poll workers, in others they help elect members of the board that oversees elections,” Propublica reported in 2021.

Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post documented The impact of the district strategy reveals that this approach has “pushed thousands of new Republican activists to join” since the 2020 election. “Unless you are prepared to be sent to a federal prison as a political prisoner.” Bannon told his audience this week:“Then you are not worthy of being in this movement.”

Finally, lawyers step in. Election deniers have filed 146 voting challenge lawsuits across the country so far, according to Democracy Docket. My colleague as Abbie Richards explainsThe primary purpose of these lawsuits is to confuse voters and sow chaos against election officials who are just trying to do their jobs. Most of the time, the pipeline from right-wing media to the courts is fairly direct. multiple suits in swing situations About the Uniform and Overseas Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which allows Americans to vote abroad.

Nobody knows how this election will turn out. But one thing is certain: anti-democracy activists continue to dig, not just for 2024 but for the foreseeable future. We must be “fearlessly pro-democratic.” words of voting rights lawyer Marc Eliasand “it will be the citizens themselves who will show the way.” This starts with arming ourselves with facts and standing strong against the alliance of an increasingly fascist right-wing media and professional election deniers; They are all determined to reverse the outcome.