Michael Flynn in Make America Great Again Hat

The MyPillow CEO was talking voter fraud on a side stage, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone held a fraud-filled press briefing at a nearby hamburger restaurant and quondam President Donald Trump – the main megaphone for baseless fraud claims – was the headline speaker.

Fake notions that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump are beingness featured in ways large and small every bit Republicans gather in Orlando for the Conservative Political Action Conference, from the flags saying "Trump won" in the vendor booths to the Ohio U.S. Senate candidate who alleged to big applause that "this election was stolen from Donald J. Trump."

That's a problem for the GOP heading into the 2022 election, experts say.

Trump has washed everything he can to drag the unfounded idea that the 2020 ballot was stolen, simply polls show that well-nigh Americans don't believe him and tiptop Republicans worry the upshot is a loser that could drag the party down at a time when the GOP appears to have momentum.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell repeatedly has rebutted Trump on the fraud issue and well-nigh Republican leaders who spoke at CPAC over the first few days steered clear of information technology.

Trump won't let it go, though, and his insistence on making the issue a litmus test for whether Republicans are loyal to him continues to embolden election conspiracy theorists and enflame the GOP base of operations, putting Republican leaders in an awkward position.

"They know if it becomes the central event of the campaign it might really hurt them," said University of Primal Florida political scientific discipline professor Aubrey Jewett. "But they know it can't exist totally shunted bated and put behind them considering Trump and many of his supporters don't want to allow that happen, at to the lowest degree not yet."

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The CPAC gathering showed how securely Trump'southward false claims have permeated the GOP. While many speakers avoided the ballot fraud outcome, or touched on "ballot integrity" without explicitly saying at that place was widespread fraud, some pushed it aggressively and received an enthusiastic response from the crowd.

Amidst those speaking were sometime Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who said the election was "rigged," and Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel, who roused the crowd past declaring the election was stolen from Trump and "one of the most of import fights of our twenty-four hours is to stop the cheating from the left."

U.Southward. Sen. Rick Scott told the CPAC crowd that "Democrats know they can't win with their crazy, woke ideas, and so they desire to rig elections, institutionalize voter fraud."

Meanwhile, prominent figures in the attempt to overturn the 2020 ballot were active on the fringes of the conference.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell hosted a welcome reception Thursday to cap off the get-go night of the conference. Those who showed upwards were treated to free meatballs and vegetarian jump rolls with duck sauce while Lindell stood on a small stage and ran through the listing of election conspiracy theories he is now famous for disseminating.

Lindell didn't accept an bodily speaking slot at the conference. Instead, he was relegated to a side room down the hall from where the primary phase was set up. He spoke in an area wedged between rows of vendors for everything from MAGA hats to a "Christian conservative" mobile phone company.

"They're afraid of this identify getting sued," Lindell said of why some are fugitive the election fraud issue at CPAC. "Yous didn't run into me concord back but they put me in this room."

Lindell is amidst the most controversial and loftier-contour figures pushing groundless fraud claims. His status on the edges of CPAC showed how the bourgeois movement has struggled to handle these MAGA stars who have pushed views that aren't just politically unpopular exterior the GOP, but have attracted legal activity.

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Lindell is being sued for defamation by voting automobile company Smartmatic.

Another voting auto company, Rule Voting Systems, is suing erstwhile Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne over his fraud claims.

Patrick Byrne continuing election fraud fight

Byrne, a prominent effigy in the endeavor to overturn the 2020 election who poured millions into a ballot audit in Arizona's most populous county, also appeared on the fringes of CPAC.

Byrne, Trump political adviser Roger Stone, Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Flynn's blood brother Joe Flynn staged a press conference Fri at a restaurant a curt walk from the conference.

Byrne and Michael Flynn, both Sarasota Canton residents, met with Trump in the Oval Office a few weeks later he lost the 2020 election to pitch ways he could keep fighting the results. They've connected that fight over the concluding year.

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On Fri, they touted a plan to recruit more than poll watchers to provide oversight of the 2022 election, while also continuing to push button baseless claims almost the 2020 results.

"Nosotros know there was massive election fraud in 2020 ... information technology has to be stock-still or our republic is lost," Byrne told a minor group of journalists and conservative activists assembled in the eating house.

Unfounded fraud claims popular at CPAC

Courts repeatedly have rejected these voting fraud claims for lack of evidence, still they live on in a subculture where individuals such equally Lindell are heroes.

The CPAC oversupply started chanting "we love Mike" as Lindell threw out MAGA hats "from our real president Donald Trump."

Lindell basked in the applause, taking pictures with his fans. He erupted when a reporter questioned him nigh the bear witness for fraud.

"This guy just said where's the evidence ... you lot are disgusting," Lindell bellowed.

Many ballot officials from both parties say the unfounded fraud claims are harmful to republic. They undermine the legitimacy of election results and elected leaders.

The fraud claims also announced to be bad politics for Republicans, according to polling. A Political leader-Forenoon Consult poll released last calendar week found that 56% of those surveyed opposed Trump's "continued focus on his claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election."

"I but don't see that as a winning issue," said Florida Gulf Declension Academy political science professor Peter Bergerson.

Bergerson noted that the issue doesn't resonate "with mainstream Republicans and mainstream Americans."

Some leading Republicans have recognized the problem and tried to push back, although there was none of that at CPAC.

U.Due south. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican from Due south Dakota, was the latest prominent Republican to come out forcefully against Trump'southward claim that the election was stolen.

"While there were some irregularities, there were none of the irregularities which would take risen to the point where they would have inverse the vote outcome in a single state," Rounds said during a television interview last month. "We simply did not win the election every bit Republicans for the presidency."

McConnell chop-chop backed up Rounds, saying he "told the truth" and "I agree with him."

However there was no appetite for contradicting Trump at CPAC this calendar week. He was the headline speaker, slated to give the prime address on Saturday evening, and many in attendance firmly believed his fraud claims.

Utah resident George Zinn said "of course" the election was stolen, arguing that Democrats would "practise anything to orchestrate to make certain that their candidate gets in."

Lindell said the GOP needs to run on "ready 2020 starting time" and Republicans should decline candidates who won't talk nearly voter fraud.

"I think at that place's a stark dichotomy betwixt the political party leaders, who would like this to go away as an issue, and the voters," Byrne said.

Mandel took aim at "the RINOs, the squishy institution Republicans" who say "well, let'due south just move on" from the 2020 ballot.

Mandel is running in a highly competitive GOP primary where Trump has yet to endorse a candidate. His forceful embrace of the false stolen ballot merits and conclusion to focus on that during his CPAC speech show how the result resonates with the GOP base.

It was articulate from CPAC that a big part of the GOP isn't moving on from the faux fraud claims, even as the briefing organizers largely tried to focus on issues where the GOP appears to have broader support.

The theme of the briefing was "Awake Not Woke," a nod to the civilisation war fights that have blithe the GOP and led some Democrats to worry that their party is besides far left on some problems. At that place were panel discussions on criminal offence and alleged leftist "propaganda" in schools.

"At that place'southward but a lot of voters who are very turned off by this connected talk of election fraud," Jewett said.

Follow Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson on Twitter at @zacjanderson. He can exist reached at zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com

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Source: https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/2022/02/26/cpac-orlando-florida-attracts-fraud-purveyors-donald-trump-mike-lindell-michael-flynn/6899055001/

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