One day before the midterm elections, podcaster Steve Bannon, of “flood the zone with shit” fame, pushed a spectrum of baseless claims that the Democrats are going to steal the midterm elections unless the MAGA movement stops them. He hosted multiple election-denying candidates and repeatedly attacked mail-in ballots as well as a press release from the Fetterman campaign explaining how vote counting works in Pennsylvania.
In an interview with election-denying Pennsylvania congressional candidate Jim Bognet, Bannon said that Democrats are “going to pull every trick in the book” to try to “steal” the midterm elections. He added, “They will not lose graciously. This is going to be very nasty and it's going to be very tough and we're going to be gentlemen and gentlewomen about it but steely resolve. There's no chance they're going to steal any of this.”
In an interview with Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate and Christian nationalist election conspiracy theorist Doug Mastriano, Bannon read from a memo sent to reporters by Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman’s campaign that outlines the expected timeline for when votes will be counted in the state’s elections. Bannon used this memo to claim Democrats are “playing the same games again, right, of how they stole this in Pennsylvania in 2020.”
After a break, he added that in Pennsylvania “they’re pulling the same old mail-in ballot scam.” He also claimed that supposedly delaying vote counting is “how they steal it.”
Later, he said that secretaries of state races “may be the key that picks the lock” and is “what they’re totally melting down about,” then interviewed Nevada Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchant. Marchant is the leader of a QAnon-tied coalition of far-right candidates for secretary of state who appeared on War Room last week and said Democrats “can’t win” future elections if his group’s picks are elected.
During today’s appearance, Bannon said Democrats in Nevada are “professional voting thieves” who have “perfected the model.” Marchant then said, “The only way that they could steal it, so to speak, is with these universal mail-in ballots which we have here in Nevada.” Bannon added, “Don’t think they’re going to steal this in some backroom deal. People are all over this right now. We’re going to contest all of this. Only legitimate, certifiable chain-of-custody votes count, OK? Not all votes.”
Bannon repeatedly hyped the idea that Nevada Democrats are “professional thieves” throughout the show.
He closed the show with pillow magnate and voting machine conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell. Lindell said, “I want all the bad guys out there to know” that “we are watching” including “what’s going on with the computers and the machines. So I’m putting them all on notice.” He also claimed that “we are going to override these algorithms tomorrow” and noted he has “cyber guys with me.”
For more about how Bannon has united fringe activists and mainstream Republican institutions to push bogus voter fraud claims ahead of the 2022 midterms, click here.
