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Lin Wood May Be Held in Criminal Contempt

July 14, 2021 at 11:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Lin Wood, a prominent purveyor of election conspiracy theories, may face additional punishment from a federal judge in Michigan after he shared a video recording of a portion of a court hearing on sanctions related to a debunked election fraud lawsuit, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

How Michael Flynn Nurtured QAnon

June 27, 2021 at 12:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn nurtured and then profited from the QAnon conspiracy theorists, the Intercept reports.

“Most media outlets treated Flynn’s videotaped oath last summer, in which he uttered a well-known QAnon slogan, as a sort of coming-out story about a onetime Trump insider who had gone off the rails. The video has since become the subject of a lawsuit by members of Flynn’s family who claim that ‘left-wing media outlets began to spread false narratives’ about the Flynn family’s connections to QAnon. An Intercept investigation has found that Flynn’s ties to the QAnon phenomenon stretch back much further than the July 4 weekend last year when the video first appeared, however, to the days immediately following Trump’s 2016 election victory.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Behind the ‘Italygate’ Election Conspiracy

June 19, 2021 at 5:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Two firms led by Virginia business executive Michele Roosevelt Edwards promoted outlandish claims that an Italian defense contractor switched votes from Trump to Biden by satellite, swinging the outcome of the race.”

“The discovery of her firms’ involvement and the roles played by others sheds new light on the origins of a claim that the Trump White House pushed the Justice Department to investigate.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

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January 6 Is the New Truther Movement (But Worse)

June 16, 2021 at 11:16 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

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Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories, Members

FBI Warns QAnon Could Turn Violent

June 15, 2021 at 12:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The FBI said this month that QAnon adherents could turn to violence as some of the conspiracy theory’s major predictions, including that Democrats would be subject to mass arrest and detention, have not come to pass,” the New York Times reports.

“The conspiracy theory holds that a corrupt cabal of global elites and career government employees who run a Satan-worshiping, child sex-trafficking ring will soon be rounded up and punished for their misdeeds; and that former President Donald Trump will be restored to the presidency.”

Related for members: American Democracy Is Not Safe

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Trump Appointee Warns of ‘Grand Plan’ to Replace Whites

May 28, 2021 at 10:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A Trump appointee serving on West Point’s advisory board has repeatedly spread a conspiracy that the Biden administration is bringing in non-White immigrants as part of a ‘grand plan’ to have them outnumber White Americans of European ancestry in the United States,” CNN reports.

“He also attacked women serving in the military in combat roles.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories, Race

Conspiracy Theories Take Hold In the United States

May 27, 2021 at 9:09 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new PRRI-IFYC study finds that 15% of Americans agree with the QAnon statement that the U.S. government, media and financial worlds “are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.”

And 20% agree with this statement: “There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders.”

First Read: “It’s hard to call something fringe when approximately one-in-five Americans believe these statements, especially one that true patriots ‘may have to resort to violence’ to save the country.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Bannon Associate Driving Massive Disinformation Network

May 17, 2021 at 9:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New research shows “a sprawling online network tied to Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has become a potent platform for disinformation in the United States, attacking the safety of coronavirus vaccines, promoting false election-fraud claims and spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies,” the Washington Post reports.

Guo’s association with former Trump White House adviser Stephen Bannon “became a focus of news coverage last year after Bannon was arrested aboard Guo’s yacht on federal fraud charges.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy Theorists File Suit to Replace Electeds

May 10, 2021 at 10:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Vice News: “A group of Arizona citizens, including one Republican Congressional candidate, is asking the state’s Supreme Court to invalidate all election results since 2018 and remove all elected officials from their offices immediately.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Michigan Hearing Descends Into Conspiracy Theories

May 6, 2021 at 5:18 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A Michigan legislative hearing to pre-emptively ban governmental “vaccine passports” in Michigan devolved into the realm of conspiracy theory, Michigan Bridge reports.

Author and activist Naomi Wolf told lawmakers that New York residents are being “discriminated against already” because of a voluntary Excelsior Pass system developed by the state government.

Said Wolf: “If you gather after this hearing with your friends in a bar to discuss opposition to the vaccine passport, your app will know who you’re meeting with because you’ll have to swipe a QR code.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Michael Flynn Forgot the Pledge of Allegiance

May 3, 2021 at 6:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Michael Flynn botched the Pledge of Allegiance at a “Bikers for Trump” rally in South Carolina.

Flynn was in South Carolina to support Lin Wood’s bid for state GOP chair.

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy Theories Grip Miami Talk Radio

April 29, 2021 at 2:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Forward: “Multiple news stories have reported how Miami’s influential Spanish-language talk radio, the traditional bastion of anti-communist Cuba rhetoric, and conservative Hispanic social media groups have become dominated by far-right conspiracy theories, with frequent denunciations of George Soros as emblematic of a powerful Jewish cabal.”

“This shift toward insinuating Jews-as-communists arises from an intensive and successful branding of Democrats as socialists that has come to dominate Republican Hispanic political circles and messaging in South Florida.”

Don’t be surprised if the Russians are involved in this.

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

QAnon Makes Inroads In South Carolina

April 26, 2021 at 3:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Vice: “A Republican operative who helped propel QAnon into the mainstream back in 2017 has just been elected to a leadership role in a local Republican party in South Carolina.”

“Tracy Diaz, also known online as Tracy Beanz, won a landslide victory Saturday in Horry County, a working-class coastal haven, where she was overwhelmingly voted onto the state executive committee.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

GOP Speaker Claimed George Floyd’s Murder Was Planned

April 24, 2021 at 10:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The keynote speaker at a Minnesota county Republican Party’s event told members that George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police was “planned since 2016,” the Bemidji Pioneer reports.

He also said more than a hundred Democratic members of Congress deserve to be investigated for espionage for “working with foreign governments and the communist and Islamic movements.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Q May Have Revealed Himself

April 5, 2021 at 6:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new HBO documentary suggests Q is probably Ron Watkins, the administrator of the internet image board 8kun, formerly known as 8chan, Slate reports.

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

QAnon Scrambles to Cover for Matt Gaetz

March 31, 2021 at 10:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Vice News: “On Tuesday, it sure seemed like the Storm had arrived, when the New York Times broke a bombshell story that Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz was being investigated by the Department of Justice for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her to travel with him.”

“But in the hours after the news broke, QAnon followers didn’t celebrate. Instead, they frantically scrambled to explain why he couldn’t possibly have done what he’s accused of doing.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

QAnon Believers Now Saying QAnon Doesn’t Exist

March 24, 2021 at 3:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Family members of QAnon believers have told Vice News “that their loved ones are now telling them that QAnon doesn’t exist as a way to rebuff any arguments made against QAnon.”

“QAnon followers are also using the ‘there is no QAnon’ line as a way of excusing high-profile figures who appear to have disavowed QAnon.”

“For example, when Marjorie Taylor Greene kind-of-sort-of-not-really said she didn’t believe in QAnon, followers quickly claimed that she was speaking to them in code and only making the denial to appease her Republican colleagues.”

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

Trump Hotel Tripled Room Rates Tonight

March 3, 2021 at 9:28 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. has tripled its room rates for tonight — in line with the latest QAnon conspiracy theory that March 4 will mark the second inauguration of Donald Trump, the Washingtonian reports.

Vox: The future of QAnon, explained by 8 experts.

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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