Far right wing activist Charlie Kirk complained on Steve Bannon's "War Room" show Tuesday that many Republicans in Arizona lost their elections earlier this month because they "do not trust" the election system. Kirk is a purveyor of Donald Trump's "Big Lie," and has repeatedly promoted the false claim that U.S. elections are "rigged."
“400,000 people that showed up for Donald Trump or voted for Donald Trump in 2020 did not show up or vote for the midterm election," Kirk told his audience. (NCRM has not verified these numbers and could find nothing to support the claim.)
"Now, I believe it’s because a lot of people do not trust the system,” Kirk claimed.
Why does Charlie Kirk believe "a lot of people do not trust the system"?
Because he told them not to. Over and over and over again.
In January on his show Kirk hosted Mollie Hemingway, the editor in chief of The Federalist, a right wing website founded by Ben Domenech and Sean Davis. The Federalist has been a purveyor of false election claims, according to Reuters, which reports the claims "are presented inaccurately." Twitter had to append a "cautionary label" to a Federalist tweet after The Federalist wrongly stated, “Yes, Democrats Are Trying To Steal The Election In Michigan, Wisconsin, And Pennsylvania,” according to The Daily Beast.
Hemingway is also the author of the book, "Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections."
The title of that episode of The Charlie Kirk Show? "Why Conservatives Can’t Turn Our Backs on Rigged Elections with Mollie Hemingway."
(The Federalist was also cited by The New England Journal of Medicine for belong create a "superspreader" event of false information about the effectiveness of masks in the fight against COVID-19.)
In April Kirk hosted right wing activist David Bossie, president of the political lobbying group Citizens United, and a former Trump 2016 campaign official.
The title of that episode?
"'RIGGED' — An In-Depth Examination of the 2020 Election with David Bossie"
Kirk likes the word "rigged." On Twitter he's used it a lot to suggest that the U.S. elections are "rigged."
"The same people who spent the last 4 years falsely saying Russians rigged our elections are now saying there’s no way an election could be rigged by illegal ballots and voter fraud. How does that work?" (Nov 6, 2020)
"BREAKING: A mail carrier was just charged with attempted election fraud after changing party affiliations on mail-in ballots Still think there aren't any issues with rigged elections due to mail-in voting? RT so the media has to report on the DANGERS of mail-in voter FRAUD!" (Apr 16, 2020)
"Democrats should be livid. This is a rigged game to protect the ruling class Thank goodness the GOP is a true grassroots party where ANY voice or person can win Democrats corruption will not allow fair or free elections" (Feb 4, 2020)
Or this tweet from 2019.
On November 9, this was the opening of a New York Times article.
"On the morning of Election Day, Charlie Kirk, the conservative talk show host from Arizona, shared a video on Twitter about broken voting machines in Maricopa County, followed by a series of posts suggesting that the problems were intentional," The Times' Sheera Frenkel and Steven Lee Myers wrote. “'This is manufactured chaos,' he wrote, calling for those responsible to be arrested.”
"The video was shared nearly 20,000 times and liked by more than 30,000 users, including many prominent accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. The post and others like it on a dozen online platforms kindled a false narrative of widespread voting shenanigans among those predisposed to believe that the country’s elections are rigged."
In addition to hosting his talk show, Kirk is also the founder of right wing student activist group Turning Point USA, and he is a member of the highly-secretive far Christian right organization, Council for National Policy (CNP).
Fast forward to Tuesday.
Here's Kirk complaining to Steve Bannon that Republicans didn't vote in the November, 2022 election several weeks ago, "because a lot of people do not trust the system."
Watch Kirk's video above or at this link.