Michigan GOP pushed early voting only to have Trump trash it as a fraud at his rally less than 12 hours later

Donald Trump repeated his lies at a Michigan rally Saturday about the 2020 election having been stolen from him by voter fraud. And MAGA voters were urged by Pillow Man Mike Lindell and other speakers to wait until November 8 to vote.

But the Michigan Republican Party apparently hadn’t received the memo. Just hours before Trump put on his QAnon-scored spectacle, here’s what the state party had tweeted:

"Absentee ballots will start going out and we need YOU to do your part to stop the dangerous agenda Democrats are pushing: higher taxes, higher cost of living and higher crime in our state. Make a plan to vote!" It directed voters to a website to help facilitate early voting, which kicked off last Thursday.

That wasn’t what the MAGA crowd heard later in the day. Here’s how the Michigan Advance reported it:

'Speakers including "MyPillow" CEO Mike Lindell encouraged Michiganders to vote — but "same day, Nov. 8. Don’t vote early," Lindell said, claiming same-day voting makes it "harder" for Democrats to "cheat."

Michigan candidates apparently weren’t sure to urge voters to use the early voting that their party considers essential. Here’s more the Advance:

“When asked by reporters at the Macomb County rally whether she supports absentee voting, GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon hedged, saying: “I really haven’t gotten that question. I haven’t really talked about absentee ballots yet.”

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s what Republicans were doing in 2020 as they were imploring their followers to use mail-in voting as the moment Trump was attacking it as corrupt.

“Republicans quietly push mail-in voting despite Trump claims,” Politico reported. “Even Trump’s own campaign is encouraging absentee voting, which the president claims is different.”

As that reporting noted, “President Donald Trump may rail against mail-in ballots in public, but state and local Republicans are quietly telling Americans that’s exactly how they should vote.”