Chilling analysis warns 'MAGA has already won its war'
A frightening analysis revealed how "MAGA has already won its war" as the Trump administration hires hardcore election deniers to key roles.
"They need to sow doubt; they need to undermine public trust," Joanna Lydgate, who heads the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center, told The Atlantic for a recent report. "Whether it's an executive order or death by 5,000 cuts, it's chipping away at our election system."
The Trump administration is embedded with election deniers like Clay Parikh, The Atlantic reported. Parikh "gained a following by circulating conspiracy theories about President Trump's 2020 defeat, including that poll workers gave Trump supporters — but not other voters — felt-tip markers to fill out their ballots, rendering them invalid."
Parikh, a cybersecurity expert, is now a special government employee in the Trump administration, and an analysis he wrote "allowed the FBI to seize election materials in Georgia in January," The Atlantic reported.
Similarly, Kurt Olsen, an attorney, spent years "pushing debunked or unsubstantiated theories," and after the Trump administration brought him on last year to investigate the 2020 election, his work also "helped lead to the seizure of the Georgia ballots," according to The Atlantic.
"In Arizona, federal probes of the 2020 election by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are underway," The Atlantic noted. "Olsen and other Trump administration officials have participated in extensive meetings about U.S. elections with senior members of the Justice Department in recent months.
Heather Honey was a "Pennsylvania-based election activist" who "sought to reverse Trump's defeat" in 2020. She worked on "numerous efforts to challenge elections in Arizona," and "now holds a key role at the Department of Homeland Security," The Atlantic reported.
"There, she interacts with state election officials, many of whom don't trust her," six of those officials told The Atlantic.
"MAGA has already won its war against American elections," The Atlantic report concluded. "Confidence that a person's state or local government will run a free and fair election is slipping."