A prominent "Stop the Steal" activist has been tapped by the Republican National Committee to craft its 2024 party platform.
Ed Martin, a former chair of the Missouri Republican Party and 2020 election conspiracy theorist, will serve as deputy policy director of the platform committee, while Randy Evans, who was Donald Trump's ambassador to Luxembourg, will serve as executive director and Trump's former White House budget director Russ Vought will serve as policy director on the platform panel, reported NBC News.
“They each have a proven track record of understanding and implementing our party’s America First agenda, and their sound judgement and principled vision will be critical to help lead our party and country to victory in one of the most significant elections of our lifetimes,” said Michael Whatley, who was hand-picked by the former president to serve as RNC chairman.
Martin attended the ex-president's speech on Jan. 6, 2021, near the White House and then joined the crowd marching to the U.S. Capitol, where surveillance video published by House Republicans shows him on the grounds around 2:20 p.m., by which point Trump supporters had broken through police lines and stormed into the building to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden's election win.
There's no evidence that Martin was in restricted areas or broke any laws that day, but he urged Trump supporters in a speech on the night before the riot to fight to "stop the steal" and continues to push conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and Jan. 6 insurrection.
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“No matter what happens tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after, we still need to be in the fight," Martin said Jan. 5, 2021. "There’s no summer soldiers and springtime patriots here. There’s the die-hard true Americans We start today, go through tomorrow and every day till we have a last breath and go home to the Lord because we will stop the steal.”
