TRUST ISSUES: Right-wing hosts beg MAGA fans to vote after telling them the system is corrupt
Charlie Kirk says he is getting a stream of emails from Trump adherents who say they refuse to vote, and he’s not the only MAGA media figure who’s worried about the backlash of election denial.
Kirk went on a desperate rant about the epidemic of conservatives refusing to vote, although he failed to give Donald Trump the credit for spending over two years telling his audience that their votes wouldn’t be counted.
He told viewers that choosing not to vote is “immoral,” even as he bolstered the Big Lie by continuing to claim that the system is corrupt.
He says he’ll be sharing screenshots of these emails on his Twitter account, and as of this writing, he’s posted one, warning the writer (who said they’re no longer voting because they feel every vote supports a corrupt system) that they must “at least try and pick your lawmakers,” or else “people who hate you will.”
Meanwhile, Fox News host Laura Ingraham interviewed former Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway about Republicans’ loss in Georgia’s Senate runoff, bringing up the failure of her party to prevail in early voting and absentee ballots.
She complained that “a lot of people” had been spreading stories about those options being “corrupt” in 2020, but also skipped right over mentioning the chief propagandist who spread that story: the former president.
Kirk’s complaint:
“The MAGA movement is committing suicide in front of our very eyes, because of…millions of people that have said, we are no longer going to vote, because of cynicism…I share the sentiment, by the way — when I went and voted in Arizona, I even said, “Boy do I hope this counts,” but I still voted!”
Below is his tweet, berating one viewer for saying they are done with voting.
If you can't be bothered to at least try and pick your lawmakers, then people who hate you will. pic.twitter.com/pCUMAKMp1W
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) December 7, 2022
You can also watch his rant below, in which he further attempts to use the Bible to prove it makes sense to be an election denier and still vote.
He says it's "immoral" to not vote after bragging about being in the viral election denial movie "2000 Mules" pic.twitter.com/eHunbY2c6p
— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) December 7, 2022
Then there’s the aforementioned clip below, in which Conway and Ingraham dance around the notion that telling millions of people their votes wouldn’t be counted might actually influence some of them not to bother voting, all while dodging the central question of who, exactly, told people that the election system was corrupt.
Fox News' Laura Ingraham is not taking the Herschel Walker loss well. pic.twitter.com/kddIhD0pq0
— The Recount (@therecount) December 7, 2022
(Here’s a hint: Republicans and their media counterparts spread the claims, but election denial began well before election day in 2020, as then-President Trump declared that Democrats would “steal” the election from him, warned his MAGA fans not to vote by mail, and pushed the notion that all voting should be done on election day.)
Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.
