Why is America The Way Now? Trump, Infowars, and Particle Theorists Don’t Live in the Dark: The Case of the 2020 Stop the Steal
After a jury found the former president guilty of all 34 felony counts relating to the payment of a hush money to a porn star, the words “RIP America” trended on the screen.
The 2020 Stop the Steal movement was co-opted by Trump supporters and right-wing pundits as well as politicians to create an upside-down American flag that was photographed and uploaded to social media.
Trump said that he was defending his guilty verdict and presidential campaign offense. At times he tried to connect the two, and slammed the court at the same time.
“As of today, with this fake guilty verdict against Trump, America is no longer the United States,” wrote Joey Marianno, a pro-Trump political commentator, to his 466,000 followers on X. “We are a third-world shithole heading for a Civil War. I don’t want this country to be unified. There is no country that can unite. We are long past that.”
The jury’s verdict was claimed to have been the result of a rigged justice system by many of the people who advocated Stop the Steal.
In a video posted to his 2.3 million followers on X, Infowars’ Alex Jones said that the “deep state and globalists” put Trump through a “kangaroo” court in the hope that a guilty verdict would harm his campaign. Jones said that the republic was now on its deathbed due to attacks blamed on Trump’s supporters. “We do not want any violence, we do not want any attacks,” he said.
Ali Alexander, a far-right conspiracy theorist, did not mince words either. He wrote on Telegram to his 12,000 subscribers, “today is January 6th for the entire nation.” The Civil War was worse than this. It was respectfully.
That kind of rhetoric was heard on the radio. Jeanine Pirro said the Fox News had been calling it lawfare. Lawfare is far too benign, I think. This is warfare.”
“THIS WAS A DISGRACE—A RIGGED TRIAL BY A CONFLICTED JUDGE WHO IS CORRUPT. WE WILL FIGHT FOR OUR CONSTITUTION—THIS IS LONG FROM OVER!” He wrote on a social networking site.
Trump’s claims of “rigging” were repeated by supporters. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also perpetuated conspiracy theories about the verdict. Kirk wrote that the case was built from the top of the Democrat apparatus to bring down Trump and use a rigged jury. These savages are going to be defeated. Stand with the president.
“Unhinged by his 2020 election loss and spiraling from his criminal convictions, Trump is consumed by his own thirst for revenge and retribution,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement. He thinks this election is about him. But it’s not. It’s about the American people and how they defend their democracy.
A small gathering of supporters cheered intermittently during Trump’s speech. The night before, a crowd gathered on the street outside of Trump Tower after the verdict, chanting, “New York hates you.”
His remarks came from the same area of the building as the one he was speaking from a day after he was found guilty. Still, legal experts have told NPR that it’s unlikely Trump will face incarceration.
Reply to “Comment on Decisions in the U.S. Department of Justice” by J.D. Biden
He repeated several false claims he made about his criminal trial, and he was also under a gag order. In addition, he said he had wanted to testify in his defense but was advised against it.
The court is in agreement with both the DOJ and the White House according to Trump. This is done by Biden and his people.
There’s no evidence to support the claim. The case against Trump was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecuted under New York state law, meaning the case was unconnected to the White House or DOJ.
I would have testified. I wanted to testify,” he said. “The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify — anybody, if it were George Washington, don’t testify because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong, and then they sue you for perjury.”
Trump’s remarks also veered into an array of other topics, like complaints about allegations made against him in 2022 by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
And he also for a time went into stump-speech mode, repeating his usual anti-immigration rhetoric, saying that American schools are full of people speaking “languages that we haven’t even heard of.”