CPAC attracts fraud purveyors Donald Trump, Mike Lindell, Michael Flynn

The MyPillow CEO was talking voter fraud on a side stage, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone held a fraud-filled press conference at a nearby hamburger restaurant and former President Donald Trump – the main megaphone for baseless fraud claims – was the headline speaker.

False notions that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump are being featured in ways big and small as Republicans gather in Orlando for the Conservative Political Action Conference, from the flags saying “Trump won” in the vendor booths to the Ohio U.S. Senate candidate who declared to big applause that “this election was stolen from Donald J. Trump.”

That’s a problem for the GOP heading into the 2022 election, experts say.

Trump has done everything he can to elevate the unfounded idea that the 2020 election was stolen, but polls show that most Americans don’t believe him and top Republicans worry the issue is a loser that could drag the party down at a time when the GOP appears to have momentum.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell repeatedly has rebutted Trump on the fraud issue and most Republican leaders who spoke at CPAC over the first few days steered clear of it.

Trump won’t let it go, though, and his insistence on making the issue a litmus test for whether Republicans are loyal to him continues to embolden election conspiracy theorists and enflame the GOP base, putting Republican leaders in an awkward position.

“They know if it becomes the central issue of the campaign it might really hurt them,” said University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett. “But they know it can’t be totally shunted aside and put behind them because Trump and many of his supporters don’t want to let that happen, at least not yet.”

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The CPAC gathering showed how deeply Trump’s false claims have permeated the GOP. While many speakers avoided the election fraud issue, or touched on “election integrity” without explicitly saying there was widespread fraud, some pushed it aggressively and received an enthusiastic response from the crowd. 

Among those speaking were former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who said the election was “rigged,” and Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel, who roused the crowd by declaring the election was stolen from Trump and “one of the most important fights of our day is to stop the cheating from the left.”

Meanwhile, prominent figures in the effort to overturn the 2020 election were active on the fringes of the conference.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell hosted a welcome reception Thursday to cap off the first night of the conference. Those who showed up were treated to free meatballs and vegetarian spring rolls with duck sauce while Lindell stood on a small stage and ran through the list of election conspiracy theories he is now famous for disseminating.

Lindell didn’t have an actual speaking slot at the conference. Instead, he was relegated to a side room down the hall from where the main stage was set up. He spoke in an area wedged between rows of vendors for everything from MAGA hats to a “Christian conservative” mobile phone company.

“They’re afraid of this place getting sued,” Lindell said of why some are avoiding the election fraud issue at CPAC. “You didn’t see me hold back but they put me in this room.”

Lindell is among the most controversial and high-profile figures pushing baseless fraud claims. His status on the edges of CPAC showed how the conservative movement has struggled to handle these MAGA stars who have pushed views that aren’t just politically unpopular outside the GOP, but have attracted legal action.

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Lindell is being sued for defamation by voting machine company Smartmatic.

Another voting machine company, Dominion Voting Systems, is suing former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne over his fraud claims.

Patrick Byrne continuing election fraud fight

Byrne, a prominent figure in the effort to overturn the 2020 election who poured millions into a ballot audit in Arizona’s most populous county, also appeared on the fringes of CPAC.

Byrne, Trump political adviser Roger Stone, Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Flynn’s brother Joe Flynn staged a press conference Friday at a restaurant a short walk from the conference. 

Byrne and Michael Flynn, both Sarasota County residents, met with Trump in the Oval Office a few weeks after he lost the 2020 election to pitch ways he could keep fighting the results. They’ve continued that fight over the last year.

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On Friday, they touted a plan to recruit more poll watchers to provide oversight of the 2022 election, while also continuing to push baseless claims about the 2020 results.

“We know there was massive election fraud in 2020 … it has to be fixed or our republic is lost,” Byrne told a small group of journalists and conservative activists assembled in the restaurant.

Unfounded fraud claims popular at CPAC

Courts repeatedly have rejected these voting fraud claims for lack of evidence, yet they live on in a subculture where individuals such as Lindell are heroes.

The CPAC crowd started chanting “we love Mike” as Lindell threw out MAGA hats “from our real president Donald Trump.”

Lindell basked in the adulation, taking pictures with his fans. He erupted when a reporter questioned him about the evidence for fraud.

“This guy just said where’s the evidence … you are disgusting,” Lindell bellowed.

Many election officials from both parties say the unfounded fraud claims are harmful to democracy. They undermine the legitimacy of election results and elected leaders.

The fraud claims also appear to be bad politics for Republicans, according to polling. A POLITICO-Morning Consult poll released last week found that 56% of those surveyed opposed Trump’s “continued focus on his claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.”

“I just don’t see that as a winning issue,” said Florida Gulf Coast University political science professor Peter Bergerson.

Bergerson noted that the issue doesn’t resonate “with mainstream Republicans and mainstream Americans.”

Some leading Republicans have recognized the problem and tried to push back, although there was none of that at CPAC.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, was the latest prominent Republican to come out forcefully against Trump’s claim that the election was stolen.

“While there were some irregularities, there were none of the irregularities which would have risen to the point where they would have changed the vote outcome in a single state,” Rounds said during a television interview last month. “We simply did not win the election as Republicans for the presidency.”

McConnell quickly backed up Rounds, saying he “told the truth” and “I agree with him.”

Yet there was no appetite for contradicting Trump at CPAC this week. He was the headline speaker, slated to give the prime address on Saturday evening, and many in attendance firmly believed his fraud claims.

Utah resident George Zinn said “of course” the election was stolen, arguing that Democrats would “do anything to orchestrate to make sure that their candidate gets in.” 

Lindell said the GOP needs to run on “fix 2020 first” and Republicans should reject candidates who won’t talk about voter fraud.

“I think there’s a stark dichotomy between the party leaders, who would like this to go away as an issue, and the voters,” Byrne said.

Mandel took aim at “the RINOs, the squishy establishment Republicans” who say “well, let’s just move on” from the 2020 election.

Mandel is running in a highly competitive GOP primary where Trump has yet to endorse a candidate. His forceful embrace of the false stolen election claim and decision to focus on that during his CPAC speech show how the issue resonates with the GOP base. 

It was clear from CPAC that a big part of the GOP isn’t moving on from the false fraud claims, even as the conference organizers tried to focus on issues where the GOP appears to have broader support.

The theme of the conference was “Awake Not Woke,” a nod to the culture war fights that have animated the GOP and led some Democrats to worry that their party is too far left on some issues. There were panel discussions on crime and alleged leftist “propaganda” in schools, but not on election fraud.

“There’s just a lot of voters who are very turned off by this continued talk of election fraud,” Jewett said.

Follow Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson on Twitter at @zacjanderson. He can be reached at zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com