Port: North Dakota higher ed board member, and Bastiat lawmaker, promote My Pillow guy’s election conspiracy video

Last year she was appointed by Gov. Doug Burgum to fill a seat on the State Board of Higher Education that Judge Dan Traynor vacated upon his appointment to the federal bench.

She’s also been promoting an election conspiracy theory video produced by Donald Trump confidant and pillow impresario Mike Lindell.

The video (yes, I watched it) has the aspirations of a sort of documentary but executes as a fever dream of conspiracy-addled nonsense. Evidence as clear as any other that the Trump movement seems intent on becoming exactly what its enemies accuse it of being.

It has been aired on the OANN cable news channel, though even those Trump loyalists slapped a massive disclaimer on it before airing. Newsmax, another overtly pro-Trump cable offering, cut off Lindell’s microphone when he started ranting about a stolen election earlier this week.

With election technology companies filing massive lawsuits against Trump allies who have maligned them in their increasingly bizarre denunciations of the 2020 election results, it’s not hard to understand why Newsmax and OANN would want some distance from Lindell even as they continue to give him a platform.

I’ve watched the video with the same sort of curiosity I have for a certain genre of science fiction thrillers. I won’t promote it by linking it here, but I’m sure you can find it on your own if you wish.

“Tell the world … and pray that this info gets to the people who can, and will, take action!” Bye writes in her email promoting the video.

Her message was sent to an undisclosed list of recipients, but one was Rep. Terry Jones, a member of the secretive Bastiat Caucus representing a New Town area district, and he forwarded to the House and Senate caucus in the Legislature.

Jones apologized earlier this year for emailing to his legislative colleagues a video promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory that has been credited, by some, as one of the inspirations for the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Did Burgum appoint a QAnon person to the board of higher education?” asked one senator who forwarded me Jones’ latest email.

When I first reached out to Bye, she was hesitant to comment on the email, wanting to know if what I intended to write would be “positive or negative” and asking if I’d watched the video. She requested time to craft a response to me. When I followed up with her after not receiving a response, my call went directly to voicemail.

Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki said he hadn’t seen Bye’s email or the Lindell video and had no comment.

This isn’t Lindell’s first appearance in North Dakota politics. He spoke at a Trump campaign rally in 2018 and promoted Bastiat-aligned lawmaker Rep. Dan Johnston (also an aficionado of QAnon conspiracies) in his primary campaign for Treasurer.

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Rob Port, founder of SayAnythingBlog.com, is a Forum Communications commentator. Reach him on Twitter at @robport or via email at rport@forumcomm.com.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Grand Forks Herald can be found here ***