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Many state-level Republicans are moving on from the Big Lie -- i.e. that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from losing former President Trump -- but at the grassroots level, the legend lives on.
Mellissa Carone and Pat Colbeck, part of the "Big Lie circus" (File photos)
That's the conclusion of Progress Michigan, a progressive advocacy group based in Lansing, which examined the social-media posts of county Republican groups around the state. A new report finds that "98 percent of active Michigan Republican County Party Facebook pages or groups have posted about the Big Lie since the election," and a 64 percent majority have referred to the election as "stolen, massive voter fraud, and/or the need for an election audit."
What's more:
In addition to right-wing figures who became known simply for their involvement in The Big Lie circus such as Mellissa Carone, right-wing conspiracy theorists such as Patrick Colbeck and Mike Lindell make frequent appearances on Michigan Republican County Party Facebook pages. Lindell’s so-called (and long-debunked) documentary “Absolute Proof,” about “evidence” of mass election fraud, has been used for movie nights in multiple county groups.
Colbeck, a former member of the Michigan Senate, has made spouting conspiracy theories about the 2020 election his mission in life since November. Colbeck is perhaps the most prominent source of election conspiracy related content seen on these pages, with numerous shares of articles from his website. He has also been invited to speak and been either a driving force or a presence at multiple events across the state, most notably an early June event pitched as “Decision Day” in Antrim County where conspiracy theories ran rampant amid a push for a statewide so-called forensic audit.
A recent GOP-led Michigan Senate Oversight Committee investigation found no evidence of fraud, the report notes. However:
A week after its release, only a handful of county groups have shared it, and only so they could express outrage and conspiracy-laden pushback.
So what is the result of all this? Eight months after the election, we are still fighting anti-voter bills based on the idea of ensuring “election integrity.” This two-faced language serves to reassure those in their base who believe The Big Lie wholeheartedly that these lawmakers and party officials agree that the results of the election weren’t fair—which is why they need to restrict voting rights—while simultaneously allowing those same Republican lawmakers and party officials to save face in the media with those who know the myth that the election was stolen is exactly what we’ve come to call it: a big lie.
