Despite the fact that it pushed a conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, the Media Research Center has spent much of this year complaining that people are warning that Trump may try to steal the 2026 midterm elections to benefit Republicans, denouncing those who make the claim as pushing, yes, a conspiracy theory. Indeed, the MRC’s narrative started well before this year. For instance:
- CNN Gives Platform to Dem Conspiracy Theory Trump to Steal Midterms
- Jake Tapper Suggests Trump Will Turn Troops on America, Steal Election
- Psaki Pushes Conspiracy Theory: Trump Trying to Suppress Voters, Steal Election
Nicholas Fondacaro raged in his Feb. 3 hate-watch of “The View”:
ABC News moderator Whoopi Goldberg issued a call to action against President Trump during Tuesday’s episode of The View. She called on Americans to “do something about” Trump before he got the chance to “steal the election” in November. Instead of pushing back, Goldberg received aid in the form of co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin pushing their own claims that the midterm election results couldn’t be trusted if Democrats came up short.
Goldberg’s call to action came in response to Hostin repeating an unsupported accusation she made on Friday, when she asserted that Trump was trying to get ahold of voters’ Social Security Numbers as part of a plot to steal the 2026 midterms:
[…]Looking to the audience, she then issued her call to action, even affirming it was a call to action: “Listen, if you don’t like what you’re hearing, you’re going to have to do something about it. Because Washington isn’t going to do it. It’s got to be us. It’s got to be the people. Okay, I’m saying that.”
Fondacaro didn’t disprove anthing Goldberg said; instead, he huffed that “This was the latest instance of The View using what appeared to be inciting rhetoric against the Trump administration.”
Nicholas Spinnato chimed in with a Feb. 9 post:
During Monday’s Morning Joe, so-called ‘conservative’ writer Matt Lewis alleged ICE was “buying” local police forces across the country through the federal 287(g) program in order to serve as a “paramilitary” force for a possible plot by President Donald Trump to steal the midterm elections.
The federal program referred to by Lewis, titled ICE’s 287(g) program, was a cooperation partnership between ICE and local police agencies that allowed local police to help ICE carry out immigration enforcement in a limited fashion.
In return for joining the program, local police departments may receive reimbursements for money spent on local immigration enforcement.
During his MS NOW appearance, “conservative writer” Matt Lewis alleged participation in the 287(g) program decreased trust in police, even though the program had existed for decades:
Spinnato then rushed to the defense of Trump and ICE:
The whole idea of the 287(g) was grounded in the idea of local governments choosing to help federal authorities. Lewis even mentions that the program was created in 1996 during the Clinton Administration.
It is also an absurd idea to claim that all federal grants to localities are bribes. If that is the case, then what was the point of federal funding for state government if it’s all a big bribe.
Even worse from Lewis was enflaming the idea of ICE being Trump’s “private police” or “paramilitary” force. With statements like this, it was no surprise why liberals are forming ‘resistance’ and ‘revolutionary‘ groups against ICE.
Spinnato followed up in a March 20 post:
After Wednesday morning testimony from DHS secretary nominee Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), CNN journalist Dana Bash, host of Inside Politics, helped push a Democrat conspiracy that DHS and ICE agents would be used to subvert the results of the upcoming midterm elections. Similarly, MS NOW primetime host and former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki followed with the same questioning on her show in an interview with Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ).
Is there really a difference between a supposed news host on CNN at noon and a former Democrat press operative’s opinion show on primetime MS NOW, which just changed their lineup to add more opinionated content throughout the day?
On the CNN postgame coverage of the Mullin hearing, Bash mostly spent time with coverage of reforms Democrats want for DHS, the actual cause of the ongoing partial government shutdown which CNN This Morning host Audie Cornish admitted yesterday.
How is this different from the MRC’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen? Spinnato doesn’t explain.