CNN —
John P. Child has a strong view about the 2020 presidential election: “I think it was stolen, fair and square.”
He’s not the type to stage a coup, he says. But he no longer trusts local officials to run elections.
So, like a growing number of Americans who support former President Donald Trump, he’s taken training classes put on by conservative groups on how to be a poll watcher in the 2022 midterm elections. This time, he will be able to see for himself.
It comes as part of a nationwide movement led by MAGA influencers who have circulated false information about election fraud, with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon the most prominent.
On a recent episode of his “War Room” podcast, Bannon said: “Biden is illegitimate, and we’re gonna prove it. … It’s never going to happen again.”
Bannon hosts many guests who are working to build an army of conservative poll workers, such as Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who tried to help overturn the 2020 election. “All over the country, we’re deploying people to be poll watchers to watch everything that’s happening,” Mitchell said.
Some of these MAGA influencers tour the country. David Clements tells crowds that that voting machines are extremely vulnerable. He concludes his presentation with a stirring appeal that the audience members do more than consume content. “You have to get in the ring,” he said in Michigan. “You can’t fight this on social media.”
This is having a real effect. CNN met Child, a realtor, outside a training held...
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