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Cell phone video filmed in the dark by a woman in a parked car appeared to show something sinister: a man slamming the doors of a white van and then pushing a cart with a large box into a Detroit polling place.
After recording her video, Texas Republican Kelly SoRelle took it to a conservative YouTube host who showed it to her show’s 5 million subscribers the day after the election. He also gave it to the Texas Scorecard, a website started by Empower Texans, a lobby group that ranks politicians on a conservative scorecard and is funded by West Texas businessman Tim Dunn.
The Empower Texans PAC has invested millions of dollars in ultra-conservative candidate campaigns. Texas Scorecard posted the video on its website and YouTube page, which collectively racked up 50,000 shares on Facebook.
Others soon caught on to the story and, four hours later, Eric Trump tweeted it to his 4 million followers. “WATCH: Suitcases and coolers entered the Detroit Voting Center at 4 AM and entered a secure counting area,” he tweeted.
During the following week, there were nearly 150,000 mentions of voting cars, suitcases or refrigerators in broadcast scripts, blogs, and on public Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts, according to an analysis by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs conducted for the Associated Press. .
That single video serves as a powerful emblem of the false information trafficking that has plagued the presidential election won by Joe Biden.
None of this was true.
WXYZ in the history of the wagon.
The clip was quickly discredited by news organizations and public officials. An investigative reporter for local television station WXYZ-TV clarified on Twitter the same night the video was first posted that the mysterious man was one of their videographers transporting a team car to relieve the crew inside the center. voting.
But for many viewers it had the desired effect. Eric Hainline, a UPS driver from Dayton, Ohio, saw the video and liked many, saying the footage reinforced his suspicions that the election was stolen from Trump. “You don’t know who to believe anymore,” said Hainline, 44. “I think people’s trust is broken.”
Trump and his allies have furthered the idea of a “rigged election” for months, promoting falsehoods through various outlets and even lawsuits over fraudulent votes and dead voters casting votes across the country.
While the details of these false accusations may fade over time, the scar they leave on American democracy could take years to heal.
“There will always be people who believe that the Democrats stole the 2020 election,” said Jennifer Mercieca, historian of political rhetoric at Texas A&M University. “That won’t change.”
Biden supporter RosaLea Schiavone of San Diego said she has watched with horror, but not surprise, as Trump has stoked conspiracy theories about the election outcome. He worries that the damage will last much longer than a campaign, a term or a presidency.
“It’s about fear, about what he’s doing. Play with people’s fear and mistrust, ”said the 71-year-old. “It could hurt us all.”
