Stop The Steal Group Was Originally Started By Roger Stone-Connected PAC In 2016, Report Finds
A group seeking to “stop the steal” and claiming that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump has gained some viral fame in the last two weeks, but a report claims that the movement has actually been in the works for four years and traces back to controversial adviser Roger Stone.
As CNN reported, the Stop The Steal movement has grown across social media with unfounded claims that the race was marred by widespread fraud and that Trump truly won. But the report found that it was actually started four years ago by a group tied to Stone, who had long been a close adviser to Trump.
The news outlet noted that Stone’s political action committee first launched a Stop the Steal website in 2016 in order to drum up fundraising during the race between Trump and Hillary Clinton. At the time, the organization made a preemptive claim that Republicans were trying to unfairly take the nomination away from the real estate mogul and later claimed that Democrats would try to win the presidency by cheating the Republican candidate.
“Donald Trump thinks Hillary Clinton and the Democrats are going to steal the next election,” the Stone-connected website reportedly said in October 2016.
The movement resurfaced during the 2018 midterms, the outlet added, with Republicans using it during a recount for a Florida Senate seat. It took off again shortly after the votes began being counted this year, CNN added.
“A Stop the Steal Facebook group was managed by a loose coalition of right wing operatives, some of whom have worked with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon,” the story noted.
“The group amassed hundreds of thousands of followers in little more than a day before Facebook shut it down on November 5 — the day after it was launched.”
Trump has repeated unfounded claims of fraud, which have been boosted by many of his supporters and top allies. But Ben Decker, the CEO and founder of digital consultant Memetica, told CNN that the effort is anything but authentic.
“Stop the Steal is a highly coordinated partisan political operation intent on bringing together conspiracy theorists, militias, hate groups and Trump supporters to attack the integrity of our election,” Decker claimed.
As The Inquisitr reported, Trump may be plotting out his political future while continuing to deny the results of the race and refusing to concede. The report noted that he is expected to announce another run in 2024 after delaying the certification of the results showing that Joe Biden won.
