One by one, several of Donald Trump’s former top advisers told a special committee of the US House of Representatives investigating his role in the January 6 uprising that they did not believe his lies about the 2020 election and that the former president knew that he lost to Joe Biden.
But instead of convincing Trump’s staunchest supporters, the testimony of former Attorney General Bill Barr and Trump’s daughter Ivanka about the election and the attack on the US Capitol makes many simply confirm their views that the former president was right in his false statement. of victory.
Bar’s testimony that Trump has been repeatedly told that there is no election fraud? It was paid for by a voting machine company, according to a false claim that went viral this week. Ivanka Trump says she doesn’t trust Trump either? It’s all part of Trump’s big plan to confuse his enemies and save America.
The allegations once again demonstrate how deeply rooted Trump’s fake account of the election is.
“It’s a cognitive dissonance,” said Jennifer Stromer-Gally, a professor at Syracuse University who studied how Trump used social media and advertising to mobilize his base. “If you believe what Trump says, and now Bill Bar and Trump’s own daughter are saying these other things, it’s creating a rift and people need to fill it.”
Lawmakers leading the hearings on the deadly attack on the US Capitol said one of their goals was to show how Trump has repeatedly lied to his supporters in an attempt to retain power and undermine American democracy.
“President Trump is investing millions of dollars in the campaign, deliberately spreading false information, running ads he knew to be fake, and convincing millions of Americans that the election was corrupt and he is the real president,” said Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. . , Deputy Chairman of the Committee. “As you will see, this disinformation campaign provoked violence on January 6.
For those who accept Trump’s baseless allegations, Bar’s testimony was particularly shocking. In an interview with investigators, he detailed Trump’s many absurd claims about the 2020 election, calling them “fake” and “idiotic.”
Barr told the commission when he spoke to Trump that “there has never been an indication of interest in what the real facts are.”
“He’s detached from reality if he really believes in these things,” Barr said.
Following his testimony, many Trump supporters using sites such as Reddit, GETTR and Telegram have exposed Bar as a criminal and noted that he has challenged Trump’s campaign allegations.
But many others began to look for alternative explanations for this testimony.
“I still hope Bar plays a role,” said a poster on a Telegram channel popular with Trump supporters.
A publication circulating this week suggested that Bar was paid for by Dominion Voting Systems, a company targeted by Trump and his supporters with baseless allegations of vote rigging. “From 2009 to 2018, DOMINION PAID BAR $ 1.2 million in cash and provided it with another $ 1.1 million in share awards, according to SEC documents. (No wonder Bar can’t detect any voter fraud!) “The publication reads.
Wrong Dominion. The bar was paid for by Dominion Energy, a publicly traded company based in Richmond, Virginia that provides electricity and heat to customers in several Mid-Atlantic states.
Unlike Bar, Ivanka Trump remains very popular with many Trump supporters and is seen by many as a potential successor to her father. Maybe that’s why so many had to find an alternative explanation for why she told Congress she didn’t accept her father’s claims.
Jordan Sutter, a leading proponent of QAnon’s theory, claims that both Bar and Ivanka Trump lied during their testimony on Trump’s orders, part of a complex scheme to defeat Trump’s enemies by confusing Congress and the American public. .
“I can only imagine Donald Trump telling Ivanka, ‘Hey, go to this hearing, say these things. Get rid of their heads, “Sutter said on his online show last week.
Some Trump supporters have completely rejected Ivanka Trump’s testimony, questioning whether any of it is true. This is another common refrain seen on far-right message boards. Many posters say they do not even believe that the hearings are taking place, but are a Hollywood production featuring deputies to the former president’s daughter and others.
“She looks different,” a Telegram poster asked. “CGI?”
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