Online Extremists Plot Real-World Mobilization on Election Day
Early voting has brought with it a wave of harassment and violence against poll workers. As local officials and volunteers attempt to carry out the nation's quadrennial exercise in democracy with as little disruptions as possible, extremist groups are once again preparing to challenge election results - and are prepared to resort to violence in order to do so.
According to a Monday
report from The New York Times, a sprawling network of right-wing extremist groups - many of which participated in efforts to subvert election results in 2020 - is using Telegram to prepare followers to mobilize on and after Election Day.
The
Times analyzed over one million messages from 50 different Telegram channels, most formed after the 2020 election. The conspiracy riddled channels encouraged followers to effectively self deputize as poll watchers and election monitors. "The day is fast approaching when fence sitting will no longer be possible," one Proud Boys channel based in Ohio wrote. "You will either stand with the resistance or take a knee and willingly accept the yoke of tyranny and oppression."
A separate
analysis by The Wall Street Journal found that the Proud Boys activity on Telegram suggests that the extremist group is reassembling following the arrest and conviction of several of its most prominent members over their participation in violent efforts to overthrow the 2020 election.
One North Carolina chapter lauded their members who worked the polls in the Republican primaries as an "excellent trial run for the general election in November." Harris "will not win without a steal, which is exactly what they are planning to do," chapter leadership wrote.
According to posts reviewed by the
Journal, the North Phoenix Proud Boys chapter posted a photo of a stockpile of weapons with the caption "Proud Boys stocking up getting ready for Nov…It's going to be biggley!!"
An
analysis of Telegram content by The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) found that "election denialism has risen 317 percent over the course of October 2024," a similar trend to the rise of violent rhetoric in 2020 which culminated in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
"Posts made on Telegram include using election denialism to justify an apparent ‘inevitable civil war' and a call to ‘Shoot to kill any illegal voters,'" the analysis found. "Throughout the year, Proud Boys online accounts, whose leader and members helped orchestrate the January 6, 2021 insurrection, have been calling for elected officials to be ‘arrested, tried for treason, and hanged,' and called for their supporters to ‘keep your rifles by your side.'"
GPAHE found similar spikes in election denialism and violent rhetoric on other platforms frequented by Trump's most militant supporters, including Gab, communities.win, and Fediverse.
The digital current of inciting rhetoric may already be having real-world violent outcomes. Last month, a man
was arrested in Arizona after allegedly shooting a Democratic campaign office multiple times, and planning an "act of mass casualty." A poll worker in San Antonio, Texas, was
punched by a Trump supporter who refused to remove his MAGA hat before entering a polling place in compliance with state law. Last week, an 18-year-old was
arrested in Neptune Beach, Florida, after menacing a group of Democratic voters with a machete. In another incident, a man wearing a "Lets Go Brandon" hat was filmed
screaming and cursing at poll workers when asked to remove the pro-Trump accessory at a polling place in South Carolina.
Trump and his allies are not condemning any of this, opting instead to continue stoking the fires of election denialism and encouraging their supporters to take matters into their own hands.
During a Sunday afternoon rally, Trump
told supporters in Lititz, Pennsylvania, that he wouldn't "mind" if an assassin aiming to kill him had to "shoot through" members of the media in order to get to him. "To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don't mind that so much. I don't mind. I don't mind that," he said.
Last week, the former president
fantasized during a campaign event about having former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney forced to stare down gun barrels.
The former president has also repeatedly glorified his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, honoring them at his rallies while suggesting he will pardon those serving time for their actions should he retake the White House.
The pot seems primed to boil over, and with congressional Republicans having been wholly captured by the MAGA movement, the GOP seems prepared to usurp the presidency in Trump's favor if he loses.
On Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)
warned that House Republicans "don't seem to be capable of unequivocally saying that they will certify the election and the verdict that is rendered by the American people."
As previously reported
by Rolling Stone, sources close to Trump say the former president is confident that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will have his back should Democrats try - in his view - to "cheat" him of a win.
"Political scientists have told us what an authoritarian political party is," Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-Md.) told
Rolling Stone. "And one of the key hallmarks is that an authoritarian or fascist political party does not accept the results of democratic elections that don't go their way."
"The way I see it is that Trump and his followers are not running a classic political campaign where they're engaged in canvassing, phone-banking, get-out-the-vote efforts of voter mobilization. They are rather preparing to attack the electoral results and the electoral process," Raskin added. "So, on the Democratic side, we have to go out and win the election first, and then, we have to defend the election."
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