In an unhinged diatribe on Sunday, CNN host Brian Stelter outlined an elaborate conspiracy theory about former President Donald Trump‘s plans to win the presidency in 2024—with help from fake news, violence and election manipulation, the Post Millennial reported.
Stelter projected the Left’s support for riots and election fraud onto Trump and his supporters.
He asserted that Trump’s “complete control of the GOP” and “his entire political existence” depends upon his claim that President Joe Biden‘s 2020 campaign, along with the corporate media, Big Tech companies, non-profit organizations, and state and local election clerks, organized the largest election fraud scheme in American history.
Stelter called Trump’s claims about election fraud the “Big Lie,” rehashing a ubiquitous Democrat talking point borrowed from Adolf Hitler.
He said he believes that Trump’s goal was “revenge” and reclaiming “what he says was stolen”—that is, the 2020 presidential election.
Trump has a two-step plan, according to Stelter:
The first would be for Republicans to win the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections, as many expect them to do given Democrats’ growing list of policy failures.
The duly elected majority would then put the “sedition caucus” in charge of the “Electoral College process,” Stelter claimed, and ensure that “insurrectionists will have the upper hand next time.”
Second, Trump would announce his presidential campaign. Then, things would really get nasty in Stelter’s vision.
“His verbal attacks against the media are so pervasive now, the physical violence erupts more often … Fear is the point,” Stelter claimed. “Silence through force.”
Right-wing news websites and commentators will begin to rile up Trump supporters in case of another fraudulent election.
“These sites don’t gather news—they spin the news in Trump’s favor,” Stelter stated, exercising no self-awareness about his own network’s admittedly propagandist mission.
“They start to publish explicit enemies lists,” he continued, “and in the comments section of the websites, people dream up what they’ll do if Trump has denied power, which weapons they’ll use, who they’ll hurt.”
Although seeking revenge, Trump holds “rallies under the banner of ‘Save America.'”
“And to ‘save America,’ red states continue to place new restrictions on voting rights, with local radio hosts and commentators providing all the rhetorical cover that’s needed,” Stelter claimed.
Eventually, Stelter’s nightmare scenario turns into explicit civil war.
“Neighbors turn on neighbors” and “local elections turn into existential battles.”
