Two days after the tumultuous 2020 election, as President Donald Trump railed that his victory had been stolen, a small group of men dressed in yellow-and-black Proud Boys shirts appeared with dozens of other Trump supporters to protest the counting of ballots at Nevada’s biggest voting center.
The rally at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, one of many such demonstrations around the nation, looked like an organic response to a president then trailing in early returns and threatening anew to contest his defeat. But private messages from Facebook and interviews show the extent of the efforts, in at least one battleground state, to demonstrate the appearance of grass-roots energy to spread Trump’s falsehoods about the election. His claims would only grow over the coming months, culminating in a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The behind-the-scenes maneuverings in Nevada involved a liberal activist who had faked a persona to get close to far-right activists, and a consultant working with the state Republican Party who contacted her in a bid to recruit the Proud Boys, a far-right men’s group, to attend the rally. Continue reading.