Waukesha Republicans’ Pillow Paranoia

The Waukesha County Republican Party, once the proud engine that drove the state Republican Party, pandered again to its wacko-wing on Friday. The party sponsored a showing of a thoroughly debunked conspiracy-theory “documentary” regarding the 2020 Presidential election.

The movie, “Absolute Proof,” is My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell’s version of what happened on Election Night in 2020 when President Donald Trump lost to former Vice President Joe Biden. The movie makes numerous false claims about the election, including an “algorithm error” caused by electronic vote fraud delayed reporting of results, the Chinese controlled electronic voting machines to swing the election for Biden, and numerous dead voters and non-residents were the reason Biden won a number of swing states.

“Absolute Proof” has been thoroughly debunked by fact-checkers, is the subject of possible litigation, and has been removed from social media websites because of the false information. When the pro-Trump television network, OANN, aired the movie, the network ran a disclaimer rather than risk potential lawsuits.

Nonetheless, over eighty people viewed the movie at the party headquarters on Pearl Street according to a Facebook post by the Waukesha GOP’s “grassroots outreach director” Keith Best, who added his thoughts in support of the conspiracy theories in the film.

“The Republican Party of Waukesha County hosted ‘Movie Night’ at it’s Pearl Street Mystery Theater last night. The mystery was who and how the theft of last November’s election was pulled off,” Best posted. “Over 80 folks watched Mike Lindell’s documentary ‘Absolute Proof’ and came away convinced the crime committed was theft of an election. There is plenty of evidence.”

Best has also made other Facebook posts in support of conspiracy theories regarding the election being “stolen,” including one on January 2, just days before the attack on the Capitol, and another post saying we would find out “if justice is upheld and this fraudulent election is overturned” on January 6. Best also made a Facebook post suggesting that the attack by Trump supporters on January 6 on the Capitol was carried out by Antifa.

An emailed request for comment from Waukesha County Republican Party chairman Terry Dittrich, including whether the party still believes the election was stolen, went unanswered Sunday.

Rohn Bishop, chairman of the Fond du Lac County Republican Party, criticized the Waukesha GOP for sponsoring the event.

“If we’re going to win moving forward, we need to be a party of policy and not conspiracies,” Bishop said in an email Sunday. “Unless the official position of the RPW is the election was stolen, we shouldn’t be wallowing in these conspiracy theories. It’s time elected Republicans start telling the truth about what happened on election day, and we need to work on winning in 2022.”

This is not the first time the Waukesha County Republican Party expressed support for overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election. In an email to its members, the Waukesha GOP called upon their representatives to support a badly-flawed Texas lawsuit to throw out votes of Wisconsin and other swing states.

Nor is this the first controversial event by the Waukesha County Republican Party in the Trump era. In September, the Republican Women of Waukesha County sponsored an event with Michelle Malkin, an activist who has taken up alt-Right causes. In 2019, the party held a “Build the Wall Ball.” Both events were emceed by WISN-AM radio personality Vicki McKenna, who held a “Stop the Steal” rally with the radical right Proud Boys and called for listeners to take their guns to Kenosha to confront protesters there.

Waukesha County is a bastion of Republican support, along with Ozaukee and Washington counties (the so-called “WOW” counties). In 2016, Trump received 60% of the vote against Hillary Clinton’s 33.3%. In 2020, the Republican margin dropped with Trump receiving 59.6% to Biden’s 38.8%, a total swing of 5.9% towards the Democrats.

The Trump margins in Waukesha County paled in comparison to former Massachusetts Governor and current U.S. Senator Mitt Romney’s against President Barack Obama, 67% to 32.2%.

James Wigderson is editor of Right Wisconsin, where this column was first published.