Walker isn’t the only Georgia Republican Senate nominee to question the legitimacy of the 2020 results. But Walker has been particularly productive and specific in his election-related dishonesty – and he has the largest megaphone by far. Walker has voiced false conspiracy theories on both Fox News and Twitter, where he has more than 445,000 followers.
And his dishonesty wasn’t limited to the subject of choice. Walker has also spread false conspiracy theories about the January 6th Uprising in the U.S. Capitol and Democrats.
Walker’s campaign did not respond to requests for comments on this article.
Conspiracy theories for the 2020 election
A false claim about Biden votes
During a Fox News appearance in December, Walker said, “I can guarantee you Joe Biden didn’t get 50 million people to vote for him. But still people think he won this election. ”Biden won the election – with more than 81 million votes.
False claims about mass fraud
In a tweet on Jan. 4, two days before Congress convened to count the 2020 vote, Walker falsely claimed that there had been “nationwide election fraud.” Walker urged Trump and “TRUE PATRIOTS” to do a “total cleanup” – he didn’t explain what he meant – and continued, “Let’s go back to real Law & Order and prosecute all bad actors to get the job done. “Even high-ranking Trump administration officials have admitted that there was no widespread or outcome-altering fraud in the 2020 election. But Walker said or suggested repeatedly that fraud is pervasive and that unspecified individuals have rigged the elections, Man.” ” In a tweet on Jan. 6 after the Capitol was attacked by pro-Trump riot, Walker said he wanted Trump to get to the bottom of “who stole this election”. there asked in a video about “serious electoral fraud” “how can we certify something that we know is not right”. In another tweet in November, Walker wrote that “people who play in this election must be punished for breaking the law.”
A baseless call for a new vote
In an additional tweet on Nov. 6, Walker suggested for no reason that the results of the vote in seven key states, including six won by Biden, were undemocratic. He suggested that the country cast all votes in these states.
“Instead of arguing and going to court, why don’t we vote again in Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin? We can do it within a week and maintain our democracy, ”wrote.
A conspiracy theory about altered voices
On November 8, Walker tweeted, “Anyone who uses the HAMMER SCORECARD to change the vote in our American elections should be prosecuted.”
Nobody used what was called the “HAMMER SCORECARD” to change votes in the election. This is a completely unfounded conspiracy theory – about alleged voice stealing software developed by US intelligence – the origins of which have been linked to a man who has a history of false claims. A top cybersecurity officer appointed by Trump, Chris Krebs, dubbed Hammer and Scorecard, claims “a joke”, “nonsense” and “not a real thing” in the days leading up to Walker’s tweet. (Trump fired Krebs less than two weeks later for publicly exposing false allegations of fraud.)
The Dominion Conspiracy Theory and Sidney Powell
In late November, Walker tweeted that if pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell was right, “that some of our elected officials knew about Dominion but did nothing and said nothing, maybe some will end up in jail. Our democracy is at stake! ”By then, conspiracy theories about the voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems had largely been debunked. Dominion has filed defamation suits against Powell and others who make false claims about the company. The day after that Walker tweet, the Trump campaign disavowed Powell, who had been widely ridiculed for making particularly outlandish conspiratorial claims about the election. But Walker was not deterred. He tweeted, “I still have great faith in Sidney Powell.” Later that day, Walker tweeted, “All doubters will be shocked when @SidneyPowell1 smacks down on many of the people you’ve trusted for years!”
A false claim about the voting paper in Georgia
In December, Walker tweeted a photo of a postal ballot request in Georgia and a photo of an envelope addressed to someone in a county jail. He wrote, “So now we’re finding GA ballots in prisons?” He asked Georgia’s Foreign Secretary Brad Raffensperger “how much stuff needs to be uncovered before the investigation”.
Walker was wrong; nothing was “exposed” here.
First, unlike postal ballot papers themselves, ballot applications in Georgia can be printed out and sent to everyone else by anyone, not just election officials. This application was sent by an independent group, not Raffensperger.
Second, there is nothing inherently wrong with someone in a county jail receiving a ballot request, or even a ballot themselves. In Georgia, only those serving a sentence for felony can vote. People convicted of offenses or awaiting trial for criminal offenses – in other words, the type of people who are often incarcerated in county prisons – are allowed to vote.
Other conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory about why the Capitol Rebellion happened
On the afternoon of January 6, Walker tweeted a false suggestion that the Capitol riot was being orchestrated by people trying to stop the discussion of electoral fraud.
“Have you noticed that there is no talk of electoral fraud or electoral integrity now? Seems to have been well planned to shut everything down and drive the clock away, ”wrote Walker.
Nonsense. The uprising was perpetrated by Trump supporters, not people trying to silence Trump supporters. The Ministry of Justice has so far indicted more than 575 people.
A conspiracy theory about participants in the uprising
In another tweet on Jan. 6, Walker posted a photo of the Capitol showing rioters, including the distinctively dressed “QAnon shaman” Jacob Chansley. Walker falsely claimed that these people weren’t really Trump supporters – called them “Trojan horses” and said “they don’t look like MAGA”. Chansley in the first photo, William Watson. Some others on the right had claimed that the tattoo was a communist hammer and sickle symbol. In fact, both Chansley and Watson were Trump supporters. And, as the website Alabama Political Reporter noted, Watson personally debunked false theories about his motivations and the tattoo – and stated on Snapchat that the tattoo was a video game icon (called Dishonored).
A Conspiracy Theory About Black Lives Matter and Democrats
In a Twitter video in September, Walker attempted to spread a confusing and baseless conspiracy theory that money was sent by the Chinese government to Black Lives Matter and then to the “Democratic Party”. “Why does it seem like I’m the only one who can come up with this?” That is what Walker said in the video noted in March by the conservative website The Bulwark. Maybe because the theory doesn’t make sense. Walker’s claim was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of ActBlue – an online fundraising platform for a wide variety of Democratic candidates and progressive organizations – and, if we understood it correctly, a false claim that a Sino-American group in California was a “company from China.”
