Trump’s Fake Election Claims Came From Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones, But Media Aren’t Reporting That
Blog ››› November 28, 2016 3:42 PM EST ››› OLIVER WILLIS
President-elect Donald Trump’s false claim that he “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally” can be traced to conspiracy theorist and Trump ally Alex Jones. But multiple media reports on Trump’s falsehood failed to report the connection, which is only the latest in a growing list of conspiracy theories espoused by both Jones and the president-elect.
Trump made his claim in response to ongoing vote counting showing former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton amassing a popular vote lead of over 2 million votes.
Trump’s lie echoes a story from Infowars, the conspiracy-laden website run by Jones. Jones has promoted numerous outlandish conspiracies, including the allegation that the American government was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing, and that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a “false flag” event involving actors and green screens.
An Infowars story headlined “Report: Three Million Votes In Presidential Election Cast By Illegal Aliens,” which cites a tweet from “Greg Phillips of the VoteFraud.org organization,” is the basis of Trump’s fraudulent allegation.
Phillips, without providing any evidence for his claim, wrote on Twitter, “We have verified more than three million votes cast by non-citizens.”
Infowars’ Paul Joseph Watson then published an article on Phillips’ tweet that baselessly claimed, “Virtually all of the votes cast by 3 million illegal immigrants are likely to have been for Hillary Clinton, meaning Trump might have won the popular vote when this number is taken into account.” As The Washington Post explained, Infowars was vital in bringing the conspiracy theory to a wider audience — the Jones-led website’s story on Phillips’ tweet was linked near the top of the Drudge Report on November 14.
In a YouTube video entitled “Proof Donald Trump Won The Popular Vote” released following the Infowars report, Jones himself claimed “it is uncontrovertible (sic) fact that three million illegals voted” in the election and “tens of millions of people were on the voter rolls who were dead and at least four million of them voted as well,” and concluded, “Donald J. Trump didn’t just win the Electoral College in a landslide, he also clearly won the popular vote.”
In covering Trump’s allegation (and often uncritically echoing it), multiple media outlets failed to make the connection between Trump and Jones and the other conspiracy theorists pushing this baseless story.
The New York Times acknowledged that Trump’s claim was “baseless” but did not make the connection between the president-elect and conspiracy sites or Jones.
The L.A. Times pointed out there is “no evidence” to back up Trump’s claim, but did not point out the false story’s origins.
NBC News omitted references to Infowars and Alex Jones in their report on Trump’s remarks.
Trump adopting a conspiracy from Jones and Infowars is not out of the ordinary. The relationship between the politician and the conspiracy theorist has flourished for months.
Trump appeared on Jones’ radio/internet show in December of 2015 and praised him for his “amazing” reputation. Trump’s informal adviser, Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone, has been a regular contributor to Jones’ radio program for months and the two have made joint appearances at pro-Trump events.
Throughout the campaign, Trump echoed Jones’ conspiratorial rhetoric as Jones said he was in contact directly with Trump, giving him advice.
In an October speech attacking “global financial powers” while using anti-Semitic tropes and dog whistles, Trump was parroting an argument that Jones has used for years.
After Jones said Trump should begin complaining the election was “rigged,” Trump began making similar complaints on the campaign trail.
When Trump alleged that President Obama was “the founder of ISIS,” he was echoing Jones, whose website once wrote that “the Obama administration has been backing ISIS since the beginning.”
After Trump delivered his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Jones saw so much of his rhetoric included that he bragged on his radio show that Trump was “totally synced” with him and his conspiratorial world view. Following Trump’s victory, Jones claimed that Trump called him to “thank” Jones’ audience and promised to appear on his show in the near future.
This latest outburst shows that the two men remain in sync, and it’s time for the media to let the public know who is pulling the next president’s strings.
Blog of Staś 
I AM SURPRISED AT TUT’S CRITICISM OF ALEX JONES. WHEN I COMPARE JONES WITH THE THE CURRENT WASHINGTON ADMINISTRATION, THE D.C. ESTABLISHMENT, THE MEDIAS AND SO FORTH, HE APPEARS TO ME TO BE A SAINT. I WOULD RATHER BE RULED BY JONES THAN ANY OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED WHORES. JS
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Yes , Jones is better then the Establishment media. However, he brings with him the conspiracy culture and everything that comes with it. No one dies at Sandy Hook ect. The point was it could bog Trump down. and bring some unforeseen problems. Just asking the question and speculation about events is interesting but can trap the reader in a loop.
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PS; When you criticize or distance yourself from Jones you suggest those who utilize him as one source of info are of lesser ability than the media and establishment who puts out fake news, and false flags. I suggest we are the better intelligensia than those who try to control us. And we have a larger pool of free thinkers and investigators to draw from. And proud of it. Joan Solms
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When the luv affair with Trump starts to dwindle, who will be there to info us of the inside skinny? Fox news, ABC, NBC , CBS,CNN?Hardly. Even Jones is guilty of the sin of ommission. TUT is almost alone in reporting on the Israeli / Palestinian war, holocaust. RT TV use to, but they were served notice and have ommitted serious reporting on Israel and the Middle East wars. As for researched reports on actual events, nicknamed ‘conspiracy theories’ I and millions of others would not waste one minute reading well researched and documented reports by respected, intelligent professionals and viewing the informative videos they produce. The Zionist controlled media can snow TUT and put the fear of ‘murder she wrote’ into you, but truth will prevail. THank God for the American Faree Press.
joan solms
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If you saying people can read though the lines and draw their own conclusions from what Mr. Jones reports on that we must agree upon.
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Trump’s Fake Election Claims Came From Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones, But Media Aren’t Reporting That…/////
HOW stupid can people be believing it is a false claim.
Nobody has proof.
But logically intelligence will lend to the claim that trump got the popular vote is OVERWHELMINGLY true.
Even if Nobody has proof.
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Your quite right. The point is Jones makes some good points but then he sabotages himself by acting like a lunatic. His propaganda is very complex.
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