WEBVTT - Episode 2: Stop The Steal 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.080 Before we get into it, be advised that this series 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:18.639 contains bad language and references to violence. To understand what 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:22.159 happened at the Capitol on January six, we need to 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:31.200 zoom out away from the violence, but we're not going far, 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:37.519 just to block away. On a rooftop terrace on Constitution Avenue, 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.560 safely back from the violence. A slightly built man in 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.280 a checkered blazer is doing a live stream of the 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:48.000 rebellion against an illegitimate government. He's in his mid thirties, 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.279 and his crisp white shirt and edgy haircut announced him 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.720 as an influencer. As he looks out over the chaos, 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.200 he revels in what his influence has unleashed. This is we, 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.080 the people of the growing frustrating tunes of the government, 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.000 and what's happening now is exactly what I've warned about. 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.880 That's not quite true. He hasn't been warning about this day. 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:12.319 He's been planning for it, organizing for it, inciting thousands 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.319 upon thousands of people with the lie that the election 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.080 was fraudulent. I've said that we need to make fair 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.679 elections in transparent county so that the people do not 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.800 feel like the last resort is public demonstrations like this. 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.839 As he addresses the camera, the scene behind him is escalating. 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:41.119 Rioters are pouring into the US Capital. We are marching through. 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:48.360 Members of Congress are scrambling for safety. Where are you going? 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.880 White nationalists Q and on cultists and card carrying militia 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:06.760 members are roaming the hallways. They're hunting elected officials. What 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.600 they're doing a darts trying to find her later in 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.960 the day. Rioters will even smear their feces on the walls. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:31.560 I want to say something I don't do avow this. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.320 I do not denounce this. This is completely peaceful, looks 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.400 like so far. And there are a couple of agitators 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:44.480 that I obviously donates for. The influencer on the rooftop. 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:49.960 This is the culmination of a life's work. He's the 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:54.120 wily right wing provocateur you've never heard of. But you 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:59.880 can't understand the Capital insurrection without understanding his story. I 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.760 was a person who came up with the January sixth idea. 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.600 All of this begins with a lie. And that slim, 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:12.280 smartly dressed guy on the rooftop his name is Ali 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:19.720 Alexander and he's the man behind the lie. From the 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.720 teams at Cool Zone Media. I heart radio and novel. 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:45.480 This is the Assault on America Episode two, Stop the Steel. Okay, 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.400 straight off the bat. The Capitol riot involved tens of 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:53.400 thousands of Trump supporters, including more than eight hundred who 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.520 entered the capital itself. It was promoted by the President 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:02.160 of the United States. One the presidential election was rigged, 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.880 illegal votes, and then I've taken this White House. We're 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.080 going to fight like hell. I'll tell you right now, who, 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.880 in turn, was amplified by a vast media network online 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:16.760 and on TV. Voter fraud people voting to quite seven 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.160 million votes deleted, so much evidence right in front of 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:26.040 people's eyes. So can we really single out one far 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.599 right influencer as the chief architect of the riot? Oh? No, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.279 I think that's fair. That is very fair. That's Luke O'Brien. 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:37.320 He's an investigative journalist who covers political extremism. I'm an 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.719 investigative reporter and I have been tracking a network of 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.080 bad actors on the political right for the last five years. 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.680 In case you're wondering, it's not the easiest beat to cover. 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.200 I think it began with my very first story. I 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.880 started getting defamed and harassed and threatened, and it's been 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.800 that way for uff a decade now. Every story you're 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:06.400 right usually results in some sort of blowback. Blowback is 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.120 Luke's jovial way of describing having his personal details leaked 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:14.920 online to thousands of far right accounts, or being deemed 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.200 a picture of a handgun with the caption your time 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.200 is come. I've covered a lot of the same communities 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.160 and can confirm that death threats are sort of de rigor. 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.160 The harassment increases exponentially if you do this work and 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.679 happen to not be a white dude. So anyway, Luke 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.320 was digging into these kinds of networks when he first 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:42.279 came across our man on the rooftop, Ali Alexander. I've 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:46.359 noticed him online and then in I noticed him in 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.479 person because I attended a rally in front of the 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:55.120 White House that had been organized by several of Alexander's collaborators. 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.640 It's called the Rally for Peace, I believe. And it 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.600 was funny because before the rally kicked off, you had 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:09.200 some very angry, very militant Trump supporters who were not 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.680 speaking in peaceful terms. There was one guy who was 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:17.120 talking about putting George Soros in a gas chamber. There 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.320 was an ultranationalist skinhead group that was doing security, and 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.719 Ali Alexander got up on stage and spoke as well. 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.279 There he is in the flesh all uh, you know, 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.560 turned out in his slick suit on a hunt day, 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.800 his hair kind of brushed back in an interesting hairstyle, 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:41.120 and clearly trying to make a go of it as 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:46.000 an influencer. Until this point, Ali Alexander has been more 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.839 of a behind the scenes guy, the type of person 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.719 the press might refer to as a political operator. But 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.040 in two thousands seventeen he starts moving into the spotlight, 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:00.200 appearing on stage next to heavyweight right wing influencers, the 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.240 type of social media stars who wield great power on 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:07.839 the right. So you had in mid seen all the 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:12.760 elements of this anti democratic network that Ali Alexander was 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.160 a central note of coming together in front of the 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.559 White House. Now Alexander isn't the biggest name to speak 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.040 on the stage that day, not by a long shot, 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.760 but he has something that the others don't, one thing 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:30.400 that distinguishes Ali Alexander from some of the other bat 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.440 actors on the political rights. Some of these influencers online, 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:39.480 is that he actually does have some real political operative experience, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:45.480 going back many years, organizing experience, working on campaigns, setting 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:50.120 up websites, running social media for various Republican candidates. So 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:54.320 prior to Trump running for president, Ali Alexander is moving 0:07:54.360 --> 0:08:00.560 around in actually, frankly, some fairly high level Republican circles. Yeah, 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.560 there's much more to Alie Alexander than your typical maga 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:08.720 Yahoo mashing the retweet button after every presidential admission. So 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.720 where does a guy like Alexander spring from and how 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.760 did he end up on that rooftop overlooking chaos on 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:20.520 January six? Arguably more responsible for the violence than any 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:27.040 single person except the President himself. Very early as a child, 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.000 I saw it power. I saw it power and influence. 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.120 That's Alie Alexander speaking in two thousand nineteen. I guess 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.760 it's no surprise he ended up in politics. Alexander was 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.600 born in Texas in the mid nineteen eighties. He was 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.200 raised by his mom after his dad walked out when 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.440 he was two years old. The way Alexander describes it, 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.439 he was hooked on politics from the start. I grew 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.120 up phone banking for judges, you know, I built websites 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:55.600 for politicians when I was in high school. It was 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:57.640 only natural I was going to be a congressman or 0:08:57.679 --> 0:08:59.880 I was going to be a U. S Senator. And 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.840 that with the plan. Trouble with the law and a 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.200 nasty mug shot killed the dream of high office, and 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:10.439 by two thousand seven, Alexander finds himself unemployed, a college 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.160 dropout with convictions for property theft and debit card abuse. 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.320 But happily for Alexander, it turns out that none of 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:23.120 that matters because Ali has a superpower. Those websites he 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.240 built in high school for Republican politicians, those were just 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.480 the start. Young Ali is way ahead of the curve 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:34.679 on all things digital. He's living online before the phrase 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.600 even exists. He creates a Twitter account so early that 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.520 he secures a prized three letter handled at Ali, and 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.160 luckily for Alexander, the Republican Party knows talent when they 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:49.520 say it. They set him to work on the newly 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:54.199 emerging digital arena of politics. Ali will later describe himself 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.240 as a pioneer in the field, and he's probably right. 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.319 Seven there's about twenty us that we're building websites during 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.200 email marketing social media, creating UH profiles and interface with that. 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.120 I mean, now there's like four thousand of us. By 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.120 two thirteen, he's organizing his own after party at SPAK, 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.600 the biggest Republican event of the year. In this video, 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:19.520 he's standing next to Ted Cruz, the newly elected U. S. 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.120 Senator from Texas. Let me tell you, the men and 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:27.800 women in this room, you represent power and you represent 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:33.559 the money. Alexander called the party blog bash to celebrate 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:38.000 the digital warriors like him fighting their campaigns online. Clearly 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:47.640 Cruise understands their value. You scare one, you scare the 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:59.400 hell out of Washington. Well that's prophetic. Roll on to 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.640 twenty teen, and Alexander has worked on a slew of 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.600 Republican campaigns as a digital director. But along the way 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.680 he seems to have burned a few bridges in his 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:18.520 native Texas. So he resurfaces in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It's 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.680 here that he meets a local writer and publisher called 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.680 Lamar White Jr. I kind of like a mosquito in here. 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:31.200 It's Louisiana. Lamar covers politics and state government in Baton Rouge. 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.280 So when a guy like Ali arrives in town. Lamar's 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.320 radar pings, he seeks out Ali for a drink. I 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:40.600 met him at a bar. It was just this normal 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.479 bar in Baton Rouge, and he was with his boyfriend, 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.240 so it was a very like, sort of relaxed, you know, 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.320 casual getting to know you type of thing. And he 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.559 was nothing like the Ali Alexander that emerged in the 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:58.360 Stop to Steal campaign. At this stage, Alexander is just 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.720 another political operative trying to build a network in a 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:05.599 new town. He certainly comes across as a political consultant. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.400 There is a personality type, you know, someone who has 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.680 probably two or three cell phones and his multiple things 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.200 going on at once. And the candidate that he worked 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.520 for in Louisiana, by the way, was not someone that 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.840 you would define as a right wing ideologue in any respect. 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.560 In fact, the candidate he worked for, I would say 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.720 twenty years ago, would have been a Democrat. But Alie 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.880 Alexander's a political survivor. When the winds change in ten 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.680 and Donald Trump takes control of the Republican Party, Alexander 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.880 changes his tune in an instant, becoming a true believer 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:44.800 in the Maga cause. Basically, overnight. And that's not the 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:48.640 only evidence of a healthy dose of a moral flexibility 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.800 on Alie's part. I mean, the guy doesn't become the 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.000 chief architect of an attempted coup just because he's a 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.480 Trump convert who knows how to tweet. Alie. Alexander has 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.959 another string to his bow, a willingness to get dirty. 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:07.280 Here's Luke O'Brien again. He started doing some work for 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:12.080 this very strange looking group called the Black Conservatives Fund. 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.160 And this is essentially it's a political activism type group 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:20.480 that receives dark money. Dark money the scourge of US politics. 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.559 This is untraceable cash pumped into the system, usually by 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:29.560 mega donors with somewhat questionable intentions. You can pretty much 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.559 rest assured that it's not on the up and up. 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.240 Not on the up and up is certainly one way 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:40.120 to describe Alexander's new venture in Louisiana. Alee Alexander is 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:44.760 working for this group and they are targeting Democratic candidates 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.680 in different elections around the country, and they're promoting far 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:53.120 right or hard right Republican candidates. And the irony here is, 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:58.120 you know, Alee Alexander's a mixed race man. His mother 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:02.199 is black. His father, he claims from the United Arab 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.800 Emirates originally, And you know, he was working with another 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.679 black woman on this Black and Service Fund, and a 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:13.360 lot of things they were doing, we're actually disenfranchising black voters. 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:21.480 Here's a typical example. He targeted an incumbent senator, Democratic 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:25.320 Senator in Louisiana, Mary Landrew. She was up for re election. 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.960 The Black Conservatives Fund begins infiltrating one of Mary Landrew's 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.440 campaign events and recording them. This one was hosted by 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.600 Landrew's chief of staff's dad. He happened to be the 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:44.480 mayor of a small town in Louisiana called Apaloosis, and 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.520 he made a joke about voting twice. You know, someone 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.160 asked him, what if, what if we've already sent in 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:52.680 a mail and vote. He said, oh, we'll show up 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:57.960 the polls anyway and vote again. So the room burst 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.320 out laughing. It was very clearly kind of a campaign 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.080 trail type joke. If you early voted, go vote again tomorrow. 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:07.880 It's a joke. You here in politics all the time. 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.320 Next thing you know, this is being turned into an 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:15.520 attack ad and numerous press releases put out by the 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.600 Black Conservatives Fund targeting mary Landrew, saying that the father 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.640 of her chief of staff or her campaign manager was 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:27.680 urging voter fraud to take place. He was recommending that 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.200 all these black voters, and these are predominantly black voters 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:34.320 that we're talking about here, vote twice. Here's the introduction 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.920 to the ad put out by Ali Alexander and the 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:41.000 Black Conservatives Fund. What you're about to hear is shocking, 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:45.840 even for the sad swamp of Democrat politics here in Louisiana. 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.960 The man talking is Louisiana State Senator Albert Guillory. His 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.120 mournful tone is kind of like a teacher who isn't angry, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:16:00.400 just disappointed. The Black Conservatives Fund obtained footage at a 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.400 private gathering of the Democrat faithful where the mayor of 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:11.920 Apulusus suggests that people vote twice. Why urge people to 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:16.400 commit voter fraud? With this ad? Ali Alexander is learning 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.880 his craft, hinting to Republicans that if the election doesn't 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.960 go your way, it must have been stolen. When you 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.640 allege the voter fraud is happening in the South and 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.760 the Democrats are the ones doing it, well, what you're 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.080 saying is that black people are cheating when they're voting somehow, 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.480 because the Democratic Party in Southern states is heavily heavily black. 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.280 And while Alexander is riling up Louisiana Republicans with false 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:46.880 claims of black voter fraud, he's simultaneously targeting black Democrat 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.840 voters with disinformation designed to stop them from turning out 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.520 to vote. Here's a deceptively edited robo call he put 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.800 out reworking an interview with Mary Landrew to make it 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.360 sound like she didn't vote for Barack o'ball in the 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:05.040 twenty twelve election Louisiana. Here is an important last minute 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.800 election update US Senator Mary Landrew with US here. I 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:13.119 voted for the Affordable care I did not vote for Obama. 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.080 Did you hear that mary Landrew talking to a white 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.920 host different than she talks to black voters. I did 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:22.960 not vote for obam What happened next is that the 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:27.680 Republican Party of Louisiana amplifies this propaganda and puts out 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.320 statements of its own. And the goal, of course, is 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.240 to spread some disinformation and try to take out a 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:38.040 Democratic senator. And so Ali Alexander played an instrumental role 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.040 in making that happen, and mary Landrew ended up losing 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:47.520 her election. Lamar White Jr. A veteran of covering Louisiana politics, 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.680 also thinks that Alexander had a critical role in handing 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:55.640 mary Landrew's Senate seat to her Republican rival Bill Cassidy. Yes, 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.040 I do, I absolutely do. The Black Conservatives Fund made 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.240 a couple of pretty big splashes, I would say. And 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.440 you can see a photograph of Ali and Bill Cassidy 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:12.320 standing together on election night celebrating his win. So Alie 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:17.040 Alexander maybe swings a senatorial race in Louisiana. Okay, impressive, 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.240 but kind of small fry. This series is about a 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.000 full blown insurrection in Washington, d C. After all. But 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:29.000 don't worry. He's about to hit the big time. The 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.520 thing is he needs a little help with the transition. 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.600 At some point in the Trump years, Ali falls in 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.399 with a man who's done it all before. A master 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.240 of the political dark arts the Loki of us politics. 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.920 I have no title, I have no line responsibilities, but 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:51.879 I have access to all the right people. When Roger 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.639 Stone starts collaborating with Alie Alexander, it's like a master 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.080 meeting a talented apprentice. Stone was working with Trump at 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.359 the time as a kind of fixer, or, as Stone 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:07.320 would rather put it, I'm just an fot friend of Trumble. 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.240 It's hard to say exactly what Stone was doing for Trump, 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.600 but we can take a guess from his background. Roger 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:23.040 Stone goes way back in US politics. I welcome this 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.080 kind of examination because people have got to know whether 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.080 or not their presidents or crook. Well, I'm not a crook. 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.200 He was pulling fast tricks in the Nixon years. They 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:38.520 called it rat fucking back then. The term refers to 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.920 all of the underhanded, immoral, or straight up illegal ways 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:45.639 you can screw over your opponent in politics. The Watergate 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.440 break in is a classic example, and by the way, 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.520 Stone had a role in that as a junior Nixon staffer, 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.320 but he was never charged. Roger Stone was forged as 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.560 a political operator in those dubious years. He even has 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:02.640 a tattoo of Nixon's on his back. But Stone's real 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.880 contribution to this story comes in three simple words, stop 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:12.760 the steel. Roger Stone coined that phrase, stopped the steal in, 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.679 and that was during the Republican primary with US tonight 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:24.360 businessman Donald Trump, of New York. Trump was a long 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:28.760 shot candidate. It was a very crowded field Jeb Bush 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.120 and Florida. Trump was kind of the non politician who 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.080 was making a lot of noise property from then let 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.280 me talk quiet at the time when he first cleared 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.880 his candidacy and nobody gave him a chance, and then 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.240 he started picking off the candidates one by one. So 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:45.879 I think you're on the wrong side of this. If 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.320 you're still arguing for a single player. I'm not. I'm not. 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:50.160 I don't think you've heard me. You're having a hard 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.600 time tonight. But it still looked like he might not 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.359 get the nomination, and so Roger Stone coined this phrase 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:01.320 stop the Steel to basically under in confidence in the 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.920 political process. In the Republican primary, there is insurmountable, compelling, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:10.600 overcoming evidence of fraud, and the idea was, well, if 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:14.399 Trump loses, then clearly this has been stolen, right because 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:19.760 the people want Trump. Accordingly, the chair announces that Donald 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:25.640 Day Trump has been selected as the Republican Party nominee 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:30.600 for President of the United States. The people, as we know, 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.840 did want Trump, and he secured the Republican nomination for president. 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:39.560 So in Roger Stone Stopped the Steel campaign was never 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:43.520 rolled out. But after the primary comes the general, and 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:47.200 once again the numbers aren't looking good for Trump. Clinton 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.320 head by nine siy, Clinton eleven points and leading Trump 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.679 by twelve point. Once again, it looks like it's an 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:59.280 uphill fight. So Donald Trump is again challenging the legitimacy 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.560 of the election. Trump and Stone dust off their trustee 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:08.160 slogan stop the Steel. It became far more toxic this phrase, 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:11.720 and far more dangerous at that time, because then it 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:17.160 was about demonizing Hillary Clinton and demonizing liberals, and liberals 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:20.560 are trying to steal this election from Donald Trump, the 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:25.280 Democratic machine, the deep state, all these things started circulating 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:34.359 in the conversation. You could see what they were trying 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.879 to do. Back in they were trying to say that 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:43.040 if Trump didn't win, somehow the election was rigged. Trump 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:45.960 himself was using that kind of language in the lead 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:47.680 up to the election because he wasn't sure he was 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:54.720 gonna win. Roger Stone stopped the Steel efforts are more 0:22:54.760 --> 0:23:02.040 than simple rhetoric. I think it's essentials. He starts working 0:23:02.040 --> 0:23:04.840 with groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.160 These are the kind of brutish, armed thugs. We'll hear 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:12.760 more about later in this series. For now, all you 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:16.080 need to know is that they are not professional poll watchers. 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:25.440 Roger Stone was using Stop the Steel to promote sending 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:28.480 pole watchers, as he called it, to go and just, 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:32.240 you know, make sure the election wasn't being stolen. Let's 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:36.840 just send an army of really angry, delusional, probably very 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:40.199 large white men to go and stand outside, you know, 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:43.960 the polls in neighborhoods where a lot of minorities vote, 0:23:44.640 --> 0:23:46.600 you know, and make sure they're not stealing the vote. 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:49.800 Pull watchers in Lee County. Tomorrow, the uful watchers are 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:52.320 going to be at polling locations across New Mexico. While 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:57.560 poll watching is legal, intimidating voters is not. Roger Stone's 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:01.679 key discovery is that baseless conspiracy theories about election integrity 0:24:01.800 --> 0:24:05.480 are a huge hit with Trump space. As Trump heads 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.879 for the general election, there's more and more rhetoric from 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:17.080 the Trump camp about greaked elections, cheating Democrats, and widespread 0:24:17.160 --> 0:24:23.520 voting fraud. But once again, the full stop the Steel 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:30.800 campaign isn't needed. Trump surprises everyone, including himself, by taking 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:35.639 the White House. Sorry to keep you waiting, complicated, business, complicate. 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:40.480 Stop the steel is put on ice. You don't shout 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:45.400 about election fraud when you win. But it turns out 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:48.000 that stop the steel is too powerful a weapon to 0:24:48.080 --> 0:24:52.760 lay dormant for long. This came back in. It came back, 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:55.879 not as how Ali Alexander got involved. Was stopped the 0:24:55.920 --> 0:24:59.840 steel breaking news in Florida. The counting is over in 0:24:59.880 --> 0:25:04.280 the eighteen midterm elections. There's an extremely close race in Florida. 0:25:04.680 --> 0:25:08.080 Republican Rhonda Santis is still ahead of Democrat Andrew Gillam 0:25:08.160 --> 0:25:11.679 by only four tenths of a percent. It's so close, 0:25:11.720 --> 0:25:15.199 in fact, that a recount is required by law. The 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:19.359 situation became kind of a microcosm foreshadowing of what would 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:23.600 happen in the presidential election. The voting on election day 0:25:23.640 --> 0:25:27.480 favors the Republican candidate ron De Santis, but the mail 0:25:27.560 --> 0:25:30.760 in ballots counted later than the election day ballots cast 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:35.520 in person favored the Democrat Andrew Gillim. This phenomenon is 0:25:35.640 --> 0:25:38.719 known as the blue shift. It's called that because the 0:25:38.760 --> 0:25:43.200 result of the election starts red Republican and gradually moves 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:47.200 to blue Democrat. There are many reasons why Democrats are 0:25:47.240 --> 0:25:50.040 more likely to vote by mail than Republicans, but the 0:25:50.080 --> 0:25:55.080 discrepancy creates just enough ambiguity for agitators like Alexander to 0:25:55.119 --> 0:25:58.800 get to work. Ali Alexander decided, Okay, let's deploy the 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:03.840 stop the Steel campaign again the phrase, but also he 0:26:03.920 --> 0:26:08.000 had the social media presence. This is important because Roger Stone, 0:26:08.040 --> 0:26:11.840 for all of his wiles and experience, never understood social media. 0:26:11.960 --> 0:26:16.679 Like Ali Alexander. It's a generational thing. Stone has some reach, 0:26:16.760 --> 0:26:19.520 but even his rat fucking days never prepared him for 0:26:19.560 --> 0:26:26.920 the cesspools of social media. Alexander, on the other hand, 0:26:27.119 --> 0:26:31.119 came of age politically on Twitter. In his hands, stop 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:33.840 the Steel is a far more powerful weapon than it 0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:38.040 ever was for Stone. He started tweeting out a stop 0:26:38.080 --> 0:26:42.520 the Steel hashtag. He had his network who were boosting 0:26:43.240 --> 0:26:46.199 this stop the Steel campaign that Alexander had launched in 0:26:47.600 --> 0:26:53.119 They all jumped in. President Trump just tweeted an unsubstantiated 0:26:53.160 --> 0:26:57.159 accusation trying to steal too big elections in Florida. We 0:26:57.200 --> 0:27:01.760 are watching closely, he writes. Alexander studied organizing an actual 0:27:01.840 --> 0:27:05.880 protest outside the election center down in Florida where where 0:27:05.920 --> 0:27:11.080 the recount was happening, and guests who showed up a 0:27:11.119 --> 0:27:13.080 lot of the same type of people who showed up 0:27:13.359 --> 0:27:18.240 on January six. These people are extremists and they're kind 0:27:18.280 --> 0:27:21.600 of passing in normal society, and they all showed up 0:27:21.800 --> 0:27:25.639 in to stop the steel down in Florida, and it worked, 0:27:25.840 --> 0:27:29.080 by the way, it worked. About fifteen minutes ago, I 0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:33.800 spoke with Andrew Gillham and he very graciously conceded the election. 0:27:33.960 --> 0:27:37.080 When the votes are recounted, the Republican Ron De Santis 0:27:37.240 --> 0:27:41.000 is declared the winner. He was a very formidable opponent 0:27:41.119 --> 0:27:45.879 and I wish him well in his future endeavors. Maybe 0:27:45.920 --> 0:27:48.760 the recount would have always favored to Santis. But if 0:27:48.760 --> 0:27:51.560 you're counting votes with an angry right wing mob waiting 0:27:51.600 --> 0:27:54.920 just outside the front door, well who knows what might happen. 0:27:55.400 --> 0:27:58.920 And the crazy thing is for Alexander, the result itself 0:27:59.160 --> 0:28:02.199 isn't even the main rise. What was successful about it 0:28:02.280 --> 0:28:07.120 for them was that Ali Alexander and his group were 0:28:07.160 --> 0:28:11.719 able to almost immediately get a pretty significant turnout on 0:28:11.760 --> 0:28:15.280 the ground from what they were doing online. So they 0:28:15.280 --> 0:28:18.359 had figured out how to weaponize social media use it 0:28:18.400 --> 0:28:22.400