Speaker 1: Before we get into it, be advised that this series
Speaker 1: contains bad language and references to violence. To understand what
Speaker 1: happened at the Capitol on January six, we need to
Speaker 1: zoom out away from the violence, but we're not going far,
Speaker 1: just to block away. On a rooftop terrace on Constitution Avenue,
Speaker 1: safely back from the violence. A slightly built man in
Speaker 1: a checkered blazer is doing a live stream of the
Speaker 1: rebellion against an illegitimate government. He's in his mid thirties,
Speaker 1: and his crisp white shirt and edgy haircut announced him
Speaker 1: as an influencer. As he looks out over the chaos,
Speaker 1: he revels in what his influence has unleashed. This is we,
Speaker 1: the people of the growing frustrating tunes of the government,
Speaker 1: and what's happening now is exactly what I've warned about.
Speaker 1: That's not quite true. He hasn't been warning about this day.
Speaker 1: He's been planning for it, organizing for it, inciting thousands
Speaker 1: upon thousands of people with the lie that the election
Speaker 1: was fraudulent. I've said that we need to make fair
Speaker 1: elections in transparent county so that the people do not
Speaker 1: feel like the last resort is public demonstrations like this.
Speaker 1: As he addresses the camera, the scene behind him is escalating.
Speaker 1: Rioters are pouring into the US Capital. We are marching through.
Speaker 1: Members of Congress are scrambling for safety. Where are you going?
Speaker 1: White nationalists Q and on cultists and card carrying militia
Speaker 1: members are roaming the hallways. They're hunting elected officials. What
Speaker 1: they're doing a darts trying to find her later in
Speaker 1: the day. Rioters will even smear their feces on the walls.
Speaker 1: I want to say something I don't do avow this.
Speaker 1: I do not denounce this. This is completely peaceful, looks
Speaker 1: like so far. And there are a couple of agitators
Speaker 1: that I obviously donates for. The influencer on the rooftop.
Speaker 1: This is the culmination of a life's work. He's the
Speaker 1: wily right wing provocateur you've never heard of. But you
Speaker 1: can't understand the Capital insurrection without understanding his story. I
Speaker 1: was a person who came up with the January sixth idea.
Speaker 1: All of this begins with a lie. And that slim,
Speaker 1: smartly dressed guy on the rooftop his name is Ali
Speaker 1: Alexander and he's the man behind the lie. From the
Speaker 1: teams at Cool Zone Media. I heart radio and novel.
Speaker 1: This is the Assault on America Episode two, Stop the Steel. Okay,
Speaker 1: straight off the bat. The Capitol riot involved tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of Trump supporters, including more than eight hundred who
Speaker 1: entered the capital itself. It was promoted by the President
Speaker 1: of the United States. One the presidential election was rigged,
Speaker 1: illegal votes, and then I've taken this White House. We're
Speaker 1: going to fight like hell. I'll tell you right now, who,
Speaker 1: in turn, was amplified by a vast media network online
Speaker 1: and on TV. Voter fraud people voting to quite seven
Speaker 1: million votes deleted, so much evidence right in front of
Speaker 1: people's eyes. So can we really single out one far
Speaker 1: right influencer as the chief architect of the riot? Oh? No,
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. That is very fair. That's Luke O'Brien.
Speaker 1: He's an investigative journalist who covers political extremism. I'm an
Speaker 1: investigative reporter and I have been tracking a network of
Speaker 1: bad actors on the political right for the last five years.
Speaker 1: In case you're wondering, it's not the easiest beat to cover.
Speaker 1: I think it began with my very first story. I
Speaker 1: started getting defamed and harassed and threatened, and it's been
Speaker 1: that way for uff a decade now. Every story you're
Speaker 1: right usually results in some sort of blowback. Blowback is
Speaker 1: Luke's jovial way of describing having his personal details leaked
Speaker 1: online to thousands of far right accounts, or being deemed
Speaker 1: a picture of a handgun with the caption your time
Speaker 1: is come. I've covered a lot of the same communities
Speaker 1: and can confirm that death threats are sort of de rigor.
Speaker 1: The harassment increases exponentially if you do this work and
Speaker 1: happen to not be a white dude. So anyway, Luke
Speaker 1: was digging into these kinds of networks when he first
Speaker 1: came across our man on the rooftop, Ali Alexander. I've
Speaker 1: noticed him online and then in I noticed him in
Speaker 1: person because I attended a rally in front of the
Speaker 1: White House that had been organized by several of Alexander's collaborators.
Speaker 1: It's called the Rally for Peace, I believe. And it
Speaker 1: was funny because before the rally kicked off, you had
Speaker 1: some very angry, very militant Trump supporters who were not
Speaker 1: speaking in peaceful terms. There was one guy who was
Speaker 1: talking about putting George Soros in a gas chamber. There
Speaker 1: was an ultranationalist skinhead group that was doing security, and
Speaker 1: Ali Alexander got up on stage and spoke as well.
Speaker 1: There he is in the flesh all uh, you know,
Speaker 1: turned out in his slick suit on a hunt day,
Speaker 1: his hair kind of brushed back in an interesting hairstyle,
Speaker 1: and clearly trying to make a go of it as
Speaker 1: an influencer. Until this point, Ali Alexander has been more
Speaker 1: of a behind the scenes guy, the type of person
Speaker 1: the press might refer to as a political operator. But
Speaker 1: in two thousands seventeen he starts moving into the spotlight,
Speaker 1: appearing on stage next to heavyweight right wing influencers, the
Speaker 1: type of social media stars who wield great power on
Speaker 1: the right. So you had in mid seen all the
Speaker 1: elements of this anti democratic network that Ali Alexander was
Speaker 1: a central note of coming together in front of the
Speaker 1: White House. Now Alexander isn't the biggest name to speak
Speaker 1: on the stage that day, not by a long shot,
Speaker 1: but he has something that the others don't, one thing
Speaker 1: that distinguishes Ali Alexander from some of the other bat
Speaker 1: actors on the political rights. Some of these influencers online,
Speaker 1: is that he actually does have some real political operative experience,
Speaker 1: going back many years, organizing experience, working on campaigns, setting
Speaker 1: up websites, running social media for various Republican candidates. So
Speaker 1: prior to Trump running for president, Ali Alexander is moving
Speaker 1: around in actually, frankly, some fairly high level Republican circles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's much more to Alie Alexander than your typical maga
Speaker 1: Yahoo mashing the retweet button after every presidential admission. So
Speaker 1: where does a guy like Alexander spring from and how
Speaker 1: did he end up on that rooftop overlooking chaos on
Speaker 1: January six? Arguably more responsible for the violence than any
Speaker 1: single person except the President himself. Very early as a child,
Speaker 1: I saw it power. I saw it power and influence.
Speaker 1: That's Alie Alexander speaking in two thousand nineteen. I guess
Speaker 1: it's no surprise he ended up in politics. Alexander was
Speaker 1: born in Texas in the mid nineteen eighties. He was
Speaker 1: raised by his mom after his dad walked out when
Speaker 1: he was two years old. The way Alexander describes it,
Speaker 1: he was hooked on politics from the start. I grew
Speaker 1: up phone banking for judges, you know, I built websites
Speaker 1: for politicians when I was in high school. It was
Speaker 1: only natural I was going to be a congressman or
Speaker 1: I was going to be a U. S Senator. And
Speaker 1: that with the plan. Trouble with the law and a
Speaker 1: nasty mug shot killed the dream of high office, and
Speaker 1: by two thousand seven, Alexander finds himself unemployed, a college
Speaker 1: dropout with convictions for property theft and debit card abuse.
Speaker 1: But happily for Alexander, it turns out that none of
Speaker 1: that matters because Ali has a superpower. Those websites he
Speaker 1: built in high school for Republican politicians, those were just
Speaker 1: the start. Young Ali is way ahead of the curve
Speaker 1: on all things digital. He's living online before the phrase
Speaker 1: even exists. He creates a Twitter account so early that
Speaker 1: he secures a prized three letter handled at Ali, and
Speaker 1: luckily for Alexander, the Republican Party knows talent when they
Speaker 1: say it. They set him to work on the newly
Speaker 1: emerging digital arena of politics. Ali will later describe himself
Speaker 1: as a pioneer in the field, and he's probably right.
Speaker 1: Seven there's about twenty us that we're building websites during
Speaker 1: email marketing social media, creating UH profiles and interface with that.
Speaker 1: I mean, now there's like four thousand of us. By
Speaker 1: two thirteen, he's organizing his own after party at SPAK,
Speaker 1: the biggest Republican event of the year. In this video,
Speaker 1: he's standing next to Ted Cruz, the newly elected U. S.
Speaker 1: Senator from Texas. Let me tell you, the men and
Speaker 1: women in this room, you represent power and you represent
Speaker 1: the money. Alexander called the party blog bash to celebrate
Speaker 1: the digital warriors like him fighting their campaigns online. Clearly
Speaker 1: Cruise understands their value. You scare one, you scare the
Speaker 1: hell out of Washington. Well that's prophetic. Roll on to
Speaker 1: twenty teen, and Alexander has worked on a slew of
Speaker 1: Republican campaigns as a digital director. But along the way
Speaker 1: he seems to have burned a few bridges in his
Speaker 1: native Texas. So he resurfaces in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It's
Speaker 1: here that he meets a local writer and publisher called
Speaker 1: Lamar White Jr. I kind of like a mosquito in here.
Speaker 1: It's Louisiana. Lamar covers politics and state government in Baton Rouge.
Speaker 1: So when a guy like Ali arrives in town. Lamar's
Speaker 1: radar pings, he seeks out Ali for a drink. I
Speaker 1: met him at a bar. It was just this normal
Speaker 1: bar in Baton Rouge, and he was with his boyfriend,
Speaker 1: so it was a very like, sort of relaxed, you know,
Speaker 1: casual getting to know you type of thing. And he
Speaker 1: was nothing like the Ali Alexander that emerged in the
Speaker 1: Stop to Steal campaign. At this stage, Alexander is just
Speaker 1: another political operative trying to build a network in a
Speaker 1: new town. He certainly comes across as a political consultant.
Speaker 1: There is a personality type, you know, someone who has
Speaker 1: probably two or three cell phones and his multiple things
Speaker 1: going on at once. And the candidate that he worked
Speaker 1: for in Louisiana, by the way, was not someone that
Speaker 1: you would define as a right wing ideologue in any respect.
Speaker 1: In fact, the candidate he worked for, I would say
Speaker 1: twenty years ago, would have been a Democrat. But Alie
Speaker 1: Alexander's a political survivor. When the winds change in ten
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump takes control of the Republican Party, Alexander
Speaker 1: changes his tune in an instant, becoming a true believer
Speaker 1: in the Maga cause. Basically, overnight. And that's not the
Speaker 1: only evidence of a healthy dose of a moral flexibility
Speaker 1: on Alie's part. I mean, the guy doesn't become the
Speaker 1: chief architect of an attempted coup just because he's a
Speaker 1: Trump convert who knows how to tweet. Alie. Alexander has
Speaker 1: another string to his bow, a willingness to get dirty.
Speaker 1: Here's Luke O'Brien again. He started doing some work for
Speaker 1: this very strange looking group called the Black Conservatives Fund.
Speaker 1: And this is essentially it's a political activism type group
Speaker 1: that receives dark money. Dark money the scourge of US politics.
Speaker 1: This is untraceable cash pumped into the system, usually by
Speaker 1: mega donors with somewhat questionable intentions. You can pretty much
Speaker 1: rest assured that it's not on the up and up.
Speaker 1: Not on the up and up is certainly one way
Speaker 1: to describe Alexander's new venture in Louisiana. Alee Alexander is
Speaker 1: working for this group and they are targeting Democratic candidates
Speaker 1: in different elections around the country, and they're promoting far
Speaker 1: right or hard right Republican candidates. And the irony here is,
Speaker 1: you know, Alee Alexander's a mixed race man. His mother
Speaker 1: is black. His father, he claims from the United Arab
Speaker 1: Emirates originally, And you know, he was working with another
Speaker 1: black woman on this Black and Service Fund, and a
Speaker 1: lot of things they were doing, we're actually disenfranchising black voters.
Speaker 1: Here's a typical example. He targeted an incumbent senator, Democratic
Speaker 1: Senator in Louisiana, Mary Landrew. She was up for re election.
Speaker 1: The Black Conservatives Fund begins infiltrating one of Mary Landrew's
Speaker 1: campaign events and recording them. This one was hosted by
Speaker 1: Landrew's chief of staff's dad. He happened to be the
Speaker 1: mayor of a small town in Louisiana called Apaloosis, and
Speaker 1: he made a joke about voting twice. You know, someone
Speaker 1: asked him, what if, what if we've already sent in
Speaker 1: a mail and vote. He said, oh, we'll show up
Speaker 1: the polls anyway and vote again. So the room burst
Speaker 1: out laughing. It was very clearly kind of a campaign
Speaker 1: trail type joke. If you early voted, go vote again tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It's a joke. You here in politics all the time.
Speaker 1: Next thing you know, this is being turned into an
Speaker 1: attack ad and numerous press releases put out by the
Speaker 1: Black Conservatives Fund targeting mary Landrew, saying that the father
Speaker 1: of her chief of staff or her campaign manager was
Speaker 1: urging voter fraud to take place. He was recommending that
Speaker 1: all these black voters, and these are predominantly black voters
Speaker 1: that we're talking about here, vote twice. Here's the introduction
Speaker 1: to the ad put out by Ali Alexander and the
Speaker 1: Black Conservatives Fund. What you're about to hear is shocking,
Speaker 1: even for the sad swamp of Democrat politics here in Louisiana.
Speaker 1: The man talking is Louisiana State Senator Albert Guillory. His
Speaker 1: mournful tone is kind of like a teacher who isn't angry,
Speaker 1: just disappointed. The Black Conservatives Fund obtained footage at a
Speaker 1: private gathering of the Democrat faithful where the mayor of
Speaker 1: Apulusus suggests that people vote twice. Why urge people to
Speaker 1: commit voter fraud? With this ad? Ali Alexander is learning
Speaker 1: his craft, hinting to Republicans that if the election doesn't
Speaker 1: go your way, it must have been stolen. When you
Speaker 1: allege the voter fraud is happening in the South and
Speaker 1: the Democrats are the ones doing it, well, what you're
Speaker 1: saying is that black people are cheating when they're voting somehow,
Speaker 1: because the Democratic Party in Southern states is heavily heavily black.
Speaker 1: And while Alexander is riling up Louisiana Republicans with false
Speaker 1: claims of black voter fraud, he's simultaneously targeting black Democrat
Speaker 1: voters with disinformation designed to stop them from turning out
Speaker 1: to vote. Here's a deceptively edited robo call he put
Speaker 1: out reworking an interview with Mary Landrew to make it
Speaker 1: sound like she didn't vote for Barack o'ball in the
Speaker 1: twenty twelve election Louisiana. Here is an important last minute
Speaker 1: election update US Senator Mary Landrew with US here. I
Speaker 1: voted for the Affordable care I did not vote for Obama.
Speaker 1: Did you hear that mary Landrew talking to a white
Speaker 1: host different than she talks to black voters. I did
Speaker 1: not vote for obam What happened next is that the
Speaker 1: Republican Party of Louisiana amplifies this propaganda and puts out
Speaker 1: statements of its own. And the goal, of course, is
Speaker 1: to spread some disinformation and try to take out a
Speaker 1: Democratic senator. And so Ali Alexander played an instrumental role
Speaker 1: in making that happen, and mary Landrew ended up losing
Speaker 1: her election. Lamar White Jr. A veteran of covering Louisiana politics,
Speaker 1: also thinks that Alexander had a critical role in handing
Speaker 1: mary Landrew's Senate seat to her Republican rival Bill Cassidy. Yes,
Speaker 1: I do, I absolutely do. The Black Conservatives Fund made
Speaker 1: a couple of pretty big splashes, I would say. And
Speaker 1: you can see a photograph of Ali and Bill Cassidy
Speaker 1: standing together on election night celebrating his win. So Alie
Speaker 1: Alexander maybe swings a senatorial race in Louisiana. Okay, impressive,
Speaker 1: but kind of small fry. This series is about a
Speaker 1: full blown insurrection in Washington, d C. After all. But
Speaker 1: don't worry. He's about to hit the big time. The
Speaker 1: thing is he needs a little help with the transition.
Speaker 1: At some point in the Trump years, Ali falls in
Speaker 1: with a man who's done it all before. A master
Speaker 1: of the political dark arts the Loki of us politics.
Speaker 1: I have no title, I have no line responsibilities, but
Speaker 1: I have access to all the right people. When Roger
Speaker 1: Stone starts collaborating with Alie Alexander, it's like a master
Speaker 1: meeting a talented apprentice. Stone was working with Trump at
Speaker 1: the time as a kind of fixer, or, as Stone
Speaker 1: would rather put it, I'm just an fot friend of Trumble.
Speaker 1: It's hard to say exactly what Stone was doing for Trump,
Speaker 1: but we can take a guess from his background. Roger
Speaker 1: Stone goes way back in US politics. I welcome this
Speaker 1: kind of examination because people have got to know whether
Speaker 1: or not their presidents or crook. Well, I'm not a crook.
Speaker 1: He was pulling fast tricks in the Nixon years. They
Speaker 1: called it rat fucking back then. The term refers to
Speaker 1: all of the underhanded, immoral, or straight up illegal ways
Speaker 1: you can screw over your opponent in politics. The Watergate
Speaker 1: break in is a classic example, and by the way,
Speaker 1: Stone had a role in that as a junior Nixon staffer,
Speaker 1: but he was never charged. Roger Stone was forged as
Speaker 1: a political operator in those dubious years. He even has
Speaker 1: a tattoo of Nixon's on his back. But Stone's real
Speaker 1: contribution to this story comes in three simple words, stop
Speaker 1: the steel. Roger Stone coined that phrase, stopped the steal in,
Speaker 1: and that was during the Republican primary with US tonight
Speaker 1: businessman Donald Trump, of New York. Trump was a long
Speaker 1: shot candidate. It was a very crowded field Jeb Bush
Speaker 1: and Florida. Trump was kind of the non politician who
Speaker 1: was making a lot of noise property from then let
Speaker 1: me talk quiet at the time when he first cleared
Speaker 1: his candidacy and nobody gave him a chance, and then
Speaker 1: he started picking off the candidates one by one. So
Speaker 1: I think you're on the wrong side of this. If
Speaker 1: you're still arguing for a single player. I'm not. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I don't think you've heard me. You're having a hard
Speaker 1: time tonight. But it still looked like he might not
Speaker 1: get the nomination, and so Roger Stone coined this phrase
Speaker 1: stop the Steel to basically under in confidence in the
Speaker 1: political process. In the Republican primary, there is insurmountable, compelling,
Speaker 1: overcoming evidence of fraud, and the idea was, well, if
Speaker 1: Trump loses, then clearly this has been stolen, right because
Speaker 1: the people want Trump. Accordingly, the chair announces that Donald
Speaker 1: Day Trump has been selected as the Republican Party nominee
Speaker 1: for President of the United States. The people, as we know,
Speaker 1: did want Trump, and he secured the Republican nomination for president.
Speaker 1: So in Roger Stone Stopped the Steel campaign was never
Speaker 1: rolled out. But after the primary comes the general, and
Speaker 1: once again the numbers aren't looking good for Trump. Clinton
Speaker 1: head by nine siy, Clinton eleven points and leading Trump
Speaker 1: by twelve point. Once again, it looks like it's an
Speaker 1: uphill fight. So Donald Trump is again challenging the legitimacy
Speaker 1: of the election. Trump and Stone dust off their trustee
Speaker 1: slogan stop the Steel. It became far more toxic this phrase,
Speaker 1: and far more dangerous at that time, because then it
Speaker 1: was about demonizing Hillary Clinton and demonizing liberals, and liberals
Speaker 1: are trying to steal this election from Donald Trump, the
Speaker 1: Democratic machine, the deep state, all these things started circulating
Speaker 1: in the conversation. You could see what they were trying
Speaker 1: to do. Back in they were trying to say that
Speaker 1: if Trump didn't win, somehow the election was rigged. Trump
Speaker 1: himself was using that kind of language in the lead
Speaker 1: up to the election because he wasn't sure he was
Speaker 1: gonna win. Roger Stone stopped the Steel efforts are more
Speaker 1: than simple rhetoric. I think it's essentials. He starts working
Speaker 1: with groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.
Speaker 1: These are the kind of brutish, armed thugs. We'll hear
Speaker 1: more about later in this series. For now, all you
Speaker 1: need to know is that they are not professional poll watchers.
Speaker 1: Roger Stone was using Stop the Steel to promote sending
Speaker 1: pole watchers, as he called it, to go and just,
Speaker 1: you know, make sure the election wasn't being stolen. Let's
Speaker 1: just send an army of really angry, delusional, probably very
Speaker 1: large white men to go and stand outside, you know,
Speaker 1: the polls in neighborhoods where a lot of minorities vote,
Speaker 1: you know, and make sure they're not stealing the vote.
Speaker 1: Pull watchers in Lee County. Tomorrow, the uful watchers are
Speaker 1: going to be at polling locations across New Mexico. While
Speaker 1: poll watching is legal, intimidating voters is not. Roger Stone's
Speaker 1: key discovery is that baseless conspiracy theories about election integrity
Speaker 1: are a huge hit with Trump space. As Trump heads
Speaker 1: for the general election, there's more and more rhetoric from
Speaker 1: the Trump camp about greaked elections, cheating Democrats, and widespread
Speaker 1: voting fraud. But once again, the full stop the Steel
Speaker 1: campaign isn't needed. Trump surprises everyone, including himself, by taking
Speaker 1: the White House. Sorry to keep you waiting, complicated, business, complicate.
Speaker 1: Stop the steel is put on ice. You don't shout
Speaker 1: about election fraud when you win. But it turns out
Speaker 1: that stop the steel is too powerful a weapon to
Speaker 1: lay dormant for long. This came back in. It came back,
Speaker 1: not as how Ali Alexander got involved. Was stopped the
Speaker 1: steel breaking news in Florida. The counting is over in
Speaker 1: the eighteen midterm elections. There's an extremely close race in Florida.
Speaker 1: Republican Rhonda Santis is still ahead of Democrat Andrew Gillam
Speaker 1: by only four tenths of a percent. It's so close,
Speaker 1: in fact, that a recount is required by law. The
Speaker 1: situation became kind of a microcosm foreshadowing of what would
Speaker 1: happen in the presidential election. The voting on election day
Speaker 1: favors the Republican candidate ron De Santis, but the mail
Speaker 1: in ballots counted later than the election day ballots cast
Speaker 1: in person favored the Democrat Andrew Gillim. This phenomenon is
Speaker 1: known as the blue shift. It's called that because the
Speaker 1: result of the election starts red Republican and gradually moves
Speaker 1: to blue Democrat. There are many reasons why Democrats are
Speaker 1: more likely to vote by mail than Republicans, but the
Speaker 1: discrepancy creates just enough ambiguity for agitators like Alexander to
Speaker 1: get to work. Ali Alexander decided, Okay, let's deploy the
Speaker 1: stop the Steel campaign again the phrase, but also he
Speaker 1: had the social media presence. This is important because Roger Stone,
Speaker 1: for all of his wiles and experience, never understood social media.
Speaker 1: Like Ali Alexander. It's a generational thing. Stone has some reach,
Speaker 1: but even his rat fucking days never prepared him for
Speaker 1: the cesspools of social media. Alexander, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: came of age politically on Twitter. In his hands, stop
Speaker 1: the Steel is a far more powerful weapon than it
Speaker 1: ever was for Stone. He started tweeting out a stop
Speaker 1: the Steel hashtag. He had his network who were boosting
Speaker 1: this stop the Steel campaign that Alexander had launched in
Speaker 1: They all jumped in. President Trump just tweeted an unsubstantiated
Speaker 1: accusation trying to steal too big elections in Florida. We
Speaker 1: are watching closely, he writes. Alexander studied organizing an actual
Speaker 1: protest outside the election center down in Florida where where
Speaker 1: the recount was happening, and guests who showed up a
Speaker 1: lot of the same type of people who showed up
Speaker 1: on January six. These people are extremists and they're kind
Speaker 1: of passing in normal society, and they all showed up
Speaker 1: in to stop the steel down in Florida, and it worked,
Speaker 1: by the way, it worked. About fifteen minutes ago, I
Speaker 1: spoke with Andrew Gillham and he very graciously conceded the election.
Speaker 1: When the votes are recounted, the Republican Ron De Santis
Speaker 1: is declared the winner. He was a very formidable opponent
Speaker 1: and I wish him well in his future endeavors. Maybe
Speaker 1: the recount would have always favored to Santis. But if
Speaker 1: you're counting votes with an angry right wing mob waiting
Speaker 1: just outside the front door, well who knows what might happen.
Speaker 1: And the crazy thing is for Alexander, the result itself
Speaker 1: isn't even the main rise. What was successful about it
Speaker 1: for them was that Ali Alexander and his group were
Speaker 1: able to almost immediately get a pretty significant turnout on
Speaker 1: the ground from what they were doing online. So they
Speaker 1: had figured out how to weaponize social media use it
Speaker 1: to organize an actual protest and get people to show
Speaker 1: up with signs angry people who just believed that the
Speaker 1: Democrats were stealing the election because they've seen it on
Speaker 1: Twitter and they've seen enough people tweeting about it. That
Speaker 1: was a very successful field test for what he would
Speaker 1: end up doing in What does he end up doing?
Speaker 1: In by Alexander has completed the move from back room
Speaker 1: operator to social media influencer. He grows his following on
Speaker 1: Twitter and Instagram by posting increasingly incendiary content. He posts
Speaker 1: the kind of attacks even Trump didn't go near. Kamala
Speaker 1: Harris doesn't count as black because she's only half Jamaican.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden secretly has Parkinson's disease, and of course he
Speaker 1: lays the groundwork for the Stop the Steel campaign, raising funds,
Speaker 1: organizing logistics, readying his network of followers. Lamar White Jr.
Speaker 1: The investigative reporter from Louisiana, checked in with his one
Speaker 1: time acquaintance to try and figure out what was going on.
Speaker 1: I had contact with him right after the election. I
Speaker 1: noticed that there was a Stop the Steel protest that
Speaker 1: was planned for Baton Rouge, which I've frankly found a
Speaker 1: little silly considering that Donald Trump won Louisiana by like
Speaker 1: nineteen points. He told me when we spoke that he
Speaker 1: was planning these events in all fifty states, that that
Speaker 1: was next on his agenda, that he was not going
Speaker 1: to relent, And he made it seem as if what
Speaker 1: he was doing was perfectly reasonable and that the only
Speaker 1: thing he really cared about was ensuring election integrity, and
Speaker 1: he had these legitimate questions about election integrity. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is frankly, this is b s. Soon after election,
Speaker 1: Trump's own Homeland Security officials declare it the most secure
Speaker 1: election in US history. At least eighty six lawsuits are
Speaker 1: brought by the Trump campaign and their allies, claiming instances
Speaker 1: of election fraud. One after the other. They're swatted down
Speaker 1: in courts around the country, many thrown out by Trump
Speaker 1: appointed judges. Ali Alexander is unfhased. He had been planning
Speaker 1: to do this for months before, so regardless of what
Speaker 1: the outcome was if Trump lost, no matter what combination
Speaker 1: of states came together to give him that loss, Ali
Speaker 1: was going to do this anyway. Ali spends November and
Speaker 1: December organizing protests all over the Wes. He speaks at
Speaker 1: many of them. His rhetoric ratcheting up as he spreads
Speaker 1: more and more lies. They say there's a cue going on,
Speaker 1: and there is Trump got I believe eighty million votes.
Speaker 1: After organizing NonStop rallies throughout the winter, Alexander decides on
Speaker 1: a final push, one last effort to overturn the national election.
Speaker 1: The date he lands on January six. January six, Alexander
Speaker 1: leverages all his connections, all his experience as an organizer.
Speaker 1: His skill is a propagandist. He liaises with Trump campaigners,
Speaker 1: with grassroots organizers, with far right extremists, and with alt
Speaker 1: right influencers. Piece by piece, he pulls together the mother
Speaker 1: of all maga rallies. At twelve pm on January six,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump addresses a shivering crowd outside the White House.
Speaker 1: Alie Alexander sits in the front row. We will never
Speaker 1: give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You
Speaker 1: don't concede. Where there's that in my head? At least,
Speaker 1: he smiles when he hears this line. And to use
Speaker 1: a favorite term that all of you people really came
Speaker 1: up with, we will stop the steel. Alexander has pulled
Speaker 1: some political tricks before now, but this is the biggest
Speaker 1: of them all. He's rolling out a stop the Steel
Speaker 1: campaign that has been prepared for every previous election in
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's political career. Only now is it needed. And
Speaker 1: Alie Alexander is the man at the helm. He's the guy.
Speaker 1: He's the guy who who drove this car to stop
Speaker 1: the steel car. That is what led to January six
Speaker 1: more than anything else, that mass disinformation campaign that he
Speaker 1: was driving. And it's replicated on the other side. This
Speaker 1: is we the people, the growing frustrations of the governments.
Speaker 1: Alie Alexander's live stream on the rooftop overlooking the Capital
Speaker 1: riot is the zenith of his career. Most of the
Speaker 1: rioters have probably never heard of him, but they've heard
Speaker 1: of Stopped the Steel. It's why they were here. But
Speaker 1: within days of the riot, something strange happens to Alexander
Speaker 1: for the first time in his adult life. He stops posting.
Speaker 1: The political operator with multiple phones, running dozens of accounts,
Speaker 1: bombarding millions of Americans with distortions, half truths and lies
Speaker 1: is d platformed by almost every social media site on
Speaker 1: the Internet, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. One by one, Allie Alexander's
Speaker 1: accounts are suspended. Even parlor beloved by the Right for
Speaker 1: its lack of content moderation, and is knocked offline by
Speaker 1: its hosting partner Amazon. The only platform that will still
Speaker 1: take him is a streaming site mainly used by gamers.
Speaker 1: Judging from Ali's new content, he doesn't take his d
Speaker 1: platform ing well. My entire life is over. They have
Speaker 1: ruined my earthly life. They have totally ruined it. Five
Speaker 1: people died at the Capitol riot that Alexander worked so
Speaker 1: hard to incite. Yet he's full of pity for himself
Speaker 1: and anger at the social media bosses who took away
Speaker 1: his toys. And he's filming these these videos, these live
Speaker 1: streams in the backseat of a car, kind of you know,
Speaker 1: rumbling through the dark to some undisclosed location like he's
Speaker 1: you know, he's on the lamb. I have lost my
Speaker 1: cash app, I have lost my PayPal, I've lost my Venmo.
Speaker 1: Please send money. I'm thinking that he's still on the grift,
Speaker 1: you know, the grift is baked into his soul at
Speaker 1: this point, right because I've seen him do this before,
Speaker 1: where he talking about I need money, I need it
Speaker 1: right away to pay for my security team. My life
Speaker 1: is in danger, and there's never really been any evidence
Speaker 1: of that. He's never produced any evidence to back up
Speaker 1: anything he's saying. My first concern is making sure that
Speaker 1: I have full time security with me. That means into
Speaker 1: every bathroom that I go to. From now until the
Speaker 1: rest of my life, I'll probably never get to hang
Speaker 1: out with my dog again. Besides the self pity, Alexander
Speaker 1: craves revenge. I will unleash a legion of angels to
Speaker 1: bring hell to our enemies. I pray that I am
Speaker 1: the tool to stab these mother fucker's. You might be
Speaker 1: tempted to look at somebody like Alexander and dismiss him
Speaker 1: as a weird sight show a grifter into charlatan, but
Speaker 1: that would be a huge mistake. I hate to say it,
Speaker 1: but when Ali Alexander threatens revenge, we need to take
Speaker 1: him seriously, especially given the militant nature of his fan base.
Speaker 1: That you had a vast network of extremists, many of
Speaker 1: them anti democratic activists who are actually trying to destroy
Speaker 1: democracy in America because they know that democracy in a
Speaker 1: multiracial country like this is a losing proposition for them.
Speaker 1: And Ali Alexander was one of the main people behind that.
Speaker 1: He was one of the ringleaders. Unless we do something
Speaker 1: about it. Now, it's going to come back, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be uglier. I know that. I do think
Speaker 1: he'll be back. I really do. The case of Ali
Speaker 1: Alexander represents both a problem and an imbalance in our
Speaker 1: justice system. As of the writing of this episode, Ali
Speaker 1: has not been charged with any crime for deliberately inciting
Speaker 1: a riot that led to several deaths, and indeed, he's
Speaker 1: back on his game, broadcasting on an encrypted app used
Speaker 1: by many on the right. Now. One might argue if
Speaker 1: he were to be charged that it would set a
Speaker 1: dangerous precedent, It might make organizing unsafe for a variety
Speaker 1: of people across the political spectrum, but that's already the case.
Speaker 1: Left wing activists are regularly charged with felonies for organizing
Speaker 1: protests where no one dies. In September six, socialist organizers
Speaker 1: were slammed with a bevy of charges and in some cases,
Speaker 1: threatened with up to forty eight years in prison for
Speaker 1: organizing protests in Aurora, Colorado, where no one was killed
Speaker 1: or seriously injured. They were charged with kidnapping because the
Speaker 1: protests surrounded a police station and thus imprisoned officers. These
Speaker 1: charges were dropped months later, but the case is ongoing.
Speaker 1: In July, a test organizer in San Louis Obispo, California,
Speaker 1: was charged with five crimes, including felony riot, for leading
Speaker 1: protesters to briefly block a highway. And on January one,
Speaker 1: the FBI arrested and charged a leftist activist who had
Speaker 1: fought against ISIS in Syria and who tried to organize
Speaker 1: an armed left wing counter rally to defend against a
Speaker 1: far right attack he believed was coming. After January six,
Speaker 1: he was sentenced to three and a half years. That
Speaker 1: last one may seem like it crosses a line for you,
Speaker 1: but in August one, failed comedian Jason left Cowitz stood
Speaker 1: up at an anti mask rally in Santa Monica and
Speaker 1: held up a list of the names and addresses of
Speaker 1: every Los Angeles City Council member. He screamed, you want
Speaker 1: to feel intimidated, We're coming to your homes. Were coming
Speaker 1: to you now. He later added, quote civil war, Civil
Speaker 1: war is coming. Get your guns. Left Cowitz, like Alley Alexander,
Speaker 1: has not been charged with any crime. The FBI has
Speaker 1: not shown up at his door to confiscate his weapons,
Speaker 1: and they never will coming up. An episode three, a
Speaker 1: radical far right militia group is spurred on by Alley
Speaker 1: Alexander's lies and takes drastic action. They've gotten the gallows
Speaker 1: set upside the Capitol building. It's trying to start fucking
Speaker 1: using them. They're throwing your nets, they're freaking shooting people
Speaker 1: are payballs, but we're in here. Everything we fucking trained
Speaker 1: for fucking gets some In the next episode of The
Speaker 1: Assault on America, we're in the fucking capital