Debunking Charlie Kirk on 2020 Election “Shenanigans”
Turning Point USA founder and president Charlie Kirk continues to spread the ‘big lie’ concerning the 2020 election, now into the spring of 2021. This lie has many elements, including that Trump won. But more and more Trump sycophants like Kirk have centered their claims about “election integrity.” Kirk has used “shenanigans” to describe his baseless claims of election fraud.
Others who have accused Dominion Voting Systems of fraud face million-dollar lawsuits. Kirk is associated with many of those plaintiffs. Mike Lindell, the “My Pillow” creator, is being sued by Dominion. He sits on the Turning Point USA honorary board.
Kirk himself has not been sued. But he has spread misinformation concerning that company. Some of his claims have been flagged by Facebook. You can read about Kirk’s Dominion claims here. Kirk’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended for spreading false information concerning the election. You can read about that here.
To avoid that sort of social media oversight, Kirk has offered many misleading claims on his radio/podcast.
On his show, Kirk has played clips of people espousing conspiracy theories without fully agreeing. See the link above about Dominion for one of those.
Kirk has also invited people on his show with limited or zero credibility. One of those is Phill Kline. In a recent segment posted to his website on March 3, Kirk spoke with Kline, a former Kansas attorney general who has filed numerous lawsuits in recent months concerning the 2020 election.
The Kansas City Star reported in 2013 on the end of Kline’s legal career in Kansas:
Citing “clear and convincing evidence” of professional misconduct, the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday indefinitely suspended the law license of former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline. The court found that Kline violated 11 rules governing the professional conduct of attorneys during his tenure as the state’s highest law enforcement officer and while he served as Johnson County district attorney.
Kline was at the time of that decision a law professor at Liberty University, the article notes. Kirk has strong connections to Liberty, where he started the Falkirk Center, a “culture war” think tank.
Kline’s organization joined the frivolous lawsuit filed by Texas AG Ken Paxton. In December, Kline’s group filed a federal lawsuit in DC “demanding that legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin be allowed to certify electors prior to congressional certification.”
In a story about Kline’s election lawsuit efforts in December 2020, the Lawrence, Kansas newspaper noted: “Kline’s high-stakes campaign has been hampered by a lack of persuasive evidence of widespread irregularity.”
Kline has also filed lawsuits concerning one of the central claims Kline made to Kirk. There were three broad claims about the 2020 election made by Kline:
- “Rules were changed, often randomly”
- “Infusion of private money” dictated how elections would be run
- “Willful violations of law”
There was no evidence in the 45-minute segment for 1 and 3.
The second one deserves some attention.
The “private money” Kline refers to is millions donated by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, “distributed through the Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life,” the Lawrence newspaper noted.
According to media reports, the center offered millions to cities and counties across the nation to “cover unforeseen election costs related to the pandemic….” The Lawrence newspaper noted the money “went toward a variety of initiatives intended to make it easier and safer to conduct elections during a pandemic. Those included providing personal protective equipment at urban, rural and suburban polling sites; assisting with drive-thru voting locations; and purchasing equipment to process ballots.”
Kline’s group sued several states in September 2020 about this money. More recently, Kline’s group has sued Fulton County, Georgia due to its use of this money. On the group’s website are a series of links to media reports and news releases mainly by the group about the money.
The Washington Post reports Zuckerberg donated about $400 million. The Post mentions these lawsuits, which have so far resulted in zero verdicts and zero evidence of impropriety or illegality.
Without evidence of any kind for this claim, Kline told Kirk that this money was intended by Zuckerberg to control how elections were run in the states and local areas to which he donated.
Michigan news outlet MLive noted in February: “The private funding of local elections has given way to conspiracy theories and lawsuits, including a federal case still pending in Michigan and another in the state Court of Claims.”
MLive summarized the lawsuit in this manner: “The lawsuits allege the private grants disproportionately benefited high-population, left-leaning communities in violation of federal or state election law. Similar lawsuits have been dismissed in Michigan and other states, including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Legal attempts to block funding prior to the election failed across the board, but U.S. District Judge William C. Griesbach did acknowledge as he dismissed one lawsuit that “receipt of private funds for public elections may give an appearance of impropriety” and “may merit a legislative response.”
Kirk and Kline hinted at a possible legislative response at the end of the segment when Kirk said “banning” private money would change the landscape. This implies of course it is currently legal for such money to be given to election officials, though Kline has claimed the use of such money and the plans associated with it violate federal law.
While the total money given to each city or state is unknown, Zuckerberg’s group has made public much information about who got the money on its website.
MLive notes at the top of a list of the states who got the most grants (number of grants, not total dollars) is Michigan, a swing state in 2020. Only one other state on the list was a swing state in 2020. Massachusetts is second.
One official with Zuckerberg’s group told MLive that Michigan received the most grants because the state runs elections through cities and townships.
MLive notes at least in Michigan: “The money paid for apolitical needs: safety equipment, ballot drop boxes, surveillance cameras to watch drop boxes, high-speed absentee ballot tabulators, absentee ballot prepaid postage and mailing costs and voter outreach, but mostly for temporary staff, poll workers, recruiting, training and hazard pay, according to election clerks who spoke with MLive.”
The money, Kline claimed, was part of a wide-ranging and organized plan by groups to “target” voter turnout in the “urban core” of several swing states.
Kline’s most absurd claim for Kirk was one that went viral in December.
Kline described a “truck driver” who in October 2020 had his trailer stolen which inside included “250,000 absentee ballots from Pennsylvania.”
Again and again, media reports could not verify information given by Kline or the driver. And outside the driver himself, no other evidence was given by Kline at a December press conference about the incident. Three Pennsylvania media reports all say the claim is baseless: here, here, and here.
Kline claimed to Kirk that through his lawsuits — which have been ongoing since the Fall and dismissed by courts, though some are in discovery — he has “evidence that is hard hitting.”
But Kline presented zero evidence of fraud of any kind throughout the 45-minute segment. He also presented zero evidence that the money from Zuckerberg violated any law.
A Sinclair News outlet — a conservative news organization — did a December story on Kline and noted:
Similar allegations were made in a lawsuit in Pennsylvania before the election, but a federal court judge dismissed the complaints, concluding that the plaintiffs in the case lacked standing to sue. The plaintiffs claimed that the CTCL’s grants went to progressive areas of Pennsylvania, but CTCL noted that every state and local was free to apply for grants. The court, citing CTCL reports, noted in October that 11 of the 18 counties that voted for Trump in 2016 applied for grants this year.
By the end of the conversation, even Kirk admitted he was “not tracking” with Kline’s claims.
Kirk was astounded that no “red” state attorney general or state legislators had gotten behind Kline’s claims and begun investigations. He asked Kline if all the state attorneys general of the US are cowards.
Kline responded meekly that they seem to have other priorities.
