It only took a few hours for a dubious claim from a Trump campaign staffer to make its way to the debate stage Tuesday night, where President Donald Trump falsely claimed Philadelphia Democrats were scheming against him by blocking supposed GOP poll watchers.
The incident highlighted Trump’s willingness to promote any information that bolsters his political narrative, regardless of its veracity. On Tuesday, the highly misleading claim originated from a Trump campaign staffer who has worked on so-called voter protection efforts for years.
Here’s what happened: At some point on Tuesday, people affiliated with the Trump campaign tried to enter in-person polling sites in Philadelphia. They said they wanted to observe voting, but were kicked out by local election officials, who explained that state law allows partisan poll watchers to participate only on Election Day in November. Additionally, the voting locations were election offices, not traditional polling places, and state law doesn’t allow poll watchers inside election offices.
We know that now – but it wasn’t known in real-time. The Trump campaign set the narrative at 1:33 p.m. on Tuesday, when Trump campaign staffer Mike Roman tweeted, “TRUMP observers are being blocked entry to all of the satellite voting locations in Philly!! What are they hiding?”
Within a few minutes, one of the President’s sons, Eric Trump, amplified the tweet, and said the incident was proof of “corruption” against the Trump campaign. The two posts started racking up re-tweets – totaling more than 45,000 combined, as of Wednesday afternoon.
Roman did not respond to CNN’s questions about the situation.
Some right-wing outlets further spread the misleading claims. Conspiracy website Gateway Pundit published an article Tuesday afternoon and promoted the hashtag “#StopTheSteal.”
Election experts started pointing out the state laws, and highlighted that Pennsylvania hasn’t even certified its official list of approved poll watchers for the general election. But that didn’t stop Trump, who tweeted at 5:14 p.m.
“Wow. Won’t let Poll Watchers & Security into Philadelphia Voting Places. There is only one reason why. Corruption!!! Must have a fair Election,” he said.
A few hours later, at the first presidential debate, Trump cited the incident when he was asked about maintaining calm and avoiding civil unrest if there is a prolonged vote-counting process. He said some “very safe, very nice” poll watchers were “thrown out” – not because they apparently violated local election rules, but rather “because bad things happen in Philadelphia.” This was a distortion of the truth.
CNN and other outlets immediately fact-checked his claims and debunked the false assertions that anything improper had happened in Philadelphia, or that it was part of an anti-Trump plot.
But the disinformation was already spreading, thanks to Trump and his campaign. By Wednesday afternoon, about 24 hours after sending it, the President’s tweet had more than 36,000 retweets and more than 127,000 likes.
“Trump has shown a consistent pattern of taking false or distorted facts about election problems and trying to manufacture them into evidence of widespread election fraud, election-rigging or chaos,” said Rick Hasen, a CNN contributor and law professor at the University of California, Irvine. “The idea is to manufacture crises and manufacture fraud where it doesn’t exist.”
And what about the actual voters? One Philadelphia resident, Julian Lutz, told CNN that he saw some of the pro-Trump poll watchers trying to enter a voting location, and that “it was rather uncomfortable.” Lutz said he was voting early with his mother because she has a lung condition and is afraid of getting the coronavirus if she stands in long lines on Election Day in November.
CNN’s Paul Murphy contributed to this report.
