Politico Ran Laughably Fake Story On Alt-Right Voter Suppression
The alt-right seized national news with yet another phony story Wednesday, this time fooling Politico and causing administrative carnage across several voting jurisdictions.
Put flatly: Despite what Politico’s most popular Nov. 2 story might tell you, there is no insidious plan to suppress the black vote with 40 oz. beers and marijuana in areas around voting stations. Further, there is no actual evidence of the plan aside from anonymous musings emailed to Politico.
Like the bogus origins of Pepe the Neo Nazi, the charade was surprisingly easy to execute: An alt-right personality simply lied to a reporter who had a clear agenda, and the reporter in turn reported those lies as fact, albeit with a caveat that he couldn’t obtain independent verification.
Ben Schreckinger’s Wednesday story at Politico quickly inspired hysteria among the media and pundit class, breathlessly spreading across the web and causing a scramble among local officials to adequately man the election ramparts.
“I was pretty sure he knew it was bullshit,” Mike Enoch, owner of The Right Stuff (TRS), a main node of the alt-right, told TheDCNF. “But was then just going along with it for the fun of it, but it wasn’t until the sixth response that he sent that I realized he was going to go ahead and print this crap.” The alt-right is a relatively recent political ideology that has at its core the mission of preserving American culture and white identity.
The Daily Caller News Foundation initially got into contact with TRS for a comment on whether or not the black voter suppression plan was actually genuine.
The story began after Schreckinger contacted Andrew Anglin at the Daily Stormer via email. Anglin had mentioned he was working in conjunction with The Right Stuff on poll monitoring.
Schreckinger then contacted TRS. TheDCNF obtained the email thread of the exchange, which started on Oct. 27, as well as internal time-stamped screenshots of members making creative suggestions on how to take Schreckinger for a wild ride.
“Anglin tells me he’s working with you on organizing some poll-watching efforts for Election Day…You guys planning any Election Day parties or voter mobilizations?” Schreckinger asked a TRS representative over email, later revealed to TheDCNF as Mike Enoch, owner of TRS.
Enoch ignored his request for a phone call and instead stated that the group is planning to organize “poll watchers in urban areas to cut down on the most traditional type of voter fraud,” before moving on to describe the more grandiose elements of the charade.
“We also have some teams going in to the ghettos in Philly with 40s and weed to give out to the local residents which we think will lead to more of them staying home,” Enoch told Schreckinger. “We have had success with this in the past.”
“How many times have you passed out 40s and weed in the ghettos in the past and where? Do you have any documentation of your past efforts on this front?” Schreckinger, to his credit, asked in a follow-up email.
Enoch again ignored the request and continued explaining the plot to set-up hidden cameras to watch for voter fraud.
