In response to RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump pushing election-denying conspiracy theorist Scott Presler as a new RNC hire, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Scott Presler is an election-denying conspiracy theorist, which just makes him par for the course in terms of new major RNC staff hires. Presler isn’t even the first election-denying conspiracy theorist the RNC has announced hiring this week. Once again, Donald Trump’s extreme MAGA makeover of the RNC is showing that democracy is on the line in this election as he and his allies elevate extremists who would rather defend Roy Moore and QAnon than our democracy.”

NEW: In the same breath that she continued to peddle 2020 election conspiracy theories, Lara Trump announced plans to hire election denier and conspiracy theorist Scott Presler to work on ballot harvesting — and hinted at him being offered a role in Trump’s orbit beyond the election too. 

RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump: “There are millions of people, I’m gonna say 75 million plus Americans who still are like, what, ‘what the hell happened in 2020?’ They didn’t get any answers. They all wanted us to move on. But they all feel like something was awry, something was amiss.”

“I’m going to have a call very soon with Scott Presler, who is an amazing vote registerer. He has registered so many people in this country. I think he’s fantastic. I want him on our legal ballot harvesting division.

“I said, if I end up there, if I’m co-chair of the RNC, I want to bring him in. Because what a job that guy has done. Not only should he be rewarded for it, but we want to give him more jobs to do up until November 5, and then well beyond.”

Presler is a far-right MAGA extremist who has peddled QAnon-fueled conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election, worked for an anti-Muslim hate group, and was literally on Capitol grounds during the January 6 insurrection. 

WCCO: “Presler, a Virginia native, planned several ‘stop the steal’ rallies in addition to being on the Capitol grounds the day of the insurrection. Presler also described the siege on the Capitol as ‘the largest civil rights protest in American history.’”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “The Trump rally was organized by Scott Presler, formerly a paid organizer for the Virginia Republican Party, and a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year. He called for an audit of the election results.

“Attendees, including Presler, repeated false claims of voter fraud in Michigan, stemming from a typo in results from a small county, according to the New York Times. Presler could not cite any examples of voter fraud in Pennsylvania.

‘Be assured, if I have to set up my own independent commission, I will be looking through votes to make sure there is no fraudulent, illegal activity,’ Presler said.”

Media Matters: “Media Matters previously documented that Presler promoted QAnon in dozens of instances on his Instagram account. Presler has also worked for the anti-Muslim group Act for America, which, The Associated Press wrote, “is identified by the Anti-Defamation League as the largest anti-Muslim group in America.”

And Presler backed disgraced Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was accused of sexually assaulting women and minors. 

@ScottPresler: “The first test is September 26th, the Alabama senate runoff.

Luther Strange is Mitch McConnell-back pick. Vote Roy Moore.

#DrainTheSwamp”

@ScottPresler: “If Judge Roy Moore wins the September 26th #ALsen runoff, it will signal that 2018 will not be kind to establishment Republicans.

VOTE!”

As the RNC merges with the Trump campaign and continues their extreme MAGA rebrand, the roster of MAGA extremists and conspiracy theorists among their leadership only continues to grow. 

New York Times: “Mr. Trump likes Mr. Whatley for one overwhelming reason, according to people who have discussed him with the former president: He is ‘a stop the steal guy,’ as one of the people described him. He endorses Mr. Trump’s false claims about mass voter fraud… Mr. Whatley has baselessly claimed that election security efforts from Republicans in North Carolina stopped Democrats from cheating.”

CNN: “Likely frontrunner for RNC chair parroted Trump’s 2020 election lies”

“Michael Whatley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, shared false claims that Republican observers were prevented from accessing polling locations and repeatedly said Democratic cities in swing states were engaged in ‘massive fraud.’”

CNN: “She also played a key role in the Trump campaign’s fake electors scheme after he lost the 2020 election, working closely with Trump advisers to organize the plan in seven battleground states. The scheme formed the basis of parts of Smith’s election subversion indictment against the former president, which says Trump and his allies created ‘fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding’ in Congress on January 6, 2021, and ‘disenfranchise millions of voters.’”

“Bobb was also a correspondent during the 2020 election for the fringe pro-Trump network OAN, where she promoted false claims that the election was rigged. The voting technology company Dominion sued Bobb and OAN for defamation in 2021. Some of her on-air segments were also referenced in a separate defamation case against OAN filed by Smartmatic, another aggrieved voting company. OAN and Bobb have denied wrongdoing in these civil cases.”

New York Times: “A self-described conspiracy theorist and election denier, Ms. Bobb will take on a role overseeing Republican election integrity efforts — after years of aggressively promoting false claims about the 2020 election. Her appointment reflects the ascendant role of election deniers in Republican leadership and in Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.”