This weekend, Jon Ralston on Laxalt and the Big Lie: “Adam Laxalt is carrying the banner of voter fraud […] The Most Unserious Man in Nevada […] even trott[ed] out a supposed victim of voter fraud now accused of…voter fraud.”
As Donald Trump’s Nevada campaign chair, failed politician Adam Laxalt led the charge in promoting the Big Lie about voter fraud, and now their main co-conspirator is pleading guilty to criminal charges. Laxalt and Trump cronies like Matt Schlapp launched “Stop the Steal” efforts in Nevada, claiming there was voter fraud because of a Las Vegas man, Kirk Hartle, who said someone had voted using his deceased wife’s name. Today, in newly released court filings, Hartle admitted it was all a lie and pleaded guilty to illegally casting the ballot himself.
Hartle was central to Laxalt’s false claims that there was voter fraud in the 2020 election. A federal judge, the Nevada Supreme Court, and Nevada’s Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nevadas. Yet Laxalt is making the Big Lie the center of his campaign strategy for 2022, and has not made a single public comment on Hartle’s guilty plea. Nevada Independent columnist Jon Ralston laid out over the weekend how dangerous and dishonest Laxalt’s lies are:
“Adam Laxalt is carrying the banner of voter fraud while prattling on about ‘woke leftists’ and kids being ‘taught to hate each other.’ The Most Unserious Man in Nevada has been exploiting and tarnishing his grandfather’s good name since he moved here a decade ago, has morphed from an attorney general who thought he worked for Sheldon Adelson to a gubernatorial candidate who didn’t know what was in the state budget to a U.S. Senate candidate who led the fraud caucus after the election last year.
Laxalt, along with a gaggle of local and national Trumpers, made all manner of accusations with no evidence, including sliming his fellow veterans who don’t live in the state by accusing them of illegal voting and even trotting out a supposed victim of voter fraud now accused of…voter fraud. He led the effort here in Nevada in news conferences, on social media and in court until it collapsed and then he disappeared from public sight for most of this year.
The man who led The Fraud Caucus is now the leader of The Unserious Caucus, endorsed by Trump and full of talking points and fury, signifying he is not qualified for elective office here or anywhere he chooses to carpetbag.
A candidate by any other name already would have been laughed out of the state. But this is not funny, and he is the epitome of the dangerously hollow man who already has said he will file lawsuits next year to “try to tighten up the election.”
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