Steve Bannon’s latest project has been infiltrating school boards, but not because he wants lunch prices lowered or more computers for underprivileged kids.
The former Trump adviser’s plan to taint more of American democracy, this time on a local level, is part of a larger trend in post-Jan. 6 America, according to Jared Holt, a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. He explains what those “terrifying” trends are exactly on this episode of The New Abnormal.
“Sometimes these local venues can be a more efficient way for them to accomplish what they’re trying to do. And people like Steve Bannon have been very explicit in telling their followers that if you run for a position in your local Republican party or your school board or something it doesn’t really take that much to get elected,” he says. “You can kind of deal out death by a million paper cuts.”
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But that’s just a piece of the puzzle. Things haven’t gotten better, or resolved, with the far-right extremist issue in this country. Their tactics are just changing.
“The Oath Keepers don’t exist the same way that they did prior to the attack. The Proud Boys don’t exist the same way prior to the attack, but none of these groups or movements really went away. They were battered by the attack, but they weren’t broken by it. Two big things have been happening in extremism in the last year…”
Staying on the theme of far-right fuckery, Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin of Check My Ads join the pod to explain how to play a role in bankrupting people like Bannon, Charlie Kirk, Dan Bongino, and other notorious disinfo machines who are getting rich from ignorant ad exchanges.
And! Co-host Andy Levy and Molly parse out whether Jim Jordan is telling the truth about his Jan. 6 knowledge—and whether Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff will be able to get Mitch McConnell or Ron Johnson to back his anti-stock trading bill.
Listen to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
