Name: GOP congressman links Bigfoot hunters to Election fraud Truthers
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GOP congressman links Bigfoot hunters to Election fraud Truthers

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AdvertisementBy New York Daily NewsDec 04, 2020 at 2:07 pmIt’s Celeb-Yeti Apprentice.Republican congressman Denver Riggleman sees similarities between people who search for the mythical Bigfoot creature and Donald Trump devotees who are convinced — without evidence — the lame duck president could not have possibly lost last month’s election. He once counted himself among the former.Advertisement“It was almost a cult or a religious belief system,” the Air Force veteran told Yahoo podcast “.”Riggleman claimed he used to attend Bigfoot hunts through the Pacific Northwest, which he thought were good fun, despite the fact he didn’t believe in the legendary woodland creature. Like election truthers who still believe Trump was cheated out of a second term in the White House, Riggleman, a national security expert, said his Sasquatch-hunting pals were unflappable in their belief they were in tune with something everyone else was missing.Advertisement“No matter what I used as logic, it was turned back on me,” said Riggleman, who represents Virginia’s 5th District. “There was no basis I could get to them where we had a common understanding of what facts were and what truth was.”Other members of his expeditions saw red eyes following them and heard noises they were convince were emanating from Bigfoot. He heard only birds and squirrels.“How important is it to be part of a tribe?” he wonders.Despite President-elect Joe Biden’s winning the 2020 presidential election by roughly 6 million votes — a total which has held through numerous recounts and failed lawsuits — Trump loyalists continue to convene in meet-up spots around the country insisting an alternate reality is at play.According to Riggleman, the president’s self-titled “Elite Strike Force Team,” is to blame for blowing minor instances of irregularity into full-scale conspiracy theories that are spread on social media.“Look at Rudy Giuliani. Look at Sidney Powell. Look at Jen Ellis,” he said of the president’s leading advocates. “It’s creating a false narrative around a small kernel of truth and radicalizing people or pushing them into a belief system through a digital virus that is social media.”That trio of legal minds has seen its credibility questioned over its efforts. Powell’s fantastic claims of voter machine manipulation preceded her from that team nearly three weeks after the election. The dove into Ellis’s legal background Thursday and reported the 36-year-old right-wing firebrand is “not the seasoned constitutional law expert she plays on TV.” Giuliani’s curious exploits of late include a rally that was held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — a remote industrial center neighboring an adult bookstore and a crematorium — which the president believed was being held at the Four Seasons hotel in Philadelphia.CNN buss Jeff Zucker referenced the president’s “crazy legal team” in an editorial meeting caught on tape.AdvertisementRiggleman says there are three main reasons GOP leaders won’t take a stand against conspiracy theory collectives: “Votes, fear and money.”According to Riggleman, whether some of his colleagues refuse to stand up to conspiracy collectives like QAnon or agree with them, those people probably shouldn’t hold public office. The 50-year-old Republican says his party’s inability to separate itself from conspiracy theory ideology has tested his resolve.“Right now I feel like I’m willingly tribeless,” he said. “I felt that when I was with the Bigfoot folks, right, I was sort of the fish out of water, the NSA guy. I’m feeling that now.”According to Riggleman, the conspiracy theorists who have established a foothold in the Republican party may themselves have felt alienated prior to finding a cause.“I do feel like people who have been left out of society … I’m going to try to do this very gently… feel like they’re powerless…” he said.By joining up with conspiracy movements, Riggleman said those disenfranchised folks may now feel like “They have a direct line,” to something people in the mainstream are missing.AdvertisementWhile Riggleman is reluctant to use the word “cult” to describe conspiracy theorists, he wonders if people like election truthers have “evangelized something that is completely false.” Advertisement

AdvertisementBy New York Daily NewsDec 04, 2020 at 2:07 pmIt’s Celeb-Yeti Apprentice.Republican congressman Denver Riggleman sees similarities between people who search for the mythical Bigfoot creature and Donald Trump devotees who are convinced — without evidence — the lame duck president could not have possibly lost last month’s election. He once counted himself among the former.Advertisement“It was almost a cult or a religious belief system,” the Air Force veteran told Yahoo podcast “.”Riggleman claimed he used to attend Bigfoot hunts through the Pacific Northwest, which he thought were...

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GOP congressman links Bigfoot hunters to Election fraud Truthers

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