Dec 2, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Conspiracy theories blow back on Trump's White House

Jonathan Swan

Sidney Powell. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

President Trump has rarely met a conspiracy theory he doesn't like, but he and other Republicans now worry the wild tales told by lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood may cost them in Georgia's Senate special elections.

Why it matters: The two are telling Georgians not to vote for Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler because of a bizarre, baseless and potentially self-defeating theory: It's not worth voting because the Chinese Communist Party has rigged the voting machines.

What we're hearing: "There's no more destructive force in American politics — much less in the Republican Party or Trump movement — than Sidney Powell in front of a TV camera," a senior administration official tells Axios.

"If she costs Trump the Senate, and delivers total control of the government to Democrats, she will have done more for the Left than any Democrat in America.

Advisers to Donald Trump Jr. have launched a super-PAC featuring ads starring the president's eldest son to prevent this very situation, and urge Trump's supporters to vote in Georgia's runoffs.

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Conspiracy theories blow back on Trump's White House

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