The Far-Right Constitutional Sheriffs Gearing Up to Challenge the 2024 Election
WIRED Politics Lab
WIRED
4.2 • 244 Ratings
🗓️ 24 October 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It sounds like something out of the Old West, but this year, Constitutional Sheriffs — law enforcement officers who believe they’re above state and federal oversight — have rounded up posses and set their sights on election security. WIRED’s Tim Marchman talks with reporter David Gilbert about how the Constitutional Sheriffs hitched their wagons to the big guns in the election denial movement, and how just one rogue county sheriff could call the entire presidential race into question.
Tim Marchman is @timmarchman. David Gilbert is @DaithaiGilbert. Write to us at [email protected]. Be sure to subscribe to the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter here.
Mentioned this week:
'Take Back the States': The Far-Right Sheriffs Ready to Disrupt the Election by David Gilbert
Far-Right Sheriffs Want a Citizen Army to Stop ‘Illegal Immigrant’ Voters by David Gilbert
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| 0:00.0 | eBay. It's a place to fall in love with new, pre-loved, vintage and rare fashion over and over again. |
| 0:07.1 | Your favorite designers, expertly authenticated. Yeah, eBay. Things people love. |
| 0:19.5 | This is Wired Politics Lab, a show about how tech is changing politics. |
| 0:24.8 | I'm Tim Marchman, filling in for Leah Feiger. |
| 0:28.3 | In April, a group of law enforcement officers gathered in Las Vegas, and for about 10 hours, several speakers took the stage. |
| 0:36.2 | They spoke about Antifa, government sciops, the great |
| 0:39.5 | replacement theory, and the deep state. The bottom line, though, was that they believed the 2020 |
| 0:45.5 | elections had been stolen, that it could happen again in 2024. And according to a former sheriff |
| 0:51.6 | named Richard Mack, sheriffs are the ones who can stop it. |
| 0:56.4 | More specifically, a group of sheriffs led by Mack known as the constitutional sheriffs. |
| 1:01.9 | You get pushback, like extremist and fanatic pushbacks, when we simply want to verify how our boats are tabulated. |
| 1:11.5 | That's it. |
| 1:13.1 | And we have a right to do that. |
| 1:15.7 | And we have a right to be suspicious about computers. |
| 1:19.1 | And we have a right to tell our public officials we want it done this way. |
| 1:24.1 | Constitutional sheriffs have gained supporters like My Pill pillow CEO Mike Lindell, former national security |
| 1:29.6 | advisor Mike Flynn, you might remember them from January 6th, and other people close to Donald Trump. |
| 1:36.2 | If Trump loses the election in just a couple of weeks, some of the constitutional sheriffs are prepared to take drastic action, and some see for stalling his defeat as their duty. |
| 1:45.6 | Joining me today to talk about how the constitutional sheriffs could disrupt the 2024 election |
| 1:50.5 | is David Gilbert, whose deep dive on the constitutional sheriffs came out this week on Wired.com. |
| 1:55.9 | David, thanks for joining me. Yeah, it's great to be here finally to talk about constitutional sheriffs. |
| 2:02.0 | So what do constitutional sheriffs believe and what sets them apart from other sheriffs |
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