Right floats conspiracies as Pratt sinks

[marmar]

Right-wing media melts down as Spencer Pratt sinks in vote count
Trump administration launched a federal probe as Republicans fall behind in California primaries

By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published June 6, 2026 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) Spencer Pratt was never going to be the mayor of Los Angeles. That is not necessarily a humiliation for the longtime reality TV star. But now his unconventional campaign, forged in the aftermath of losing his Pacific Palisades home in the January 2025 fires, is quickly giving way to a predictable right-wing meltdown over California’s elections.

Almost immediately after the polls closed on June 2, prominent conservative media personalities began aggressively promoting completely deluded claims that Democrats were actively stealing the election. On Fox News, host Laura Ingraham suggested California might have “the most corrupt voting system in the Western world.” Will Cain floated the idea that votes could be “manufactured” during the counting process. Sean Hannity amplified Donald Trump’s baseless claim that Democrats were “probably cheating” in California. Podcaster Benny Johnson claimed that “you can already see that they’re stealing and they’re cheating.” Right-wing provocateur Chris Rufo baselessly claimed that “the Dem machine has rigged election law in its favor.” Right-leaning polling firm Rasmussen claimed Pratt received zero votes in a ballot drop — a suggestion immediately contradicted by official L.A. County Registrar data, which showed Pratt receiving thousands of votes in every single update.

This kind of misinformation is not a harmless error. It feeds a broader narrative that the system is fundamentally untrustworthy, priming audiences to reject any result that doesn’t align with their preferences.

Perhaps the most revealing moment came from Megyn Kelly, who on her podcast took the “election fraud” grievance in a different direction. Rather than simply attacking election officials, she turned her fire on the voters themselves, ranting about mail-in voting: “Do we really want to make it that convenient? I mean these are lazy-ass people. If they can’t get off their fat asses and get to election polling stations on Election Day, then we don’t want you.” The mask slipped entirely. The objection was never about fraud. The objection is about voter participation. Specifically, the participation of people who tend not to vote Republican. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/06/06/right-wing-media-melts-down-spencer-pratt-vote-count/