MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is pulling his advertising from Fox News because the network won’t advertise a cyber symposium he’s planning on the 2020 election.
“As soon as I heard that, I said, ‘You are part of cancel culture. You are worst than all of the media put together,’” Lindell said of Fox News in an interview with Talking Points Memo. “You’re going to start screening events?”
“They should just become a weather channel and talk about climate change,” he added.
But Lindell wasn’t done trashing the network.
“Machines or vaccines, count Fox out, they don’t want to talk about it. It’s a generic station now that won’t talk about anything. I’m not going to be a part of them being part of this cancel culture, I think it’s disgraceful.”
Fox News confirmed that it rejected Lindell’s ad and lamented his decision to pull all of his MyPillow advertising. “It’s unfortunate Mr. Lindell has chosen to pause his commercial time on FOX News given the level of success he’s experienced in building his brand through advertising on the number one cable news network,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Lindell reportedly spent $50 million in ads on Fox News last year and has spent $19 million so far this year.
I applauded Mike Lindell for vocally supporting Trump’s presidency and his reelection. But I fear his post-election efforts have done more harm than good. While I agree that there was substantial election fraud and that it likely altered the outcome of the 2020 election, Lindell effectively jumped the shark when he said earlier this month that Trump would be back in the White House by August.
“What I’m talking about, Steve, is what I have been doing since January 9. All of the evidence I have, everything that is going to go before the Supreme Court, and the election of 2020 is going bye-bye,” Lindell told Steve Bannon back in March on Bannon’s podcast. “It was an attack by another country — communism coming in. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it after they pull it down, but it’s going down.”
“Donald Trump will be back in office in August.”
Mike Lindell declares that as a result of voter fraud lawsuit he'll soon be filing, "Donald Trump will be back in office in August." pic.twitter.com/5Ewtd9SZ1O
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 29, 2021
Jenna Ellis, Trump’s former legal adviser, pointed out months ago that Trump “is not going to be reinstated.”
“The election was lawless, six states allowed their delegates to vote by false certifications, but the [Electoral College] process happened,” she tweeted. “The Constitution has only one process for removal of a sitting president: impeachment and conviction.”
“No, President Trump is not going to be ‘reinstated,’” she concluded. Ellis instead says the best thing to do is to push for election integrity laws.
“The best thing we can do as constitutionalists moving forward is to ensure this utter disregard for states’ election laws never happens again. That’s why election integrity is the number one issue facing America today. Even if Biden/Harris were impeached and convicted, there is a constitutionally prescribed presidential succession. The states had their opportunity to cure the corruption before January 20; they refused.”
Related: MyPillow and the War on Trumpservatism
Lindell claims to have all sorts of evidence of foreign hacking and fraud. I’m not sure where he’s getting this evidence. Still, I know that a theatrical pillow salesman is not the best messenger for presenting this information—especially when he goes off the rails talking about Trump being magically reinstated as president, despite there being no constitutional process for such a thing to occur.
I’m under no illusions. I know that even if every person acknowledges this fraud occurred, the Electoral College has spoken and there’s nothing we can do to put Trump back in the Oval Office, save for another election. When people like Lindell start talking about Trump being reinstated, it makes me cringe. Would it be awesome if that were possible? Sure it would be! But that’s not how it works. Just like Pence had no constitutional authority to stop the Electoral College certification, there is no mechanism for reinstating Trump even if enough fraud is exposed. We have to accept that.
We’ve had one forensic audit completed in Maricopa County, Arizona, and two more underway in Fulton County, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. Let’s let them investigate and see what happens. Significant irregularities have already been uncovered in the Arizona and Georgia audits. As for Mike Lindell, he should focus on his company and sell some pillows. I know he’s frustrated by the election. I am too. But as much as I agree that there were shenanigans in 2020, I also know that what Lindell is doing is not helping the cause.
