Editing Stop the Steal movement (section)

==History==
The Stop the Steal movement was created during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, when Republican political strategist [[Roger Stone]] created a website called "Stop the Steal" claiming that a "Bush-Cruz-Kasich-Romney-Ryan-McConnell faction" was trying to stop Trump from winning the Republican primaries. The slogan was then used during the actual election, with Trump repeatedly making baseless claims that the election was rigged in favour of his rival Hillary Clinton (a claim he didn't even retract when he won the election by a significant margin).

During the 2020 election, when Trump was up for re-election against former VP Joe Biden, both Trump and many conservative influencers began claiming that the election was going to be rigged in Biden's favour, citing "evidence" such as video footage of a red truck allegedly containing fake ballot sheets entering a voting centre (despite no evidence that anything suspicious was in the truck) and images of Trump ballots being burned (later confirmed to be test ballots with no impact on the election). The "Women for America First" founder Amy Kremer created a Facebook group called "Stop the Steal", reviving the slogan from 2016. The group was taken down for spreading misinformation after garnering 360,000 followers.

Despite multiple attempts from pro-Trump militias to stop the votes from being counted, Biden's victory was eventually confirmed. Trump and many other high-profile conservative figures refused to accept the results, falsely claiming that Trump had won the election and that states like Georgia and Michigan where Biden won heavily had rigged the result. Many loosely-organized groups called Stop the Steal were set up soon after in order to protest the result. Conservative media outlets like Fox News and ''The Daily Wire'' also continued to claim that the election was unfair.

After every single state had confirmed the result of the election, the Stop the Steal protests intensified. The governor of Michigan, Jocelyn Benson, had her home surrounded by Stop the Steal protestors who shouted obscenities and death threats at her on December 7. On December 12, Stop the Steal held protests all over Washington, D.C.. Although these were mostly peaceful, several fights did break out and nine people were hospitalised. Some of them had suffered life-threatening stab wounds, while others only had minor injuries.

By 2021, far-right groups like the [[Proud Boys]] had aligned themselves with Stop the Steal. This led to the rhetoric of Stop the Steal becoming more directed towards Jewish billionaire George Soros, accusing him of rigging the election. The people who came up with this are likely the same ones who accuse him of funding [[Antifa]].

As Joe Biden's inauguration approached, the movement became more desperate to stop him. On January 6 2021, Donald Trump organised a "Save America" rally outside the US Capitol where the final vote on whether to certify the election was taking place. The rally was attended by Proud Boys, neo-confederates waving flags, the Alt-Right, QAnon, the [[Oath Keepers]], members of the [[Boogaloo Boys|Boogaloo movement]], and other groups. Speakers included Donald Trump, who recited the page quote as well as telling his supporters to "walk down to the Capitol” and “fight like hell", [[Alex Jones]], and Rudy Giuliani, who called for a "trial by combat".

Shortly after Trump gave his speech, a group of the people attending broke off from the rally and [[2021 United States Capitol storming|stormed the Capitol]]. One Capitol police officer was killed, along with four participants. The Capitol was evacuated, delaying the vote until the next day when Biden's victory was confirmed. Many of the participants were subsequently arrested. This also resulted in Trump becoming the first and only president to be impeached for a second time, just a week after the violent insurrection. Many members of the Stop the Steal movement falsely claimed that Antifa was responsible for the attack.

In the days leading up to Biden's inauguration, the FBI warned that similar riots might occur. This never actually happened, however there were peaceful protests outside the White House and other government buildings around the country. Antifa member [[Daniel Alan Baker]] plotted to shoot up one of these protests, but was arrested before he could do so.

As of April 2, 2021, the Stop the Steal movement has resorted to spreading conspiracy theories about COVID-19 in order to discredit Joe Biden.