Climate Deniers Boost Pro-Trump Efforts to Cast Doubt on US Election

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In unusual remarks made during a corporate earnings call today, Friday, November 6,ย Continental Resources founder and executive chairman Haroldย Hamm* referred to countingย โ€œall legal votesโ€ โ€” a phrase used by President Donald Trump to suggest that some votes cast in the 2020 election are not legitimate. Theย founder and executive chairman ofย the Oklahoma-based oil and gas company joined others who disputeย mainstream climate science in taking up this language in the wake of this week’s slowly unfolding presidentialย election.

โ€œFinally, I wanted to provide my thoughts on the current state of the election,โ€ย Hamm said after discussing Continental Resourcesโ€™ย financial performance. โ€œThe election process is not final and we like you are waiting to see the results when all legal votes areย counted.โ€

Fact-checking website Politifact notes that the Trump campaign declined to clarify specifically which, if any, votes President Donald Trump believes were โ€œillegal.โ€ Trumpโ€™s unsupported claims of wrongdoing in this yearโ€™s elections have proved too much for observers across the political spectrum, including those at Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, which categorized such claims as โ€œlashing outโ€ byย Trump.

Hamm hastened to assure investors that Republicans would serve as a bulwark against laws that the oil and gas industry opposes. โ€œWhile we wait to see the final results of the presidential election, the Senate will more than likely remain in the hands of Republican leadership and the House Republican representation will be strengthened,โ€ he said. โ€œThis should serve as a backstop for any legislation that would be harmful for U.S. oil and gasย producers.โ€

Continentalโ€™s stock closed down roughly 8 percent, losing a full dollar to end the day at $12.24 a share, down from $13.24 thisย morning.

Hamm has worked closely with Trump, with the Wall Street Journal reporting in May that Trump had said in videotaped remarks that he โ€œlearned more about energy from Harold than anybodyย else.โ€

In 2016, during his speech at the Republican National Convention, Hamm cast doubt on the importance of climate change. โ€œClimate change isnโ€™t our biggest problem,โ€ he claimed. โ€œItโ€™s Islamicย terrorism.โ€

Hamm isnโ€™t the only opponent of climate action to insert himself into strife over vote counting in thisย election.

On Thursday, a group called FreedomWorks for America organized protests at ballot-counting sites in Phoenix, Detroit, andย Philadelphia.

FreedomWorks posted photographs of rally attendees in Philadelphia, many not wearing masks, carrying printed signs with messages like โ€œcount legal votesโ€ and encouraging people to text the word โ€œstolenโ€ to sign up, with the FreedomWorks logo printedย below.

FreedomWorks and its related organizations grew from an organization founded by the petrochemical billionaire Koch brothers in the early 1980s and have, over their histories, received millions of dollars in Koch and dark money funding, DeSmogโ€™s databaseย profile of the organizationsย shows.

FreedomWorks and its related organizations have historically received funding from the Koch network, the American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil, and others tied to fossil fuels and promotion of climate science denial, DeSmogโ€™s profile indicates.

More recently, the organization appears to have distanced itself from Koch. โ€œWhile [Citizens for a Sound Economy, one of FreedomWorks’ predecessors] was founded by the Koch brothers in 1984 as special interest groupย promoting deregulation and was originally affiliated with Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation (CSEF), Koch does not appear active in FreedomWorks itself,โ€ DeSmogโ€™s database notes.

There is evidence that the organization has maintained ties to fossil fuel companies during President Trumpโ€™s time in office. In 2019, FreedomWorks received $50,000 from coal company Murray Energy, formerly owned by Bob Murray (recently deceased), bankruptcy filings revealed. Since Trump took office, FreedomWorks Foundation has taken over $384,000 in funding via DonorsTrust, the notorious conduit for dark money (a role so central to its existence that itโ€™s famously been dubbed the โ€œdark money ATM of the conservative movementโ€ by Mother Jones.)ย ย 

FreedomWorks โ€” which is often cited as having helped to create the Tea Party movement last decade โ€” also has a long history of promoting climate disinformation. โ€œWhile FreedomWorks does not have an official statement on climate change, they regularly publish articles on their website questioning the existence of man-made climateย change,โ€ DeSmogโ€™s profileย indicates.

Charlie Kirk, founder and executive directorย of the conservative youth activist groupย Turning Point USA, also called for the counting of โ€œevery LEGAL voteโ€ on Twitter. Kirk has also opposed action on climate change (calling the Paris Climate Agreement, which the U.S. formally exited on November 4,ย a โ€œBAD Dealโ€ onย Twitter).

โ€œCharlie Kirk has admitted to soliciting funds from the fossil fuel industry,โ€ DeSmogโ€™s database entry on Kirk notes. โ€œHeย acknowlededย in an interview that some donors of [Turning Point USA] โ€˜are in the fossil-fuelย space.โ€™โ€ย 

The entry of well-funded organizations into the election fray runs counter to the suggestion that pro-Trump rallies intended to delegitimize the democratic voting process sprang up entirely from theย grassroots.

โ€œThis is definitely not just organic, up-from-the-grassroots disinformation,โ€ Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory told Politico. โ€œThere are professionals here who are pushing some of this stuff based upon exactly what is going on in the polls and in the real-world arguments over theย election.โ€

FreedomWorks has not immediately responded to a request forย comment.

*Updated 11/10/20: Harold Hamm’s first name was corrected from Howard. DeSmog regrets theย error.

Main image: The scene outside of the Convention Center in Philadelphia where the vote count is taking place, November 5, 2020.ย Credit: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly,ย CC BYSAย 2.0
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Sharon Kelly is an attorney and investigative reporter based in Pennsylvania. She was previously a senior correspondent at The Capitol Forum and, prior to that, she reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other print and online publications.

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