On election night in 2020, former congresswoman Michele Bachmann boldly declared that conservative Christians had no reason to worry about the outcome because God had “sealed this election in the heavenlies,” ensuring that former President Donald Trump would be easily reelected. When Trump lost, Bachmann, like so many others in the MAGA movement, refused to accept the result, screaming that Satan had stolen her vote and that she’d never be the sort of “chump” who would accept President Joe Biden.

When MAGA activists stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s win, Bachmann immediately began spreading baseless claims that the insurrection had actually been carried out by left-wing activists attempting to carry out a “coup.” Bachmann’s conspiracy theory made no sense, but that never stopped her from asserting it repeatedly over the last two years.

On election night in 2022, when it became clear that the “red wave” many thought would sweep Republicans into power across the nation wasn’t going to materialize, Bachmann was true to form as she immediately started insisting that the results could not be accurate and that “there’s something seriously wrong happening here tonight.” The day after the election, she was confidently declaring that the elections had been stolen while simultaneously admitting that she had no evidence to support that assertion or even any idea of how it might have happened.

In the days since the election, Bachmann has failed to provide any evidence to support her claims, but nonetheless remains fully confident that the entire nation has fallen under a “fog of delusion” that is preventing them from seeing that the election was rigged.

Appearing on a World Prayer Network call Wednesday night, Bachmann claimed that it almost seemed like “an invisible presence was spraying a fog over America” blinding people from seeing “fraud 2.0.”

“If you’ve wondered if the results just weren’t quite kosher in 2020 and you thought it was fraud, my opinion is this is fraud 2.0,” Bachmann said. “It almost seemed like on election night, an invisible presence was spraying a fog over America. Lies were being spewed everywhere it seemed, and it’s like a fog of delusion was being sprayed.”

“It was like on election night, something weird happened,” Bachmann continued, claiming that “a delusion set in” among the American populace that convinced them the predicted red wave failed because Trump and the conservative agenda are unpopular. The exact opposite is true, Bachmann insisted.

“In all likelihood, if there had been no foul play, we would have seen results so profound that these results would have affected America decades into the future,” Bachmann declared. “I believe that’s actually what did happen. I believe those were the results, but because of all of the rigging that went on with this election, we got a very different result.”

We need your help. Every day, Right Wing Watch exposes extremism to help the public, activists, and journalists understand the strategies and tactics of anti-democratic forces—and respond to an increasingly aggressive and authoritarian far-right movement. The threat is growing, but our resources are not. Any size contribution—or a small monthly donation—will help us continue our work and become more effective at disrupting the ideologies, people, and organizations that threaten our freedom and democracy. Please make an investment in Right Wing Watch’s defense of the values we share.