Schriver’s promotion led to a firestorm of controversy. The Michigan House — which is led by Democratic Speaker Joe Tate — reassigned Schriver’s staff and removed him from his legislative committee. The Detroit Free Press noted at the time that Republicans in the state were largely silent about Schriver. (The House GOP minority leader in Michigan later offered soft criticism of Schriver, saying, “We should not use these terms.”)
Posobiec also hosted Schriver on his show and defended him.
Months later, Republicans in Michigan are using Posobiec as a surrogate for their election efforts. Raw Story’s Jordan Green reported on September 17 that he appeared in “a Zoom training for GOP poll challengers in Michigan that was hosted by the Republican National Committee” on September 4, where “Posobiec undermined confidence in the upcoming election.”
Green additionally wrote that “Morgan Ray, the RNC’s Michigan state director of election integrity, introduced Posobiec during the training as ‘an incredible patriot.’ She and Posobiec highlighted Detroit, also a Democratic stronghold, as a focal point of Republican suspicions about voter fraud.”
Posobiec is an online troll who has pushed numerous conspiracy theories, including “Pizzagate” and false claims about the killing of Democratic aide Seth Rich and the 2020 election; “collaborated with white nationalists, antigovernment extremists, members of the Proud Boys, and neo-Nazis,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center; attacked “Jewish journalists with antisemitic hate” by deploying a symbol regularly used by antisemites, according to the SPLC; and frequently collaborated with Alex Jones, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist who was found liable for his horrific smears about the Sandy Hook mass shooting. (Posobiec will appear on tour in Pennsylvania with Jones and Tucker Carlson — who recently helped push pro-Nazi apologias — next week.)
In January 2023, he responded to a prompt asking what places “you would be willing to give up if Putin started bombing your cities,” by writing: “Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago.”
Posobiec is also virulently antiabortion. He’s written:
- “I will always pray that one day in the future we look back at abortion the same way we look at slavery.” [Twitter/X, 8/6/21]
- “Abortion is not only murder it is an offering to Moloch.” [Twitter/X, 4/1/22]
- “More people have died from vaccine injuries than back-alley abortions but we aren't allowed to talk about that.” [Telegram, 6/20/22]
- “The[re] is no such thing as a Christian who supports abortion.” [Twitter/X, 1/21/22]
- “I don’t know who needs to hear this but abortion was never a right.” [Twitter/X, 5/4/22]
- “Abortion is not healthcare.” [Twitter/X, 6/25/22]
- “Feel like abortion is the most likely cause of another civil war in America. We aren’t anywhere close to one, but if I had to put money on any one issue it’d be that.” [Twitter/X, 4/12/24]
Trump running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) recently blurbed and endorsed Posobiec’s book, which backs violent regimes and calls progressives “unhumans.” (Vance has recently been complaining that Democrats’ rhetoric is overheated.)
In August, journalist and researcher Amanda Moore documented Posobiec’s trainings for “Trump Force 47,” the Republican-backed effort at grassroots organizing.
Media Matters previously documented that commentator Garrett Soldano has also been doing events for the Trump effort in Michigan. Among other remarks, Soldano has stated that he opposes abortion for rape victims because “God put them in this moment.” Soldano recently appeared at a Michigan rally featuring Vance, who shouted him out.
