Election denial activist behind “Pence Card” theory tells QAnon show he contacted multiple members of Congress to push plan

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published

Ivan Raiklin, a former military officer and election denial activist who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election with his “Pence Card” plan, told a QAnon-supporting show that he contacted multiple members of Congress to push his plan, naming some of whom he contacted specifically.

Raiklin, who has been an Army Reserve officer, was reportedly involved with former national security advisor Michael Flynn in his efforts to overturn the election (Flynn’s family has denied being involved with Raiklin despite Flynn previously lauding Raiklin as a “digital soldier,” a term often used by QAnon supporters to describe themselves and which Raiklin has himself apparently invoked). Raiklin has also been connected to Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano. 

Raiklin’s efforts included what he called the “Pence Card,” a theory where then-Vice President Mike Pence could effectively block the January 6 certification of then-President-elect Joe Biden’s election. That theory was subsequently embraced by then-President Donald Trump, who in December 2020 retweeted Raiklin pushing the Pence Card claim, which the House January 6 committee noted during one of its hearings. Raiklin around this time also went on multiple QAnon-supporting shows to promote his theory, during which he agreed with a QAnon influencer that a military coup could be a potential option to overturn the election.

On August 31, Raiklin appeared on a QAnon-supporting show alongside QAnon influencer Jon Herald (known online as “Patel Patriot”) and host Zak Paine, who participated in the January 6 insurrection. During the appearance, Raiklin said that in the time leading up to the January 6 congressional certification he was “contacting everybody I knew in Congress” to gain support for his theory that Pence could reject the results. He specifically named Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Ben Cline (R-VA), Mike Waltz (R-FL), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Madison Cawthorn (R-NC). Raiklin also suggested that this was “the first time” that he was disclosing this activity.

From the August 31, 2022, edition of RedPill78

IVAN RAIKLIN: Let me give you a little context. So back in — so that you understand how deep I was in this. And the radical left media is going to hear this for the first time. On November 5, I happened to go up to Philadelphia to kind of observe what the campaign was doing in terms of their legal strategy. And there’s a video out there where I bumped into one of the poll observers that were on the inside that was kicked out, one of the Trump campaign poll observers. And he said that there were a lot of people coming in with backpacks, you’ve probably seen that video, it went kind of viral a few weeks ago. I’m the guy taking the video and they’re listening to this guy kind of testify. So I went up there, observed what’s going on legally. That’s where I met Dan Cox, he was working it. He’s now the candidate for governor in Maryland, America First guy. And a couple of other people. You know, Corey Lewandowski was up there, Pam Bondi was up there, [Rudy] Giuliani was up there. 

So I came in kind of, I think the next day or so, to try to assess what’s going on. And I noticed that there wasn’t — the campaign nor the presidency was really putting out the message of how an election occurs. We all know now, but there wasn’t this counter-narrative to, “Oh, this election’s over.” Instead, it was just no one was putting it out. So that’s when I took to Twitter and started really doing a deep dive on how we can still remedy this going into January 6. I get the retweet by general, the president, etc. Thankfully, I get a bigger voice. 

So now I’m putting out these paths to be able to fix it. And I don’t know how much — I think, Zak, you said you saw, like, some of that strategy?

ZAK PAINE (HOST): I did, yes.

RAIKLIN: What needs to be done in the Congress, at the executive branch, etc., etc. One of the components, one of the biggest components in everything we do in this ecosystem, is the court of public opinion. When the court of public opinion, via the mainstream media, says that an election is over, most of your staff in the White House, most of your campaign staff, believe it, and now they give up. And we saw that. And so you had outside people like me, you guys, everybody basically saying, “This ain’t over. The election ends on January 6, if it’s done, you know, legitimately, there’s other remedies afterwards.” So, I was going day by day, giving all the different components. I was on X22 [Report] and I kind of laid all of that stuff out. 

And then as we approach January 6, the last lawful way to apply pressure on the Congress at that point was to convince them that they are now under a duty to object. And the way that I was doing it is that memo clearly articulated it not only to the president — or Vice President Pence in December. When he failed to do that, in my opinion, he now is complicit in the constitutional violations, along with those at the precinct, county, and secretary of state level for certifying those illegal elections. And now it rests on — the courts are not supposed to be involved in this entire process. This is not a legal construct. It’s a legislative state process and a congressional process. So by the time it got to the Congress, I was contacting everybody I knew in Congress. “Hey, Congressman So-And-So.” You want me to name names?

PAINE: Sure. Feel free.

RAIKLIN: “Hey, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, incoming. Hey, Congressman Mo Brooks. Hey, Congressman Ben Cline. Hey, Congressman Mike Waltz. Hey, Congressman Jim Jordan.” And so on and so on. I told them, “You don’t have to — you don’t have to know anything about fraud, illegal machines, the networks, the Chinese, this and that. All you have to convince yourself of is that the states conducted their election not according to their election law. Hey, Congressman” — what’s his name? From North Carolina. In the wheelchair.

PAINE: I’m drawing a blank. Yeah. The young guy who they kicked out. Madison Cawthorn.

RAIKLIN: Madison Cawthorn. Good, I got it first.

…

So we’re getting this out. The left realizes it, that we now have the momentum. And so what do they do? They start to block, cancel, tackle. LinkedIn blocks my analysis of the Electoral Count Act in the Constitution. I get blocked. I get blocked on Instagram. I get blocked on Twitter, right? Because they used to say — they say that, “Oh no, the election’s over. Those are — that’s false information.” And then I say, “No, that’s not false. I'm actually just citing the Electoral Count Act.” 

Anyhow, we move forward into January 6. On January 5, we had like 100-and-almost-50 Congress members that were going to object, 12 senators. And so we’re in this predicament on January 6 at 1:02 p.m. Pence puts out a tweet saying that, “Oh, I can’t unilaterally do anything.” Well, no one argued you could do it unilaterally. At least, I mean, I didn’t. No one in my circles. And he went ahead and what did he do instead? He unilaterally denied 90% of Congress from participating in the objections.