Lindell speculated that there were “probably millions of people watching right now” during the afternoon on the Thanksgiving livestream, according to The Independent. However, the “Freedom Patriot Network” YouTube channel that was carrying the event had only dozens of viewers as of Thursday evening.
The total number of viewers was unclear since the event was also being streamed on Lindell’s own platforms including Frank Speech and Lindell TV, where viewing figures were not being shared publicly.
The “Thanks-A-Thon” took place after Lindell missed a self-imposed deadline to file a Supreme Court case that he claimed would inexplicably lead to the “reinstatement” of former President Donald Trump. Lindell is a staunch supporter of Trump and a proponent of baseless and discredited conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him.
During an appearance on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s War Room: Pandemic podcast earlier this week, Lindell suggested that his own roadblocks to filing the lawsuits were “very suspicious” while lamenting that state attorneys general had not signed onto the suit despite his lobbying.
Bannon, who is currently facing criminal contempt charges for defying a subpoena from the House January 6 Committee, was also scheduled to appear as a guest during the “Thanks-A-Thon,” along with other right-wing personalities like Diamond and Silk.
During the livestream on Thursday, Lindell urged viewers to forward a copy of the non-filed Supreme Court complaint to their state attorney general alongside a form email available on his Frank Speech website.
“Send that email out to your attorney general and you say, ‘You know what? We need to save our country,’” Lindell said. “It’s your responsibility now, you attorneys general, you need to all sign. You need to get this signed.”
“No more excuses, no more excuses ‘I’m too busy,’” he aded. “We should never be too busy for the number one thing that’s ruining our country and that is the 2020 election.”
The form email is titled “Bring the case to the Supreme Court to stop the stolen 2020 Election!” It argues that “Our Country cannot move forward with legitimate elections without first fixing the fraud in the November 2020 election” and urges the officials to “bring this case to the Supreme Court to save our State and our Country!”
Lindell’s claims of massive election fraud, which are not supported by any credible evidence, involve false assertions that voting machines were hacked and votes for Trump were electronically “flipped” to be counted for President Joe Biden.
Dominion Voting Systems sued Lindell for $1.3 billion over the claims. One expert that appeared during Thursday’s livestream conceded that the machines in an often-cited Michigan county were not connected to the internet.
Lindell left the “Thanks-A-Thon” for at least two significant stretches during the first 24 hours of the event, which he previously said would be “96 hours straight.” The MyPillow CEO left the stream less than two hours after it started and returned several hours later.
Lindell also disappeared shortly after an interview with former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, with MyPillow ads and footage from the “cyber symposium” that Lindell falsely claimed would present evidence leading to Trump’s reinstatement over the summer airing instead.
Newsweek reached out to MyPillow for comment.