No, Wisconsin Trump voter wasn’t assaulted; video is a Russian fake, expert says

A video circulating on X purported to show a Donald Trump voter being attacked by two Kamala Harris supporters at a Wisconsin polling station. 

That didn’t happen, a Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson said, and a social media disinformation expert said the video is Russian disinformation.

"BREAKING: CCTV captures the moment a Trump voter in WI is assaulted by two Kamala Harris thugs at a voting station in Wisconsin," said a lengthy Nov. 5 X post by an Australian political commentator that used the abbreviation for closed-circuit television.

The post shared a soundless video of what looks like a polling station with three people casting their ballots. In the video, a man wearing a red hat — presumably with now-President-elect Donald Trump’s "Make America Great Again" slogan — approaches with a ballot and a man voting wearing a white Harris hoodie confronts him and pushes him out of camera range. Then another person in a red hoodie assaults the Trump voter, who’s seen falling to the floor.

But that didn’t happen at a Wisconsin polling station, Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson Joel DeSpain wrote in an email to PolitiFact.

"We received no reports from law enforcement and no reports from any Wisconsin polling locations that this incident took place in the Badger State," DeSpain said.

NewsGuard, a company that tracks online false narratives, noted that Wisconsin does not allow people to wear politically themed attire, such as Trump hats or Harris hoodies, inside polling stations.

(Screenshot from X)

Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University’s Watt Family Innovation Center Media Forensics Hub, said in a Nov. 5 X post that the video is disinformation created by Storm-1516, a Russian influence operation. 

Storm-1516 was behind two recent Pants on Fire! fake videos that pretended to show Haitian immigrants in the U.S. illegally saying they are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, and a Bucks County, Pennsylvania, election official destroying mail ballots.

Linvill said he and his Clemson colleagues have tracked Storm-1516 for the past year and "are very familiar with its tactics, techniques and procedures." The Media Forensics Hub first identified the Russian network in December 2023, it said in an October report. 

Linvill told PolitiFact that there are several reasons they attributed the Wisconsin video to Storm-1516, including the video’s attempt to incite violence and the group’s previous videos targeting battleground states Pennsylvania and Georgia.

"The origin account (Scott Goldberg, using the X handle @izzagg) is an account that only recently started posting," Linvill said, adding that it’s consistent with how Storm-1516 has created videos in the past — by creating an account and making videos that "look just plausible enough to be convincing if you don’t look too hard."  

Another Storm-1516 hallmark is that the video, which is shot from above, shows no faces or anything that could possibly identify anyone, Linvill said. 

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Linvill said Storm-1516 used an account named @AlertChannel, which is part of its regular distribution network, to boost the video.

The group also used Jamie McIntyre, "an Australian influencer who joined the distribution network a couple of months ago," Linvill said.

We found another Australian account sharing the video on X. As of Nov. 7, X had suspended the @AlertChannel and Scott Golberg (@izzaag) accounts that originally shared it.

X suspended three accounts that shared Russian disinformation about the election, including the Wisconsin video, CBS News reported. We contacted X via email for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Linvill said it’s likely that McIntyre’s account wasn’t suspended because he is a public figure and a real person, he said. Linvill said the Goldberg account was a fake persona and @Alertchannel was anonymous, and therefore easier to suspend.

An X post claimed to show a video of a Trump supporter being assaulted by two Harris supporters at a Wisconsin polling station.

But a Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson said it received no reports of an assault happening at a polling station. A disinformation expert said the video has the hallmarks of Storm-1516, a Russian disinformation campaign that targeted swing states in the 2024 U.S. election.

We rate the claim Pants on Fire!

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