Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who has made it his business and pleasure to spread outrageous conspiracy theories on behalf of his good friend, Donald Trump, ran for what has become a high visibility position, Chair of the RNC. And he was convinced that he was a shoo-in. Then he was devasted to learn that he lost to the incumbent, Ronna McDaniel.
As has been reported, “he never really had more than an elementary understanding of how the Republican National Committee operated,” and as it turned out, he was merely dreaming that he could win. He never had the support of the actual members. Lindell’s delusions ended Friday when he lost in overwhelming fashion on the first ballot, with just four votes out of the 167 cast, to McDaniel’s 111.
While Lindell was dead-serious about his bid to lead the RNC, no one else ever saw him that way. “The pillow guy? That’s kind of a joke,” one RNC member told The Daily Beast ahead of the party’s winter meeting in Dana Point, California, where Lindell made the final push.
An ally of challenger Harmeet Dhillon called the Lindell bid “a complete sideshow” and said members would desperately try to avoid his calls.
Despite his countless appearances on Steve Bannon’s “WarRoom” podcast, the 168 members wanted little to do with the boastful businessman.
On Tuesday night, Lindell held a reception for RNC members, which his makeshift RNC campaign manager Sherronna Bishop, said was “great” and “very well attended.” In reality, one RNC member who spoke to The Daily Beast said it was scheduled at the same time as other meetings and had sparse attendance. Still, despite the questionable attendance, Bishop said Lindell fielded a “lot of questions” stemming from “lots of concern” over how the RNC is currently being run.
“This is a secret ballot, no machines, isn’t that something,” Lindell said in one of the interviews, alluding to his often-repeated claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump via manipulated voting machines. “This isn’t for the public to vote,” he continued, “why don’t you wait till this thing is over next week, and then I will give you the story when I win.”
Pressed on possibly declaring victory pre-emptively, the pillow CEO insisted on taking the RNC crown in a few days. “Well, why wouldn’t I win? I am more qualified,” he declared. “I [have] done my due diligence for over two months now.”
Asked by The Daily Beast if he could share names of his alleged mysterious RNC supporters, Lindell declined, saying, “They don’t need to be attacked by The Daily Beast.”
Lindell burst into laughter when presented with the idea that he had, at most, a handful of RNC members supporting his candidacy, which both of his competitor’s camps agreed upon.
“Do you even know how this works?” he responded to the criticism that he’d whipped very few votes. “Wake up!” Unfortunately for Lindell, it seems that it was he who got the rude awakening.
