Trump-backed MyPillow founder MELTS DOWN over HUMILIATING primary race defeat, refuses to concede

[0:01] A top election denier and key Trump ally suffered an embarrassing election defeat in Minnesota. [0:06] Mike Lindell, the former MyPillow CEO who gained national prominence and became a darling of the [0:12] fringe hard right for being a leader of 2020 election denialism, along with the big lie, [0:17] was defeated in his bid to be the Republican nominee for governor. Lisa DeMuth, who currently [0:22] serves as the Minnesota Speaker of the House, defeated Lindell by nearly 11 points. Donald [0:28] Trump endorsed Lindell, posting multiple times on Truth Social in support of Lindell, despite the [0:33] Minnesota Republican Party urging Trump not to intervene in the race. If you thought the former [0:39] MyPillow guy would gracefully concede, well, think again. If the AP calls the race. What is the AP? [0:48] The voters. What the AP? Why would I listen to the AP? There's 265,000 votes left to count. [0:55] I'm down by 18,000 now. We just gained 5,000. I will call it. I will. I'm not going to give it to [1:01] give up this race. I want to bring in Charlie Sykes. He is the author of To the Contrary [1:06] newsletter and Sam Stein, managing editor of the Bullock. All right, Charlie, Mike Lindell can't [1:11] believe he lost. Can you? Well, he's very much on brand, isn't it? It's interesting. You know, [1:18] Donald Trump went all in for him. And apparently Republican voters are willing to vote for [1:23] loyalists and extremists, but they're going to draw the line at the genuinely certifiable. So [1:28] there's Mike Lindell doing what Mike Lindell does. And it's going to turn out the way all of these [1:36] Mike Lindell conspiracy theories turn out. You know, I think, you know, last night was obviously a bad [1:42] night for the crazies. But just to think about the political moment that we're even talking about [1:48] Mike Lindell as a candidate for governor of any state in the United States, given his track record. [1:55] But again, this is this seems rather significantly consistent with everything he's done [2:04] over the last several years. It does seem, Sam, like a test of the Trump endorsement power, [2:12] because in addition to his endorsement of Lindell, he also clearly has put [2:16] all of his weight behind Darlene Graham in her race in South Carolina. She was forced into a [2:22] runoff, I think, in a different period of time. A Trump endorsed candidate would run away with a [2:29] primary like that. Not the case here. Yeah, there's been a few cases here where Trump's [2:36] endorsement has not actually moved the needle. I will. Let's be let's be, you know, frank about it. [2:41] More often than not, it does. Right. I mean, this party tends to take its guidance from Donald Trump. [2:46] But Lindell, as Charlie said, was obviously just a bridge too far, maybe a pillow too far, [2:51] if you want to extend the metaphor and trying here. I'm trying. But what I'm curious about is, [2:59] will Trump come to Mike Lindell's defense and insisting that this election was fraudulent [3:06] to the degree that Lindell did to Trump. I mean, Lindell burnt any reputation he had, [3:12] spent copious amounts of money, got himself embroiled in amazing legal dramas and trouble. [3:19] I think it was served papers while on being interviewed on TV once. Like this man has given [3:25] it all for Trump and his crazy conspiracies. Will Trump return the favor? I don't know. And that would [3:31] be the ultimate letdown for Lindell. But it also would kind of be on brand for Trump because if he [3:36] has to, because the thing that Trump doesn't want to do here is he does not want to acknowledge [3:40] that his preferred candidate lost a primary. He can't do it because it saps his power within the [3:45] Republican Party. So Trump's in kind of this weird bind. And I'm very curious to see what he does. [3:51] Well, I mean, to the point that Sam is making Charlie, when the president was asked about his [3:56] support of Darlene Graham, he's like, well, let's be clear, like everybody in this race is MAGA. And [4:01] I like everybody who's running in this race. He wanted to distance. It seemed he wanted to put [4:07] some distance between himself. He didn't want this to be a test of his own power. And yeah, I think it's [4:14] hard to read it as anything but that. Well, it is. And you know, to Sam's point, I mean, we need to [4:21] acknowledge that he generally gets his way. But I also think we're finding some limits to that. [4:26] Andy Ogles was at a president. Andy Ogles was defeated in the primary despite, you know, [4:31] being a Trumpist. What happened in South Carolina? What is interesting, going back to your question [4:37] about what Donald Trump will will do, we've seen that Donald Trump is willing to push the crazy [4:44] all the way to the limit and beyond. In Minnesota, he would really have to go to war with Minnesota [4:49] Republicans, right? He has to make the case that those dastardly Minnesota Republicans rigged the [4:55] election and find a way to overturn the Republican primary. And that's kind of a new wrinkle on [5:02] on Donald Trump's election denialism. We'll have to see.