With just hours to go until Congress meets to count the Electoral College votes to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's election victory, some of the main advocates behind the QAnon conspiracy theory are turning their attention to Vice President Mike Pence amid desperate hopes he will somehow help President Donald Trump overturn the election results.
Supporters of the radical conspiracy theory have continually pushed disputed claims or just plain misinformation regarding the election since November, fueled by Trump's continuing assertion that he only lost as a result of widespread voter fraud.
The latest prediction from the radical movement—following on from every single claim previously proven completely wrong—is that the outgoing vice president will play the so-called "Pence Card" during his constitutional role as presiding officer of the Senate and reject the Electoral College votes declaring Biden the 306-232 winner.
It is unclear what they expect Pence to actually do during his purely ceremonial role prescribed by law and the Constitution.
This hasn't stopped Trump himself appearing to throw Pence under the bus, tweeting that Pence has the "power to reject fraudulently chosen electors" and telling his supporters at a rally in Georgia on Monday night that he hopes Pence "comes through for us."
Following reports that Pence had to inform the president that he does not have the power to block Congress' certification of Biden's win, Trump issued a statement claiming that he and the vice president are "in total agreement" that he has several options, including decertifying the results or sending them back to the states.
Ahead of Wednesday's session, some of the most prominent figures behind the QAnon movement are now suggesting that if Pence does not stop the democratic process and help Trump remain in the White House, it is not because he is unable to but because he is a "traitor" to the president and their cause.
On Tuesday, Ron Watkins, former administrator of the controversial messageboard site 8Kun which is used as a hub for the QAnon conspiracy, tweeted a link to claims he said was proof that Pence and former House Speaker Paul Ryan had been "conspiring against" Trump in 2016.
The link shows a series of emails claiming to be from the project manager of a Pence-Ryan 2016 campaign website that was "called off after Trump won his second debate." However, the email chain is entirely fake and was created for parody news site RealTrueNews.org.
The fake news website, created by Marco Chacon, duped a number of conservative websites amid the 2016 election, including one which said Hillary Clinton described potential voters as a "bucket of losers" during a speech to Goldman Sachs. The site even has the slogan "fake, but accurate" under its online banner.
Discussing the Pence-Ryan email story picked up by Watkins, Chacon told NBC News: "It's an absurd story told in an absurd manner with absurd trappings. This is a testament to the power of confirmation bias. QAnon supporters literally can't tell the difference between truth and fantasy when it comes to anything with a partisan valence."
Watkins' tweet sharing the fake news was retweeted by attorney Lin Wood, a Trump supporting QAnon follower who has the abbreviation of its slogan "where we go one we go all" in his Twitter bio.
"Answer is YES," Wood tweeted in response to Watkins asking if Pence and Ryan conspired to get Trump "off the ticket" in October 2016.
"Paul Ryan & Mike Pence have been conspiring against Trump since 2016 to defeat President in 2020. These 2 traitors to We The People actually think Pence/Ryan will win 2024. Let them know what you think about their plans," Wood said.
Wood, who worked with fellow QAnon-supporting lawyer Sidney Powell in the widely dismissed and mocked "Kraken" lawsuits attempting to overturn election results, has posted dangerous and unhinged tweets to his 1.1 million followers in recent weeks, resulting in the GOP continually distancing themselves from him.
These include calling for martial law to help Trump win the presidency; wildly claiming Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is being blackmailed by the "Lizard Squad" hacking group after being forced to rape and murder a child on video, without offering any evidence; and suggesting Pence could "face execution by firing squad" after being arrested for treason.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly shared tweets from both Wood and Watkins which he believes help his claim that he won the election.
Speaking to NBC, Chacon said he is concerned about what QAnon supporters will do next after Biden is certified the winner of the Electoral Vote and later inaugurated.
"It seems like they've decided there's nothing but civil war," he said.
Wood has been contacted for comment.
