Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza criticized Republican "reluctance" to examine his movie that claims a voter fraud scheme may have changed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
D'Souza spoke to Newsweek about the movie, 2000 Mules, and his new book of the same name, which alleges that "mules" stuffed ballot boxes and cites geospatial and telemetric data in support of that claim.
The movie has been subject to a number of fact checks by organizations including the Associated Press, PolitiFact and Reuters, which characterized the allegations as misleading, flawed or lacking concrete evidence. Multiple state audits following the 2020 election have also determined that there was no voter fraud.
D'Souza addresses those fact checks in his book and told Newsweek that people should watch the movie for themselves and not rely on fact checks alone. He also welcomed potential investigations of the allegations by Congress and law enforcement.
The movie was championed by former President Donald Trump and was screened at his Mar-a-Lago residence in May, but D'Souza highlighted "odd" behavior by some senior Republicans who seem to be ignoring the voter fraud claims.
"I noticed that there is a kind of very interesting reluctance on the part of the GOP to pursue the evidence," D'Souza said. "Not to refute me, because if you think of people like Mitch McConnell, [Kevin] McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, they haven't said one word critical of 2000 Mules, but neither have they shown any indication of wanting to see the movie—make a decision for themselves," he said.
"And this needs to be explained," D'Souza said. "This is odd behavior because if I'm right, who's disadvantaged by this? Well, obviously the Republicans. So you'd think the Republicans in power will want to get to the bottom of it right away. But here, I think you have a complex of motives that are keeping them from wanting to know or even wanting to referee the matter. And this I find very odd."
D'Souza expressed hope that investigations could take place after the upcoming midterm elections as some Republicans have indicated a willingness to probe accusations of voter fraud in 2020, particularly if the GOP takes the House of Representatives.
He also pointed to Arizona, where Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has echoed Trump's claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
Both Trump and D'Souza have previously criticized Fox News for the network's lack of coverage of 2000 Mules and D'Souza suggested to Newsweek that there was tension between Trump and the Murdochs, who run the Fox Corporation.
"Their current business plan appears to be—and I say this as a spectator, not as somebody who has inside information—that they want to be sort of solidly and reliably conservative, but not pro-Trump," D'Souza said. "So that's the kind of line in the sand and the reason we see this is not just because of the early call in Arizona, but a general reluctance to discuss election issues generally."
Fox News was the first network to call the state of Arizona for President Joe Biden during its coverage of the last presidential election.
"Certainly anything about the 2020 election—you only have to see the face of a Fox host if someone brings up the topic. They turn white. They look embarrassed. They look like they want to get the topic off the stage immediately," D'Souza said.
D'Souza believes there were multiple Fox News hosts who would be happy to host him and to cover 2000 Mules but that "there appears to be a rather strict ban on this, in fact, a strict ban on even mentioning the words 2000 Mules, which is a little bizarre for a network because whatever you say, 2000 Mules is a cultural phenomenon."
He said that he had previously thought Fox News might be concerned about litigation, highlighting a defamation suit brought by voting machine company Dominion against the network, but now thought differently.
"I think what's happening with Fox is that there's a little bit of a billionaire feud going on and the feud is between the Murdoch family and Trump," he said.
D'Souza also addressed those who have accused 2000 Mules of peddling a conspiracy theory about the 2020 election and his 2018 presidential pardon, urging people to watch the movie and read the book "with an open mind."
"Don't read it with the view [of] 'Dinesh got a pardon from Trump, he's obviously trying to pay back Trump,' you know, or 'Dinesh and Trump are old friends.' No, we're not old friends," he said. "In fact, when I got my pardon, I didn't know Trump at all and if you also notice, Trump is a very small part of this movie, he appears at 90 minutes for maybe two minutes in the entire film."
"I went to great lengths to make this a story about election fraud," D'Souza added. "So the evidence of it is in the movie and it's in the book."
2000 Mules will be published on August 30.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
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