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The My Pillow Guy Just Got Kicked Out of the Republican Governors’ Summit

He’s been welcome in previous years, but Mike Lindell got booted out this time.
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell walks out ahead of President Donald J. Trump to speak with members of the coronavirus task force and reporters during a briefing in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic from the Rose Garden at the White House on Monday,

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell received credentials for the spring meeting of Republican governors, but apparently, he didn’t keep them for long.

Lindell, who has been one of the most prominent boosters of the false claims that election fraud stole the presidency from former President Trump, traveled to Nashville for the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association, according to Politico. The group is tasked with electing GOP governors across the country and is currently chaired by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who has been a frequent target of Trump and his allies because he certified the election in Arizona. President Joe Biden won the state by more than 10,000 votes.

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On Tuesday, Lindell made an appearance on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s radio show and said he would confront Ducey and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

“I hope I get [Kemp] one on one tonight, him and Doug, and say, ‘Why? Why would you do this to America? What’s behind that? Maybe they won’t talk to me, but I’m certainly going to ask them.”

It turned out to be the former: after collecting his credentials, Lindell was told by an event coordinator that he wasn’t allowed at official RGA events, he told Politico. 

“These events are for RGA members, and Mike Lindell is not currently an RGA member,” an anonymous RGA official told Politico. The official also told Politico that Lindell had tried to join transportation to a members-only dinner at Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s official residence. The RGA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from VICE News. 

Lindell has previously been welcomed with open arms at these events, according to previous reports. Last March he attended the GOP’s governors’ summit last March as a guest of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and some GOP governors encouraged him to make a bid for Minnesota governor, according to Lindell and Politico

The pillow magnate told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune earlier this year that he was “90 to 95 percent likely” to run for governor of Minnesota, but told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel last month that he “won’t run for dogcatcher if those machines are still in,” referring to voting machines he’s falsely claimed were used to steal the election for Biden.

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Lindell has produced multiple documentaries purporting to prove that China, Democratic and Republican officials including Ducey and Kemp, and voting technology companies colluded to steal the election from Trump. In January, shortly before Trump left office, Lindell was invited to the White House and was photographed with notes that described invoking the Insurrection Act and “martial law if necessary.”

After being removed from Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms, Lindell started his own “free speech” social media platform, Frank. 

Lindell and his company have been sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion Voting Systems, a company that makes and sells voting machines which Lindell has claimed is complicit in the alleged and unproven fraud. Lindell described that as a “great day for me,” and later counter-sued Dominion for $1.6 billion

In Arizona, state Senate Republicans have commissioned their own disastrous audit of Maricopa County—even after two independent audits found the county’s election was not hacked and that votes were tabulated correctly. Last week, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs recommended replacing the machines that had been turned over for the audit, saying that the shambolic process had rendered them insecure for use in future elections. 

"Decommissioning and replacing those devices is the safest option as no methods exist to adequately ensure those machines are safe to use in future elections," Hobbs wrote in a letter to the county.