In January, a number of conservative outlets were tricked by a hoax website called “Demand Protest,” which claimed to be willing to pay anti-Trump protesters a $2,500 retainer in addition to $50 per hour of protesting, flexible vacations and even family health, vision and dental benefits.
It quickly became obvious, even to conservative reporters, that the website was a hoax. When the website’s founder appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show and the Fox News host pointed out that the site is fake, by the end of the bizarre interview Demand Protest’s creator had all but admitted himself that it was a sham.
But that didn’t stop Niger Innis of the American Conservative Union from citing the fake group during the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
While Innis, who was speaking Saturday on a panel called “What is the Trump Doctrine?; The Forgotten Man,” didn’t refer to the group by name, he said that there is “an activist website that pays and organizes protesters, $2,500 to start, health care, dental care, flex vacation time, I mean, this is an actual website.”
“There are some forces out there that are paying these protesters,” he insisted.
Innis wasn’t alone.
Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association also claimed that anti-Trump protesters can make “$1500 a week.”
