Fabricated headline suggests Democrats could 'steal' US election

Conservative influencers have shared a purported screenshot of an Atlantic article suggesting Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris may need to "steal" the upcoming US election to save democracy. But the headline is fabricated, and the text is from an article published in 2021.

"Wow. They are now openly saying the Democrats plan on stealing the election," says an October 15, 2024 X post from Laura Loomer, an ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump who has previously spread misinformation.

The post, which accumulated thousands of interactions, contains what appears to be a screenshot of an Atlantic headline that reads: "To Save Democracy, Harris May Need To Steal An Election."

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Screenshot from X taken October 15, 2024

The same image was shared by cartoonist and Trump supporter Scott Adams, conservative commentators and the founder of a student organization supporting the former president. Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy posted and deleted the screenshot, which spread elsewhere on X, Instagram and TikTok -- with some claiming the US magazine quickly switched the headline to sound less threatening.

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Screenshot from X taken October 15, 2024

The posts -- the latest in a long series of manipulated screenshots purporting to show articles from The Atlantic -- evoke debunked claims that widespread voter fraud affected Joe Biden's 2020 election victory over Trump. Some conservatives rallied around the slogan "stop the steal," which featured prominently in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

However, the supposed headline is fabricated

"No such article has ever been published by The Atlantic," said Anna Bross, senior vice president for communications, in an October 15, 2024 email.

The fake distorts an authentic Atlantic article published October 6, 2021 with the headline: "Kamala Harris Might Have to Stop the Steal." The oldest archived version available in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine does not show the fabricated headline shared online.

The magazine said in an October 15, 2024 press release that "images of fabricated Atlantic headlines have been circulating on social media with increasing frequency" (archived here).

"Many of these images are crudely faked, with grainy resolution, and some of them use hateful language," the statement says. "They misinform and manipulate people who encounter them. Many of these posts have been shared widely by individuals with large followings, including elected officials."

The October 2021 article, published long before Harris became a presidential candidate, focused on her role as vice president -- the presiding officer in the Senate, which certifies electoral results submitted by the states. The article says that, in January of that year, then-vice president Mike Pence rebuffed pressure to overturn the vote and that Harris may face a complicated task of dealing with fake electors from states that reject the results if Trump loses in 2024.

"What will she do -- what can she do -- if Republicans empowered with congressional majorities refuse to accept the certification of a Democratic win in one or more key states?" journalist Russell Berman wrote.

"How would she handle a certification from a Republican governor or secretary of state that appeared to subvert the popular vote in that state? What if, in other words, it were up to her to stop the steal?"

A keyword search of The Atlantic's archives found no other headline resembling the one shared by Loomer and others.

More of AFP's reporting on 2024 election misinformation is available here.

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