'I feel like I just got out of a cult': Former 'Stop the Steal' supporter opens up about his experience

Stephen Proctor
·3 min read
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Former “Stop the Steal” supporter Keith Scott appeared Wednesday with CNN’s Elle Reeve on Erin Burnett OutFront, where he spoke about how he became deeply devoted to the movement that spread lies about the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Scott, who was there that day but did not take part in the attack, said, “Jan. 6, 2021 was the greatest day of my life. I felt like a patriot that was standing beside our founding fathers, speaking up against King George. I felt like Braveheart.”

But the violence that ensued that day caused Scott to reflect.

“After January the 6th,” Scott said, “I came here and I kept mumbling, ‘I feel like I just got out of a cult.’”

Scott had spent months living out of his car attending as many rallies as he could, despite never having even been to a Trump rally leading up to the election.

“If something was posted saying that there was a rally, like, I was not in control. I was going no matter what,” Scott said. “How did I get caught up in this? I’d never been to a Trump rally. Ya know, I wasn’t one of those people.”

I realized I had become addicted to politics.Keith Scott

Scott also pointed out that he came to notice that those promising evidence of election fraud never produced any evidence whatsoever.

“The people that were giving evidence of election fraud, it was the same message that we had heard a day before, or weeks before,” Scott said. “But it was like, ‘It’s coming. It's gonna be revealed.’ Like just keeping us — keeping us holding on for the next breath.”

But Scott doesn’t blame those promising evidence without ever producing it or the “Stop the Steal” organizers for the violence at the Capitol.

“They created a grassroots movement that was ‘Stop the Steal’,” Scott said. “I realized I had been addicted to politics. I had created this reverence for the leaders of ‘Stop the Steal.’ I felt like I was, which is more than ironic looking back, helping prevent a second civil war.”

Despite calling the movement a cult, Scott still adheres to some of its beliefs, like blaming “both sides” for the violence at the Capitol. He also believes former President Trump’s lie about President Biden doing better with Black voters than Obama did in 2008. Obama did roughly three percentage points better than Biden.

Though he doesn’t feel as welcome as he once did, Scott still sometimes attends rallies, but now carries with him a flag promoting his website electionfraudcult.com. He’s also writing a book chronicling his experiences, hoping to help others who find themselves in the same situation in which he had found himself.

Erin Burnett OutFront airs weeknights at 7 p.m. on CNN.

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