One of the country's largest movie theater chains Cinemark became the only major chain to show the documentary 2000 Mules, a film by far-right propagandist Dinesh D'Souza that promulgates former Republican President Donald Trump's "Big Lie."
The film has sparked widespread controversy for its easily disproven and absurd conspiracy theories alleging widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, for which there is no evidence.
The film's name derives from a conspiracy theory pushed by D'Souza and a Texas non-profit that claims 2000 so-called "mules" for the Democratic Party stuffed ballot boxes in 2020 in order to win the election for Democratic President Joe Biden.
There is of course no truth to this theory.
But Cinemark's CEO Lee Roy Mitchell, a long-standing donor to the Republican Party aligned with the Koch Brothers, has chosen to push it out to Cinemark locations across the country anyway.
Cinemark among few showing dubious 2020 election fraud documentary ‘2000 Mules’ https://t.co/xJCNlGjoZ5
— Dallas Morning News (@dallasnews) May 25, 2022
D'Souza's absurd film rests on a supposed trove of cellphone location data purchased by far-right organization True the Vote, which has been intimately involved in plots to overturn the 2020 election.
That year, True the Vote filed lawsuits alleging election fraud in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, then withdrew the suits a week later.
In his film, D'Souza, who was convicted violating federal election law in 2014 and pardoned by Trump, claims the purchased cellphone location data proves the ballot-stuffing fraud claims because it shows the same voters returning to ballot boxes multiple times during the 2020 voting period.
The data proves no such thing--ballot boxes are frequently and purposefully placed in high-traffic areas that people visit multiple times in order to make voting more convenient.
The claims D'Souza makes in his film to make his interpretation of the location data seem more credible--like that the same data analysis was used to solve the murder of an eight-year-old girl--are also false.
More importantly, the owner of the purchased location data has said that the conclusions D'Souza's film draws are categorically false.
So why is Cinemark showing this absurd film? It likely ties back to its CEO, Lee Roy Mitchell, a prolific donor to Trump, Republican politicians and right-wing misinformation platforms, including those promulgating the Big Lie.
Mitchell is also a key cog in the Koch Brothers' financial engineering of Republican politics, and a supporter of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was in Washington D.C. for the January 6 insurrection and has been involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
On Twitter, people were disturbed by the news.
Wow. Cinemark's founder and board chairman Lee Roy Mitchell, is a major financial backer of Trump. The nation’s third largest movie chain is promoting Big Lie propaganda. https://t.co/TOss6SFmV4
— Christopher Knight (@KnightLAT) May 23, 2022
Well, @Cinemark founder Lee Roy Mitchell has made me a lot more comfortable with my at-home streaming habit. https://t.co/G8UmSTAwmI
— Evan Handler (@EvanHandler) May 23, 2022
Bhut lib'rhul mediaz, amirite?
...Lee Roy Mitchell, who founded Cinemark in 1984, keeps a relatively low profile. But Mitchell is a major Republican donor and a key part of the political network established by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch...https://t.co/hWOCCZFtUu
— Satyros Brucato stands against Putin, with Ukraine (@SatyrosBrucato) May 23, 2022
Bhut lib'rhul mediaz, amirite?
...Lee Roy Mitchell, who founded Cinemark in 1984, keeps a relatively low profile. But Mitchell is a major Republican donor and a key part of the political network established by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch...https://t.co/hWOCCZFtUu
— Satyros Brucato stands against Putin, with Ukraine (@SatyrosBrucato) May 23, 2022
We are literally letting a minority steal our democracy out from under us here.
Action is needed but no action is allowed.
This is going to get ugly if it continues much longer. https://t.co/GFeuMbrLg6
— Saint Brian The Godless (@AWorldOutOfMind) May 24, 2022
And many called for a boycott of the theater chain.
Anyone following @Cinemark or going to a Cinemark movie theatre, you are giving money to a man (CEO Lee Roy Mitchell, who founded Cinemark in 1984) who is a big supporter and donator to Trump.
Owns theaters across the country.These ppl undermine Democracy. #BoycottCinemark
— Hermione 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@HermioneIsHere) May 23, 2022
#BoycottCinemark
Closest theater to me & reasonably-priced. Will never go again.@Cinemark Founder and Board Chair Lee Roy Mitchell is part of Charles Koch network & is screening a film that purports to tell the truth but is full of lies. #MoneyInPolitics Thank you, @JuddLegum. https://t.co/cD4sfxMSTX
— Ginger Mundy (she/her) (@GingerMundy) May 24, 2022
Boycott Cinemark @Cinemark! Cinemark is showing the completely debunked, Big Lie 2000 Mules film. Founder Lee Roy Mitchell, is a major financial backer of Trump and right-wing misinformation platforms. @MeidasTouch @ProjectLincoln @votevets https://t.co/n3lLeOm4N4
— MTmoderate 🇺🇸❄️🌻🇺🇦 (@MTmoderate) May 24, 2022
Boycott @cinemark, which is run by a Trump supporter and is showing Dinesh D'Souza's utterly discredited Big Lie documentary. https://t.co/GXk5kP2EyB
— Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16) May 23, 2022
Well, that sucks that I won't be going to the theater here in town any longer since it's a @Cinemark. Them showing the dumbest conspiracy movie made at hundreds of theaters while funding most of the Alt-Right causes and groups has made me learn I can wait a few weeks for VOD. https://t.co/ANHDjK6HXq
— Russell Foster A New Texas (@RussellFosterTX) May 23, 2022
Beginning this past weekend, 2000 Mules was showing in at least 169 Cinemark locations. The chain operates in 42 states.
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