#3032: Joe Hoft

We’ve already covered Jim Hoft, founder of and principal writer for the popular source of wingnuttery and disinformation The Gateway Pundit (GP), and we grudgingly concede that his twin brother, Joe Hoft, should have his own entry, even though there is little of substance to distinguish them in terms of style, content or degree of lunacy.

 

So, Joe Hoft is for instance a rabid promoter of stop the steal conspiracy theories. Among other things, Hoft called on then-VP Mike Pence to throw out electoral votes he (Hoft) didn’t like: “If Pence steps up and throws out the electoral votes in certain states where rampant fraud ensued, he will go down in history as one of the most courageous leaders of our generation. If he approves the nomination of Joe Biden, he will go down as the greatest traitor in history.” And Joe Hoft was the architect behind GP’s “Reward Offered: $10,000 to the First Individual Who Can Successfully Address and Defend as Legitimate the 2020 Election Anomaly Referred to as the ‘Drop and Roll’”. Well, the ‘anomaly’ referred to is easily explained, but no: you won’t get any monetary reward for doing so. GP, of course, went all in on election conspiracy theories, including deranged nonsense about crisis actors in Florida, and ended up getting sued for defamation by Georgia election workers and by Dominion Voting Systems – indeed, TGP Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2024 to get around all the defamation lawsuits, but a federal judge dismissed the filing as the “bad faith” attempt to avoid accountability for lawsuits from election workers that it obviously was (they ended up settling).

 

On other occasions, Joe Hoft has called for Democrats to be hanged for attempting to impeach Trump on the grounds that trying to impeach a president Joe Hoft fancies is “seditious and treasonous”. Indeed, Joe Hoft has not shied away from promoting (numerous) QAnon-adjacent and QAnon-reminiscent conspiracy theories about Trump and the mythical Deep State, such as this one and his 2019 declaration that Trump offered “various hints that the Deep State may soon face justice” – the hints being things like Hoft’s interpretation of Trump as being “very calm” at Trump rallies where the topic was broached.

 

Diagnosis: His brother has been identified as the dumbest man on the internet, and we have a hard time not seeing Joe Hoft as something of a Felix to Jim’s Calvin Fischoeder.