One candidate running for Santa Clara City Council is distancing himself from past social media posts spewing misinformation.
Satish Chandra, a software engineer running against two others to replace Councilmember Kathy Watanabe in District 1, made several Facebook posts in 2020 perpetuating baseless claims made by former President Donald Trump about election fraud and COVID treatments that have been proven ineffectual. He said he no longer supports Trump.
“Trump has been a very good friend of India and that’s how I took the stand at that moment, but it was shameful, what happened on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C.,” Chandra told San José Spotlight. “I backed off. I felt that it was very shameful, that it should not have happened.”
Some of the Facebook posts have since been deleted, but are preserved through screenshots. One post from Oct. 22, 2020, read “8 Years! WHAT? End of Debate. Clear Winner #Trump2020.” Another post from Nov. 3, 2020, that has not been deleted reads “Keep Calm and Trust Trump.”
Chandra also reposted misinformation stating the 2020 election was rigged and that hydroxychloroquine can be used to cure COVID — though the World Health Organization debunked that claim.
One post from Nov. 12, 2020 linked to one of Trump’s tweets claiming Dominion Voting Systems machines deleted 2.7 million votes for him — which has been proven untrue — with the caption “This is truly appalling if it’s True…”
Chandra told San José Spotlight he doesn’t consider reposting content to his Facebook as showing support. Some of the theories he posted about, such as the claims of election fraud, have been linked to far-right movements such as QAnon, a conspiracy theory that claims the world is run by a “deep state” cabal of satanic pedophiles and cannibals whom only Trump can defeat. Chandra said he doesn’t know what QAnon is.
“I just shared the information, that doesn’t mean that I am supporting, because supporting for any kind of thing, you need to be a subject matter expert,” Chandra said.
Chandra has been endorsed by Mayor Lisa Gillmor and is part of her slate of hand-picked candidates to win back her majority. She did not respond to a request for comment.
Santa Clara Police Chief Pat Nikolai, who also endorsed Chandra, did not respond to a request comment. San Jose Councilmember Domingo Candelas and Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein also have endorsed Chandra and declined to comment.
Rod Diridon Sr., former chair of the Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters which has endorsed Chandra, said he sees Chandra’s past posts as an “immature political person jumping on what he thought was a popular bandwagon… then jumping off that bandwagon when he realized it wasn’t a viable course of action.”
Diridon said the group continues to stand with him.
“He’s supporting cleaning up the streets in terms of trash and so on, he’s supporting completing the trail systems that have been — they’re not completely done yet, but they’ve been started — and he’s supporting taking care of homeless people and getting them off the streets,” Diridon told San José Spotlight. “He’s in the right spot on each of our environmental issues.”
The social media posts first surfaced in a push poll that some suspect was funded by the 49ers, including Chandra. The 49ers have butted heads with Gillmor for years and have spent millions to support candidates on the other side of the political aisle. The team has already set aside more than $900,000 to oppose candidates endorsed by Gillmor.
“It’s not a (poll),” Chandra told San José Spotlight. “It’s educative and trying to put some kind of prejudiced information into the minds of the voters.”
Representatives for the 49ers did not respond.
Chandra, who is running against Santa Clara Unified School District Trustee Albert Gonzalez and Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Harbir Bhatia, said he wasn’t a U.S. citizen in 2020 and couldn’t didn’t vote. He supported politicians who championed the Indian community, including Trump. He said he became involved with the bipartisan political action committee Americans4Hindus, which promotes and uplifts Hindus involved in American politics. The committee endorses congressional candidates nationwide, as well as state and local candidates in California.
“The former vice president who was part of the Trump (administration) has been on the record (saying) the accusations that the election was stolen and the other things are all theories. I don’t believe them,” Chandra told San José Spotlight. “All the drama and other things I did not buy in, and it was pretty embarrassing for me.”
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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