Despite the lack of evidence, a dubious claim from one of Trump campaign staffers made its way, a few hours after being made, on the debate stage where President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden were participating in their first presidential debate. The president accused Philadelphia Democrats of scheming against him by restricting supposed GOP poll watchers.

This incident reflects Trump's willingness to cash in on any piece of information that seems to bolster his political narrative, regardless of its accurateness. The misleading claim came from a Trump campaign staffer who has been involved in the alleged voter protection efforts for a long time.

On Tuesday, some people associated with the Trump campaign attempted to enter in-person polling sites in Philadelphia, claiming they wanted to observe voting. The local election officials kicked them out citing the state law that allows partisan poll watchers to take part only on Election Day in Nov.

Furthermore, the voting locations weren't traditional polling places, but election offices and state law restrict poll watchers from entering election offices. This incident wasn't known in real-time, although we know that now.

The Trump campaign paved the way for the narrative at 1:33 p.m. on Tuesday, when Trump campaign staffer Mike Roman took to Twitter to reveal that Trump observers are being stopped from entering all of the satellite voting locations in Philadelphia. The president's son Eric Trump intensified the tweet, claiming that the incident was proof that there was corruption against the Trump campaign.

The two tweets garnered over 45,000 re-tweets combined, as of Wednesday. Some right-wing outlets ensured that the misleading claims were spread across the nation, with conspiracy website Gateway Pundit publishing an article Tuesday using the hashtag #StopTheSteal.

Election experts started explaining the state laws while revealing that Pennsylvania is yet to certify its official list of approved poll watchers for the general election, but that didn't stop Trump from taking to his Twitter account and amplifying the misleading claim. "Wow. Won't let Poll Watchers & Security into Philadelphia Voting Places," he tweeted.

Trump attributed the incident to corruption and said there must be a fair Election. He went on to cite the incident just a few hours later during the first presidential debate when he was asked about keeping calm and avoiding civil unrest if the vote-counting process took longer than usual.

Trump replied saying that poll watchers were kicked out not for violating local election rules, but because bad things happen in Philadelphia. Several outlets including CNN fact-checked and debunked the false claim about anything improper happening in Philadelphia, or it was a scheme against the president.