Bill Berkowitz for BuzzFlash: Pedophile Rings and Secret Messages Against Hillary Clinton Among Conspiracy Theories Unleashed by Trump's COVID
October 3, 2020
By Bill Berkowitz
Donald Trump’s positive diagnosis of the coronavirus, and his subsequent hospitalization at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, has provided a new landing strip for GOP-supplicants, QAnon zealots, Covid deniers, and other conspiracy theorists. After the usual offering of “thoughts and prayers,” much of the right-wing conspiratorial chatter focused on assigning blame for Trump’s illness. This initial flurry of blame centered on the “liberal” media, Hollywood figures, Democrats, and of course, China. Right-wing conspiracists – left to their own devices with their leader temporarily sidelined -- posited a Democratic hatched plot to cancel future debates and steal the election.
However, despite the handwringing, there are those convinced that a healthy Trump will handily vanquish COVID-19, and charge forward to a landslide victory over Biden. “He works 20 hours a day. I think he’ll be tough,” said Pillow Man Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and a Trump surrogate. “He's a fighter. It'll be tough to keep him down.
According to Politico’s Tina Nguyen , “In the conspiracy swamps of QAnon social media, there was, oddly, a sense of elation: Trump’s infection was, in their opinion, another sign that Trump’s plan to purge the government of pedophiles was about to reach a culmination.”
Nguyen reported that “according to various QAnon theorists, Trump had left a secret message to his followers in his announcement on Twitter that he had tested positive for Covid-19. Some suggested that his use of the word ‘together’ was, in fact, code for ‘to get her,’ a reference to attacks on his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton. Others thought Trump’s quarantining was part of a broader plan to isolate the president from potential violence associated with the upcoming election.”
“On Capitol Hill,” Nguyen noted, “Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) tweeted that China ‘gave this virus’ to the president and first lady, and demanded: ‘WE MUST HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.’”
People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch pointed out that conspiracy theorists were working overtime, throwing an assortment of conspiracy theories against the wall in the hopes that one might stick.
According Right Wing Watch’s Kristen Doerer, “right-wing actors and politicians went into overdrive testing out farcical conspiracy theories, blaming China and the Democrats, and attacking anyone who criticized the president.”
Doerer noted that “radical right-wing conspiracy theorist Chris McDonald, “saw this as a possible Democratic plot ‘to cancel the next debate.’”
“Biden don’t want the debates, they didn’t want the second debate. Now, they’ve got a reason to not have the debates,” McDonald said on his ‘The McFiles’ YouTube show. You’re asking if Democrats spread the COVID-19, so he could get it, but I don’t know. Normally, I’d say no. I would think they would not do something as evil and wicked as that. But this bunch? I ain’t going to say they would, I don’t have any proof they did, but I will tell you this: I wouldn’t put it past them. I wouldn’t put it past them.”
Doerer also disclosed that Mike Cernovich, a social media personality, anti-feminist, men's rights activist, political commentator, and conspiracy theorist, claimed Trump’s diagnosis was the “‘Best thing that could have happened to Trump’ because ‘When he survives, he’s a hero’ and ‘All oxygen belongs to him now.’ He added that if Trump survives, he will win the presidential election in a landslide/”
Right Wing Watch’s Peter Montgomery reported that DeAnna Lorraine, a QAnon-promoting internet personality who parlayed a 2 percent showing in her run for Congress into a gig at Infowars, tweeted: “I’m just going to say what we’re all thinking. Trump was fine until the debate, where they set up microphones & podiums for him. Incubation period is usually 2-3 days. He tests positive a couple of days after the debate. I put nothing past the left. NOTHING.”
The Washington Post reported that “The often conspiratorial Gateway Pundit blog searched for critics to attack and found a few obscure ones. Including a post titled ‘Vile: Democrats Show Their True Colors in Response to Trump Announcing He and Melania Tested Positive for Coronavirus,’ the site said Democrats ‘could not contain their absolute glee over the situation.’ It went on to quote tweets from little-known Twitter accounts, such as @Vstylez and @sober_rob, who expressed uncharitable views.”
It also went after what a headline said were ‘soulless idiots’ who had criticized Trump on social media — but the story itself didn’t identify any of them. It turned out to be a reference to a quote in the story from Matteo Salvini, a right-wing Italian politician who had tweeted that ‘whoever wishes the death of others only confirms what he is: a soulless idiot’ — before going on to wish ‘hugs’ to both the Trumps.“
There are also those on the left, skeptical of the thousands of lies Trump has perpetrated on the American people, who posit that Trump, trailing Joe Biden in the polls, is trying to gin up sympathy. The New York Times’ Sarah Lyall and Reid J. Epstein wrote: “Was it a hoax? Was it a lie? Was the president sicker than he claimed — or not sick at all? …. Was there any way this alarming news was an ultra-cynical con?”
Representative Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat “said he didn’t doubt the president’s condition. Then he added: ‘I would not be stunned to learn this was a political stunt to redirect attention from the tax returns and white supremacy.’”
As Trump’s hospitalization plays itself out in the days ahead, it will likely continue to be difficult to separate truth from fiction, facts from misinformation. This White House has mastered deflection and disinformation. “Wearing people down about what’s true has always been a strategy of leaders with autocratic tendencies,” Eli Pariser, an expert in digital discourse and the author of “The Filter Bubble,” told The New York Times. “The chaos and confusion that Trump has channeled so successfully naturally leads to nobody being sure what to believe.”
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