‘Everyone is lying’: Outrage after Trump retweets TV host who said there’s a Covid-19 conspiracy to make him lose election
TV personality Chuck Woolery ignited uproar after claiming there was a conspiracy afoot to distort the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in order to make Donald Trump lose November’s election, a tweet the president then reposted.
“The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19,” the game-show host tweeted on Sunday, adding that “everyone is lying” about the pandemic.
According to Woolery, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Democratic Party, the media and “most” doctors are all in on the anti-Trump conspiracy. By exaggerating the direness of the pandemic, they are trying to “keep the economy from coming back” which could cost President Trump re-election in November, he believes.
The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it.
— Chuck Woolery (@chuckwoolery) July 13, 2020
Netizens were up in arms over Woolery’s tweet, calling him “paranoid and brainwashed” for indulging in a seeming conspiracy theory. Others went as far as to brand him a “traitor.”
The Twitter outrage went up a gear when Trump himself retweeted Woolery on Monday morning. Trump is “lucky” he has executive privilege, one incensed commenter said, because “anyone else would be charged with negligent homicide.”
Americans must decide whether they are going to trust Dr. Fauci or @chuckwoolery for their medical advice. Only then can we win the big game show that is life.
— JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) July 13, 2020
Some suggested Woolery’s theory is built around the same partisan thinking of which he is accusing the alleged conspirators.
Notably, many of the replies to the tweet came from Americans who said they had lost family members to the virus.
Hi Chuck, my dad and I used to watch your shows together. My dad was a lifelong Republican. He died of COVID-19 a few months ago and I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with the election. I'm heartsick about it, too.
— Katie Jacobs Stanton (@KatieS) July 13, 2020
Some, however, wholeheartedly agreed with the “Love Connection” host’s assessment of the situation. One user said it was indeed “impossible to even know who to trust” anymore.
Woolery’s comments come after the US has seen record numbers of coronavirus cases. Last week, the country’s chief virologist Dr Anthony Fauci said that the US is still “knee-deep” in the virus’s first wave.
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