In April 2021, business consultant and right-wing podcast host Clay Clark organized a conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aimed at defying national and local restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. A radical right-wing conspiracy theorist, Clark filled the event with a variety of like-minded COVID-19, election, and QAnon conspiracy theorists such as Michael Flynn, Greg Locke, Scott McKay, Ann Vandersteel, Mark Sherwood, Gene Ho, Patrick Byrne, Stella Immanuel, Jackson Lahmeyer, Leon Benjamin, Mark Burns, and Mike Lindell.
The event was such a success among the MAGA crowd that Clark decided to launch a nationwide “ReAwaken America” tour to bring his carnival of misinformation to churches all across the country. Later this month, the tour will be stopping in Manheim, Pennsylvania, and listed among the speakers is Doug Mastriano, the election-denying, Christian nationalism-promoting Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania (Mastriano can be seen in the lower right-hand corner of the promotional image below).
Mastriano already has deep ties to the far-right fringes of the conservative movement, having appeared earlier this year at a QAnon conference that was rife with wild conspiracy theories. Organizers of that conference even presented him with a “Sword of David” because, they said, “you are fighting for our religious rights in Christ Jesus.”
After speaking at the "Patriots Arise" event last weekend, Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano was awarded a "Sword of David" by QAnon conspiracy theorist hosts Alan and Francine Fosdick: "You are fighting for our religious rights in Christ Jesus." pic.twitter.com/FWc5F1A5Sh
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) April 26, 2022
Clark's "ReAwaken America" events have likewise been overflowing with conspiracy theories, Christian nationalism, Trump cultism, and violent rhetoric. Mastriano is set to be on hand October 21 and 22, courting attendees just weeks before the midterm elections.
Right-wing anti-vaccine "expert" Stella Immanuel claims that Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Bill Gates and others are dead and have had their brains downloaded to the internet while their bodies have been replaced by demonic clones. pic.twitter.com/WcC5TWbp2j
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 23, 2022
Eric Trump spoke at the ReAwaken America Conference in Dallas last weekend. Just before he took the stage, Leigh Dundas was up there ranting that COVID vaccines are genocide. pic.twitter.com/9FGZljcWBV
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) December 13, 2021
Sherri Tenpenny, one of the right's leading anti-vaccine "experts," claims that COVID vaccines are creating "quantum entanglement" between those who take them and "the Google credit scores and the dematrix and all of those things." pic.twitter.com/1Hft5GXZMu
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) January 27, 2022
During the last ReAwaken America event, anti-vax activist Jim Meehan uncorked an unhinged rant urging right-wingers to seize power & punish their enemies: "I've got a message to the Luciferian cabal, to the overlords: We're coming for you ... We're gonna knock you into the dirt." pic.twitter.com/gNdQOvJ6JA
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 7, 2022
MAGA pastor and GOP congressional candidate Mark Burns riled up a crowd gathered for a right-wing conspiracy theory conference at John Hagee's church, encouraging them as they chanted "Let's Go, Brandon" and demanded that Trump to return to office "now!" https://t.co/zZvGqysoAA pic.twitter.com/aYRWCY3uyi
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) November 15, 2021
QAnon conspiracy theorist Scott McKay (aka "Patriot Streetfighter") keeps threatening to kill people and the ReAwaken America tour keeps putting him on stage to do so: "I'm gonna rain this shitstorm down on all these scumbags until they are dead." https://t.co/yI12BMzd7e pic.twitter.com/n7i4rYIyxR
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 21, 2022
We need your help. Every day, Right Wing Watch exposes extremism to help the public, activists, and journalists understand the strategies and tactics of anti-democratic forces—and respond to an increasingly aggressive and authoritarian far-right movement. The threat is growing, but our resources are not. Any size contribution—or a small monthly donation—will help us continue our work and become more effective at disrupting the ideologies, people, and organizations that threaten our freedom and democracy. Please make an investment in Right Wing Watch’s defense of the values we share.