Right-wing conspiracy theorist pastor Todd Coconato streamed a video on his Facebook page Thursday in which he dismissed the legitimacy of QAnon and told MAGA activists to stop spreading the false claim that Donald Trump is still the president and in charge of the U.S. military.
Streaming from his car on his way to speak at Clay Clark's "ReAwaken America Tour" in Colorado Springs this weekend—an event that is filled with election, COVID-19, and QAnon conspiracy theorists—Coconato claimed to personally know the people who were behind the "Q" account and also to have had direct conversations with top-level military and Trump administration officials, all of whom assured him that Trump is no longer in control of the military.
The problem with me with Q is that I know the people that did the Q thing. I have a little bit different perspective because I know the whole group. I'm not involved. I wasn't involved in any way, nor did I really follow Q, but because of my connections, I pretty much know who was involved with the whole Q thing. And so when I know those people, it's like if you guys have like a friendship from high school and you know somebody and you know who they are, you're not going to take them as seriously [as] somebody who doesn't know them. And the people that don't know them are out there and they're believing everything, but if you know the person you're like, 'Dude, that's Brian. Like, I know Brian. What does Brian know?'
A lot of these people ... are saying that Trump is still president. Here's the problem I have with that: I've sat down in green rooms, at very high-level meetings with people that were part of President Trump's Cabinet. I'm talking about people that you would know if I mentioned their name. High-level people. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm a very well-read individual. I've been around President Trump. I've been around his staff. I've been around his administration. And I've asked them friends point blank—point blank—I said, 'Is there any chance that the military is in control? Is there any chance that President Trump is still president right now? Because there's a lot of people that are saying this.' And these people that have the ear of President Trump on an almost daily basis have told me, 'Please, tell your followers and tell the people, tell the people that what these people online are saying is not true.' These are President Trump's people! And then the people get mad at me because they say, 'Oh, it's not true. He's the president.' I understand. Listen, I would love for President Trump to be the president. I would love that. But I'm just telling you there's a lot of people that tell us different things, you know, 'Oh, the military is in control.' Again, I've spoken to generals. Top generals. Top generals of the president's Cabinet, OK? And they've said to me, 'Pastor Todd, please tell your people that's not the case.'
Given that Coconato was on his way to participate in an event that is filled with hundreds of people who are incessantly spreading the very conspiracy theories that he just disputed, it should come as no surprise that Coconato deleted the video sometime Thursday afternoon.
