A pair of Oregon Republican legislators, state Sens. Dennis Linthicum and Kim Thatcher, have appeared on multiple QAnon-affiliated and far-right shows to promote a lawsuit they are involved with that claims the federal government inflated COVID-19 numbers.
The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Oregon in March 2022 by Linthicum, Thatcher, and naturopathic doctor Henry Ealy, who has spread COVID-19 misinformation. It claims that the federal government “failed to ensure and/or willfully manipulated data being collected, analyzed, and published,” causing “a significant hyperinflation of COVID-19 case, hospitalization, and death counts,” which they claim was used to defraud taxpayers of at least $3.5 trillion in public funds between 2020 and 2022. (The claim that COVID-19 cases were overcounted during the pandemic is dubious.)
The plaintiffs want to empanel a special grand jury and present “evidence of alleged crimes relating to the federal government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The case was dismissed in November 2022, but the group appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In recent weeks, Linthicum — who is also a former treasurer of the Oregon Republican Party — and Thatcher went on several programs affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory to promote the case.
On November 17, Linthicum and Thatcher appeared on Right Now with Ann Vandersteel, which is hosted by a known QAnon supporter who also promotes the extreme ideology of the sovereign citizen movement. During the interview, Vandersteel praised them and Ealy as “incredible” for “com[ing] together to adjudicate the problem that apparently our government seems incapable of doing” with the “COVID fraud.”
Linthicum also pushed COVID-19 misinformation during the appearance, falsely claiming that “face masks don’t work.”
Later that month, Linthicum, Thatcher, and Ealy sat for an interview with QAnon influencer Michael Jaco in which Thatcher called for others to “duplicate” this legal effort “all over the United States, whether people want to go to their counties or whether they could go to their — you know, the state grand jury or even do their own federal grand jury,” and Linthicum criticized what he called “COVID fraud.”
Linthicum also claimed that people are “redefining … what a vaccine is, what a vaccine isn’t,” and Thatcher pushed election misinformation, calling for people to “overwhelm whatever cheating might be out there and get their votes in.”
In early December, Linthicum appeared on The Tina Peters Show, which streams on the QAnon-affiliated Badlands Media Rumble channel.
During the interview, Linthicum claimed that there was an “anxiety drive” and that authorities were “fearmongering with mediocre science and uncertainty, scaring the public into getting the vaccine and increasing uptake rates,” calling it “criminal fraud.”
Host Tina Peters praised Linthicum and the other plaintiffs, calling them “brave souls” and saying the lawsuit is “a solution to taking back our country.”
Besides appearing on those QAnon-affiliated shows, Linthicum also made an appearance on Sons of Liberty Media in early December. This far-right show has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and is affiliated with radio host Bradlee Dean, who has a history of pushing anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, Islamophobia, and conspiracy theories.
During the interview, Linthicum seemingly disputed death tolls reported in the news, saying, “There’s this disconnect between what we’re seeing on the news — the nightly, you know, scrolling numbers: ‘175,000 people died today because of coronavirus’ and whatever. And it’s like, you know, in the United States of America, I know there’s only been eight cases and we’re already talking vaccines. And then, you know, there were 17 cases and then there’s videos of people dropping dead.”
Also in December, Linthicum appeared on a show hosted by conspiracy theorist Gareth Icke — the son of infamous conspiracy theorist David Icke.
During the interview, Linthicum promoted the lawsuit, pushed false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been significantly impacted by election fraud, and promised Icke that he would come back on the show “whenever you please.” Icke praised Linthicum as “honorable” and thanked him for “all the work that you’re doing over there trying to expose” the “COVID fraud” and “election fraud as well.”
Linthicum and Thatcher’s appearances on the QAnon-affiliated shows are the latest example of an ongoing partnership between anti-vaccine and QAnon figures, with right-wing anti-vaccine figures using QAnon shows to spread COVID-19 and vaccine-related misinformation and conspiracy theories.
