A “wiring system inside you that is controlled by 5G”: GOP nominee for House special election pushes bizarre anti-vax conspiracy theories

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

Rob Wittman, Leon Benjamin, and Glenn Youngkin

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA), Leon Benjamin, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin in a November 4, 2022, Facebook post by Benjamin. 

Republicans have nominated right-wing commentator Leon Benjamin for Virginia's special U.S. House election next month. Benjamin is an election denier who has frequently pushed fringe conspiracy theories, including claiming that the pandemic was actually a “cover-up” by elites to usher in a “new world order”; COVID-19 vaccines contain a “tracking system” and herald the “mark of the beast”; and COVID-19 tests secretly implement a “wiring system inside you that is controlled by 5G.”

Benjamin is a pastor and the host of B-Alert News, which streams on the conspiracy theory network Brighteon. He has appeared as a commentator on numerous fringe programs, including those hosted by QAnon supporters Ann Vandersteel, Mel K, and Jeffrey Pedersen (or “intheMatrixxx”). 

Benjamin has been on a program on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars network with host Owen Shroyer, who is a January 6 insurrectionist and Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist. Benjamin posed for a picture with Jones in 2021. 

Leon Benjamin and Alex Jones

From a November 14, 2021, Facebook post by Leon Benjamin

He is running in the February 21 special election for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District, which was vacated due to the death of Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin. Benjamin unsuccessfully ran for the seat in 2020 and 2022. 

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has attempted to portray himself as a moderate, endorsed Benjamin during his 2022 run. The Virginia GOP backs his campaign, writing that he will “defend the interests of working families in Congress.” Benjamin was previously the chair of the Richmond City Republican Party.

Benjamin was outside the Capitol on January 6 and posted about his participation on Facebook. He has also posted a conspiracy theory about the death by suicides of police officers at the Capitol, writing: “FOURTH DC Metro Police Officer Who Responded to January 6 Capitol Protest Dies by Suicide. Does this sound strange to anyone??? We must pray harder now. We are at the Red Sea Moment in America’s history! The armies of Pharaoh and these faces we will see no more.” 

Benjamin is one of numerous right-wing pundits with a history of extreme commentaries who have attempted to make the leap to elected office in recent years.

Benjamin regularly uses his media platforms to promote conspiracy theories about prior elections and COVID-19. Here are numerous examples. 

Benjamin claimed that COVID-19 “was a cover-up for the actual agenda, which was to take over our nation through tyranny and set up a whole, what we say, a global reset, a  new world order. A new form of government.” From the September 8, 2022, edition of Catching Fire News:  

From the September 8, 2022, edition of Catching Fire News

LEON BENJAMIN: COVID was not just about, you know, some disease entering in. It was a cover-up. It was a cover-up for the actual agenda, which was to take over our nation through tyranny and set up a whole, what we say, a global reset, a new world order. A new form of government that they are hoping through oppression and depression that the people will say we have no other choice. … Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China. We can go on. Everywhere where people have been taken their rights, their God-given rights away from them are now under a regime, a tyrannical government that tells them who's going to be in office every year. 

Benjamin claimed that COVID-19 vaccines include supposedly satanic “luciferase” and PCR tests implement a wiring system that is “controlled by 5G.” Despite conspiracy theorists’ claims, as The Associated Press wrote, “Luciferase is not an ingredient in any of the COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, luciferase is a generic term for a group of enzymes that trigger the oxidation of chemicals called luciferins.” PCR tests also do not implement a 5G system in human bodies. From the September 27, 2021, edition of Benjamin’s program: 

From the September 27, 2021, edition of B-Alert News

LEON BENJAMIN: The ingredients inside the vaccine, SM-102, luciferase. Go to TimeToFreeAmerica.com, you'll see it: luciferase. That — it’s a patent. And guess what the patent is? 060606. 

…

We’re against the test that they do, the thing they put up your nose. Nothing should go up your nose. I don’t know who I'm talking to right now. No. They can take my blood and take my spit. I'll spit all day -- I’ll spit all day. But you're not putting anything in my body or anything up my nose because even in the testings that they do — I think it's called the SSMR test? 

ANN VANDERSTEEL: PCR, PCR test. 

BENJAMIN: Now what is it?

VANDERSTEEL: It's called a PCR test.

BENJAMIN: The PCR test, the PCR test where they took this thing and shove it up your brain. It has graphite on it.  

VANDERSTEEL: Graphene oxide. 

BENJAMIN: Yeah. We're finding out that it is something that can form its own system -- wiring system inside you that is controlled by 5G.

Benjamin claimed that elites want to vaccinate people “so they can put these particles inside of us that are controlled by 5G.” During his show in February 2022, Benjamin pushed the conspiracy theory that elites are implanting 5G nanotechnology through COVID-19 vaccines.

From the February 21, 2022, edition of B-Alert News

LEON BENJAMIN: Let's understand the natural pathway that God already created for us as human beings, not robots, not cyborgs, OK? Not mind-controlled, you know, by the elite and by the media and by the George Soroses and the Charles Schwabs. All of those guys who want to control us, the Bill Gates wants us to be jabbed, what, every three months so they can put these particles inside of us that are controlled by 5G. This nanotechnology stuff that they've been experimenting on animals. I mean, it's just terrible what they're trying to do. 

Benjamin claimed that COVID-19 vaccines are “really a tracking system that the enemy wants to use” to trap people. COVID-19 vaccines do not contain tracking systems. From a May 5, 2022, video:  

From the May 5, 2022, edition of The Elijah List

LEON BENJAMIN: I've been watching a lot of movies like The Matrix lately and showing how the enemies attempt to fabricate true life on Earth. And this now thing with technology, with artificial intelligence. This thing going on and you know, Clay Clark, we talk about it a lot during the ReAwaken tours, about the nanotechnology that now wants to come inside of us where humans can be trapped now forever through quote unquote “vaccine.” But it's really a tracking system that the enemy wants to use. 

Benjamin has compared COVID-19 vaccines to “the mark of the beast.” Here are two examples -- from his March 7, 2022, show; 

From the March 7, 2022, edition of B-Alert News

LEON BENJAMIN: You can't make me take a product that I don't want, i.e. the vaccine. You can't. You can't legislate me to take a product that I don't want. Now, you know why the power of the anti-Christ is going to be really revelant in the days coming to force you and I to buy and sell something we don't want. That's called 6-6-6, by the way, the mark of the beast. 

And from a September 10, 2021, interview on The Pete Santilli Show: 

From the September 10, 2021, edition of The Pete Santilli Show

LEON BENJAMIN: The Bible says in the Book of Revelations he's going to be wounded and come back to life. But that's going to be all the workings of Satan, all the workings of Satan to give this beast this power. Now here's the other part. Then what's going to happen when this beast has the power, he's going to say that you have to receive a mark in your hand or in your forehead. Sort of like going on with this vaccine right now. Did you know that the vaccine, the patent that Bill Gates bought for the vaccine is 6-6-6? Did you know that? And that Congress is working on a legislation called H.R. 6-6-6-6. And that Chrome, the symbol for Chrome, the Google Chrome, is 6-6-6? The word corona spelled out -- all right? CROONA -- CROONA is 6-6-6. Are you hearing me? The whole thing about what happens in the end days is that we who are alive and remain will not take the mark.

Benjamin claimed his 2020 election was stolen from him in “the greatest heist that could ever happen to America.” Benjamin lost his 2020 race by a little more than 23 percentage points. From an April 2021 video: 

From the April 28, 2021, edition of PureSocial TV

LEON BENJAMIN: Sure enough, by 11 p.m., I was winning and by 3 o’clock in the morning, I was losing. Vote counting has stopped. I don't know what happened. Something happened.   

DOUG WADE (host): The witching hour. 

BENJAMIN: Yeah. 

WADE: 3 o’clock. 

BENJAMIN: 3 a.m., something happened. And we now know that it was the, it was the greatest heist that could ever happen to America. It was a hijacking of our Constitution, a Republican system, Republic system. 

Benjamin claimed that the 2020 election “was stolen. It was infiltrated by China and by many other communistic nations.” From an August 20, 2022, interview: 

From the August 20, 2022, edition of Now is the Time 

LEON BENJAMIN: I will not back down. I know that the elections were tampered with. I believe with all my heart that it was tampered with. It was stolen. It was infiltrated by China and by many other communistic nations. And even in our own nation, sold out. We were sold out by our own brethren. 

Benjamin: “They made up ballots. They recounted ballots. They did all kinds of stuff. They finagled with the machines.” From a September 10, 2021, interview on The Pete Santilli Show: 

From the September 10, 2021, edition of The Pete Santilli Show

LEON BENJAMIN: We have to be able to say, I'm not taking the vaccine. It is a demonic entity created in a lab by Dr. Fauci and his gain-of-research crew. And they bought patents, Bill Gates, George Soros, all those guys, bought patents way before the vax, the virus even came out. And it's a lie. All of those stuff is a lie. The election fraud is a lie. They made up ballots. They recounted ballots. They did all kinds of stuff. They finagled with the machines. We have to say now without a shadow of a doubt we know what you did.