GOP Sen. Thom Tillis Repeats QAnon Lie That COVID-19 Death Toll May Be Inflated

During a virtual town hall event on Thursday, North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis seemed to agree with a woman who questioned the accuracy of the COVID-19 death toll, which currently stands at more than 207,000 Americans.

“How many people has COVID actually killed?” the senator was asked, according to Salon. “Because I think the numbers are skewed, and as citizens, we’re having a hard time of getting a real grasp of what that number actually is.”

“You are absolutely right,” Tillis responded. “You’re making a very, very important point.”

He added, “I think when the final accounting is done, you are going to see, sadly, that the number of people who died may have died from an underlying condition at the same time that they had COVID.”

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Tillis, up for reelection this November, also hinted that the fatality count is being manipulated to encourage people to practice social distancing and wear a mask.

As Salon pointed out, Tillis’ response to the woman “echoes a false conspiracy theory pushed by adherents of the baseless QAnon movement: that public health officials are allegedly lying to the public about the true death count because of ulterior or possibly sinister motives.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump still refuses to even acknowledge that more than 200,000 American have died from the virus.

Trump and Tillis have no business being in elected office

The nonsense that Thom Tillis spewed on Thursday would be shocking if it wasn’t so common in today’s Republican Party.

As The Hill pointed out, “His comments come as others in the GOP, including President Trump, Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Rep. Roger Marshall (Kan.), have downplayed the extent of the coronavirus pandemic by pointing to a conspiracy theory that the number of deaths is much lower.”

Instead of offering solutions to address a raging pandemic that the president has bungled beyond belief, Republicans are spewing conspiracy theories about the number of Americans who have died.

None of them have business being in elected office.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.